08 October 2026
NEXTGEN founder backs 1KE's ambition to transform presales with AI, with 25 channel businesses lined up across its first two beta waves.
SYDNEY, 9 October 2026: 1KE has appointed channel veteran John Walters as Chairman as it sets out to tackle one of the technology channel's biggest growth constraints: the capacity to turn sales opportunities into winning solutions.
The AI-powered presales platform has eight customers in its first beta wave and a further 17 lined up for wave two, including prospective participants in the US and EMEA. The response points to an appetite for a different way to grow: pursuing more opportunities and converting more pipeline without increasing presales cost and headcount at the same rate.
Walters, founder of NEXTGEN Group and an ARN Hall of Fame inductee, joins with a clear belief in the opportunity.
"I love the Channel and have always tried to bring innovative models, platforms, and programs to the vendor and partner community. What excites me about 1KE is the ability to change the economics of growth for channel vendors and partners. For years, the number of opportunities a business could pursue has been tied to the capacity of a relatively small group of experienced people. I believe AI gives us a real opportunity to break through that constraint through a unique augmentation and automation model.
"If we can help partners bring their expertise to more deals, respond faster and spend more time winning business, the commercial upside is substantial. That's what I see in 1KE, and it's why I'm backing Michael and the team as Chairman.
"There's a big idea here, a practical problem to solve and customers eager to get involved. That's an exciting foundation on which to build a business."
Walters brings extensive experience in developing channel businesses, having led NEXTGEN's growth ahead of its acquisition by Exclusive Networks in 2024.
Michael Chanter, 1KE CEO and founder, welcomed Walters' appointment:
"Having John join us as Chairman is a big moment for 1KE. He's built a successful business in this market, earned the trust of the channel and understands what it takes to turn an ambitious idea into a business that delivers.
"I'm thrilled that he sees the opportunity we see and has chosen to help us build it. His experience, judgement and belief in what we're doing will mean a great deal as we take this next step."
1KE uses AI to turn customer conversations, meeting transcripts, emails and technical documents into structured requirements, solution drafts and proposals for expert review.
The platform is designed to draw on each partner's own knowledge, capabilities and approach to delivery. Its ambition is to augment and substantially reduce the work between identifying a customer opportunity and presenting a credible solution, giving teams more capacity to advance deals and close business.
For channel partners, that could mean pursuing opportunities they would otherwise struggle to resource, getting proposals to customers while momentum is strong, and growing revenue without a matching increase in presales overhead.
Chanter said:
"We want to change how much business a channel partner can win with the expertise it already has.
"There's enormous effort invested in building pipeline. But when the team is stretched, opportunities wait, responses take too long and valuable selling time goes into assembling documents. We're building 1KE to release that capacity and put it to work on winning more business.
"The ambition is significant: more of the pipeline converted, a lower cost of sale and greater room to grow. Our early beta engagement gives us confidence that we're working on something that can make a real commercial difference."
1KE's beta program spans global systems integrators, local integrators, cybersecurity specialists and managed service providers.
The staged rollout allows 1KE to work closely with its first eight beta customers as they apply the platform to their sales processes and customer opportunities, before bringing the next 17 into the program.
Chanter said:
"The reaction when people see the platform in action has been fantastic. They quickly start talking about the opportunities in their own business: the deals they could pursue, the time they could recover and what their people could do with that capacity.
"That's why we're excited about the breadth of this beta group. These are different businesses, in different markets, recognising the same potential. Our job now is to turn that enthusiasm into results."
For beta participants, the opportunity is to support more customer engagements as their businesses grow. Their priorities include getting solutions to customers faster, making better use of specialist expertise and maintaining quality as demand increases.
Lisa Fortey, General Manager, Logicalis, said:
“We know speed in turning around a solution is critical in the customer buying cycle. 1KE gives us an opportunity to get well developed solutions in front of customers faster, while improving the productivity and efficiency of our teams. That has the potential to accelerate pipeline, improve our win ratio and reduce our cost to serve by allowing our people to spend more time engaging with customers and less time on the manual effort involved in developing solutions.”
Richard Mitton, Chief Information Officer, Secure Agility, said:
A proposal needs to make it clear why the customer should choose us. What interests me about 1KE is the potential to capture our expertise and approach, then help the team turn that into a strong response with less effort. That gives us more time to work on winning the deal.
Jack McEvoy, Co-Founder - CEO, Vectec, said:
"As Vectec grows, our challenge is keeping every engagement at the high standard our clients deserve. We are joining 1KE's beta to see how it can help us meet that challenge, and we're excited to shape the platform as an early partner."
1KE is an AI-powered presales platform built to help technology channel partners convert more pipeline into revenue. It turns customer and deal information into structured requirements, solution drafts and proposals, drawing on each business's knowledge and capabilities. Its goal is to help partners pursue more opportunities, respond faster and scale without a proportional increase in presales effort.
Michael Chanter
1KE
michael.chanter@1ke.ai
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