Microsoft UK channel boss: Partners should use core competencies to help customers reach net zero

Orla McGrath name checks Phoenix Software, Kainos and Telematicus Services as she talks through Microsoft partner opportunity around sustainability

Microsoft's UK partner boss has advised partners to draw on their core capabilities to tap into rising customer demand for sustainable technology solutions.

Talking to CRN following new research from Microsoft seeking to identify the role partners can play in accelerating the UK's net zero journey, Orla McGrath emphasised that there are "lots of different areas" where partners have a potential sustainability play.

The report outlines five ways partners can help their customers decarbonise, namely via ‘connected sustainability', ‘decarbonisation', ‘strategic and operational innovation', ‘funding and skills' and ‘supply chain and collaboration'.

It builds on a more generic study Microsoft commissioned last year to explore where UK organisations are on their journey to net zero.

The partner study's main findings include:

• 32 per cent of Microsoft's UK partners have developed new solutions to help customers reduce their negative climate impact
• 89 per cent aim to reach net zero by 2050 (compared with just 59 per cent of UK organisations overall)
• 94 per cent believe technology will be critical to helping organisations reach their net zero targets
• 44 per cent reported that customers are already asking for technologies that will help them become more sustainable

Led by Dr Chris Brauer of Goldsmiths, University of London, the research quizzed 66 UK Microsoft partners at the start of the year.

Talking to CRN, Brauer said the new study turns Microsoft's earlier UK-wide research - which found that 59 per cent of UK organisations are currently set to miss their 2050 net zero target - "on its head" by looking at how Microsoft's partner network could help end-user organisations close that gap.

"A lot of it is focused on these aspirational organisations: businesses that have one foot in and one foot out of sustainability. We're trying to support them to move to strategic leadership around sustainability, and to higher performance on their sustainability strategy," he explained.

"The [Microsoft] partner network represents one per cent of VAT-registered businesses here in the UK. So it's an incredible coalition of interesting capabilities that can support the UK with achieving this net zero ambition."

'Use your core competencies'

McGrath, who is Microsoft UK's' Global Partner Solution Lead, agreed, adding that many Microsoft partners are being asked for support from customers to help them decarbonise.

Although the research found that 44 per cent of UK partners have not yet developed any new solutions to help customers reduce their negative impact, 32 per cent had, with a further 21 per cent saying that they planned to do so in the next 12 months, McGrath emphasised.

"What we're encouraging our partners to do is fall back on their core competencies and skills and capabilities, and really leverage those and their own IP to develop solutions in the areas where they have their strengths," she said.

McGrath name-checked several partners, including data analytics and AI specialist Kainos, which she said is building solutions to analyse emissions data quickly and accurately and focusing on cloud migration, and Telematicus Services, which has developed an app for transport operators and insurers to monitor and reduce their scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.

"They've taken an area where it's their core competency and developed solutions in that space," she said.

York-based software licensing and cloud specialist Phoenix Software also got a mention in the report for creating a sustainability network designed to engage staff in its carbon reduction plan and then using what it had learned to develop new solutions for its public sector clients.

"I don't think there is one specific area we want our partners to gravitate towards. We want them to leverage their skills, their expertise, and their customer and industry knowledge to develop those solutions to help our customers accelerate," McGrath said.

'Growing recognition' that technology holds key to net zero

The technologies cited in the report include asset performance monitoring, automation, IoT, and digital twin, as well as Microsoft's recently unveiled Cloud for Sustainability, which McGrath said would be out on general availability this Spring.

"The launch date hasn't been announced, but we do have partners that have early sight of it," she said.

"We're seeing a huge amount of interest and excitement from our partners on the Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability. And of course, they can also extend and build out solutions on top of it. We're encouraging our partners to implement it in their own organisations, so they can leverage it and get learnings from it. And then also, as well as improving their own sustainability credentials, it helps them get the learnings that then they can take out to clients."

Talking through the five areas of partner opportunity in more depth, Brauer said the third point around innovation and technology would see end customers leaning more and more heavily on tech providers to reach their net zero goals.

"Technology is going to be critical to achieving net zero," he said. "The ambition is high, but also the pace needs to be very high in order for organisations to hit the targets we've set for ourselves. And in our original study, we saw there was a massive demand for it. Three-quarters of employees in the UK said their organisations need to do more with technology to achieve their sustainability strategy. There's a growing recognition that, without technology, it's not going to be possible to solve these problems. But it's a very strategic use of technology that needs to be applied here, and in some very specific areas. Cloud technologies, dashboards for emissions impact, greater systems integration, and data, insight and analytics, are all big opportunities."