1KE appoints NEXTGEN Founder John Walters as Chairman

1KE has appointed NEXTGEN founder John Walters as Chairman as it expands its AI-based presales platform through an early beta programme.

Walters joins as 1KE works to address a long-standing problem for technology channel businesses: the limited number of sales opportunities they can pursue when presales work depends on a small pool of experienced staff. The company has eight customers in its first beta wave and another 17 lined up for a second round, including prospective participants in the US and EMEA.

The Sydney-based business is developing software that uses AI to turn customer conversations, meeting transcripts, emails and technical documents into structured requirements, solution drafts and proposals for expert review. It is designed to draw on each partner's own knowledge and delivery approach rather than rely on a generic template.

That focus puts 1KE in a part of the channel workflow that is often labour-intensive and hard to scale. For partners, presales teams can become a bottleneck as deal volume rises, especially in specialist areas such as systems integration, cybersecurity and managed services.

Walters is best known in the Australian channel for founding NEXTGEN Group, which was acquired by Exclusive Networks in 2024. His appointment reflects his view that AI can change the economics of how vendors and partners grow.

"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 its 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," said John Walters, Chairman, 1KE.

Michael Chanter, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of 1KE, said the appointment gives the company access to experience in building a channel-focused business.

"Having John join us as Chairman is a big moment for 1KE. He has 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," Chanter said.

Beta rollout

The beta programme spans global systems integrators, local integrators, cybersecurity specialists and managed service providers. 1KE is working first with eight initial customers before bringing another 17 businesses into the programme.

Chanter said the company aims to reduce the work required between the first identification of a customer opportunity and the presentation of a solution. In practice, that means helping partners submit proposals more quickly, make better use of specialist expertise and increase revenue without adding presales headcount at the same pace.

"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," Chanter said.

Customer response

Early users said the attraction lies in speeding up solution development while preserving the quality and distinctiveness of their customer responses. Several beta participants pointed to the pressure of maintaining standards as their businesses expand.

"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," said Lisa Fortey, General Manager, Logicalis.

Secure Agility is also part of the beta group. "A proposal needs to make it clear why the customer should choose us. What interests me about 1KE is its 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," said Richard Mitten, Chief Information Officer, Secure Agility.

Vectec said it sees the software as one way to maintain consistency as it grows. "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," said Jack McEvoy, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Vectec.