WWT’s merger with Softchoice has been ‘a match made in heaven’ as the company attacks a new $1 trillion total addressable market with more Microsoft abilities and greater customer reach than ever before, says WWT leader Bob Olwig.
“It’s just a match made in heaven in terms of market segments, Microsoft, World Wide continuing to focus on our top enterprise accounts, and then Softchoice bringing in thousands of additional customers to our addressable market,” said Olwig, executive vice president of global partner alliances.
“Our addressable market, with the addition of Softchoice, went up about $1 trillion, which is just remarkable,” he said.
WWT’s customer “sweet spot” is Fortune 1,500 customers in the public sector, governments and large enterprises along with global service providers and cloud hyperscalers, while Softchoice is a hit with midmarket customers, he said.
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“Softchoice has anywhere from 5,000 to 6,000 customers that they’ve been serving,” he said. “They’ve built up a wonderful customer base and that’s a market that we did not serve before. They are serving the midmarket and commercial accounts.”
The $20 billion St. Louis-based solution provider now has over 12,000 employees in more than 60 locations across the globe.
Softchoice’s ‘Microsoft Prowess’ And Software Management Boosts WWT
Softchoice is an award-winning Microsoft partner that is boosting WWT’s abilities to develop, sell and deliver Microsoft’s cloud, digital workplace, AI and security solutions—including Copilot for Microsoft 365 and Copilot for Security.
“They bring World Wide a lot of capabilities and skill sets around Microsoft license management. They have some awesome e-commerce tools and license life-cycle management tools to manage software,” said Olwig. “They bring us their Microsoft prowess.”
Softchoice—which won Microsoft’s 2024 Americas Partner of the Year award—is enabling WWT to bring its software management and Microsoft offerings to its large enterprise accounts.
“They have this advanced software asset management tool called SAM+ where they can do a great job managing the software estate that our customers have,” Olwig said. “So we can now bring that to our enterprise accounts.”
Likewise, Softchoice’s midmarket customers are benefiting from WWT’s portfolio of consulting services, advisory application development and years of AI expertise, including its AI Proving Ground Lab and Advanced Technology Center.
“AI is not new to use just because of the advent of ChatGPT. We’ve been doing it for over a decade,” said Olwig, who was key to building out WWT’s big data and analytics practices over the years. “In enterprise accounts, we’ve had a lot of success providing AI infrastructure and Nvidia infrastructure into the large cloud hyperscaler providers, as well as the GPU-as-a-Service companies.”
WWT’s $4 Billion Cybersecurity Practice
Olwig said WWT’s cybersecurity business is currently roaring at around $4 billion in 2025.
WWT holds significant partnerships with companies including Cisco Systems, Palo Alto Networks, CrowdStrike and Zscaler.
“The adversaries are getting better and better,” he said. “They’re aided by things like automation and AI. We’re helping step up to the task and helping customers defend their estates, their enterprises and so forth.”
Olwig said there are ample opportunities right now in the market for WWT and Softchoice customers of all shapes and sizes. “It’s a lot of software. It’s a lot of firewalls. Cloud security has been accelerating with many workloads being in the public cloud,” he said. ‘It’s a big market.”
Softchoice-WWT Integration ‘Months Ahead Of Schedule’
WWT officially closed its $1.3 billion acquisition of Toronto-based Softchoice in March.
However, thanks to a strongly synergistic culture between the former two companies, their integration is already ahead of schedule.
“We’re months ahead of schedule in terms of our integration with Softchoice,” said Olwig. “It’s just been just a great core values and culture fit. Our value proposition is resonating. Softchoice brings World Wide great additional market reach. There’s a lot of complexity in the IT market, not the least of which [is] AI [being] thrown into the mix in the past few years.”
WWT currently has a $1 billion IT professional services practice, which includes AI services.
With Softchoice’s integration going seamlessly, Olwig said the future is bright for WWT in 2025 and beyond.
“We have extraordinary customers that we serve across some of the largest enterprises in the world and now in the midmarket with our Softchoice acquisition. We’ve made a lot of good investments these past 35 years,” he said. “We’re very optimistic. There’s no slowing us down. Our future couldn’t be brighter.”
