Inside the First Focus + Integris Partnership: Building the Global Managed AI & IT Provider for SMBs

A week ago, the news broke that First Focus and Integris are joining forces to create the global managed AI and IT services provider for small and mid-sized businesses. The press release covered the headlines. To get behind those headlines, our CEO Ross Sardi sat down in Chicago with Rashaad Bajwa, CEO of Integris, for a conversation about why the two businesses are coming together and what it means for customers in Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines.

If you are a First Focus client, the practical takeaway is simple. You keep the local team you already work with. You gain a much deeper bench of specialists, 24/7 security cover from people who are awake when you are asleep, and faster access to AI use cases proven across a global SMB customer base. Nothing is being taken away. A lot is being added.

What We Are Building Together

The vision is simple to describe and rare to find. A managed services provider built specifically for small and mid-sized businesses, with the scale to invest in AI and security at enterprise levels, the global reach to support clients with international operations, and the local presence to maintain genuine relationships in each market.

Integris was started in 1997 by Rashaad and his wife Michelle while they were finishing up at Rutgers. It grew organically for decades before taking on outside investment in 2020 to build a national platform focused on regulated industries like law firms, community banks and compliance-driven manufacturing. Today Integris is one of the largest MSPs serving SMBs in the United States, with 700 to 800 staff across the country.

First Focus has run an almost identical playbook in Australia and New Zealand. Founded in 2003, we have grown to nearly 400 staff supporting more than 800 businesses with managed IT, cybersecurity, cloud, AI, software development and support.

Rashaad and Ross have been in the same MSP peer group for years, watching each other’s businesses evolve. As Rashaad put it: “We joke internally and say you guys are like the Integris of Australia and New Zealand.” When Integris started thinking about expanding internationally, the decision was straightforward.

We knew who the partner was going to be. There was no one else doing it, not only at scale, but at the quality and calibre that was in line with who we want to be internationally.

Local Service, Global Capability

A common worry when MSPs combine is that local relationships get watered down. That is not what is happening here.

The team is in Chicago this week to plan the integration in detail. The starting point of those conversations is a clear principle: identify what genuinely benefits from being centralised, and leave everything else local. As Ross explained, the unique elements of each market need to be maintained. Australia is different to New Zealand. New York is different to Texas. Customers expect intimate, local service from a team that understands their market.

What scale unlocks is the supporting layer behind that local team. A 24/7 security operations capability staffed by hundreds of specialists. Vertical expertise that can be drawn on globally. And the simple reality that when there is a cybersecurity incident at 3am Sydney time, there are 800 people awake on the other side of the world ready to help.

“So many of our customers have staff or their own customers in all sorts of places in the world,” Ross said. “The idea of a global business is at a lot smaller size than it used to be. There isn’t anyone in the SMB space that can support customers globally right now. That changes.”

AI Is the Engine

The “managed AI” part of the new positioning is not a marketing label. Both businesses have already invested heavily in this space. First Focus stood up a dedicated AI Automation and Adoption team early, and recently brought a product called Core to market that delivers AI capability with clear ROI for clients. Integris has been doing the same internally and with its US client base.

The challenge with AI is not lack of options. It is the speed at which the options change. As Rashaad put it: “Six months ago we’d all have said it was going to be OpenAI. Now everyone’s on Claude. Then there’s other platforms. And it’ll change again.” His view of what clients deserve from their MSP is unambiguous: “What we owe our clients is to be advisors worthy of trust. That means we need to be ahead of them, understanding what is available.”

That is harder to do at small scale. Running real experiments needs sample size, and the cost of staying current keeps going up. Combined, the two businesses can run experiments on both sides of the world, identify what actually works for customers in different markets, and bring proven use cases back to every client.

To make sure the combined business keeps innovating at pace, Ross is taking on a new role as Chief Innovation Officer with global responsibility for AI product. The brief is exactly what it sounds like. Run experiments. Find what works. Roll it out fast. Kill what does not. As he put it: “The pace of change is both frightening and exciting. The worst thing you can do is decision paralysis. The best thing you can do is do something. Progress and adoption is where the win is.”

What This Means for You

Three concrete things shift the day this partnership goes live.

A bigger bench when you need it. Follow-the-sun coverage means a cybersecurity incident at 3am does not depend on waking a small overnight team. Specialists are already at their desks on the other side of the world.

Deeper vertical expertise on tap. Integris has built strong specialisations in regulated industries like legal, financial services and manufacturing in the US. That experience becomes available to clients in similar industries here.

AI guidance backed by global evidence. Rather than learning from one region, the combined team can test across both markets, see what actually works for SMBs, and bring proven use cases to your business faster.

For New Zealand clients in particular, this matters. Most MSPs in the New Zealand market are not having proactive monthly conversations about AI and what it means for productivity, employee experience and customer outcomes. We are bringing that conversation, supported by genuinely local teams in Christchurch, Nelson, Dunedin, Auckland and soon Wellington.

What Comes Next

The partnership is still pending regulatory approval, which gives both teams a window of a few months to plan in detail before formal integration begins. Both businesses also have growth plans and active acquisitions in due diligence, so expect more announcements over the coming months.

When Ross was asked for his closing message, his answer was direct:

Only upside. We have been through many acquisitions and have been around many others. It is rare to bring two businesses of this size together where you are not talking about synergies and savings. That is not the reason this is happening. There is a lot of extra value being added and nothing being taken away. That is what our customers and staff are going to see.

Listen to the Full Conversation

The full podcast goes deeper into how the integration will work in practice, why MSP owners are increasingly looking to combine rather than navigate the AI shift alone, and includes a get-to-know-you segment with Rashaad and Ross. Watch the full episode to hear it in their own words.

WATCH THE EPISODE