Microsoft is rewarding more than licence sales. MSPs need the commercial capability to respond.
Microsoft is putting more emphasis on workload growth, adoption and Secure AI. That creates a different commercial conversation for partners. Cumulus Practice gives you the 5P System. It is a commercial method for selling those workloads, with a business case behind each one. Practice costs £3,500 a year.
Join by 15 October and one Secure AI Business Envisioning Workshop is included. It normally costs £2,500 for Ingram Micro partners. You choose the customer. The customer and the opportunity must be suitable.
Microsoft co-op funding. Practice and Executive may be eligible for Microsoft co-op funding support. Check that you are eligible before you rely on it. Check the claim route too. You can see your co-op position in the Microsoft portal. We provide the invoice, the activity description and the proof of execution.
The reward is moving towards workloads. The sale changes with it.
Microsoft is putting more emphasis on workload growth, adoption and Secure AI. A workload is more than a licence. It is AI built into how a customer works. A different person buys it, for a different reason.
Many customers already use some Microsoft AI somewhere in the business. Their boards are now asking a harder question. What has actually changed in the business? They mean revenue, margin, capacity, speed and risk.
That question is your chance to get in front of the board. The opportunity is to turn that business problem into a priced Microsoft workload. That puts you in a stronger position to shape the opportunity, and to scope the work that follows.
Two sentences we hear from MSP owners.
The same problem causes both. It shows up at opposite ends of the same opportunity.
We only hear about it when they ask us to quote.
We built exactly what they asked for, but there was no next conversation.
Being brought in after the business decision has already been made.
Being brought in late does not mean your technical work is inferior. One partner leads the commercial conversation. That partner writes the brief. Everyone else quotes against it. If the requirement is written without you, you compete inside somebody else’s decision. You then compete on scope and price. The business value of your work rarely comes into it.
Your implementation business is a real asset, and building it was the right decision. Arriving late to the business decision is what costs you.
Selling a seat takes a quote. Selling a Secure AI workload takes a business case.
A seat sale needs a quote. A workload sale needs a business case the customer’s finance director can assess. Five questions separate the two sales. Without a system, a team answers them again on every deal.
- Which sector do we go after, and which buyer in it?
- What exactly do we sell, and for how much?
- Who do we call, and how do we get to the person who signs?
- How do we prove to them it is worth doing?
- How does one project turn into revenue that repeats?
Those five questions are commercial questions. Your team already knows Microsoft 365, Azure and security. The missing work is turning a customer’s business problem into a Microsoft project with a price on it.
Business need
What should get better?
The business case
What is it worth to them?
Microsoft workload
What do we build?
Recurring service
How do we keep it working?
Your customer knows what they want to improve. You know what you can build. The business case connects the customer’s need to the Microsoft workload. It helps the customer decide whether to proceed.
The 5P System is how you turn a business need into a Microsoft project you can price.
What MSPs do instead today.
All three of these work up to a point. Each card shows where that option stops working.
Working it out on each deal does win deals. Your team then works it out again on the next deal, and nothing you learned the first time gets reused.
Microsoft training teaches your engineers the product. The training does not tell you which sector to target, which problem to lead with, or what to charge.
A consultant can give you a plan. The question is whether your team can run the method again without external help.
Cumulus Practice gives your business a commercial system it can run again and again. Your team does not start from nothing on every deal, and does not need a consultant each time.
The Cumulus 5P System has five steps and five methods.
The 5P System answers those five questions. It lets you sell a Secure AI workload with a business case, instead of another batch of seats. Each question has a defined method, and each method has a defined output.
Position → Package → Prospect → Proof → Profit. What you learn at P5 feeds back into P1 and P2.
Every session in the programme belongs to one of these five steps. That is what your £3,500 builds.
The Trusted Pipeline Engine starts with the relationships you already have. It uses your existing customers, introductions, partner routes and referrals. It also works your named target accounts.
90 days to build. 12 months to apply, refine and grow.
The first 90 days take you through the 5P System. There are six fortnightly working sessions. You apply each step to your own business.
Six fortnightly sessions. One step at a time. Each one applied to your own business.
The membership then runs for 12 months. The wider year continues through:
Practice applies the 5P System to your own business through a structured group programme. The first intake begins in November 2026.
Capital readiness sessions, for eligible members.
These sessions are for members with turnover above £5m. They are open to eligible Practice and Executive members. The programme is subject to confirmation. BGF is a growth investor. BGF-led Capital Readiness sessions look at what drives the value of your business. They also look at how ready it is for investment, and what your options are.
The sessions are proposed to run four times a year, in a BGF office. Your turnover must be above £5m to attend. You do not have to be selling your business. The sessions do not promise investment or funding. They do not promise a change in what your business is worth.
Dates are subject to programme confirmation. See the dates in the calendar →
Join by 15 October and one Envisioning Workshop is included.
Enrolment for the first Practice intake opens on 23 September 2026. It closes on 15 October 2026. The intake sessions begin in November 2026.
Launch Partners receive one Secure AI Business Envisioning Workshop. It normally costs £2,500 for Ingram Micro partners. You choose the customer. The customer and the opportunity must be suitable.
Our specialists work alongside you on the day. You own the customer relationship throughout. If the customer proceeds, you retain the technical opportunity.
| Practice membership | £3,500 a year |
| Secure AI Business Envisioning Workshop | Normally £2,500 for Ingram Micro partners |
| Launch Partner benefit | One workshop included |
You decide what to charge your customer for it.
Opportunity Assessment → Envisioning Workshop → a clear next decision → Secure AI Implementation, which you scope and price.
The workshop may find an opportunity worth taking forward. Any deeper work is then scoped and agreed separately. The customer decides at every step. Nothing after the workshop is included in your membership.
15 October 2026
31 December 2026
Booked means three things. You have named the customer. We have agreed the opportunity is suitable. The date is in the diary. The workshop itself can take place later. There is no cash alternative.
What the Envisioning Workshop does for your customer.
The workshop normally costs £2,500 for Ingram Micro partners. This section sets out what your customer gets, what you gain, and what happens next.
The workshop takes one day, on site, with your customer’s leadership team. The day covers business questions, not technical configuration. It looks at where their business needs to improve, and whether AI could do it.
Our specialists run the day alongside you. You are in the room throughout. You own the customer relationship.
An answer they can act on
- Their own economics on one page. Their leadership team agrees the numbers in the room, so the page is theirs.
- A list of priorities. It shows where AI could improve revenue, margin, capacity, speed or risk. The list is ordered by what is worth doing first.
- A shortlist of AI opportunities. It records what is worth pursuing, and what has been ruled out.
- A written decision. Proceed, wait, or do not invest. Sometimes the honest answer is the last one.
A different kind of conversation
- A conversation with senior decision-makers. The workshop is designed to bring business and technology leaders into the same conversation.
- An agreed priority in writing. You can design a Microsoft workload for that specific priority.
- Numbers the customer produced. The case is built from assumptions their leadership team has examined and agreed.
- A clear basis for the next decision. If they proceed, you retain the technical opportunity.
From a first conversation to a Microsoft workload you build.
- Secure AI Opportunity Assessment. This takes thirty to forty-five minutes and costs nothing. It is easy for you to offer, and your customer has nothing to approve. It answers one question. Is anything here worth looking at?
- Secure AI Business Envisioning Workshop. This is the day described above. It normally costs £2,500 for Ingram Micro partners. Launch Partners get one included.
- A clear next decision. The workshop ends with a written decision. It may find an opportunity worth taking forward. Any deeper work is then scoped and agreed separately.
- Secure AI Implementation. You scope the Microsoft workload, price it and deliver it. TechGrowth does not bid against you for that work.
- You run it. Adoption, governance and the recurring service you invoice.
The workshop moves the conversation from technology to business value. If the customer decides to proceed, you remain the partner positioned to scope and deliver the Microsoft workload.
No step happens by itself. The customer decides each time. The workshop can also conclude that they should not proceed at all. You own the customer relationship throughout. Read the full Envisioning Workshop page →
What you will build through the programme year.
Each session works towards a defined output your team can use. Across the programme, those outputs include documents, lists, prices and working commercial tools.
You decide which industry to go after, and which job title signs the order. You also decide why that buyer should pick you over the MSP they already use.
Each offer has a written scope, a price and an opening conversation your sales team can use.
The list names companies in your sector. It records the people you already know inside them, and how to reach the person who signs. You decide which accounts to work, and you work them.
You work out what the problem costs the customer today, and what fixing it is worth. You then build a case their finance director can assess.
How a delivered project can become a managed service you invoice, and how that repeats.
Each workshop covers how that sector makes money and where Secure AI can create value. Each one comes with a sector toolkit and a target list.
What the £3,500 covers.
- Everything in Cumulus Community
- The 5P System and its five methods. Positioning Map, Offer Factory, Trusted Pipeline Engine, Value Case Builder and Revenue Flywheel
- All ten Vertical Sector Workshops during the membership year, which cost £5,000 bought separately
- Sector toolkits and target lists
- The monthly Practice Growth Clinic
- Support with a Microsoft co-op claim, where you are eligible
- BGF Capital Readiness, for eligible members above £5m turnover. The programme is subject to confirmation
- One-to-one work inside your business. That is Cumulus Executive
- Deeper work with your customers, which is scoped and agreed separately
- Any technical build, licence or managed service
- Any promise of pipeline, funding or revenue
Practice costs £3,500 a year, payable on enrolment. Every price on this page is for Ingram Micro partners only. Do you buy Microsoft somewhere else? You need to open an Ingram Micro account first. Ask us for a referral at the bottom of this page. Practice and Executive may be eligible for Microsoft co-op funding support. Check that you are eligible, and check the claim route, before you rely on it.
Who Cumulus Practice is for.
Cumulus Practice is open to Ingram Micro Microsoft partners. Some partners buy Microsoft elsewhere, or direct. They need an Ingram Micro account before they can take part. Ask us for a referral at the bottom of this page, and we will make the introduction. Community explains the method. Practice builds your commercial system through structured group delivery. Executive applies the same system one to one inside your business and alongside you with selected customers.
Cumulus Practice costs £3,500 a year, payable on enrolment. Join by 15 October and one Envisioning Workshop, normally £2,500, is included.
Book a Cumulus Fit & Enrolment Call.
Allow 60 minutes. We start with your business. Where does Microsoft sit today? What are customers asking for? What can your team sell now? What do you want to build over the next 12 months? We then recommend the appropriate route. You decide.
Sixty minutes, at a time that suits you.
The call happens on video. Pick a time and you will get a calendar invitation straight away.
- We listen first. It is a conversation about your business, not a presentation.
- Four possible outcomes. Practice. Executive. Community, or not yet. Or Cumulus is not the right fit.
- Then we recommend the appropriate route. Practice, Executive, Community, or no action yet. If Cumulus is not the right fit, we will say so.
- If it is the right fit. We confirm the membership route and send the agreement and order details. Once those are complete, we invoice you. Payment confirms your place. We then send your onboarding questionnaire and agree your schedule.
Prefer email? michael.williamson@techgrowthinsights.com
We can introduce you to Ingram Micro.
Cumulus Practice is open to Ingram Micro Microsoft partners. You may buy your Microsoft licences somewhere else. You may buy direct. If so, becoming an Ingram Micro Microsoft partner is straightforward, and we can introduce you.
A simple referral to Ingram Micro
Tell us about your business below. We pass your details to the right Microsoft Partner Development Manager at Ingram Micro. They then contact you. There is no charge and no obligation.
You usually get a reply within a working day.
What an Ingram Micro account opens up
With an account, you can join Cumulus Practice at £3,500 a year. You can also join Cumulus Community, which is free. Single vertical workshops then cost £500 each.
Every price on this page then applies to you.
Prefer email? michael.williamson@techgrowthinsights.com
Join the first intake before 15 October.
Practice gives you a system that turns a customer’s business problem into a Secure AI workload you can price. Join by 15 October and one Secure AI Business Envisioning Workshop is included.
Win the business case before you win the build.