'Start-ups often approach problems in fresh, innovative ways': Avanade's chief innovation officer on channel strategy

Annette Giardina tells CRN all about Avanade’s start-up strategy, AI skills and sustainability

Avanade is expanding its reach into start-ups and challengers within the Microsoft ecosystem to bring "external innovation" to its business and customers.

The MSP's chief innovation and sustainability officer, Annette Giardina, tells CRN how the company has always had a robust Microsoft-focused strategy, but over the past couple years this has evolved: "We now partner with any company in the Microsoft ecosystem, not just Microsoft. This includes start-ups and challengers."

She explains Avanade started its ventures business a few years ago to focus on partnering with start-ups and challengers, rather than only large vendors.

"We have a structured process for researching and selecting partners that reinforce our priorities around diversity, inclusivity, sustainability, and responsible business practices.

"By working with start-ups, we bring external innovation into our business and to our customers."

As a consultancy, Avanade needs outside viewpoints and partners challenging it to build better solutions, according to Giardina.

"Start-ups often approach problems in fresh, innovative ways we wouldn't have considered.

"Now, we don't have to build everything ourselves. We can incorporate their technology into our products to fill gaps and enhance our offerings.

"In return, we provide start-ups access to our customer base and partners. Many of these small companies are funded by Microsoft, Accenture Ventures, or other investors we work closely with."

She says the goal is to bring everyone together to deliver the best value to customers.

"I'm proud we transform customers into long-term clients who see us as trusted advisors rather than just project-based transactions. Even when we have no formal contract, we aim to do the right thing and build relationships.

"We want to continually bring new ideas and value to clients, not just bill hours. Emerging technologies keep us innovative.

"By collaborating with start-ups, we inject new thinking into our business and enable our consultants to provide more value through expertise versus labour."

Upskilling for AI

Like her channel counterparts, Giardina is aware of the "transformative potential" that AI can have in the industry.

Recent Avanade research found that 92 per cent of business leaders expect AI will significantly impact their business in the next 12 months.

Giardina notes this and stresses the importance of taking a responsible approach to AI.

"Before selling any AI solutions, we developed a responsible framework and trained all 60,000 staff.

"We consider sustainability - unstructured AI models can have massive carbon footprints. So, we evaluate when and how to implement this technology appropriately.

"We slowly rolled out Copilot to employees in phases to test and refine it based on feedback before expanding access.

"We don't allow it to access customer data or meetings. Proper change management enables responsible AI usage."

During the pilots, Avanade says it opted to not use the technology during customer meetings as to avoid recording meetings without the customer's permission.

She says the key is developing focused AI use cases that solve business challenges, not implementing it haphazardly because of hype.

Microsoft Copilot for M365 has recently been made available to organisations of every size causing widespread excitement across the channel.

In a recent interview with CRN, Chris Shaw at AvePoint also echoed Giardina's viewpoint saying: "Organisations need a certain level of control and preparation to make the most of Copilot and justify/understand use cases.

"It can do everything so you must be specific on intended goals and what adoption actually means for your business."

Giardina explains how Avanade helps customers map out a strategy tailored to their specific needs and opportunities.

"With solutions like Copilot, we've seen diverse benefits, like assisting neurodiverse employees in meetings.

"AI will go through a hype cycle as any technology, but it has matured past early overhype. We help customers adopt it in a controlled, impactful way."

Giardina also says data and AI skills are absolutely essential to develop within the channel.

"As technology evolves, skills beyond pure coding are becoming increasingly important.

"As AI advances, understanding how to apply it is more important than coding expertise. Consultative skills are critical: for example, how to help businesses use it effectively and ethically.

"With solutions like Copilot automating basic coding, time is freed up for developers to focu on value-added coding."

On top of its technical hires, Avanade is now also hiring more non-technical graduates with strengths in areas like business consulting.

Innovation initiatives and automation academies also bring in new perspectives.

"For channel partners: differentiate your offering, but also focus on total value proposition and integration. With the pace of tech change accelerating, it's crucial yet hard to keep up."