Win-win-win in delivering AI
Today, everyone wants AI. Not just the world’s largest enterprises but also small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), who form the backbone of economies around the world. However, SMBs lack the appetite and capability to either build custom AI in-house or to sift through the exploding number of external options. So, they turn to their existing, trusted platforms of work to deliver the solutions they need – just like in technology revolutions of the past. For many, this is Microsoft. After all, you cannot go wrong with a brand that gave you your first assistant, Clippy.
Microsoft, the world’s second most valuable company by market cap, has long seen this as a huge opportunity. They have been investing heavily in their SMB offering, not just in AI, but across security and cloud more broadly. In fact, its best-in-class suite makes it a vendor of choice for 80% of SMBs, spanning 350 million users globally and representing around 35% of Microsoft’s revenue.
But Microsoft’s platform is horizontal by design – complex and difficult to use out of the box. While enterprises can get white-glove service from system integrators to ‘tune’ it to their needs, it is impossible to offer the same to the fragmented tail end of the SMBs. So, Microsoft relies on its channel partners, the 150,000 Managed Service Providers (MSPs) worldwide, to provide the last mile of context and customisation. MSPs serve as the translation layer between Microsoft’s products and the needs of SMBs using them. MSPs love this trade: they want to co-sell with Microsoft’s trusted branding in hand or, as the industry talks about, become a “Microsoft Service Provider”. Microsoft estimates that MSPs can earn up to $10 in attached services revenue per $1 of software spend (!).
However, MSPs face scaling challenges in delivering these custom services, within a business model that is already very labour-intensive. Microsoft doesn’t help: under the hood of a mighty ‘platform’, it represents dozens of SKUs that are often updated, with continually evolving pricing and packaging. It is challenging to distribute, implement and use scalably.
There is a massive opportunity in connecting and enabling these three actors – SMBs, Microsoft, and MSPs. This is where inforcer fits in: a platform that bridges the gap. For inforcer, MSPs are not the channel but the end-customer. But by serving MSPs, inforcer enables SMBs to access Microsoft products, and with that, the latest technology toolkit they deserve. inforcer creates a “win-win-win” for all three across cloud, security and AI. And it shows: its founders – Jamie (CEO), Richard (CFO) and Will (CCO) – have become an unstoppable ‘force’ in the market (pun very much intended).
Two acts to conquer billions of spend
inforcer is a bit of a revolution in the world of MSPs. It is the “most loved” tool that solves their hardest business problems: sell more Microsoft, delight SMBs (otherwise known as ‘tenants’), and, ultimately, make more money by growing revenue and improving margins.
So what does this mean in practice? The founders are conquering billions of dollars that MSPs represent, both in direct spend and budgets they advise on, in two acts. Their first act is to help MSPs scale: configuring tenants more quickly and effectively, and moving upmarket with a security offering. Their second act is to help MSPs become the strategic AI partner to SMBs – the holy grail of opportunity in today’s ‘AI or die’ world.
(i) inforcer helps MSPs scale and sell more Microsoft cloud and security to SMBs
The Microsoft suite is painful for MSPs to use “out-of-the-box”. It is insecure and unconfigured. It is not multi-tenant, meaning that manual changes need to be made for each SMB individually (an MSP might repeat the same process >50 times!). Finally, it is highly complex – with a steep learning curve and a labyrinth of individual portals. All of this means that MSPs and SMBs don’t get full use out of products already included in their licences – like Entra (SSO), Intune (MDM), and Defender (Security).
inforcer helps MSPs scale their operations with a single point of control, enabling them to implement, configure, and manage all of Microsoft’s suite. This includes: i) rapidly deploying and backing up new tenant-specific set-ups; ii) conducting in-depth audits and reports; and iii) providing prospecting tools to demonstrate the value of tenant security, all informed by inforcer’s best practice. This enables every MSP to spend more time where it counts: with customers, deepening their relationship and curating the perfect setup for them./
Uniquely, MSPs win with inforcer across their entire P&L:
- On the topline, inforcer lets MSPs upsell more “wrap-around” services. These are services where MSPs previously had resource or knowledge gaps, such as identity and access management or endpoint protection.
- On the bottom line, inforcer saves MSPs hours of painful manual work across all their tenants. It also helps MSPs utilise the full suite of specialist products already included with their Microsoft business license, which they previously did not know how to leverage, saving even more on expensive third-party tooling or outsourcing services.
- And a bonus compliance point: MSPs benefit from significantly reduced risk, provided by previously unfeasible continuous monitoring.
Figure: The Microsoft MSP stack - powered by inforcer
(ii) inforcer helps MSPs become the strategic AI partner to SMBs.
MSPs have been a trusted advisor to SMBs for decades. They have enabled SMBs to adopt technology in waves, from break-fix to cloud to security. Now, inforcer is powering the next big wave: AI.
Microsoft has bet its future on AI and Copilot. Just read their earnings calls: it was mentioned 117 times in Q1-25 alone. And 60% of organisations plan to rely on Microsoft for most of their AI needs, according to Gartner.
SMBs, as ever, expect MSPs to guide them through this transition. Some of this is new: building and enabling AI-powered workflows, with tools like M365 Copilot and increasingly Copilot Studio Agents. But, much resembles what MSPs are already great at: maintaining systems in production. They’ll govern and secure AI use cases, ensure data governance, and track success.
Figure: The Microsoft AI stack - powered by inforcer
This is what makes inforcer truly strategic. It is not “just another tool for MSPs”. It is a platform that is riding on the coattails of an AI giant to enable billions of MSP spend and, as a result, is upskilling and protecting thousands of small businesses.
From Richmond to Redmond and beyond
The real force of inforcer is its exceptional team. It brought together formidable executors, with decades of combined experience at the service of MSPs and SMBs. Another member of the ecosystem talked about the difficulty he had finding talent – “Jamie had already hired the A-team!” True industry heavyweights – the likes of Matthé (CPO), Christian (Chief Strategy Officer) and Jake (VP of Global Sales) – anchor a deep bench of phenomenal operators, where not a single team member is accidental.
Born in Richmond three years ago, where the founders built and sold their first MSP venture, inforcer is already off to conquer the rest of the world. They are scaling incredibly fast: in the last twelve months, inforcer grew 10x and now serves over 800 MSPs, with offices across the US, the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark and Australia.
We’re delighted to team up with our friends at Meritech Capital, with inforcer being the first Series A they have ever led, and look forward to joining forces with Jamie, Richard, Will and the whole team to make inforcer a truly generational business.
