I had the opportunity to present with our partner KPMG at last week’s Microsoft Executive Series Leadership Conclave (say THAT 10 times fast) in Dubai on our business intelligence and performance management solutions, and how organizations can adopt BI technology to help drive improved performance.

 

Although being held in Dubai, the event was actually put on by our Indian Subsidiary for their top customers.  The attendees, comprised of CIO’s, CEO’s, CFO’s, and other key executives, were treated to an outstanding agenda of thought provoking and incredibly informative sessions from industry luminaries from India, in addition to Microsoft employees and our partners.

 

BI and performance management is high on the agenda of senior executives in India, if this group is any indication.  Like many other markets, the term “BI” is often part of a broader initiative ongoing in the organization, whether it’s to drive higher margins, increase productivity, or determine the most profitable customers.  Whatever the project name, they’re all driven by the need to enable more intelligent decisions.  This is especially critical given some of the limitations that companies in India face—huge growth and opportunity, high turnover amongst employees (with so many available jobs), and an infrastructure that is straining at the seams. 

 

Given these challenges, there’s a high premium given to solutions that provide a quick return on investment, are easy to learn, and that tie in with the key back-end systems that are in use today.  And that’s where the Microsoft BI focus is as well.  With the familiarity of the Office environment, our partners and sales teams in India are seeing rapid adoption of the BI toolset because they can get their users up on the system with minimal training, and the systems get used by the people to need to make the decisions on the front lines.

 

But as important as the fact that the customers find the product easy to use is that they require any BI tool they implement to work with the infrastructure investments they’ve already made (and in this fast growing marketplace, these investments can be significant!).  Whether it’s to the ERP system, financials and G/L, data warehouse, or a spreadsheet, the need to trust the data and ensure it’s of high quality, delivered on a timely basis, and in the way that people want to use it is paramount.  Perhaps it’s no surprise that the SQL Server 2008 launch was so well received throughout the country.

 

All in all a great conference showcasing some fantastic work being done by leading organizations in a vibrant and increasingly confident country.  Through partners like KPMG and Wipro, out in front at the conference speaking about performance management and the investments their making in Microsoft BI, it’s an incredibly exciting time to be helping customers in such a dynamic environment.  Expect a lot more news and successes from India around BI and performance management in the coming months!