Name: Microsoft + Sophos “Stronger Together”
Uploaded: 2026-04-07T10:15:56.484Z
Duration: 37 min 40 s
Description: Microsoft + Sophos “Stronger Together”

Transcript for "Microsoft + Sophos “Stronger Together”": Okay. Look. Thank you very much for joining today's call and for sparing the time to be with us today, especially after, I'm sure, for many of you, a very busy Easter break. So we're extremely grateful. I'm Jason Urness. I'm the VP of channel sales here at Sophos, and I'm delighted to be joined today by Sally Adam, who is our VP of product marketing. And today's call is all about a new program that we are launching, which is all about how Sophos and Microsoft are stronger together. So we'll go through, the program in in some detail on the call. We will share all of the materials, presentations. There's plenty, that you could leverage, and and take to market. Look. Pretty much all of our customers, of course, are Microsoft customers, and so far strongly believes that partnering with Microsoft and Microsoft partners is the best way to protect more customers. So we've developed a great relationship with and partnership with Microsoft over the past few years, and specifically developing technologies on how we can provide the very best defenses regardless of which Microsoft solutions, those customers are using. We also believe that offering Sophos in a in a complementary manner to Microsoft customers presents a significant margin and services opportunity, for our partners as well. So I'm gonna pass over to Sally, in a second. Please inundate us with, with any q and a and any questions you have using, the tool here, and we'll endeavor to answer as many of those, as we can. For those that we can't cover, we will follow-up with you, after the call. So without further ado, I'm gonna pass over to, Sally to take us through this very important program. Sally, over to you. Thank you. Thank you, Jason, and thank you everyone for for taking the time to be with us today. So we're going to walk through this program. And as a overview, it's a play that will help you grow your business. We're positioning Sophos as the the cybersecurity force multiplier for your customers, enabling them to both elevate their defenses and unlock the full value of their Microsoft investments. And let me be clear upfront. This is a full Sophos portfolio opportunity for you. Endpoint, email, MDR, firewall, identity, and more. It's not just about selling Sophos MDR to organizations that, are using Defender for Endpoint, although that is a great option. It's about software solutions that complement your customers' Microsoft technologies at every point in their environment. Now we really wanted to make sure it's clear, you know, what's in this for you? Well, in short, we see Sophos as the the most complete, the most profitable, and the most effective way for you to secure Microsoft environments. We provide an opportunity for you to increase your profitability, enjoying margins on software solutions that you can sell in addition to the, the Microsoft technologies your customers are using. And also, it's a great way to expand your security footprint, adding protection capabilities that are not available with Microsoft and that complement Microsoft solutions. So you get a bigger share of the, the security budget. You get stickier customers. By having two complementary stacks, Sophos stack and a Microsoft stack, you're balancing your, your business. You're you're enabling, greater business resilience. And, of course, by selling solutions that complement each other, solutions from Microsoft, solutions from Sophos, you're really able to enhance your position as a trusted adviser, helping customers get the most from all of their investments. So lots of great benefits for you, but really also some real tangible business advantages, whether you're, working on a term, situation as a as a reseller, or you're providing, MSP services. Now if you're on a term deal as a as a reseller, you know, it helps you increase deal size by complementing Sophos and Microsoft solutions, layering them together to provide a a holistic solution with a higher deal size, a higher margin for you as well. And by having solutions that are designed to, to work in Microsoft, environments, it really gives you, an additional strength, an additional advantage in competitive situations, as well as laying that foundation for long term at account growth. It enables your customers to future proof by knowing that their security partner and their Microsoft technologies are working together. So however they evolve their environments in the future, Sophos and Microsoft are always going to be stronger together. For those of you who provide MSP services, well, with Sophos and Microsoft technologies, it's a great way to grow your recurring revenue with each customer, increasing your your profitability, increasing your margins, and crucially, delivering stronger protection. Software solutions are optimized for Microsoft environments, so you're elevating your customers' defenses. And by having a a go to program, Sophos and Microsoft, well, you can deliver that standardized scalable services that free up your overhead your time. So lower your overhead, so you've got more time to focus on billable hours as well. So lots of advantages for this program, whichever way you are supporting your customers. Now how do you take advantage of this? Well, with the Sophos and Microsoft stronger together story, it's very much about selling Sophos and Microsoft solutions that complement each other. And there's two ways that that you can do this. You can start off with the overall program that we'll be talking through today, and then they can also accelerate with MDR. So we're going to be developing or I should say we are developing a co marketing program for you focused on Sophos MDR to help you generate, demand, generate new opportunities in Microsoft environments, and that is going to be coming during this quarter. So two stages there of the core program that we'll be talking about now, which is really about driving that Sophos and Microsoft together mindset, making Sophos the long term go to solution alongside Microsoft technologies. And then it's accelerating further with a focus on MDR. So that's how we're approaching it. Let's now dive into that value proposition. I said we want Sophos to really be the most complete, the most profitable, and the most effective way to secure Microsoft environment. So let's look at the the details of of how we're delivering on that for you. Now this, as I said, is not a single service or product opportunity. It is a full platform opportunity for you. It's one you can use with customers who already have software solutions and also for your customers who are not yet using Sophos. And while you can sell the full portfolio, the solutions where you're typically going to see the the biggest opportunity due to both customer need and solution fit are the ones that I've highlighted here in green. Sophos MDR, penetration testing in the security assessments, endpoint, firewall, identity, email, ITDR, EDR. And, of course, all of this is on the Sophos central platform. So with that unified security stack, everything working together, centrally managed, sharing information, simplifying day to day security delivery. So the green ones are the areas where, yeah, I think you've got the the biggest immediate opportunity. Now you'll see, I've also highlighted with a with a pinky purple box, SIM. So right now, as you know, we are able to to meet next gen SIEMs, requirements through our Tejas solutions, as additions to Tejas XDR and Tejas MDR. Well, coming mid this year, the next gen SIEM is going to also be available through the software central platform. So as you're working on longer term solutions, long term strategies with your customers, do know next gen SIEM is coming into the software central platform this this year, mid this year, and there'll be more information on that to follow later this month. Now moving forward. So we've got this full platform opportunity. How do you then take this to, become a revenue generating opportunity for you? Well, there's two real ways to sell Sophos solutions into Microsoft environments. Option one is aligning with Microsoft plans. Most of your customers will have some Microsoft plans, and what is key is that with Sophos, we can support them. We can complement their Microsoft plans, whichever plan they're on, right from business basic to e five. We can take telemetry from those plans, from the technologies they're using, and use it to accelerate their security. And this is a real differentiator for you as a Sophos partner. Many vendors say, yes. Yes. We work with Microsoft. But really to get the full benefit, you have to be on those e five plans, which is something that is not suitable, not desired by many organizations, particularly the smaller businesses. Well, with Sophos, whichever Microsoft investment your customers are making, Sophos can help them get more from that Microsoft investment and elevate their defenses overall. The second option that you have is to align to security's challenges. So selling combined Sophos and Microsoft solutions to address the most common, issues that your customers are experiencing. So giving that unified bundle, as it were, solution. So two great ways to bring together Sophos and Microsoft technologies to elevate defenses whilst, elevating your footprint and profitability. Now let's take a moment to dive into these a bit further. What I have here is is this one slide overview of option one, selling software solutions to complement Microsoft plans. Now this is, as I said, an an overview slide. We have a lot of detail for you breaking down all of these elements into into a lot of detail, explaining why you need security solutions alongside these these plans. All of that is available to you in our resources, in our partner academy training programs, and I'll come on to those at the moment in a moment. But, you know, just looking at the the overview here, when you break down the Microsoft plans, they essentially fall into three main buckets. You've got, over on the left in the in the green, the the productivity plans. The plans that give organizations those day to day tools, Word, Excel, Outlook, OneDrive that they're using, to to support and enable their business. You've got the identity solutions focused on intra ID. And then you've got the security based solutions, so the, the plans that include Microsoft security tools for the more security minded organizations. Well, whichever plan that the customer is on, you can sell software solutions that complement those investments. And you can do it either at the same time or have a software as a follow on to the Microsoft investments. So looking over, you know, with the the productivity tools, key solutions where you have a great opportunity to, to to build in Sophos around Sophos endpoint. Sophos endpoint, of course, unmatched endpoint security, including against remote ransomware. And with Sophos endpoint, you've got that great legacy platform support as well. So if you have, customers on older Microsoft operating systems, Sophos endpoint is a really great solution there. Of course, Sophos MDR, that twenty four seven expert led threat detection and response service, it can take telemetry even from customers using business basic and use that to, accelerate threat detection and response. And Sophos email, really fantastic partner for organizations, using Office three six five, giving them great email security seamlessly integrated. For those customers of yours for using Entra ID, well, again, Sophos MDR is the go to solution. Sophos MDR, Entra ID, in my mind, the best possible core foundational security defense against identity attacks, business email compromise, you know, ransomware. Bringing together Entra ID insights with Software's MDR, you're really giving your customers the very best protection. Of course, you can also add in Sophos ITDR, which really extends that identity protection even further. And Sophos firewall is a great solution to talk to as well with Entra ID. It integrates with Entra ID, streamlining, sign on, streamlining day to day experiences for for the end users and for administrators alike. So great pairing there. And for organizations that, have Microsoft security tools in place, well, software's MDR, again, a great option. Whichever Microsoft solutions they're using, software's MDR takes that telemetry. If they're using, some solutions within the Defender Suite, then absolutely and some of them are engineered to to work with those. Our advisory services, another great option for security minded organizations. Use them to identify weaknesses that you can help address. And the email monitoring service also, a really powerful additional layer of email security for, security focused organizations. So you've got multiple solutions that you can use to align with the customer's Microsoft plans. As I said, lots more detail breaking it down. It's available for you in the partner portal and with our training resources. Let's flip now and have a look at option two, selling combined Microsoft and software solutions to address your customers' top security needs. Whether that's identity threats, ransomware, overall cyber risk reduction, or business email compromise, we can sell software and Microsoft solutions that enable your customers to to address those options. So for example, identity threats. As I was, you know, just talking about, enter ID and software's MDR is a really powerful combination. But identity is increasingly front of mind for organizations, of mind on that security agenda. So talking about how you can enable organizations to watch wise their defenses about identities defenses against identity threats is really going to help them stay ahead of the adversaries. Similarly, ransomware. 70% of human operated ransomware is using remote encryption, and we know that the cost of ransomware for organizations is in the millions. So, again, Sophos endpoint and Sophos MDR or Microsoft Defender for endpoint and Sophos MDR is a powerful combination to help your customers optimize their ransomware defenses, helping them prevent adversaries from getting in, and then quickly detecting and stopping adversaries that do get, you know, at the very first stages of an attack. So Sophos and Microsoft solutions together for identity for ransomware. Similarly, for business email compromise, with with the improvements in automated cyber defenses, adversaries are increasingly trying to target, executive accounts to, trick organizations, take advantage of social engineering. And this is where combining Sophos and Microsoft solutions is a great bonus too. Excuse me. One moment. Let me just take a sip of water. Oh, excuse me there. So a great option there, business email compromise, and then cyber risk reduction. And so this is where you, as trusted adviser, can help the organization identify gaps and then put in place solutions to address them. Now I said that Sophos is the most complete solution for you. And, as this table illustrates, no other vendor offers the breadth of opportunity and the depth of Microsoft integrated solutions that Sophos does, giving you the most, the the most opportunities to to really elevate protection in this Microsoft environments. Now I'd like for a moment to just focus on on a row in the middle here. Threat intelligence agent for Microsoft Copilot. As you will see, Sophos is the only vendor to provide this. Now you may have seen back, in the, last quarter of, 2025, Sophos announced a integration of Sophos Intellix, our threat intelligence feed, with Microsoft Copilot. So after a really rigorous review, Microsoft, was was looking for an additional threat intelligence feed for Copilot, selected Sophos. Now this means that Sophos intelligence is feeding into Microsoft Copilot all the time for all of the Microsoft Copilot users providing that additional cyber defense layer. Now I cannot think of a better recognition, a better testament to software's to secure Microsoft environments than the fact that Microsoft has embedded our threat intelligence into Copilot. Copilot is obviously a key part of the Microsoft portfolio, and to have Sophos Intelligence in there is really, I think, the the best possible endorsement for, the the security capabilities we offer for Microsoft environments. Now I said we were the most complete. I also said we are the most profitable, way for you to secure Microsoft, environments. We know that, you know, Microsoft solutions are, of course, essential, but also they often don't offer great profitability. And this is where you have an option by layering Sophos as a compliment to increase the return that you are seeing on your work. Now what I have here is some pricing examples, and, it shows some different options for combining Sophos and Microsoft solutions to address those security challenges we were just looking at, identity attacks, ransomware, business email compromise. So, what we have here is some example pricing. It's MSP, MRR pricing for illustrative purposes only. The, the pricing is, based for, The US, and the Microsoft pricing is from a software's distributor. So what, obviously, the the prices that that you have will vary depending on where you are, the country you're you're at, the the the size of your business. But what I really want you to take away from looking at this is that you have options. There are multiple ways to put together packages to help your customers address these different challenges. There's different combinations of software and Microsoft solutions that you can provide to help organizations elevate their defenses against these attacks and have technologies, software and Microsoft technologies that are working together. As you'll see here so these are illustrations, but they they are real world pricing. But there's a lot of opportunity for you to, increase your profitability, to increase your margin depending on the combinations that you put together. So really do take away from this whether you're selling on a a term basis or a monthly basis. Think about how you can combine different solutions, different packaging to increase your profitability. Now I also said, software is the most effective way for you to secure your Microsoft environments. And, of course, it's essential because people are investing in in securing their company. They're trusting in you to provide them with the defenses they need. And with Sophos, you really do give them the very best options. So would you just excuse me one moment just to, I'm afraid, just clear my I'm so sorry. Apologies for that. Now Sophos is already securing over 600,000 Microsoft environments, and this is really significant for you and for your customers. So the fact that we're securing more than 600,000 Microsoft environments every single day means that we have incredible amounts of telemetry into threats into Microsoft environments. Our team is seeing these, these threats, stopping these threats, and using that intelligence, using that learning to automatically elevate defenses for every single Sophos customer. So we have deep experience of securing Microsoft environments. When it comes to our MDR service, we are actively using telemetry to stop thousands and thousands of attacks. In fact, last year alone, 2025, the software's MDR service used Microsoft telemetry to detect and stop 23,000 advanced human led attacks. So when I say we're taking telemetry from across the customer's environments, it it isn't just words. It's, in fact, 23,000 additional threats that were stopped at the very earliest stages, thanks to our ability to take and actively use that Microsoft intelligence. And we do it at scale. We do it fast. Overall, as, I'm sure you know, our average time for software MDR to detect and respond to threats is thirty eight minutes. We're very proud of that stat. Well, in Microsoft environments, software's MDR detection response time comes down to just twelve minutes, faster than any in house team could could possibly do. Typically, before anyone's even noticed something is going on, twelve minute average time to detect and neutralize threats in Microsoft environments for the MDR service. That is a tremendous proof point for you of the efficacy of software solutions since software services are defending your customers' Microsoft environments. And, of course, we're also, proven and trusted. I've mentioned already the Copilot security integration. Well, we also have, Microsoft intelligence security accreditations with NICE verified, and we have tens and tens of, Microsoft certified security operations specialists who ensure that those Microsoft, integrations are correctly configured, enabling us to make sure we're taking full value from the customers' Microsoft investments to to detect and stop threats. So so great stats there that really, I think, provide you with the, the the confidence and your customers with the the information that that confirms that Sophos does provide the very best defenses for Microsoft environments. Now how does this translate into a value proposition for your end users? Well, Sophos is that security force multiplier that helps them unlock the full value of their Microsoft investments. It is reducing cyber risk. We're accelerating response and enabling them to to take full advantage of their Microsoft investments, stopping threats faster, and for those that manage their own security, being able to free up their their in house teams. So lots of great benefits for your customers of using Sophos alongside Microsoft solutions. And I really want to just emphasize that bottom point on the list there, the community immunity piece. That is something a message that we know resonates really powerfully. As one of of our 600,000 plus customers, we are always elevating your protection based on what we're learning from that Microsoft community. And with the MDR service, it goes even further, really taking everything we're seeing on a continual basis with the MDR service and automatically elevating all of our customers' defenses. So that's, I think, the the the story there. I hope you see that there are lots of opportunities for you to grow your business by adding Sophos alongside Microsoft solutions, whichever technologies your customers are using right across the Sophos portfolio to accelerate your business. Now we've got some resources to help you share these updates with your customers to help embed the the, you know, the Microsoft stronger together approach with your teams. First up, on the partner academy, we have a playbook that guides you through the program, providing all of the resources that you need from end to end. So do go and check it out. It will, takes away the the need for you to, to work your own path because we've got a step by step program for you from first touch through to to closing the deal. So that's there, and we also have a a full training program as well. As I mentioned, mentioned, we've we've got got lots of details behind all of this. Lots of information on aligning software solutions to individual plans, how individual software technologies integrate with Microsoft. We also have a lot of detail on, the software solutions and Microsoft solutions together to address security challenges. So do check out the the training program on the software's partner academy. Do check out all of the resources that are there. We also have a full set of resources to help you when you're communicating the value of Sophos to your own clients, including our web pages, solution briefs, and PowerPoint decks with, lots of slides for you to to choose from. Now we also have a a really nice thirty second, software's MDR sizzle video, it's called, that was created actually by Microsoft. So, again, a further endorsement of the the software solution. So that that's, not playing now, but, it's something that you can also use. And for those of you that work with the MSP approach, we have dedicated materials for you that talk to your business and how you can incorporate the Microsoft story to to grow your, revenue. Now just closing us out, you know, I mentioned before about the partnership we have with Microsoft where Sophos Threat Intelligence is embedded into to Microsoft Copilot. And we were thrilled. We were really proud that at the Ignite conference, this is the screenshot here, Sophos was the only security vendor that was was highlighted by Microsoft. So I hope that really gives you a slight idea of the the the the depths to which Sophos is is integrating and, complementing Microsoft technologies. So as to the next steps, really, the ask here is is get familiar with this story. As you've seen, there's lots of options there. There's lots of ways so that it can flex with whichever, business opportunity, whichever customer need you have, whichever type of customer you're working with. So please do take a little time to to check out the training. And then build your activation plan. Use the resources, the playbook. Your software team is very much here to help you, so don't hesitate to reach out to them. And then use your knowledge of your of your customers to identify opportunities. For example, looking at organizations that, maybe have Sophos Sophos solutions. Okay. Where could I build on that, to to help them? Customers who are worried about ransomware. How can I put together a package? Okay. An organization that looking at Entra ID, How can I then bring in Sophos MDR as that really strong complement that's going to together with, Entra ID, Sophos MDR, the best possible defense against identity attacks, against, lots of business email compromised threats as well? So do take a look at the the program and and speak to your team if you'd like any support or any help. And I'd like to apologize for the, coughs that I had during this session. Thank you for bearing with me. I greatly appreciate it. So, Jason. Well done, Sally. We're a bit concerned there for a moment, but, well well done. That's a great great job. Thank you for that. So, Sally, we've only got a couple of questions coming, so I appreciate folks that have been asking those. Just had a couple of questions about the illustrative pricing that we shared. Was that m s MSRP, or was it partner pricing? Could you share which Yeah. So so for the the software side, that was a band three two partner price. For the the Microsoft pricing, was from a software's distributor, and it was the two partner price. Great stuff. So. but I would say also, you know, that was just illustrative. That was picking one particular the point, in one particular country. So, the the the big point there is really think about, how different combinations of Sophos and Microsoft solutions can be used together to to help your customers get the security outcomes that they're looking for, whilst also giving you opportunities to make more money, potentially even free up some of your customers' budget for additional purchases as well. Thanks, Sally. We've got a couple of extra questions come in. One from Oliver here. What about Sophos phishing threat? You didn't mention it. Does the service still exist? Yes. So Sophos Phish Threat is available on its own, but it's also included with Sophos emails. So we have added Sophos Phish Threat to Sophos emails. So when you provide the Sophos email solution, your customers now get even greater value. So they they're able to get the AI powered email defenses and the the phishing simulation tool and user awareness training tool. So it's all in one. So you're now able to provide with just soft as email, one solution, a full email security and phishing awareness and user education program. So, again, if you're looking at Sophos email, really great alongside Microsoft solutions, particularly for customers who are on those productivity plans. So email now gives them even more value, even more benefits, so even more ways for you to be enhancing their defenses. Thanks, Sally. And then another question's coming here. If someone is starting with certifications like Sophos or Microsoft, what practical steps would you recommend in the next ninety days to become job ready? Job ready. So, yes, continue with your with your certifications. Make sure you've got that that foundational knowledge of the of the solutions of the the technologies from both sides. Then I would say, do take the, the software's on Microsoft stronger together training. That will really give you the story of how the solutions come together. They complement to to elevate defenses. And then, speak to yourself as account manager to build up a plan for how you're going to be able to, quickly see see, opportunities, quickly see return there. Thanks, Sally. I'm just gonna pause there for a moment. Any other questions? I know Austin just asked if we can ask a technical question, so you can ask it, Austin. So we'll see if we can answer that for you. The other thing probably just to point out is I know some of our colleagues have shared lots of content in the chat, so please check out those links. I think as you mentioned, Sally, loads of stuff available on the on the partner portal, isn't there? So lots of materials to the partners that have a a more of an MSP approach. There's lots of materials out there and and more of a sort of a solution services approach, that that's all else out there as well. So okay. We haven't we haven't I think we've got any more questions, Sally. So, Sally, any final thoughts from you before we close out? Yeah. This is is really it's a a long term approach. This is not a, a short term campaign. This is really a way of thinking about how you can build that strong repeatable model for supporting your customers' security needs and their wider business needs by combining Sophos and Microsoft. It's a real future proof solution as well. However, the customer is looking to evolve their environment, whichever Microsoft plan they may wish to change onto in the future. With Sophos, the customers got that assurance that, it's a security partner who is committed to, complementing, enhancing, extending Microsoft technology. So it gives that that real peace of mind, and it enables you to build out that long term strategy. So as you're working with them in terms of the the different solutions and capabilities that they they need, then you've got the option here to build some long term plans that are gonna evolve with the customer's needs. So lots of different ways to think about it, so you can take advantage of of the most customers', opportunities, but but really thinking just, yes, solutions that are designed to work together to help you and your customers see long term success. Thanks, Sally. So, everyone, please thanks again for everyone spending the time, this morning, particularly after the Easter break, as I mentioned, please reach out to your Sophos representative, or distribution partner. We're very keen to, take this to market with you and drive our business, going forward. So, again, thanks very much, Sally, and, have a great rest of the week. Thanks, everyone.