Featured Apprentice Story

Ollie's role sits within the Softcat Microsoft team. As Softcat is the largest partner for Microsoft across Europe, our internal team are instrumental in the overall success of the business. Ollie hosts roadshows to effectively sell Microsoft products to Softcat employees, generating leads and new business, as well as hosting webinars to Softcat customers whilst also maintaining the relationship with Microsoft and being responsible for his own stakeholders - utilising these relationships to negotiate the best deals for Softcat. Ollie manages this varied and fast-paced role all whilst studying for his Level 3 Business Admin qualification - dedicating a day per week for his learning. He is has excelled in this role and built and incredible reputation for himself at Softcat, whilst only doing his day job 4-days a week to balance out his studies.

Ollie is a complete asset to Softcat, and we cannot wait to see what he goes onto achieve once he has completed his apprenticeship studies. The Softcat word of the year during Ollie's apprenticeship was 'community'. Ollie has reflected this word and what it means to be a good community member at Softcat throughout his time with us. Supporting our Microsoft business is a huge task for anyone, let alone an apprentice starting off in their career as Softcat is the largest partner for Microsoft across Europe. Ollie has built strong relationships with Microsoft which is so crucial to his role as he determines which partner gets what opportunity and how much funding can be secured to support customers with their next roll outs. The strong relationships Ollie has developed so quickly during his apprenticeship, are instrumental in the number of opportunities which have been presented to Softcat and our sellers - not an easy task as Softcat have been working with Microsoft for coming up to 30 years and thus have extremely high expectations of our business. Ollie manages to take it all in his stride, maintaining these expectations and ensuring the relationship between Softcat and Microsoft remains strong whilst generating the opportunities which come our way.

Throughout his apprenticeship, Ollie has demonstrated commitment to the Apprentice scheme working closely with the Apprentice Lead on new initiatives and events such as our "Buddy Scheme" which looks to partner current apprentices with new apprentices joining the business. Ollie was a representative for this scheme and instrumental in welcoming our new cohort of apprentices - hosting them in our offices and ensuring they had a smooth start to Softcat. Throughout his apprenticeship, Ollie has also been involved in mentoring at a secondary school in London, which involves him travelling on a Friday afternoon for his session. He has committed time over the last 9 months to mentoring alongside his apprenticeship and day job, and I am sure the school are incredibly grateful for his time and commitment to the programme.

Ollie has been a role model to the whole of the Softcat Apprenticeship Community. He successfully achieved a pass in his Level 3 Business Admin qualification whilst also being an instrumental team player within the apprentice community. For example, Ollie created an incentive for the latest cohort of Softcat apprentices who joined us in August 2022, whereby they had to create a new 'perk' for all Softcat employees, and the winner would have their scheme launched company wide. This is another example of Ollie demonstrating his passion for being a Softcat apprentice, as he seeks to develop our latest talent and provide them also with opportunities to develop themselves and shine in their roles.

Through efficient work with Microsoft and our key distributor, Ollie prioritised deals and stock to ensure that Softcat succeeded the Microsoft Surface target and achieve 110% in total. Not only was Ollie instrumental in achieving this target, but the team overachieved this despite being faced with considerable stock constraints all vendors are experiencing on a global scale. Within his first 3 months, Ollie delivered a customer-facing webinar to key Softcat customers - a daunting task for an apprentice however his delivery was to a high standard, effectively communicating the topic he was discussing and generating customer leads off the back of it. Further contributions to the business include Ollie working tirelessly on creating a new internal SharePoint site and ensuring Microsoft were the first of over 30 vendors to have their website page finished first. Working collaboratively with our marketing team and Microsoft teams, Ollie ensured all correct information was uploaded in a presentable manner to make sure it was "sales-friendly". The standard of work which was produced was to a very high standard, allowing our sales teams to effectively digest the resource and utilise this when communicating and selling to their customers.

The experience of undertaking an apprenticeship at Softcat has launched Ollie into a full-time career within the business, specifically looking after and managing our Microsoft relationship and the business which is generated off the back of this. Ollie has gained a multitude of skills from customer excellence, budget allocation and marketing which have not only enabled him to develop as an individual but also enhanced the Microsoft Team's offering. His role played a key part in the Microsoft Team winning the Sales Operations Team of the Year - which contributes significantly to his incredible reputation within not only Softcat but Microsoft as well. For someone who has only been in the business for the year, it's clear to see Ollie has a long future and career with Softcat. The relentless amount of positive feedback he receives demonstrates how invaluable Ollie is to our business - we are so grateful to have him a Softcat community member and apprentices and can't wait to see what the future holds.