Box Continues UK Expansion With EE Partnership And G-Cloud Launch

Cloud storage specialist Box has continued its expansion into the UK, announcing deals with mobile operator EE and Gatwick Airport and revealing it has been accepted by the Government Procurement Service (GPS) onto G-Cloud 4.

Speaking at the firm’s Business Without Boundaries event in London, CEO Aaron Levie said the firm had been “pleasantly surprised” by the takeup of its services and interest in the cloud from British businesses.

“We’re dramatically expanding,” he said, revealing he had spoken with a number of British-based CIOs, including one from a major oil and gas company, another from a healthcare organisation and one from a major retail chain during his trip to the UK.

Box UK expansion

He said the transition to the cloud was something that is affecting businesses of all sizes, and this is one of the reasons the firm has teamed up with EE to promote cloud collaboration as a value-added service to the operator’s small business customers.

Box has also been awarded a place on the fourth iteration of the government’s G-Cloud framework for the supply of Software as a Service (SaaS), and will now be able to sell its products directly to public sector organisations.

Previously, public bodies interested in using Box’s services on the G-Cloud would have to go through one of its partners. The company secured its first UK government customer earlier in the form of Hounslow Borough Council, which signed its contract through partner Softcat.

The Duke of York formally opened Box’s London office, which serves as both its international headquarters for business outside the US and its tax base, last month. The London office employs 80 people, the majority of whom are involved in sales, although a technical support team is being established in the capital.

Box also has offices in Paris and Munich and the company told TechWeekEurope at its Boxworks event in San Francisco last month that it was looking to expand further, with Japan, Brazil and Australia all mentioned as potential locations.

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