Ingentive is doing what “99% of partners” aren’t when it comes to Microsoft Copilot, Stuart Fenton claimed as he took the reins of the low-code and pro-code-specialised partner.
The Ingentive brand was born last October after Fenton acquired Scottish Microsoft partner Akari Solutions nine months earlier.
In December 2023, it made a bolt-on acquisition in the form of Software Solved, and now has around 60 staff.
Fenton moved from the Chairman to the CEO role last week after previous CEO Angela Bright resigned.
“Most Microsoft partners missing exciting part of AI story”
Talking to IT Channel Oxygen, Fenton said that Ingentive is now carrying out around 25 Microsoft Copilot workshops a month.
He claimed Ingentive is taking a different tack from its peers, however.
“AI has become a central pillar of low-code and pro-code, so our approach has been to become an expert on AI – and not just knowing how to turn it on and configure it a bit, as I think 99% of partners are doing,” Fenton said.
“What we’re really looking at is organisational-wide solutions. That’s how we’re differentiating from everyone else. If you look at the big LSPs [Microsoft licensing solution providers], they’re giving clients a two- or three-hour workshop on how to set up AI and how it can document your team’s meetings.
“We’re giving our clients a full-day workshop and ideation sessions where we’re identifying areas of their business where they can make a transformative difference, and helping them build business cases and prototypes which lead into projects.”
Most Microsoft partners are using Copilot to help clients boost individual or team productivity, Fenton claimed.
“But I just don’t think that’s the exciting part of the AI story,” he said, however.
“There’s no question in my mind that these small productivity enhancements on a per-person basis pale into insignificance compared with the extensible potential of AI when you look at organisations that might have thousands of people in customer service.
“You can reduce headcount materially – by 50% or even 80% – using agentification.
“Most of our projects are extensible projects where we are doing organisational-wide AI solutions, working with, say, large insurance or large transportation companies.”
“If a large acquisition comes along, I won’t shy away from it”
Fenton “reluctantly” accepted Bright’s resignation after she opted to step into a non-exec role.
Despite previously indicating another small acquisition was on the cards, Fenton said further M&A is now unlikely for the time being.
“We were looking at a third, but our experience of buying two small companies is that it is just as difficult as buying a really big one,” he said.
“We’ll probably avoid future M&A now, certainly for the next 24-36 months, and really focus on organic growth.
“However, if a large acquisition opportunity comes along – and we would raise money for that – I wouldn’t shy away from it. But it would have to be transformative.”
Ingentive’s business plan remains largely the one Fenton and Bright originally agreed on, with the exception that its focus on low-code technology has broadened to encompass Microsoft Copilot and AI, Fenton said.
“I imagine that’s true for everyone right now – you pick up a pencil today and people say it’s an ‘AI pencil’,” Fenton said.
“Everything everywhere is AI, and that’s no different for us. The entire industry has gone in the same direction. The only difference is, actually, we have the skills. Where I believe most other partners just talk about them, we’ve actually got a depth and breadth of skills across the organisation through the investment and the acquisitions.”
Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen
