Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference which recently kicked off in Toronto, Canada by Satya Nadella. Conference witnessed participation of 13,000+ partners across 144 countries and more than 90 global press and analysts. In line with the theme of the conference- how Digital transformation can help ignite higher margins and faster growth for Microsoft partners, companies such as GE, Japan and Ecolab announced their collaboration with Microsoft to embark on the digital journey.
Day 1 started with the key note by Satya Nadella who shared how Microsoft partners can seize cloud opportunity and intelligence to drive digital transformation across industries and in businesses of all sizes, today and into the future. General Electric CEO, Jeff Immelt joined Satya Nadella onstage to announce that GE’s Predix platform for the Industrial Internet is available on the Azure cloud. Japan Airlines also announced that it will be using Microsoft HoloLens to change the training paradigm for flight crews and mechanics. Ecolab teaming with Microsoft to help companies operate more sustainably with the Microsoft cloud, and Microsoft App Source where business users can find and try out line-of-business SaaS apps from Microsoft and their partners.
The second day was mostly designed to inspire new thinking, spark new relationships and — most important — drive new business opportunities across Microsoft’s partner ecosystem.
Celebrating the partners success, the company announced new technology innovations and channel investments to help partners maximize their profitability potential in the year ahead. More than 90 percent of Microsoft revenues come through partners, and the company is committed to helping them continually grow their business to meet the evolving needs of their mutual customers. The keynote focuses on technology innovation & exciting news disclosures to drive new business opportunities across the partner ecosystem.
The event started with Scott Guthrie announcing news from the cloud, that Windows Server 2016 and System Center 2016 will be generally available this fall. He also discussed the Azure Stack Ecosystem, and new capabilities in Power BI, and partnership with Schneider Electric which brings sustainable solar power to more than 170 schools and clinics in Nigeria
Koenigsbauer who spoke on new resources from Skype for Business before being joined onstage by Facebook CIO Tim Campos to discuss how Facebook is using Office 365.
Mehdi announced Windows 10 Enterprise E3 for CSP, expanded the Surface Enterprise Initiative with new partnerships with IBM and Booz Allen Hamilton.
