In summary
- A1 Technologies has signed a three-year, group-wide agreement with hummgroup to manage its Microsoft 365 licensing, Azure subscriptions, managed IT services and Azure professional services.
- The deal consolidates previously split suppliers into a single provider, following an earlier project for a subsidiary of the company that cut Azure costs by 10% and saved roughly $200,000 on SQL licensing.
- A1 Technologies director Rob Rattray said Microsoft's Azure migration funding remains poorly understood outside the partner channel, and can fundamentally change migration economics.
Australian Microsoft Solutions Partner A1 Technologies has signed a three-year, group-wide agreement with hummgroup, an ASX-listed financial services group, to manage its Microsoft 365 licensing, Azure subscriptions, managed IT services and Azure professional services.
The deal consolidates what was previously split across separate suppliers into a single provider, giving hummgroup a unified view of cost and performance across its Microsoft environment.
A1 Technologies was selected for the broader group agreement through a competitive procurement process, taking over from the group's previous supplier.
The agreement follows A1 Technologies' earlier delivery of Azure cost optimisation and migration services for flexicommercial, a division of hummgroup. That initial project achieved a 10% reduction in Azure costs and outlined improvements aligned to the Microsoft Well-Architected Framework.
A1 Technologies subsequently migrated flexicommercial's data centre assets to Azure through Microsoft's Azure Migration and Modernisation programme - now part of Azure Accelerate - which gives eligible organisations access to Microsoft funding and technical resources to move workloads to Azure.
During the migration, A1 Technologies used Microsoft's Azure Migrate toolset to move workloads in stages to reduce risk, and introduced Bicep infrastructure-as-code to standardise the environment and improve governance. A review of hummgroup's Microsoft SQL licensing delivered a further cost saving of approximately $200,000, the company said.
"When we looked at bringing our Microsoft licensing, Azure subscriptions and engineering together, it made sense to consolidate them with a partner we already trusted rather than spread the work across several suppliers," said Brad Rudduck, general manager of technology at flexicommercial, hummgroup.
"It gives us a single view of cost and performance, and one team accountable for the environment as we plan our next stage."
"Our partnership with hummgroup and the flexicommercial team has developed into a great working partnership, with each team bringing its own strengths and everyone focused on delivering a secure and optimised Microsoft environment," said Clint Shiels, technical director at A1 Technologies.
A1 Technologies holds five Microsoft Solutions Partner designations and an Infrastructure and Database Migration to Azure specialisation, the latter requiring an independent audit of delivered customer work spanning migration, database modernisation, governance and cloud architecture.
A1 Technologies director Rob Rattray said Microsoft's Azure migration funding remained poorly understood outside the partner channel.
"A lot of mid-market organisations don't realise Microsoft has funding available to help eligible businesses move to Azure," Rattray said.
"That can fundamentally change the economics of a migration project. We help customers understand what's available, secure that funding where they're eligible, and deliver an Azure environment that supports them long after the migration is complete."
