Source: 5 Major Microsoft Announcements at Inspire 2017, by Kyle Alspach
This year, Microsoft’s annual partner conference was renamed Microsoft Inspire, from the former Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC), and was held in Washington D.C. last month. Microsoft said it’s working to transform “partner-led” to “partner-first” and unveiled several products and sales initiatives.
Microsoft 365
Microsoft and its partners will now be able to sell the company’s commercial offerings as a “family,” which will be known as Microsoft 365. The offering brings together productivity applications (Office 365) along with Windows 10, device management and security into “one comprehensive solution,” Microsoft said. There will be two versions. Microsoft 365 Enterprise, for large organizations, will pull together Office 365 Enterprise, Windows 10 Enterprise, enterprise mobility and security. Microsoft 365 Business, for small and medium-sized businesses, includes Office 365 Business Premium along with a set of security and management features for Office apps and Windows 10 devices. That version will be managed in a central console. Microsoft 365 will be available this quarter.
Dynamics 365
One year after launching Dynamics 365 — a combination cloud CRM and ERP system — Microsoft announced the general availability of Dynamics 365 apps and LinkedIn integrations. This includes a joint solution between LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Dynamics 365 for Sales, which is aimed at helping salespeople to better leverage the professional networks on LinkedIn in their sales efforts. Other solutions that are now generally available include new applications for enterprise — Dynamics 365 for Talent (a workforce solution for use with recruiting, on-boarding and employee oversight) and Dynamics 365 for Retail (which provides a view of operations across retail locations). The new offerings come after Microsoft reported that Dynamics 365 revenue surged 81 percent during its fiscal third quarter.
Azure Stack
Microsoft announced Azure Stack, the company’s hybrid cloud platform, is available for ordering from initial hardware partners HPE, Dell EMC and Lenovo. Azure Stack enables hybrid application development and provides a consistent platform for connecting from Azure data centers to the edge, according to Microsoft. Additional hardware partners that are “coming soon” are Cisco and Huawei, the company said. Pricing will be based on consumption, and will accrue to the customer’s Azure subscription, Microsoft said. The Azure cloud platform has been a massive source of growth for Microsoft, which reported that Azure revenue rose 93 percent during its fiscal third quarter.
ISV Cloud Embed
Microsoft unveiled a new offering for ISV partners that aims to make it easier to modernize and develop business applications, called ISV Cloud Embed. The offering provides embeddable building blocks for app development on Microsoft’s business application platform — enabling developers to build their unique IP on top of the building blocks. This allows developers to both lower overhead costs and leverage Microsoft’s engineering resources, the company said. ISV Cloud Embed also offers tiered support for go-to-market efforts and will allow partners to showcase their apps on Microsoft AppSource.
Co-Sell Investment
Lastly, Microsoft announced that it’s making a “material investment” into co-sell incentives and support to help boost partner sales, in connection with the new Azure co-sell program. The program provides special incentives to Microsoft salespeople for co-selling the apps of qualified Azure partners, Microsoft said.
Read more at: http://www.crn.com/slide-shows/components-peripherals/300088386/5-major-microsoft-announcements-at-inspire-2017.htm
Next year’s Inspire is slated for July 15-19 in Las Vegas.
