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Microsoft taps Dicker Data to power non-profit impact across A/NZ

Microsoft's Tech for Social Impact team aims to accelerate its partner reach and non-profit impact.
  • Rob O'Neill (New Zealand Reseller News)
  • 14 March, 2023 10:30
Ben Johnson (Dicker Data)

Ben Johnson (Dicker Data)

Distributor Dicker Data has been selected as one of Microsoft’s go-to-market distributors for the non-profit sector in A/NZ. 

The partnership will see Dicker Data work with Microsoft to train and enable the company’s partner network of over 10,000 resellers on the benefits of working in the non-profit sector. Partners will also be educated on how to get started with their own environmental and social impact initiatives.

The appointment comes as the Microsoft Tech for Social Impact team look to accelerate its partner reach and non-profit impact in the region. 

Microsoft and Dicker Data brought their top partners focused on non-profits together for a launch earlier this month in Sydney and followed that with a partner event in Auckland.

Ben Johnson, general manager of marketing and strategy across A/NZ for Dicker Data said the technology choices partners and end-customers make today would have an environmental impact throughout the technology's lifespan and even after the technology was decommissioned. 

"By taking a sustainability lens to our business decisions, we as an industry can lead the way when it comes to reducing our environmental impact," he said.

“The opportunity for our partners to accelerate the work many non-profits are doing with the use of modern technology solutions is significant. By working with the non-profit sector partners are not only supporting worthy causes and bolstering their own ESG narrative but creating commercially beneficial relationships for their businesses.”

Vanessa Sorenson, global partner solutions director for A/NZ at Microsoft, said the Tech for Social Impact program supported over 300,000 non-profit organisations across the world in 2022 and Microsoft aimed to double that in the next five years. 

"This wouldn’t be possible without the work of trusted technology providers like Dicker Data," she said. "Together, we’re proud to partner for purpose to support non-profits as they accelerate social impact and make a positive difference to individuals and communities.”

Chris Lines, partner manager at Microsoft, said the non-profit sector was the fastest growing part of Microsoft globally and represented a huge opportunity for all of partners.

Demonstrating that opportunity Dicker Data partner, MCR, presented their success working with key non-profit customer Odyssey House NSW at the Sydney event.

Julie Babineau, CEO of Odyssey House NSW, said Microsoft technology had enabled the organisation to be more productive and more connected. 

"However, we couldn’t have fully realised the potential of the technology without the support of our trusted IT partner, MCR IT," she said.

"They’ve played a critical role in enabling our business to extract the full value from our technology investments and we see them as a key enabler in our organisation’s ability to achieve its future ambitions.”

Lines said MCR IT were a fantastic example of what was possible when partners genuinely understood the needs of such businesses.