Over 9,000 attendees from 125 countries have converged on the Crescent City to imbibe the Microsoft Hurricane, more powerful than Katrina and more intoxicating to devotees than the signature drink at Pat O'Briens (although those work too).
While I kicked off my own stay in New Orleans a day earlier at Café du Monde, the Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) officially kicked off this morning to the soulful sounds of Playing for Change. Featuring a mix of live and pre-recorded musicians (including New Orleans native Grandpa Elliott) collaborating on a performance of "Stand By Me," the group pretty much rocked the entire audience.
Incredibly, the mood set by Playing for Change was maintained during the business portion of the keynote address, given by Allison Watson, Bill Veghte and Stephen Elop.
Allison focused primarily on the new changes to the Microsoft Partner Program, announcing the new Partner Network which appears to already be a big improvement. WPC attendees have been using WPC Connect to schedule meetings with other partners. Well, this same site IS the Microsoft Partner Network which we will continue to use to collaborate within the Microsoft ecosystem. Clients will be happy to hear that Microsoft is rolling out new approaches to the designation of Gold partner status, requiring all renewing Gold-certified partners to submit customer satisfaction requirements as well as revised competency framework. I believe this hurdle will further refine the value of the gold designation, providing customers even greater confidence in the program. Beyond that, there are numerous tools and incentive programs, details of which I plan to gather during my days here.
Bill Veghte's presentation followed, opening with a stunning statement: more than 1 billion people are now using Windows. That means more people "speak Windows" than the English language. So, it is no surprise that Windows 7 is drawing so much excitement (at least among this crowd). During his demo of the app, Bill was able to cross off a few bothersome tasks. Navigating various windows? Check. Quickly email a file? Check. Display two windows side by side? Check. According to Bill, over 80% of IT staff plan to move to W7 in the next 36 months. Uh...why wait?
Stephen Elop began his presentation with a Communicator error (heh heh), but he quickly recovered. He showed us how a free Twitter download will enable you to twitter directly from Microsoft CRM. Now, you might wonder why anyone would do that, but if you are a marketing professional, you would love this. Not only do you manage twitter messaging from within the CRM, but you can also gather response statistics from your customer base with reports and graphs. Just like red beans and rice - they go great together!
A demo of Office 2010 was the final topping to this trifecta of presentations. Office 2010 is officially in technical preview as of today. Outlook (where many of us spend our day) will feature various enhancements bringing it in line as a social network for the enterprise. SharePoint 2010 will feature the same ribbon you have become accustomed to in all other Office apps, creating one unified experience across all applications. Better yet - you'll now be able to access the same consistent interface via the Web ... with not only IE, but Safari and Firefox also supported. Announced today, Office 2010 customers will get immediate access to the Web apps - allowing customers to use on-premises or online apps based on their needs from day one. Co-authoring documents (PowerPoint, Excel, etc.) is a great new feature - I assume SharePoint is the silent player in this feature as it continues to be the foundation of Microsoft's strategy for collaboration.
Posted
Jul 14 2009, 09:53 AM
by
Lily
Lily Griffin oversees the marketing programs for Bamboo Solutions Corporation. She leverages 18 years of business experience in global technology sales, marketing and business development. Prior to Bamboo Solutions, Lily was employed by Litton/PRC as a marketing and sales executive for a global, multi-billion dollar federal contract, supplying integration and enterprise solutions to DoD and civilian agencies. Lily also served as director of marketing for a commercial enterprise document management venture, marketed to both commercial and federal clients. Prior to her work at Litton/PRC, Lily was employed at Advanced Technology Corporation in the product management group and was responsible for managing third-party suppliers and technology refresh of complex computing systems. Lily holds a bachelors degree in International Studies from George Mason University.