First Focus Named Australia’s #1 Managed Service Provider for the Ninth Year Running

Cloudtango has once again named First Focus Australia’s #1 managed service provider, marking the ninth consecutive year we have led the market. That recognition matters, not because awards are the goal, but because independent validation like this reflects the things our clients care about most: service quality, innovation, growth, accountability, and results.

For our clients, this is confirmation that they have chosen a technology partner that continues to set the pace in the Australian market. For our team, it is recognition of the work that goes into delivering consistently strong outcomes at scale. And for businesses looking for a better MSP, it is another signal that the managed services market is changing, and First Focus is helping lead that change.

“Being named Australia’s #1 managed service provider by Cloudtango for the ninth consecutive year is a strong validation of the direction we’re taking as a business” said Brendan Ritchie, Chief Growth Officer at First Focus.

“We’ve continued to grow into new markets including the Gold Coast, Canberra and New Zealand, but more importantly, we’ve kept innovating for our clients. From investing $100,000 to bring practical client AI ideas to life, to launching CORE as a more secure, intelligent and outcomes-focused model for managed services, we’re focused on helping businesses get real return from AI and automation in a way that is scalable, well governed and built for the future.”

Why This Recognition Matters

Cloudtango’s rankings are not based on marketing spin. They are built around the things that actually define a strong MSP: customer experience, technical capability, business maturity, innovation, and the ability to keep improving as client expectations evolve. That matters because the role of an MSP has changed. Businesses no longer need a provider that simply reacts when something breaks. They need a partner that can improve resilience, remove friction, strengthen governance, and help them use new technologies like AI and automation in practical, commercially meaningful ways.

That is exactly where First Focus has continued to invest.

We Won Because We Continue to Innovate

Over the past year, First Focus exceeded $90 million in annual revenue, delivered 24% revenue growth, grew recurring revenue by 22%, supported more than 32,000 endpoints, and added 344 new customer logos. We also expanded into new markets including the Gold Coast and Canberra, while strengthening our national footprint through acquisitions and broader capability.

Growth on its own is not the story. What matters is how that growth is translated into better outcomes for clients.

One of the clearest examples is our pod-based service delivery model. Rather than pushing clients through a generic support queue, we align each client with a semi-dedicated team that knows their environment, understands their goals, and combines service accountability with deep technical capability. Each pod includes leadership ownership, subject matter expertise, dedicated technicians, and access to specialist capability across cloud, security, networking and voice. That model is a big part of why clients describe First Focus as an extension of their own team, not just another provider.

That client experience is reflected in the feedback we continue to receive. In 2025 alone, First Focus recorded 15 new Cloudtango reviews, with clients repeatedly highlighting responsiveness, technical depth, and the ability to support both day-to-day operations and broader transformation.

We also introduced our Same Day Support SLA, committing to resolve 90% of tickets within one business day. That move was not about rebranding traditional support metrics. It was about setting a higher standard for what businesses should expect from their MSP and backing that promise with real-time performance data and exception monitoring.

The Future of Managed Services is Not Reactive

As important as those improvements are, the bigger story is where managed services are heading next.

For too long, the MSP model has been defined by reactive support. A problem appears, a ticket is logged, and the provider responds. That model is no longer enough for businesses navigating AI adoption, rising cyber risk, increasing compliance expectations, and the need to move faster without losing control.

That is why we launched CORE.

CORE is our next-generation managed services offering, built on a simple principle: secure by default, intelligent by design. It brings together automation, security, data governance, modern workplace readiness, and AI-era operating discipline into a managed service built for what businesses need now, not what they needed ten years ago. Publicly, First Focus now positions CORE as the future of managed IT, combining AI, automation, security and support in a single service model.

With CORE, the role of an MSP changes. Instead of simply maintaining infrastructure, we help clients build a more secure, more efficient and more future-ready operating environment. That includes automated provisioning, stronger identity and access controls, end-to-end data governance, workflow automation, and Essential Eight-aligned cyber maturity. In other words, CORE is designed to help businesses work smarter, not just recover faster.

We are confident initiatives like CORE will keep driving stronger outcomes for clients, and that matters far more than any single award.

AI Only Matters When it Delivers Real ROI

AI has become one of the most overused terms in technology. Too many businesses are being sold hype when what they need is practical value.

At First Focus, our position is straightforward: AI and automation should deliver real business return.

That is why we launched our AI Investment Fund, committing up to $100,000 to bring client AI ideas to life. The fund was created to move beyond theory and help our clients apply AI to real operational problems with measurable value.

The early use cases show exactly what we mean by practical AI. One investment focused on accelerating due diligence workflows with a secure Azure-based assistant. Another tackled repetitive defects enquiries with a document-grounded assistant designed to reduce workload and improve customer experience. A third centred on Outlook-integrated email triage and drafting to improve handling efficiency and service speed. These are not experiments for the sake of novelty. They are focused on time savings, scalability, governance, and commercial return.

That same philosophy is shaping the way we think about managed services more broadly. AI is powerful, but only when it is implemented securely, governed properly, and adopted in a way that supports the way people actually work. That is the standard we are setting for ourselves and for the market.

Leading the Market by Building What Comes Next

Being named Australia’s #1 managed service provider for the ninth year running is something we are proud of. But it is not the finish line.

The real significance of this recognition is that it reflects a business continuing to evolve. We are growing into new markets. We are strengthening our delivery model. We are investing in client outcomes, not just service volume. And we are building a version of managed services that is more aligned to where modern businesses are going: secure, automated, well governed, AI-enabled, and commercially accountable.

To our clients, thank you for the trust you place in us. To our people, thank you for the standard you continue to set. And to businesses looking for a partner that can help them do more with technology, this recognition is a reminder of what First Focus has stood for over many years: not just keeping pace with the market but helping define its next stage.

Talk to us about how Australia’s #1 managed service provider can help your business.