Softcat spans infrastructure, software and services. Bytes focuses on software, cloud and security. Microsoft is central to both: it accounts for 52% of Bytes' gross profit.

Softcat reported £4.7B in annual customer billings. Bytes - £1.6B in its latest six months.

Four learnings stood out:

AI adoption creates work well beyond the licence

"Adopting AI is not a single purchase," Bytes says.

Before customers can scale AI, they need access controls, governed data, security and people who know how to use it.

Bytes is helping the NHS roll out Copilot to ~500,000 employees, with Microsoft funding. The work covers use cases, guardrails, training and change management.

Softcat sees it in infrastructure, which AI, among other factors, is making "more critical, complex and strategically important." It calls the market early in this adoption cycle.

Bytes CEO Sam Mudd: "Security is where our customers' budgets are increasing fastest."

Services billings rose 30.1% at Softcat and 41% at Bytes in their reported periods.

Microsoft is changing how partners earn

Under Enterprise Agreements, Microsoft billed the customer and paid partners a fee. Under Microsoft's Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program, partners invoice the customer themselves.

From October 2026, Microsoft raises rewards on growth products like security and AI, boosts CSP incentives and cuts some legacy rebates.

Mudd: "The CSP element is the most significant for us, because it rewards moving customers onto longer, multi-year commitments."

Bytes has aligned its sales and services to match. Longer commitments mean deeper relationships and more predictable gross profit.

Customers pay for someone who connects multiple vendors

Softcat CEO Graham Charlton says customers "need our advice, technical capability, vendor reach and proven execution capabilities more than ever."

Softcat works with 400+ vendors. At one customer, the University of Oxford, Bytes supports 40+ technology vendor relationships.

Growth comes from going deeper into existing accounts. Softcat's customer count grew 3.4%, while gross profit per customer grew 20.6%. At Bytes, existing customers generated 98.2% of gross profit.

Partners are hiring engineers faster than sellers

Bytes spent two years shifting from licensing-led reseller to solutions and services. Technical delivery headcount grew 4X faster - 17.4% YoY, vs 4.4% for front-line sales.

Both use data and AI to make sellers more productive. Bytes' Seller Insights shows Microsoft funding and customer usage data. Softcat is building in-house agents too.

What this means for SaaS and AI vendors

Give partners a clear reason to invest: show how your product solves a customer problem and creates services they can earn from.