"Silicon Valley on the Potomac" Startup Aims to Disrupt the IT Marketplace Using Gamification

WASHINGTON DC--(Marketwired - May 11, 2016) - Shop4Clouds Inc., a new platform that provides consumers an easy way to shop for IT services, announced today that it has opened for business. Shop4Clouds looks to do for the IT marketplace what disruptive on-line shopping services have done for travel, insurance and personal investment industries; providing a one-stop-shop for independent comparisons and recommendations. The startup has also embedded unique gaming techniques in the platform to attract customers.

"The current business model for researching and procuring IT services is time intensive and costly for IT and business executives to make the right decision," said Keith Trippie, Co-Founder, Shop4Clouds Inc. "The dynamic, expansive products and services in the IT marketplace can lead to a career limiting decision. Combining the dynamism of the IT market with the differing security and compliance requirements by industry and country is a good market for consultants, but not for consumers. I knew there had to be a better way."

A free service to consumers, Shop4Clouds allows customers to easily answer questions about their unique needs, and quickly receive independent comparisons and recommendations across multiple IT providers. This service allows users to compare different IT services across business decision categories such as security/compliance, operations and pricing. Shop4Clouds allows users to save, rate and print their search results, streamlining purchasing efforts. Customers will earn points simply for using the site and in the future, users will be able to redeem Shop4Clouds points. Gamifying the user experience for consumers shopping for IT services provides incentives for return site visits.

Pressures from executives to reduce costs and shrink the time to market for new services are further compounding the challenge to IT buyers. Whether an owner of a small business, the IT Director of a Fortune 100 company or a government agency analyst, making the wrong decision on technology can have significant ramifications on business or mission objectives. Shop4Clouds aims to minimize the risk factor.

"The time to disrupt the IT industry is now," says Trippie, a former Senior IT Executive at the Department of Homeland Security. "We are starting with cloud, a $200B market, and plan to expand the platform into other IT areas including software/hardware, IT solutions and telecommunications later this year. We have also started conversations with OEMs, resellers and distributors on how they can leverage the Shop4Clouds platform to streamline their pre-sales cycle and reduce cost to acquire expenses. Our launch gives us a first to market advantage."

Shop4Clouds' patent-pending platform will provide companies, government agencies and higher education institutions with unique customer intent data, which does not exist in the market today. This high value information will be used to support research and development initiatives, modify IT contracts to meet future needs and influence marketing and sales approaches.

"We are live and early feedback has been very positive. One of our early customers said that we have just invented an easy button for IT," added Trippie, who is also the Co-Founder of a new Real Estate Mobile App called urMuv. "Consumers at a small business in Palo Alto, a government agency in DC or a Fortune 500 company in Manhattan should have the same benefits of on-line shopping services as in other industries. And now they do."

About Shop4Clouds Inc.
Shop4Clouds Inc. is an innovative platform that provides consumers in commercial, government and higher education a free and easy way to shop for IT services, quickly providing customer-specific comparison and recommendation analytics. We are driving a new paradigm shift by gamifying the IT consumer shopping experience. Shop4Clouds' platform also helps OEMs, distributors and resellers reduce costs associated with acquiring new clients and streamlines the pre-sales process across their catalogs. For more information, visit http://shop4clouds.com.