Published on the 16/07/2019 | Written by Heather Wright
Gains place on annual Top 50 Microsoft Partners report…
When it comes to digital marketing for Microsoft partners, Empired subsidiary Intergen is leading the pack across Australia and New Zealand according to a new report.
The Digital Marketing Excellence 2019/20, Top 50 Microsoft Partners report is an annual offering recognising the best in Microsoft partner digital marketing. It puts the Wellington based Empired subsidiary at 29 out of 50 top partners – the only partner from across Australia and New Zealand to make the cut with more than 39,000 companies looked at as part of the rankings.
The report, now in its fifth year, is by London-based Insights, a specialist research and ‘intelligence service’ of technology marketing agency Fifty Five and Five, and is based on analysis of websites, blogs and social platforms of Microsoft Partner Network companies.
“It’s easy to see that there’s a friendly, human team driving the business forward.”
Digital Marketing Excellence notes that Intergen’s digital marketing success comes largely from a strongly defined brand identity, represented across all their platforms.
“It’s easy to see that there’s a friendly, human team driving the business forward,” the report says. “Their content successfully places the customer journey front and centre, demystifying complicated technology and making the business benefits come to life for the reader.”
The company was Microsoft’s Country Partner of the Year for New Zealand last year and also took out awards for Optimising Operations, for its work at AB Equipment, and Data and AI for its Foodstuffs implementation at the annual Microsoft New Zealand Partner Awards.
It’s been a member of Microsoft’s elite Inner Circle for Dynamics for the past six years, gaining entry to the Inner Circle Programme for Artificial Intelligence earlier this year.
Gavriella Schuster, Microsoft corporate vice president of worldwide channels and programs, says the report showcases the best marketing going on in Microsoft’s Partner channel and celebrates the hard work of the teams using inbound and content marketing to engage their audiences.
A Canadian partner, ShareGate – with its ‘unrivalled blog’ – takes top spot, followed by the UK’s Modality Systems and US based business process automation provider Nintex.
The report notes that there was a comparatively very small distinction in website scores between the partners making the list and the ‘average’ partner – suggesting website quality is improving across the partner network – but blog scores and social media scores were another story, with a 24 percent and 24 percent difference, respectively, between Top 50 partners and the overall average.
This year’s rankings feature a new methodology and the use of a single Partner Benchmarking Tool, endorsed by Microsoft to help partners measure, understand and improve their digital marketing.
Insight acknowledges that change has seen ‘some significant changes in the positioning of partners large and small’.
“However, we are certain that, in using a single Microsoft-based tool to conduct the ranking, the results are more accurate, reliable and telling than ever.”
More than 40 metrics are ranked, covering blogging, website and social.
Intergen’s ranking puts it ahead of some big name partner companies including Barracuda (36), Nutanix (55) AvePoint (31) and global distributor Ingram Micro (54).
