Connection started as a catalogue PC seller in the 1980s but today the company is a far cry from its transactional beginnings. Now a managed services provider and strategic technology partner, Connection has evolved in lockstep with changing customer expectations and the technology leaders it partners with, particularly Microsoft.
“We became more of a services provider due to a shift in the industry,” says Kris Caron, director of Microsoft alliance for Connection. “We’ve seen customers transition from needing a source to procure their IT products to wanting a partner that can understand their environment and unique challenges, and then provide hands-on services to solve those problems.”
This move from focusing on transactions to building relationships has transformed not only how Connection serves its customers, but also how it works with Microsoft. The company has been a Microsoft partner since the early 1990s, but as Brian Gatke, vice president of go-to-market solutions strategy and portfolio at Connection, notes its relationship with Microsoft has “skyrocketed – or let’s say, got much deeper – in recent years.”
That depth is evident in how closely aligned the two companies have become in terms of strategy and delivery.
“About 50 per cent of our assets and capabilities are directly tied to Microsoft technologies,” says Caron. “We have a strong emphasis on supporting our customers’ Microsoft environments, whether that be on the modern work side, the Azure side or the Microsoft Copilot and AI side of things. We have a more deeply, strategically integrated alliance with Microsoft.”
This close partnership enables Connection to build value-added services around Microsoft’s innovations.
“We were already working on a workshop the month Copilot was launched in 2023,” says Gatke. “That workshop helped to introduce our customers to AI so they could better understand its use cases. Then we expanded it to also help them understand if they were technically ready to embrace the technology.”
Connection then developed a broader set of services. “We continued our services by preparing businesses for AI adoption through checking data, identity, access and security,” says Gatke. “This was to make sure that Copilot not only does what it should, but also that it doesn’t damage what it shouldn’t.”
Security has become another major pillar of Connection’s offerings. The company supports customers in simplifying and strengthening their security posture, often by helping them better utilise the Microsoft tools they already own.
“What we’re finding is that customers have bought so many security tools they have an amalgam of different things that do the same job,” says Gatke. “We can go in there, clean that up, replace it with Microsoft tools and eliminate the other costly ones.”
Another area of focus is productivity and collaboration, particularly with Microsoft Teams. “We make sure a company can truly move to Teams as their single voice and video platform,” says Gatke.
These value-driven services have helped Connection gain Microsoft’s attention.
“Last year, when Copilot came out, we shot to the top of Microsoft’s leadership visibility,” says Gatke. “Microsoft saw the potential of Connection and really started investing in us.”
The partnership now extends beyond product readiness into joint go-to-market strategies.
“We’re always trying to stay in lockstep with Microsoft,” says Caron. “That includes lead sharing, pipeline development and synchronised account planning. We come to the table as a joint force and that really resonates with our customers.”
Part of Connection’s success lies in knowing where to complement, rather than duplicate, Microsoft’s capabilities. “We look at the products and solutions Microsoft provides and then ask where we can step in to develop an offering to fit a need that Microsoft isn’t able to cater for itself,” says Caron. “One of our sweet spots is small and medium corporate customers where Microsoft may not have the support engine. We can support both the largest enterprises and these smaller entities.”
Connection’s depth of expertise is reflected in the various Microsoft certifications it holds and its role as a cloud solution services provider, though both Caron and Gatke emphasise that the organisation’s real value is evident in the outcomes it delivers for customers. Gatke shares a notable example.
“We worked with a customer that does underwater construction around the world, using ships, cranes and deep-sea divers,” he recalls. “AI might not be the first thing that comes to mind with a company like this, but they quickly saw its potential, from streamlining common tasks like developing customer contracts to more specialised use cases, such as gaining deeper insights into the waterways they operate in, navigating maritime law and improving operational efficiency. What they needed from us was help managing the technical readiness, security and infrastructure to actually implement AI.”
From navigating deep waters to helping customers embrace next-generation productivity tools, Connection is showing what it means to “live in the gaps,” as Caron puts it, by helping organisations succeed in the spaces between their business goals and the raw capabilities of their tools.
“We simply want to be more for our customers,” says Gatke. “And ‘more’ means completing the solution with services.”
Discover more insights like this in the Summer 2025 issue of Technology Record. Don’t miss out – subscribe for free today and get future issues delivered straight to your inbox.