Putting the company at the heart of the digital transformation. With this in mind, Microsoft Corp. unveiled Microsoft 365, a new subscription-based offering, encompassing the company’s best-of-breed products, including Office 365, Windows 10 and Enterprise Mobility + Security. It was during its Inspire conference, which was held from July 9 to 13 in Washington DC, that two formulas were unveiled allowing companies to access these programs under a single license while simplifying their management.
The computer giant presented two Microsoft 365 offers at its conference: Enterprise and Business. The first is the evolution of a company’s ‘Secure Productive Enterprise’ offering, and includes Office 365 Enterprise, Windows 10 Enterprise and Enterprise Mobility + Security. It develops cutting-edge technology to empower employees. As for Microsoft 365 Business, which will be available in beta from August 2, it has been designed for small and medium-sized businesses.
It provides them with a complete solution for productivity and security, while making IT management easier. The offering includes Office 365 Business Premium, built-in security features and a set of data access management tools for Office Apps and Windows 10 devices, all managed in a centralized console for deploying and securing devices and users.
Microsoft Enterprise
Microsoft 365 represents a new and more cohesive approach to Microsoft’s business offerings and reflects the transition that partners and joint customers are making – from visualizing productivity, to managing and securing devices, to a holistic approach to securing data. It also represents an opportunity for partners to increase their revenues and operations, while differentiating their offerings.
Microsoft 365 Enterprise enables partners to increase revenue opportunities by more than 50%, according to Forrester Consulting. In addition, to help the company achieve its goal of reaching $20 billion in cloud revenue (“run rate”) in fiscal year 2018, Microsoft announced Azure Stack, the company’s hybrid cloud, which is now available from partners Dell EMC, Lenovo and HPE.
Azure Stack
Azure Stack – which is an extension of Azure – provides a consistent hybrid cloud platform, making it an ideal solution for customers who want flexibility without having to build different applications. Whether you’re in an underground mine or on the open ocean, Azure Stack brings the benefits of the cloud to your data center with fast, modern applications that meet operational needs and regulatory requirements. Azure Stack expands the development capability of the Azure ecosystem, giving partners the ability to develop their own hybrid cloud solutions and thus reach a wider potential market. Many of Microsoft’s partners have already begun leveraging the power of Azure Stack, including Rackspace, Tieto and Resello.
To build on this incredible momentum, Microsoft continues to invest in accelerating the co-selling of Azure for the next twelve months. The company also plans to set up a Channel Manager, dedicated exclusively to partners, to help them ensure that the solutions they offer are tailored to their customers’ needs.
ISV Cloud Embed
Microsoft has announced a new program called ISV Cloud Embed to allow partners to offer key features of its Dynamics 365, Power BI, Power Apps and Flow apps at discounts of up to 50%. Partners can also use this business application platform to add sales force automation, service and other operational data capabilities to their own applications.
This allows them to reduce overhead and development costs by putting Microsoft’s engineering resources at their service. Partners also have the opportunity to reach 100 million monthly active Office 365 users and a growing community of Dynamics 365 customers through Microsoft AppSource. No other vendor offers a more comprehensive approach to helping companies transform and grow their businesses.
Microsoft’s mission is to enable every person and every organization to be their best, and our partners make that happen for customers every day. They employ more than 17 million people worldwide, and IDC estimates that Microsoft and its ecosystem will generate nearly $1 trillion in revenue in 2017.
95% of businesses generated through the Microsoft partner ecosystem
Microsoft helps companies in every industry grow faster and more efficiently through business innovation. This is powered by cloud technologies such as the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and data, as well as the integration of LinkedIn Sales Navigator with Dynamics 365, and the global Mixed Reality partner Program, which was announced at the conference. Executives from KPMG, Schneider Electric, Sephora, Adobe and Track’em, among others, demonstrated at Microsoft Inspire how they have moved towards digital in their respective industries. KPMG, meanwhile, has announced that it is working with Microsoft to create the KPMG Digital Solutions Hub and, with KPMG “Clara” on Azure, it will be the first of the “Big 4” professional services firms to bring its audit platform to the public cloud.
For more than 40 years, Microsoft has generated more than 95% of the business through its strong and evolving partner ecosystem. Today, Microsoft has more than 64,000 cloud partners, more than AWS, Google and Salesforce combined. These partners say they chose Microsoft because it is more than a technology provider; it is also a business partner. 30% of partners have joined Microsoft in the last year. The PC giant adds more than 6,000 partners to its network each month.
