Defining what it means to be a Frontier Partner
Why Softcat and Microsoft?
AI is no longer a future ambition
AI is reshaping how organizations operate, compete and grow. We haven’t stood back and watched that shift happen. We moved early and with intent, working with Microsoft to turn the Frontier vision into something customers can actually see, use and benefit from. As a result, we’ve seen very quickly what operating as a Frontier partner can achieve, closing 7 E7 deals within days of its launch, totaling 41,300 seats.
Three years ago, we were a large LSP. Today, we’re proud to be so much more – the UK’s biggest scale solutions partner, incumbent to ~1/3 of all SMC accounts.
Our story isn’t simply one of strong performance, it’s one of a partner stepping forward at the exact moment the market is changing fast and leading from the front. We’ve paired strong Microsoft-aligned growth with the ability to turn strategy into action, backed by early investment in AI, Copilot readiness and Customer Zero thinking. Together, that positions us not as a partner responding to change, but as one helping to lead Microsoft’s next era of transformation.
Whilst many partners are trying to understand what ‘Frontier’ means in practice, we’re already putting it to work for our customers.
We’re proud to be the UK’s biggest scale solutions partner, incumbent to ~1/3 of all SMC accounts.
Our story isn’t simply one of strong performance, it’s one of a partner stepping forward at the exact moment the market is changing and leading from the front. We’ve paired strong Microsoft-aligned growth with the ability to turn strategy into action, backed by early investment in AI, Copilot readiness and Customer Zero. These positions us not as a partner responding to change, but as one helping to lead Microsoft’s next era of transformation.
Whilst many partners are trying to understand what ‘Frontier’ means in practice, we’re already putting it to work for our customers.
We’re proud to be the UK’s biggest scale solutions partner, incumbent to ~1/3 of all SMC accounts.
Our story isn’t simply one of strong performance, it’s one of a partner stepping forward at the exact moment the market is changing and leading from the front. We’ve paired strong Microsoft-aligned growth with the ability to turn strategy into action, backed by early investment in AI, Copilot readiness and Customer Zero. These positions us not as a partner responding to change, but as one helping to lead Microsoft’s next era of transformation.
Whilst many partners are trying to understand what ‘Frontier’ means in practice, we’re already putting it to work for our customers.
We’re proud to be the UK’s biggest scale solutions partner, incumbent to ~1/3 of all SMC accounts.
Our story isn’t simply one of strong performance, it’s one of a partner stepping forward at the exact moment the market is changing and leading from the front. We’ve paired strong Microsoft-aligned growth with the ability to turn strategy into action, backed by early investment in AI, Copilot readiness and Customer Zero. These positions us not as a partner responding to change, but as one helping to lead Microsoft’s next era of transformation.
Whilst many partners are trying to understand what ‘Frontier’ means in practice, we’re already putting it to work for our customers.
We’re proud to be the UK’s biggest scale solutions partner, incumbent to ~1/3 of all SMC accounts.
Our story isn’t simply one of strong performance, it’s one of a partner stepping forward at the exact moment the market is changing and leading from the front. We’ve paired strong Microsoft-aligned growth with the ability to turn strategy into action, backed by early investment in AI, Copilot readiness and Customer Zero. These positions us not as a partner responding to change, but as one helping to lead Microsoft’s next era of transformation.
Whilst many partners are trying to understand what ‘Frontier’ means in practice, we’re already putting it to work for our customers.
Growing exactly where the market is heading
This year, our Microsoft-aligned revenue is up 11% - and not by chance. We’ve doubled down in all the places Microsoft wants to win – and where the market is accelerating fastest:
Azure CSP SME&C
AI Business Solutions
CSP Security SME&C
CSP TTM
new Microsoft customers
new total
pipeline opps, totaling $58M
Copilot seats (+52% YoY) – 476k active users in total
We’re stronger with Microsoft, sharper because of it
Our strategic alignment with Microsoft is the compounding factor behind the exceptional growth we’re seeing and is our motivator to dig deeper. We held our first-ever internal Microsoft sales incentive, the largest we’ve ever run, generating 283 customer adds and 182 upsell deals.
This Microsoft relationship works because it’s a two-way street; a genuine partnership, where we strategize, go-to-market and sell together at scale.
Key results:
- 352 co-sell engagements
- 549 pipeline opps shared (+48% in H2)
- Pipeline acceptance rate 4.5x higher
- $814k MCI funding utilized
- 6 designations, 9 specializations
- MISA Member, Fabric Featured Partner, Copilot Jumpstart, Azure Expert MSP
Moving first, moving fast
While the partner ecosystem was waiting to see how others would adapt to the new Frontier era, Softcat moved quickly to strengthen our position as a Frontier Partner, strategically investing to set ourselves up for further growth:
- Dynamics 365 pilot live with 200 people (org-wide rollout in Aug), improving system interoperability to give us access to better insights
- End-to-end rollout of Copilot (45 hrs alone saved through a single procurement process)
- Data and AI consultancy at the forefront of the dataverse for 40+ years – a major signal of intent, strengthening our AI, data and governance capability & Softcat’s approach to Zero Trust and responsible AI.
- Fabric + Power BI introduced to reduce manual work, replacing c.2 hours of manual work per measure.
- The development of catNav, a Copilot agent embedded within Teams that turned a document mountain into a competitive advantage, boasts (>75% adoption)
We’ve doubled down on GTM, so when new solutions are launched, we’re first out the gate to educate the market, with recent blogs and webinars on Cowork, Agent 365 and now E7 (728 attendees).
Building repeatable success, not one-off wins
We repeatedly see the same challenges and priorities, allowing us to build processes, products, and repeatable services that give customers faster access to solutions, while Softcat benefits from greater efficiencies and increased profitability.
This year, we’ve taken thousands of compete vendor seats, moving customers onto E5, Sentinel and Defender – with a focus within education – helping institutions overcome the same underlying challenge: improve security posture and reduce the number of technology vendors they procure.
Our rinse-and-repeat approach to Copilot allows us to close deals and move into adoption at pace
Driving active usage of almost half a million seats isn’t coincidental; it’s the result of strategic decisions that see us helping customers understand and use Copilot in their own way – from gamification and leaderboards to neurodivergent-friendly training.
The same can be said for E7 – we’re the partner closing the biggest deals in the UK&I – Mott Macdonald – almost 20,000 seats within 60 days.
Softcat is proud to be the 8th biggest Microsoft Marketplace partner globally, evidencing our understanding of how buying habits are changing and our commitment to being at the forefront of procurement.
Putting Formula One in Frontier Firm Pole Position
Formula One is one of the world’s most recognized sport and media brands, known for being at the forefront of racing.
The challenge
F1 had a small number of E5 licenses and a controlled group of Copilot seats in place, with multiple security vendors in their portfolio, which they struggled to manage. They wanted to become a business that leaned into Agentic but didn’t quite understand the best way to go about it.
Their former technology partner had taken them to a point, but, following a competitive tender process, they felt their needs would be better suited with Softcat, following an effective co-sell with Microsoft.
We saw the renewal as the perfect opportunity for F1 to put its foot on the gas and truly realize its AI ambitions, setting itself up for futureproofed technology success, while also consolidating its technology stack and driving greater value from their Microsoft investments.
What we did
- Consolidated identity and network security onto Entra, replacing Zscaler and legacy VPN, while extending Zero Trust and identity government across its network
- Delivered an E7 Security Stack overview session, which led to F1’s team agreeing the need to move its focus solely to the Microsoft tech stack, underpinned by the agentic opportunities presented by E7
- Rolled out Copilot & E7 org-wide – 1,500 seats, with an effective change and adoption program in place
- Introduced a more effective secure and compliance stack, with Purview, Defender and Sentinel now in place
What that meant
Formula One – one of the world’s most loved brands – are now beginning their AI and agentic journey, underpinned by Microsoft technologies, which means we’ve been able to talk about what their Agentic roadmap looks like, and how Agent 365 can help them to better manage and secure their future digital workforce.
- “The support getting our Microsoft renewal over the line was invaluable throughout this process” - Amie Smith at Formula One
- “It wasn’t hours, it’d be week.” – Roger Peters, F1 procurement, when asked how much time Copilot had saved on a SoW.
This was a challenging competitive situation with a strategic customer and brand. We accelerated as a team with strong partnership from Softcat to drive real value. The team successfully overtook the competition in the final laps of the deal cycle while leveraging real business value, programs and partners.
Gary Seeley
Digital Account Exec at Microsoft
Investing early to stay ahead for longer
We’ve got a track record of being ahead of the curve when it comes to making strategic investments:
- Customer Zero – ensuring that we truly understand what technologies can do and can operate in a more effective way internally.
- Skilling – ensuring that we have the capability to go faster (209 Microsoft exams passed over the last year)
- Talent – building future leaders from within through our apprenticeship and internship programs – (60-70 people each year, with 80% remaining with us afterwards)
- Diversity – striving to create a tech sector that better reflects the people we serve (63% of women & 25% ethnic representation at board level )
- Funding for groups such as our Women in Business, Pride, Empowering Disability & Neurodiversity & Armed Forces
- Love2Give program, raising 3.1 million to date.
- CSR – making the world a better place, with a regularly evaluated modern slavery policy, gender pay gap reporting and an on-track plan to become net zero.
Showing the world what Frontier partner leadership actually looks like
Throughout this submission, we’ve evidenced why we’re worthy of winning this year’s UK&I Partner of the Year award. Our Microsoft revenue growth evidences the journey we’ve been on. But this isn’t a story of incremental progress. It’s a story of conviction, momentum and leadership. We’ve embraced Microsoft’s Frontier direction early, built meaningful traction around it, and backed it with growth, capabilities, and a clear ability to deliver at scale. That’s what a Frontier Partner really looks like.
Softcat should win Partner of the Year for Microsoft UK&I 2026 because I promise you there isn't a business in your partner ecosystem that has the ambition, the positioning, the intent that we do to go with them on this amazingly exciting journey into the future. We will be there for them every step of the way, and I know we're going to do well together.
Graham Charlton
CEO, Softcat