It’s a great pleasure for us to be sponsoring Oxygen Partner Leaders because the channel is, above all else, a people business.
Maybe that sounds obvious, but in a market so focused on technology, it’s easy to forget that growth is still built on trust, relationships and ambitious leadership. That’s what makes this report so compelling. It gives us a glimpse of what these leaders are focused on, where they think the market’s heading, and the personalities behind the job titles.
The leaders featured here are among the people actively reshaping what it means to be an MSP. They’re building thriving businesses in a crowded and competitive market, finding ways to differentiate, and helping customers find simplicity in increasingly complex technology.
The responses are also fascinating when viewed against a wider market context. Many SMBs that once would have viewed technology as an afterthought now rightly place it near the top of their priorities list, and they’re also coming to recognise their limits.
They don’t want to spend time managing a growing list of vendors, contracts and technical decisions. They just want someone to make it work. A trusted provider who will take the time to understand their business, bring the right services together, keep them secure and provide continuous support as their needs change.
It’s encouraging that several leaders focus on outcomes and accountability, because that’s undoubtedly where the market’s heading. The shift is visible in market data, and it’s echoed in several of the interviews. Research by Analysys Mason predicts that spending through MSPs and systems integrators will grow at more than twice that of resellers and VARs over the coming years, while cloud subscriptions and services are expected to account for 60% of UK SMB technology spend by 2030. For the channel, there’s a clear opportunity to become the strategic partner SMBs increasingly need.
Many responses also discuss the role of AI, and I strongly believe its arrival will only accelerate this trend. Businesses are excited by its potential, but many are still working out how to make it useful, how to measure its impact and how to manage risks around security and workflows. This creates a major opportunity for MSPs to add value, especially those that have tested these tools inside their own businesses.
That makes it particularly interesting to see leaders in this report reference a ‘customer zero’ approach, which we’ve long advocated as the safest, most sensible and most productive way to bring AI into your portfolio. Use it, challenge it and understand its transformative impact from a place of experience and you’ll quickly build credibility as well as confidence.
So, enjoy the report. It’s a brilliant read, but it also signals an important message that can’t be ignored. The channel’s winners in the coming years will be those that can transform an increasingly complex mix of technologies into simple, secure Everything as a Service models, built around trust, accountability and predictable outcomes.
See which 75 CEOs and MDs made the cut for Oxygen Partner Leaders 2026 here.
This article was produced in association with Giacom is classified as partner content. What is partner content? See more here.
Nathan Marke
Nathan is Chief Strategy Officer of Giacom
