Microsoft Ignite
Conference
Conferences are long, boring, physically and mentally
taxing. And – they are terribly expensive from a real and opportunity cost
standpoint.
So why attend them at all? Or more specifically, as a
marketing services company, why would you send anyone to Chicago for the
Microsoft Ignite Conference? In a creative world driven by Illustrator,
Photoshop and Indesign, how does Microsoft and its solutions matter?
Sherpa attended this because Microsoft’s products are the
backbone of our customer’ businesses. Most of our clients use products like SQL
Server, Yammer, Outlook, PowerPoint, Word, SharePoint, Excel and One Drive
EVERY day all day.
We believe in order to service our customers and bring the
most innovative and effective solutions, that we need to understand how these
tools can be adapted to maximize the effectiveness of the sales and marketing
departments of our clients.
Corporate social, document management and internal
communications are all relevant to driving external communications and
increasing efficiency.
As a valued marketing technology partner, it behooves Sherpa
to stay aware of the latest developments in the Microsoft Portfolio. In fact,
we’d be crazy not to.
What did we learn?
- Collaborative
workflow is getting easier – Office 365 for Workgroups looks like a winner
- Cloud/Hybrid Cloud – more and more of what we do and save will be stored in the cloud
- Windows 10 – is
going to be a fantastic fusion of Windows 7 and 8. Users will like its familiar
look and feel as its more like Windows 7.
- Action Centre –
in Windows 10, a hub where all your notifications can be viewed in one place
- Yammer –
corporate social, great for large organizations looking to build engagement in
its workforce
- Azure – Microsoft
is all-in on the virtualization of server and storage
- IoT – There is no
clear winner in Internet of Things (yet) Microsoft is throwing the kitchen sink
at this space
- Kiosks –
Everything is a kiosk
There’s been a seismic shift in how Microsoft approaches the
delivery of its software and services. This isn’t the company many of us have
come to despise. There is a youthful feeling and quiet confidence to what they
are doing and I expect them to continue to be a dominant force in IT for the
next 5-10 years.
Much of this learning will be covered in greater detail in
separate blog posts.