With a fresh year ahead of us, we decided to explore how Microsoft Partners can make 2022 a year to remember. Will you be joining us?
Is there anything more exciting and full of potential than a brand new year? The ITEXACT team are always thrilled to look ahead at the unlimited potential of the coming months. This year is no different, and we’re even more excited than ever to build upon last year’s successes, work with our community of fellow partners, and play our part in various initiatives.
To kick off 2022, we decided to explore the various ways Microsoft Partners can ensure a successful year for themselves, their people, and their customers – here’s what we found.
Supporting Microsoft’s Carbon Negative Plan
After two years of the pandemic drastically altering our lives, making changes to mitigate another global catastrophe doesn’t seem so impossible. While natural disasters serve as harsh reminders of the ongoing climate crisis, governments, activists and organisations like Microsoft are leading us in the pursuit of sustainability.
In 2020, Microsoft pledged to be carbon negative by 2030 and had, after one year, managed to reduce their carbon emissions by 6%. In the same year, we also saw global carbon emissions temporarily fall as a result of lockdowns, but this didn’t last long; by the end of 2021, we’d very quickly bounced back to almost 2019 levels. If we are to reach our sustainable future, we all have a part to play.
Fired up to make a difference in 2022? Partners can follow in Microsoft’s footsteps and commit to lowering their carbon emissions by:
- Reduce travel emissions by switching to hybrid working and online meetings and events, and using trains or carshares when travelling for business
- Educate employees on how to be climate conscious
- Measure and improve environmental impact by using Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability to simplify your sustainability journey
Accessibility and Opportunity
Elsewhere, the current digital skills gap also threatens to stand in the way of our high hopes for 2022. Recent research indicated that 3 in 4 executives claim that it’s difficult to recruit people with the right technical skills, and it’s been predicted that 14 countries in the G20 could miss out on $11.5 trillion in cumulative GDP growth because of the skills shortage. For digital industries to continue innovating, it’s incredibly important that we commit to closing this gap by:
- Developing digital skills through apprenticeships and internships, as well as up-skilling new and existing employees
- Retaining employees by prioritising their personal and professional development, addressing work-life balance, and improving corporate culture
- Breaking down entry barriers by rethinking hiring processes and requirements to be friendlier to recent graduates and recognise unconventional experience and transferable skills
- Encouraging diversity in the workplace to access new skills, innovation, and engagement
Sign the Partner Pledge
Vocalising your goals is one simple way to increase the chances you reach them. Signing Microsoft’s Partner Pledge means you can throw support behind Microsoft, set your promises in stone and be held accountable by your customers, partners and peers. The pledge covers how partners can support Microsoft in:
- Helping the UK prepare for the challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution
- Creating more apprenticeships
- Improving the diversity in the tech sector
- Ensuring AI is developed and implemented in responsible and ethical ways
- Committing to sustainability and reducing your carbon footprint
By signing the Partner Pledge, partners are not only supporting Microsoft’s efforts, but also the growth of various industries, as well as the wellbeing of the Earth. We’ve signed the pledge ourselves – you can read about why here.
Making 2022 Great, Together
As history has consistently shown, collaboration breeds the best results. Being Microsoft Partners gives us unique opportunities to collaborate with and support other partners to achieve our goals for 2022 and beyond. We’ll be taking this mindset with us into the new year, guided by our Surveil Together partner programme. By working together, Microsoft Partners can reap the fruit of collaboration to ensure a successful 2022 for all. Now that would make for a happy new year.
Interested in joining us as a Surveil partner? We’d love to hear from you. Simply get in touch and let’s talk all things 2022.