We’re more than halfway through 2021, so, we thought it was the perfect time to take a breather, do some mid-season analysis, and look at the current state of play in our ongoing digital 2020/2021 Microsoft Partner Top 50 table. The Top 50 is where we and our proprietary algorithm rank partners based on their digital marketing.
Today, we’ll be casting a keen pundit’s eye over the movers and shakers, the surprises and the solid bets, and deliver some commentary on some of the partners that have done particularly well – and how they’ve done it.
Big risers in the league table
To kick off, let’s take a gander at some Microsoft partners who’ve made the biggest jump in the rankings this year. These partners have performed stunningly since October/November 2020, and that’s been reflected in how well their positions have improved since then.
This partner, specialising in intelligent process automation, began outside the Top 130 back in Autumn 2020. But since then, they’ve been in and out of Top 10 at the turn of the year and have been Top 5 now since February. At the time of writing, Bizagi is the highest scorer for content, with an excellent, regularly updated blog, wide array of valuable downloadable resources, and more.
IT services firm Catapult started well outside the Top 130 and have made steady improvement throughout. They’re now a regular Top 30 performer, ranking highly for SEO thanks to their highly optimised digital presence. They draw valuable traffic thanks to a broad scope of focus that targets many different customer industries and service areas, with all the right search touchpoints covered.
This a great example of speaking to an increasingly business-focused audience.
– Catapult Systems’ Top 50 profile
TechQuarters, an IT support and Office 365 migrations company, had stayed mostly outside the Top 100 until recently, although they occasionally dipped into it. However, April saw a monumental leap, as they landed in the Top 10 and haven’t left it since. TechQuarters are also scoring very highly for SEO right now and are clearly winning big with both the search engines and visitors to their website.
Top 5 ever-presents
Nintex, NTT Ltd. and LiveTiles have been in the Top 5 since November 8th, with high all-round performance across our categories throughout the entire period. Each of these partners has long been well-known for their diligently curated digital presence, and we’re pleased to see them going from strength to strength.
Elsewhere among the top-ranking Microsoft partners, SkyKick has been in the Top 10 every week since the Top 50 was launched. A very strong showing from the cloud management software provider, and we’d attribute some of that to their spot-on tone-of-voice as well as brilliant work in content and search.
Clear, consistent and full of value, they are doing inbound marketing the way it was meant to be done.
– SkyKick’s Top 50 profile
Always in the Top 20
The following partners have consistently remained in the Top 20. Many are familiar faces who have performed well in previous years’ Top 50s. They’ve outdone themselves this time, too:
harmon.ie – great social media presence and content
Pyramid Analytics – one of the very highest SEO scores
Veeam – engaging, detailed and valuable content
Sherweb – clear, compelling brand identity and value proposition
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) – excellent content and social channels
Automated Intelligence – expertise displayed compellingly and credibly
Storytelling is crucial to generating a following on social media, and HPE are better at it than most.
– Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s Top 50 profile
Special mentions
As our roundup draws to a close, we’d like to give a shoutout to a range of partners who have solidly stayed within the Microsoft Partner Top 50 all this time. There are too many to put a spotlight on individually, but each and every one has done great work cementing their positions so far:
| ENow | Nuix |
| Modality Systems | BitTitan |
| Trend Micro | Hitachi Solutions |
| Talk Think Do | Cyber Ark |
| Cognizant | Infragistics |
| Air IT | Rackspace |
| Qorus | Beezy |
| Okta | ThirdSpace |
| KnowledgeWave | Nutanix |
There’s still everything to play for in the Microsoft Partner Top 50
We hope you’ve enjoyed our roundup. If you’re a Microsoft Partner and you weren’t featured, don’t worry – the game is still underway. Who knows what the next few months will bring? You could well be one of the top-ranking Microsoft partners in the Top 10 or even Top 5 next time we give our commentary.
Meanwhile, keep checking our continuously updated Top 50 Microsoft Partners to see how you and other partners are doing, and get in touch if you’d like help with your digital marketing.