66 INTERVIEW Evolving with the industry Kris Caron and Brian Gatke share how Connection and Microsoft are collaborating to help customers capitalise on new technologies and operate more securely and efficiently BY ALICE CHAMBERS 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 “ 50 per cent of our assets and capabilities are directly tied to Microsoft technologies” KRIS CARON
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