Partners could boost UK economy by £9bn this year - Microsoft

Focus on AI, data analytics and remote working solutions could generate an extra £2.3bn, according to vendor’s research

Microsoft partners could potentially add £9bn to the UK economy this year, according to new research from the tech vendor.

The vendor's report ‘A blueprint for Microsoft UK partner competitiveness' - in conjunction with Goldsmiths - found that UK companies could provide an extra £48bn to the economy by making simple changes to enhance their competitiveness.

The report found that UK partners could generate £6.7bn of that total, and could even add £2.3bn on top of that by focusing on cloud computing, data analytics and remote working solutions. This number indicates that Microsoft partners are significant contributors to the economy, especially as they make up just over one per cent of VAT-registered businesses in the UK.

Dr Chris Brauer - who led the academic research - told CRN that current events presented a "unique" opportunity to study how companies compete in the face of Brexit, a pandemic and customers significantly ramping up their digital transformation efforts.

The competitive model is made up of four pillars: technology, workforce skills, future readiness and ecosystems. The report also revealed that over half of the MPN expect to see a revenue increase this year, in comparison to 15 per cent of all UK organisations.

"They have a more optimistic outlook and a lot of that relates to the fact that they have a unique set of capabilities that they bring to market," stated Brauer.

James Chadwick, interim GM of One Commercial Partner at Microsoft UK, added that there is "huge" opportunity in the market for partner collaboration, and highlighted robotic process automation (RPA), data analytics and security as areas for partners to focus on.

"We've seen some amazing growth from the ecosystem over the last 12 months in terms of the way they have already driven the transformation out there," he noted.

"From a technology perspective, I think the opportunity for partners is really around three key areas: RPA, data analytics and security.

"At the moment only 28 per cent of partners are focusing on data analytics and only about one in ten in the partner ecosystem is focused from a security perspective. All of this digital transformation that's happened - and that continues to happen - creates more opportunity across all of those technologies, so there's a real opportunity for us to partner in those areas."

The data also suggested that the tech giant's partners are "well-positioned" to grow this year, in spite of current economic circumstances. However, the economic climate did top a list of partners' concerns, followed by COVID-19, the skill and talent shortage and Brexit.

"We've seen some incredible activity from the whole ecosystem; partners who might not have a certain capability are working with others that do," said Chadwick.

"We are seeing some great consortium-type approaches to solving problems and that definitely helps partners work with us at Microsoft on building that capability.

"I also think talent and skills is a huge opportunity for us and our partners to help develop the right type of talent, and the right type of capability within our organisations to drive this ongoing transformation that's in front of us."

Dr Brauer added that partners need to "be bold" and invest in new technologies and strategies that will enhance their competitiveness in the market

"Sometimes organisations aren't bold enough, they're not asserting themselves enough, they're not pursuing how to integrate technologies deeply enough because they withdraw a bit under these very challenging circumstances," he stated.

"Now more than ever we're looking for UK organisations to learn from the strengths of this partner network; partners who are very agile, flexible and adapt quickly to changing circumstances and use technology to enhance their competitiveness, strategies and focus on the skills of their workforces. This is a time to be bold."