Gradwell, a cloud and phone business-solution company based in Bath, are one of only a small group of UK companies to partner with Microsoft to sell Microsoft Office 365 plans for small businesses.
“Microsoft likes the fact that we are small business specialists who understand what small businesses need”
For a small company with only 70 employees Gradwell may seem an unlikely choice for such a partnership, so how did the company get chosen? Oddly, it was its size that went in its favour. “Microsoft likes the fact that we are small business specialists who understand what small businesses need, unlike most of its other partners,” explains Gradwell’s Pablo Falcon Guedes.
“They also like the fact that we already run a successful monthly subscription business and that we can bundle our calls and connectivity sources giving us a differential value in comparison to most other companies similar to us.”
So what does the deal, one that only 5 other UK companies in the small business segment have been given, let Gradwell offer its customers? Chief Technology Officer and founder, Peter Gradwell (pictured right) tells us: “We now offer a Microsoft Office 365 subscription package which is cloud first, mobile first, with voice services and cloud phone services bundled in.”
Don’t ask, don’t get
So how did the partnership come about in the first place? “We actually approached them,” says Peter. “Previously we had a more open-sourced focus, but we had seen email customers going to Office email so felt it was worth having a conversation with Microsoft. Everyone uses Office and we felt both the company and our customers would benefit from us offering Microsoft products.”
The process wasn’t easy though, with many hoops to jump through. However, after some hard slog, the partnership is live, and it couldn’t have happened to a nicer company, especially one that is so involved with the tech community. Gradwell are involved with supporting Bath’s co-working hub The Guild, the Bath Bridge initiative, a recent Hackday at Bath University, not to mention being one of our amazing TechSPARK partners!
To celebrate Gradwell has released a refreshed version of its website to show off its new products.
You can see more at the Gradwell website and follow developments on its Twitter feed: @GradwellTweets. And while you are there why not follow us too! @TechSPARKuk
