Key Highlights from Microsoft Inspire 2022

Microsoft revised long-running initiatives at the company’s annual partner event, Microsoft Inspire 2022. The key focus points for this event were revisiting digital transformation, industry-oriented marketing, co-selling, and differentiated cloud offerings.

Microsoft Inspire marks a transitional phase for the corporation’s partner ecosystem.  Microsoft holds this event in July each year to celebrate the work partners are doing across the globe and to recognize the impact they are creating on businesses of all sizes across industries. Among other important announcements this year, the company highlighted how they are planning to drive growth and profitability in the coming quarters with partner-focused platforms, how businesses can power innovation through modernization and migration, and how partners can help customers streamline their security across platforms.

At his Microsoft Inspire keynote, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, urged partners to go beyond “talking about digital transformation to delivering on the digital imperative for every organization.” He further describes the digital imperative as infusing digital technology into all business processes- “It’s what will make the difference between organizations that thrive and those that get left behind.”

Let us round up the top 5 recurring themes from Inspire 2022:

1. Digital Technology: A deflationary force in an inflationary economy

The digital business race and the battle between leaders and laggards is nothing new. However, the latest economic developments, such as inflation, make the need for transformation all the more urgent. “Digital technology is a deflationary force in an inflationary economy. It’s the only way to navigate the headwinds we are confronting today,” suggested Nadella.

This is a prime opportunity for enterprises to capitalize on these emerging business trends and leverage these technological changes to become more successful than ever before.

2. Top 5 ‘Digital Imperatives’ for every organization:

The event highlighted five key digital imperatives for every organization to do more with less:

 A. Migrate to the cloud:

Companies are rethinking their IT infrastructure investments to lower costs, increase business scalability and reduce their carbon footprint. By 2025, 95% of new digital workloads will be deployed directly into the cloud. By migrating to the cloud now, partners can help customers drive operational efficiency, deliver faster time to value, and reduce costs.

Microsoft offers a wide range of benefits to its customers moving to the cloud:

  • Competitive pricing to run Windows and SQL Server VMs on Microsoft Azure.
  • Azure as the world’s computer with 10 new data centers in 10 different markets, spanning four continents, to be launched next year.
  • Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty, provides policies, controls, and technologies that will enable customers to meet a government’s specific data sovereignty, security, and privacy requirements.
  • Azure Arcenables customers to leverage the power of Azure in hybrid, edge, and multi-cloud environments.

B. Empower Fusion Teams:

Today, every company is a digital company. Organizations are keen to equip fusion teams of pro and citizen developers with state-of-the-art tooling to scale their impact together, and they are eager to adopt DevOps, which is quickly becoming the default platform to deploy code to production.

From Azure DevOps and GitHub to Visual Studio, Microsoft has the most comprehensive and trusted cloud platform to help developers transition from idea to code, code to cloud, and cloud to the world.

  • Azure DevOps and GitHubenable developers to collaborate, code, and deliver their solutions faster than ever before.
  • Azure Container Apps and Azure Spring Apps Enterprise are bringing the much-needed ease of developing and deploying modern and Java apps at a larger scale.
  • The Power Platformallows citizen developers to automate tedious operations and build low-code to no-code 365-degree business solutions at lowered costs.

C. Unify data and apply Artificial Intelligence (AI) models

Companies are becoming increasingly reliant on data to drive their decision-making process. We are in the midst of an AI revolution. AI is not only being used to process data but also to produce it.

The Microsft Intelligent Data Platform is helping customers refine their data journeys, from reducing the total cost of ownership to increasing the performance of data processing.

Microsoft has also developed and trained powerful AI models in Azure and has made them available as platforms to apply as use cases to unravel some of the greatest challenges we face as a society today.

 D. Collaborative business process:

The global workforce today is split between two choices. Some employees are looking for the flexibility to work remotely, while others miss the face-to-face brainstorming sessions and the office banter. Moving forward, one thing we know for certain is that the hybrid work model is here to stay.

With Microsoft 365, companies have a comprehensive suite of solutions to optimize hybrid work and ensure that all their employees can collaborate easily, and work with ease and comfort, no matter where they are located.

Dynamics 365 is purpose-built for this new world of business processes. Microsoft’s intelligent and reliable business applications connect data, processes, and teams, ushering in a new era of hyper-connected business and offering unparalleled value.

Microsoft also announced the launch of the Microsoft Digital Contact Center platform, which brings together Dynamics 365, Azure Communication Services, Teams, Power Platform, and Nuance into one, open, extensible, and collaborative platform to deliver seamless omnichannel customer engagement.

  E. Prioritize Security

Security must be the top priority for any company with a digital presence. Organizations are encountering an increasing number of cybersecurity threats and attacks.

Microsoft is combining technology and human expertise to deliver a comprehensive and secure platform for all its customers. From identity management to endpoint security, compliance, and data governance, Microsoft is offering multi-cloud support for all of a business’s security demands.

3. The MCPP (Microsoft Cloud Partner Program) Switch

Inspire 2022 was notable for being Microsoft’s first prominent partner event since it announced that it is pulling the current Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) program in October and replacing it with the new Microsoft Cloud Partner Program (MCPP). The company highlighted how they are planning to drive growth and profitability through partner-focused platforms. The revised partner program is set to debut later this year. It will discern partners according to their proficiency in the following six areas:

  • Data & AI (Azure)
  • Infrastructure (Azure)
  • Digital & App Innovation (Azure)
  • Business Applications
  • Modern Work
  • Security

 

4. Microsoft for Industry

Another key highlight from this year was Microsoft’s hyper-focus on industry clouds. The company has planned six industry-specific cloud offerings-Financial Services, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Retail, Nonprofit, and Sustainability.

Industry Clouds focus on specialized processes with tools and business solutions devised to cater to a specific industry. These tailored industry solutions enable organizations to accelerate time to value, speed up innovation and drive benefits for their customers, employees, and the organization.

Microsoft is encouraging partners to leverage these industry cloud platforms and tailor their offerings for the industries that suit them best. As Althoff, Microsoft’s chief commercial officer, said during his portion of the keynotes, “Our partners are key to our industry strategy.”

“Go vertical” isn’t a new appeal from Microsoft. The company has been compelling partners to take a vertical industry approach for years, and they strengthened it further by introducing the six industry clouds at Inspire 2022.

5. Roundup on Modern Work, Security, and Azure

As expected, Inspire 2022 was laser-focused on the Azure cloud, how Microsoft customers worldwide are profiting from it, and how partners can capitalize on these emerging trends to become more successful.

“Doing more with less doesn’t mean working harder or longer,” said Nadella. “That’s not the way we’re going to scale, but it does mean applying technology to amplify what you’re able to do across an organization, so you can differentiate and build resilience. And it all comes down to how we can help you use the Microsoft Cloud to help your customers overcome today’s challenges and emerge stronger. No other cloud offers our breadth or depth. No other cloud offers not just best-in-class products, but best-in-suite solutions across the entire tech stack.”

Data is everywhere, and Azure’s AI capabilities are required to harness that data for functional use. “This is the age of AI,” said Nadella during his keynote address.

Microsoft also announced several noteworthy product launches and product updates as a part of Inspire 2022, including:

  1. Azure Migrations and App Modernization
  2. Enterprise Collaboration Upgrades on Display
  3. New Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty Helps Government Customers Meet Requirements
  4. Microsoft and Oracle Announce Database Partnership
  5. Microsoft Enlists Nuance Tech in New AI-Powered Contact Center
  6. Microsoft Touts Cost-Saving Benefits of All-in-One Security Solutions
  7. Microsoft Cuts Ribbon for ‘Azure Space Partner Community

Want to know more about these emerging technologies and our partnership with Microsoft?

Contact us at sales@intech-systems.com today.

Intech on AppSource – Helping businesses drive digitization through smarter solutions

Here are the top 12 Commercial Marketplace offers published by Intech that are now live on Microsoft AppSource-

With changing times, businesses are now looking for solutions that can help them effortlessly connect with their customers, automate business operations with unique and comprehensive solutions, and harness the power of AI, BI, IoT, and data analytics to drive innovation and decision-making.

Organizations with manual and decentralized mechanisms require careful consideration for internal and external data platforms’ standardization, integration, and automation. However, in many cases, companies miss out on a 360-degree business software evaluation based on features, functions, compliance, and risk evaluation.

Intech has made a rapid push towards custom solutions to address these changing business needs and has been able to assist over 275 companies across the globe in adapting Microsoft-led technologies with Intech-tailored solutions built using the technical stack of Microsoft ERP, CRM, BI, and data analytics.

At Intech, our expertise and experience across global markets have helped organizations leverage Microsoft productivity and data technologies along with tailored business apps from Intech, such as Intech E-Commerce, CRM Address Locator, Product Configurator, and EXIM for the Service Industry.

We are leveraging the powerful capabilities of the Microsoft suite of business applications and building on the highly extensible software to standardize their solutions and launch them as ready-to-use apps or add-ons on Microsoft AppSource. Over 25+ business apps are certified by Microsoft and available on AppSource.

Intech has one of the highest numbers of add-ons and stand-alone applications published on AppSource. Let’s look at our top industry accelerators in detail:

1. Advanced Quality Module:

Intech’s Advanced Quality Module for D365 F&O is the enhanced version of the built-in quality module in Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations.

This module guarantees efficient assessment and measurement of all key metrics associated with the quality control process. It ensures that all the mandated quality checks are completed on time. The user can define item-wise quality parameters, access Power BI dashboards, define ISO sampling plans, calibrate instruments, and get vendor-wise non-conformity and CAPA tracking.

Product: Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management

Industries: Distribution & Manufacturing

2. EXIM for Manufacturing:

The Government of India offers exclusive benefits to traders and exporters to encourage more foreign trade. These schemes are governed by the FTP (Foreign Trade Policy).

Our EXIM for Manufacturing app integrates all EXIM incentive schemes and the end-to-end compliance process into a single platform to help you finish in one go. This module covers duty exemption schemes, duty remission schemes, and export promotion capital goods schemes.

Product: Dynamics 365 Finance

Industry: Manufacturing

3. EXIM for Service Industry:

EXIM is a core part of the financial functionality needed for organizations that export services. Intech has developed EXIM for Service Industry as an end-to-end solution for service organizations to manage export and import functions per the Service Export from India Scheme (SEIS).

This module provides you with an accurate duty scrips amount per the norms defined by DGFT under the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP).

Product: Dynamics 365 Finance

Industry: Service

4. Gate Entry Management:

Intech’s Gate Entry Management app can easily be integrated with the Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations using connector tools.

With this app, all the gate entries are recorded in the system in real-time. Each gate entry can be assigned to a purchase order, sales order, transfer order, or return order. The user can also capture the gate entries of vehicles entering the factory premises for material loading and unloading.  With the Gate Entry Management app, users can easily maintain gate entries with reference to open purchase orders.

Product: Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management

Industries: Distribution & Manufacturing

5. Item Code Generator:

Item Code Generator produces a unique item code or SKU code that makes it easy to find, search and refer to products from lists, invoices, order forms, etc.

With this app, the user can quickly generate unique codes for all their inventory items and ensure that each item has a unique code for better storing, locating, and consuming. Item Code Generator makes your work easier and streamlines the process of inventory and supply chain management. The user can rest assured that no duplicate codes will be generated, thus avoiding errors and losses.

Product: Dynamics 365 Business Central

Industries: Manufacturing & Retail

6. Product Configurator:

Product configuration is an activity of customizing a product to meet the needs of a particular customer. With the help of this tool, a salesperson can give a quotation for a customized product at any time without help from the technical department. Moreover, the user can also check whether or not the customer’s requirements are feasible.

Product configurators represent one of the most successful applications of artificial intelligence principles. This app offers several benefits, including reduced lead times, fewer errors, and shorter learning periods for new employees in engineering companies.

Product Configurator accommodates the needs of assemble‐to‐order, make‐to‐order, repetitive, and even some engineer‐to‐order manufacturers.

Product: Dynamics 365 Business Central

Industries: Automotive & Manufacturing

7. Product Catalogue:

In any software, every item is defined with a unique code to avoid conflicts. While creating a sales quote or a sales order document, the user needs to enter the item code in the sales line. However, with larger organizations, tracking and updating item codes for all the products in the inventory can be a real hassle.

With Intech’s Product Catalogue, each item in the inventory is tagged according to the product name, category, and model. This app makes it easier for the user to identify and select items, and makes sales transactions faster and more efficient.

Product: Dynamics 365 Business Central

Industries: Manufacturing & Retail

8. Production+:

The Production+ Data Collection for D365 Business Central is an application that enables users to track and maintain all production operations on a single screen with minimal effort and reduce the errors associated with manual data entries.

Built by using Power Apps and Power Virtual Agents, the mobile app enables employees to view their ongoing, completed, and canceled job entry details in real-time.

Tracking the live progress of each active operation enables the user to ensure on-time delivery. Moreover, managers can use the recorded data to manage productivity, accurately predict delivery dates, and make more efficient business decisions. By automating Production+ data collection, the organization can increase data accuracy, reduce unnecessary overhead costs and improve efficiency in the workplace.

Product: Dynamics 365 Business Central

Industries: Manufacturing

9. Intech E-Commerce Portal:

Intech E-Commerce is a multi-channel responsive e-commerce portal, developed by Intech, and integrated with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. The solution not only simplifies business processes but also boosts the user’s ability to sell and market online.

Users can enhance their global presence with Intech’s scalable B2B and B2C eCommerce platform that lets its users roll out a web store for Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Intech E-Commerce Portal gives a rich shopping experience to the clients and a great selling experience to the user. The shopping cart and other in-built features give clients a seamless experience, and the integration with major payment gateways provides a smooth checkout experience. Moreover, the orders are sent directly to the user’s ERP.

Thus, you can make the most of your ERP investment by leveraging its real-time data in your web store: turning Dynamics 365 into a powerful e-commerce engine.

Product: Dynamics 365 Business Central

Industries: Manufacturing & Retail

10. Inventory Counting:

Inventory Counting is a stand-alone application developed by Intech. This application serves as a counting assistant that helps the store owners maintain and track inventory records across all their warehouses and store locations.

This application can integrate data from the existing ERP, and users can manage inventory directly through their phones or tablets. This app provides better flexibility to the users and one-click count details of the digital and physical inventory.

Product: Power Apps

Industry: Manufacturing

11. Visitor Management:

It is a standard protocol for most organizations to record visitor details at their reception desk or the security gate. However, the security and credibility of the data recorded remain questionable since it is accessible to everyone.

As more and more organizations move towards digitizing possibly every aspect of their day-to-day business operations, there is a need for a simple, secure, digital solution to manage visitor data entries.

A flexible, precise, and stand-alone application such as Visitor Management, designed and developed by Intech , is the right solution that manages all processes of tracking and handling visitors digitally. Moreover, this application can integrate data from the existing ERP software.

Product: Power Apps

Industries: Education & Manufacturing

12. CRM Address Locator:

Most salespeople are away on the field all day, and their managers find it difficult to track their location and plan their visits. It is also challenging to predict the field sales team’s productivity and progress.

Intech has developed the Address Locator app to capture the user’s current location in CRM directly through the mobile app.

The field sales team can create new leads/accounts directly from the prospect’s location through their mobile device. On checking “Get Address,” the system will fetch the current location and update the same in the lead or account. This saves time and enhances productivity. It also reduces manual errors as the location will be fetched automatically.

Product: Dynamics 365 Sales, Dynamics 365 Customer Service, Dynamics 365 Field Service & Power Apps

Industries: Financial Services & Manufacturing

Visit Microsoft AppSource now to find, try, buy, and deploy the business software and services that help expedite your business operations.

Looking for an add-on that best fits your requirements? Look no further. Get in touch with us at sales@intech-systems.com to sign up for our free trial today!

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