TOBIUS consultants join the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington
This year's oracling about the cloud coincides which the launch of Microsoft Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, Exchange 2010, Visio 2010, Project 2010, Office Communications Server “14” and Microsoft Online Services
July 11, 2010
At TOBIUS, we remain Business and Customer focussed, but we value our privileged partnership with Microsoft.
This is why TOBIUS delegated two consultants to the conference in Washington to learn about advances in the cloud, but also about the re-engineering of the Microsoft Partner Network. Indeed Microsoft will become more committed to partners who can truly demonstrate their ability in a specific field. At present TOBIUS already earned the SILVER competency for "Project and Portfolio Management", but it is seeking to gain GOLD once this credential becomes available in October 2010.
At the onset of the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference held in Washington July 11-15 this year, Steve Balmer - Chief Executive Officer of the well-known global software powerhouse - plastically declared that "We're all in" (or - as a consequence - if you're not in you are out).
Chris Capossela, talking about the Future of Productivity
Later during the conference, Chris Capossela - Senior Vice President of the Information Worker Group at Microsoft - summarized the promise of Microsoft and its cloud-willing Partners to its Customers as followed:
- Run your Business, not your infrastructure
- Only pay for what you use
- Shift from CAPEX to OPEX
- Reduce your Speed-To-Value
This year's oracling about the cloud coincides which the launch of Microsoft Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, Exchange 2010, Visio 2010, Project 2010, Office Communications Server “14” and Microsoft Online Services. All these applications now brought together under the "Business Productivity" umbrella, are claimed to fully operate across any PC, phone and browser. Strictly speaking some of these suites still include a very "rich" client to be installed on a workstation, such as an Office Outlook Client or a Microsoft Project Standard or Professional, so Microsoft will certainly keep up the struggle to put itself apart from the likes of Google Apps. But Microsoft is also seeking to push Enterprise Applications into the cloud, such as Dynamics AX (Axapta), Dynamics NAV (Navision) and Dynamics CRM. Though this seems pretty straightforward for CRM following the example of www.SalesForce.com, it remains to be seen if the same goes for the ERP-market, as SAP - as a trendsetter in this segment - has been struggling for a couple of years to launch its "Business By Design" aimed at Small Businesses and Midsize Companies.
