Infinity Group is an MSP that specialises in digital transformation, including modern workplace solutions, business applications and consultancy. The company recently achieved Microsoft Inner Circle Partner status and has been named a Partner of the Year for 2024.
Rob Young, the company’s CEO, explained Infinity Group has changed its offerings throughout its history in response to broader technology adoption trends. He said, “In 2001, we started as an MSP servicing IT, and we then merged with a telco business in 2007.
Then, in 2013, we set up our business applications practice, which offered CRM solutions. Since then, we have evolved into a Microsoft Solutions Partner. We sold our telco base at the beginning of this year, and we now have a back office ERP [enterprise resource planning] practice which is based around Microsoft Dynamics Business Central. We also have a Power Platform practice.”
“We can now deliver end-to-end transformation for customers: from platforming them into the cloud, to transforming their modern work practices with Office 365 tools including SharePoint and Teams.”
Young explained the company’s mission is to “create a more productive and secure working world”. He discussed how computers have improved productivity gradually over the past 20 to 30 years. Now, Young expects AI to move the needle further on that, with AI “the next stage” in the evolution towards more productive business.
Getting businesses using one platform, Young said, will make that ambition much more realistic and achievable. He added the tools that are being embedded into digital workplace applications are also helping to unlock the full potential of AI.
He explained, “The AI needs context. There’s only so much that can be achieved if you look at financial or CRM data, for example, in isolation. If the AI can efficiently talk across all those data sets, using pre-built tools, that’s really exciting.”
That vision has led to a much closer partnership with Microsoft. Young said Infinity Group has been a Microsoft partner for a “long time” but its more recent work in the business applications space has helped to make the company “famous in the halls of Microsoft”.
Getting into the Microsoft Inner Circle program, and then winning a Partner Of The Year award comes after “a meteoric rise over the last two to three years”.
Young added, “We really doubled down on our engagement with them. The partnership is really good – we speak to them daily, work with all of their teams, we’re engaged in Go To Market activities, we engage with their sales teams around pre-sales funding so we can get funding for organisations that might need proof of concepts or business value assessments.”
Young highlighted the value of finding the right partner. He said, “It’s been transformational. We’ve shaped our business around them and their goals.”
Appreciate the journey
So, how can MSPs go about finding their niche if they feel a need for change? Young said it’s the journey that “gets you there”.
He added, “But you’ve got to have belief in what it is you’re doing. Try and find your uniqueness. We’ve had to make some decisions to axe certain areas like, for instance, telecoms. It was a lucrative part of our business, but it was a distraction to what we were trying to do.
“When I look to the future and think about how I expect people to communicate with each other, it’s much different from today. A lot of those interactions will be automated, such as with chatbots or using AI and large language models to formulate those communications. We have taken a leap of faith, but it’s allowed us to focus and helped us identify the areas we will start investing in.”
Continuous improvement
When creating digital workplaces, Young explained, it will be important for managed service providers to be comfortable with being in a “continuous cycle of improvement”.
He added, “You need to accept that nothing’s ever going to be perfect. You’ll never finish the Sistine Chapel. It’s going to continually improve and so it’s a journey. And you’ve got to get everyone to believe in that journey and see the advantages of that.”
As such, it is important to demonstrate value quickly so both employees and your customers have the confidence they are on the right path. Using a platform like Dynamics can help with that as it can deliver quick results that can be scaled.
Young said, “It’s about delivering those quick wins, that low hanging fruit, as soon as possible. Then you can build confidence in your team that they can really make a difference.”
This interview was included in our December 2024 print issue. You can read the magazine in full here.