How APRÓ works with SoftwareOne to leverage the power of AWS

“That’s the origin of our name – A and PRÓ,” explains Páll Jónsson, APRÓ’s Chief Business Development Officer.

At the time of the merger, Andes had around 25 employees, almost all either AWS Certified or professionals with extensive AWS project experience. Jónsson says: “It is fair to say that most Icelandic companies involved with AWS had either worked with Andes or benefited from its expertise. Notable clients it brought to APRÓ include the national carrier Icelandair and CCP Games, the $425 million company behind the iconic Eve Online series.”

The newly formed company was joined by Miracle, which brought extensive database expertise to the table.

“As we bed down these far-reaching changes, the focus is on consolidating our position as the number one AWS partner in Iceland and broadening our service offering. Our partnership with SoftwareOne (formerly Crayon) will help us do that but also prepare us to accelerate our growth next year and expand into other markets.”

Jónsson has first-hand knowledge of the IT environment outside Iceland; before joining APRÓ, he worked for BBC Wales, BBC Scotland, and the media giant Sky.

The partnership started in the early summer of 2025.

“There was little connection between Crayon (now SoftwareOne) and Andes initially,” says Jónsson, “but that changed when it became a distribution partner for AWS in Iceland. Rather than compete in a small market – Iceland has a population of just 400,000 – we decided to work together and create a win-win for both partners. APRÓ’s contacts in Iceland open doors for SoftwareOne, while the deep AWS expertise of the wider SoftwareOne ecosystem helps us accelerate even quicker into AWS.”

In the arrangement, APRÓ is the AWS partner reseller; SoftwareOne charges APRÓ, who bills the client. “We effectively get a single consolidated bill from SoftwareOne and manage the AWS footprint of our joint clients through Cloud-iQ, which simplifies the distribution process.”

The partnership is barely six months old, yet it already manages approximately 10 key AWS resale accounts through SoftwareOne’s Cloud-iQ platform.

“What we do now is actually sell the partnership as we approach prospective customers,” Jónsson adds. “Every new client that we sign goes through a distribution deal through SoftwareOne. We just signed the [Icelandic] Ministry of Justice last week, and that’s a completely new client for SoftwareOne.”

Two other flagship “signings” are Sýn, the second largest media and telecoms company in Iceland, and Menntasjóður Námsmanna, the national organization that provides loans and financial support to students in Iceland.

“Our link with SoftwareOne enables us to take on more or bigger projects because we don’t always have the resources to carry out the work,” says Jónsson.

The partnership is also working through a list of existing clients to persuade them to sign up to the APRÓ/ SoftwareOne distribution model.

“Another benefit of the partnership is that SoftwareOne has MAP competency, something APRÓ currently doesn’t,” says Jónsson.

The AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) is a structured, incentive-backed initiative designed to help organizations migrate to AWS. It is a business mechanism to unlock funding for AWS migration projects, adding to the power of the APRÓ/ SoftwareOne proposition.

“The other great thing Crayon did for us was to co-sponsor our annual AI in Iceland Summit,” says Jónsson. “This was held in May 2025, a very short time after we had entered our formal partnership. The other sponsor was AWS, and we had keynote speakers from both for our event. It was very successful.

“We have plans for a smaller joint VMware migration event, but we haven’t finalized the date. What is important is that we present ourselves to the market as a team, with ‘local knowledge, global expertise’ as our unofficial motto.

“The culture at SoftwareOne is very collaborative, very responsive, and we have good chemistry. It’s been a collaborative environment where SoftwareOne takes ownership, we take ownership, and we work together to find solutions that work best to optimize all the processes around AWS innovation.

“To sum up, I’d say the partnership with SoftwareOne gives us a closer relationship with our clients. It allows us to both sell them professional services and add-ons such as FinOps from SoftwareOne. There are also services that we offer around the capabilities that SoftwareOne makes available to our clients.

“So I think, as a joint effort, the partnership gives us a lot more access to the clients. The main benefit of our relationship is that we have more leverage together than we would individually with each client.