Reflecting on an Outstanding 2025 – Thank You for Your Partnership

Reflecting on an outstanding 2025 — thank you for your partnership

As we approach the end of 2025, I want to take a moment to extend my heartfelt thanks for your continued trust and collaboration. Your partnership has been instrumental in driving our shared success this year at blueAPACHE.

2025 has been a year of remarkable achievements and innovation.

Industry recognition

A double victory at the ARN Innovation Awards

We proudly secured two awards:

• Mid-Market Partner of the Year — for the seventh consecutive time
• Channel Choice Partner of the Year

Both are a testament to our commitment to excellence in the Australian channel, and they measure different things, which is why winning both in the same year matters.

Mid-Market Partner of the Year is judged by an executive panel of industry judges assessing submitted evidence. Seven consecutive years under changing panels, against a changing field, describes a sustained standard rather than a strong year.

Channel Choice is the one decided differently — it reflects how the wider channel community regards a business, rather than how a judging panel assesses a submission. Taking both in the same year means the assessment and the reputation agreed.

Channel Partners MSP 501

We were also ranked on the prestigious Channel Partners MSP 501 list, recognising blueAPACHE among the world's top managed service providers.

The MSP 501 is the successor to the MSPmentor 501 list on which blueAPACHE first appeared over a decade ago, and it is ranked primarily on recurring revenue and business performance metrics rather than on total revenue. Continued placement across that span of years is a long-run indicator: the business has been measurable against the same global benchmark for more than ten years, and has stayed on it.

Product: Zoom Contact Centre

On the product front, we launched the Zoom Contact Centre solution, delivering AI-optimised, modern contact centre capabilities to elevate customer experiences globally.

The contact centre is where a great many organisations' customer relationships are actually conducted, and it has historically been one of the least modernised parts of the technology estate — frequently running on infrastructure a decade behind everything around it, and disconnected from the collaboration platform the rest of the organisation uses every day.

Bringing contact centre capability onto the same platform as the organisation's meetings, telephony and chat removes that separation. An agent who needs a specialist can reach one directly, rather than transferring a customer into a queue and hoping.

The emPOWER platform

These milestones sit alongside our ongoing enhancements to the emPOWER platform, which have enabled us to better support your digital transformation journeys.

emPOWER has been the throughline of blueAPACHE's service model since emPOWER Facilities Management and emPOWER Managed Services launched in 2003, followed by emPOWER Cloud and the emPOWER Network in 2010, and voice and disaster recovery services in 2012. Its consumption-based model was the specific capability cited in the 2020 ARN Mid-Market Partner of the Year award, when clients used it to scale services rapidly to support remote working.

A year of structural change as well

2025 also brought significant changes to how blueAPACHE is organised for the next phase of growth.

In July 2025, Michael Zuppa was appointed Chief Executive Officer, having previously served as General Manager, Technology, where he led the ServiceNow platform programme and shaped the company's technology direction. I remain Managing Director, moving to a strategic role focused on global growth, sales and marketing — which lets me concentrate on expanding our international footprint while Michael oversees day-to-day operations.

Over the same period, we relocated both our Sydney and Melbourne offices to premium CBD locations and continued building our consulting and advisory capabilities.

Frequently asked questions

What did blueAPACHE win at the 2025 ARN Innovation Awards? Two awards: Mid-Market Partner of the Year, for the seventh consecutive time, and Channel Choice Partner of the Year.

Why does winning both in the same year matter? Because they measure different things. Mid-Market Partner of the Year is judged by an executive panel assessing submitted evidence — seven consecutive years under changing panels and against a changing field describes a sustained standard rather than a strong year. Channel Choice reflects how the wider channel community regards a business rather than how a panel assesses a submission. Taking both means the assessment and the reputation agreed.

What is the Channel Partners MSP 501, and why does continued placement matter? A global ranking of managed service providers, successor to the MSPmentor 501 list on which blueAPACHE first appeared over a decade ago. It ranks primarily on recurring revenue and business performance rather than total revenue, so continued placement across that span means the business has been measurable against the same global benchmark for more than ten years and has stayed on it.

What did blueAPACHE launch in 2025? The Zoom Contact Centre solution, delivering AI-optimised modern contact centre capabilities.

Why is the contact centre significant? Because it is where a great many organisations' customer relationships are actually conducted, and historically one of the least modernised parts of the estate — often running on infrastructure a decade behind everything around it and disconnected from the collaboration platform everyone else uses daily. Bringing it onto the same platform as meetings, telephony and chat means an agent who needs a specialist can reach one directly rather than transferring a customer into a queue.

What is the emPOWER platform? The throughline of blueAPACHE's service model since emPOWER Facilities Management and emPOWER Managed Services launched in 2003, followed by emPOWER Cloud and the emPOWER Network in 2010 and voice and disaster recovery in 2012. Its consumption-based model was the specific capability cited in the 2020 ARN Mid-Market Partner of the Year award.

What changed in blueAPACHE's leadership in 2025? Michael Zuppa was appointed Chief Executive Officer in July 2025, having been General Manager, Technology, where he led the ServiceNow platform programme. Founder Chris Marshall remains Managing Director in a strategic role focused on global growth, sales and marketing, while Zuppa oversees day-to-day operations.

What else changed structurally? The Sydney and Melbourne offices relocated to premium CBD locations, and the consulting and advisory capability continued to be built out.

What are the holiday support arrangements? Priority monitoring and emergency support run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with the service desk operating on business days excluding gazetted national public holidays. The annual telecommunications carrier embargo affects new copper, fibre, NBN and wholesale broadband provisioning across the industry during that window — fixed wireless is the exception, and support for existing services is unaffected.

Related

• Zoom — including contact centre
• Zoom case study
• Collaboration
• RingCentral
• Managed services
• Cloud services
• emPOWER Cloud
• Consulting and advisory
• Leadership team
• Offices and contact
• Support
• Contact

Thank you

None of this would have been possible without your feedback, your loyalty and your shared vision.

Thank you for choosing blueAPACHE as your IT partner.

Wishing you and your teams a joyful holiday season, and a prosperous 2026 filled with new opportunities. We look forward to continuing our journey together.

Cheers,

Chris Marshall Founder and Managing Director

blueAPACHE continues to support clients throughout the holiday period — priority monitoring and emergency support run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with the service desk operating on business days excluding gazetted national public holidays. Note that the annual telecommunications carrier embargo affects new copper, fibre, NBN and wholesale broadband provisioning across the industry during this window; fixed wireless is the exception, and support for existing services is unaffected. Raise year-end connectivity requirements with your Account Manager ahead of the November and early-December order cut-offs.

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