How this Scottish firm became a Microsoft Gold partner in five months

Akari Solutions CEO talks CRN through founding the accessibility specialist and how it has already smashed revenue expectations in its first four months

Glasgow-based Akari Solutions' journey to becoming a Microsoft Gold partner has been a "whirlwind" for the five-month-old company, according to CEO Margaret Totten.

Totten (pictured) formed the idea for the new company with her co-founders, sister-in-law Kimberley Totten and Lindsay Climson, during a train journey back from a Microsoft accessibility event in London towards the end of last year.

All three were working at GCI at the time, with Totten holding the role of Microsoft Alliance director, as a result of the system integrator (SI) acquiring their former company IA Cubed.

They handed in their notices at GCI in December 2018 to launch Akari.

"When we decided we were going to do this, there was never a question about whether or not we were going to go to other partners; we were going to be a Microsoft pure-play partner," Totten stated.

"I've been in the channel for the last 10 years and I have always been focused solely on Microsoft. I find its ecosystem really rewarding and supportive of partners.

"We were very lucky that we won all the technical people we went after; they have been phenomenal in regards to training the technical apprentices that we brought on board.

"We then won such large customers very quickly based on our vision and strategy and what Akari is about and all the sudden - before we could blink - we were a Gold platform and productivity partner."

Totten added that she is expecting to add a couple more Microsoft Gold accreditations to Akari's portfolio.

Accessibility as USP

The company focuses on "digital transformation with accessibility" which means that it deploys Azure, Office365, security and artificial intelligence (AI) for customers, but also teaches them to understand the tools incorporated in Microsoft products to help them with their accessibility needs.

"We noticed a few years back how much time and effort Microsoft is putting into things like accessibility tools," she explained of Akari's USP.

"A lot of people on their digital transformation journey maybe don't realise how much accessibility is at their fingertips, but to further advance that, we've actually started creating our own IP."

This IP includes Translation Studio, which is built on Azure and is aimed at helping ensure that public sector organisations working with people who speak English as a second language, maintain the same level of service for them as they do for native English speakers.

The Microsoft partner has also developed Akari Virtual Assistant (AVA), a chatbot with AI capabilities based in Microsoft Teams. It has commercial and educational benefits, the CEO explained.

"My son has high-functioning autism and he's very confident, but I've noticed he has friends who don't share that same confidence as him," she explained.

"We started talking to some universities which told us about the dropout rates of students who have anxiety, autism, or are neuro diverse. One of the reasons that they drop out is that they never feel a part of that student body.

"That's what AVA was born out of. When we started to do market research around it, a lot of people said that's what colleges and universities - and even in a lot of cases schools - need.

"The younger generation, including a lot of my workers in the company, all use text messaging over voice calls. So we looked at Teams, which is an app that has chat.

"AVA starts to learn with them; it would learn their likes and dislikes, what they are comfortable with and what they're not comfortable with, and start to reach out to bring them into that community, but in their own way and on their own terms."

Totten added that a commercial model of AVA is due to launch in September.

Akari currently has a headcount of 20 and Totten plans to expand this by at least 15 more people by April 2020. It has also added Scottish entrepreneurs Keith Inch and Rod Stuart as chairman and director of strategy, respectively.

Akari has assimilated boutique Azure expert Cloudtrace into its operations since its inception.

Totten has ambitions of generating revenue of £1.5m in the company's first 12 months but said the firm will likely reach this target sooner than initially expected.

"Part of what's been so interesting about this is that we have managed to have the growth we have and turn a profit for a small business," she said.

"We are aiming to be about £1.5m in turnover by next April, but I think we will actually smash that.

"That's why we're re-evaluating in November because we think those numbers aren't the numbers we are going to make, we actually think it will be a much higher figure."