Highlights from Microsoft WPC 2016
Today opened the annual Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto, also known as WPC. With 20,000 partners in attendance this event is truly unique and the morning keynote by Satya Nadella at the Air Canada Centre did not disappoint. While there is always flare at these types of conferences the words of Nadella were really the buzz after the keynote. One interesting thing of note is how much Nadella specifically called out the future of Dynamics in the Cloud and the visibility of the various platform products Microsoft is now expanding across non-Microsoft hardware and software.
Microsoft showcased how products like Power BI and Flow are being used to solve business problems for enterprise and small customers alike. Cloud has really enabled consumable price points for everything from CRM to the new Dynamics 365 products that will be the future of accounting in the cloud for Microsoft. As we have seen from the evolution of Sage Live, the full capability of Dynamics 365 for most mid-market and enterprise customers will still take some time to bring about the type of functionality our typical ERP customer is looking for. But, with the might of Microsoft, the solution will one day be a very robust solution.
As Satya was speaking to Partners about our role in technology he made a very forward looking statement at how technology consulting firms like Net at Work should see ourselves. He said that our ultimate judge of success in our businesses is based on how we can help our customers be successful. We have long had this approach but there is also a changing dynamic with supporting customers with cloud technologies. In the past with on premise technology there was a lot of involvement when implementing a system and then ongoing support and the occasional upgrade or integration.
Today, he said customers should align with partners that have a deep bench of business experience and technology acumen that can act as a trusted advisor. The importance of this is not lost on us, as we continue to strive to be able to work at executive levels with our customers and help turn strategy into business execution.
Later in the day we were treated to some behind the scenes access with some of the Microsoft executives that deal with Power BI, the Cloud Service Provider (CSP) program and CRM. What we learned is that Microsoft is very much engaged in the future of the work Net at Work is doing to bring meaningful solutions to mid-market customers. Our work in the vertical with accounting firms for CRM and some of the recent integration work we have done with Microsoft products is positioning us well for where Microsoft is going.
One thing is for sure, with Microsoft now extending beyond its own hardware and software solutions, we will be able to do some incredible things for our customers. Stay tuned as you are likely to see additional announcement from us in the coming months as we bring more capabilities to market using some of these products.
