Microsoft Partner Conference Refreshes Power & Utility Industry Ideas

MSPowerUtilities — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:14:00 GMT

Every summer we at Microsoft go through a rejuvenating process at the end of our fiscal year (June 30^th) that cleans the soul and refocuses our efforts on strategy, partners and customers for the coming new year. Since about 95 percent of Microsoft revenue originates from our partners it’s important that we sync up with them and hear what they’re saying about the industries we serve, together. It helps us achieve clarity in our relationships and service to industries, especially as technologies and business strategies change.

This year, right after the US 4^th of July holiday, we held our worldwide partner conference in Houston. Some 7,500 partners were represented by some 13,000+ people(http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/wwpc/default.mspx). The energy and optimism there was palpable. It’s always a very impressive showing, even if the partners there represented only a fraction of Microsoft’s 650,000 partners worldwide. (Think about that: We’d have to “rent” the Mall in Washington to even have a shot at fitting one representative from all those partners worldwide. Impressive.)

Since our common goal with partners is to find ways to innovate and help customers with new concepts, we use this conference to come together, share strategies and ideas and otherwise work together to develop new solutions around new platforms and technologies. For instance, we had a lot of discussions about S + S and how partners can use this new platform to build innovative solutions for customer business problems.

For the Power & Utilities vertical, it was a great time to visit with our partners and they were well represented. It’s a long list of partners that the Power & Utilities team engaged with at the conference but here’s a sampling: OSIsoft, Areva, Clicksoftware, Enspiria, ESRI, EG Utility, Itron, Accenture, Bentley, SAT Corp, Logica, Mariner, Subnet Solutions, InfoSys, Enterprise Informatics, McLaren Software, Ferranti, Invensys and Dassault Systemes. Our meetings served to share ideas about innovations and new initiatives. They also served to strengthen our convictions that issues like environment, regulation, smart grid and smart metering, and generation optimization are key issue currently driving utility industry decision makers.

It’s an understatement to say that partners are key to our efforts and success in Power and Utilities. We continue to spend the most in R&D of any technology company (http://www.ciozone.com/index.php/Editorial-Research/Top-50-Technology-R&D-Spenders/50-Biggest-R.html) and the knowledge , insight and innovation that comes out of this investment goes directly into our work with partners, customers and investments that we make with them. In coming days, I’ll blog about a couple of examples of this dynamic.

In sum, our mutual customers should know that the Worldwide Microsoft Utilities Team values the time we spend with our partners. Simply put, it empowers excellence, something everyone in the utility industry aims for daily.

Tools for Business in the Flat World...

MSPowerUtilities — Wed, 28 May 2008 04:56:00 GMT

Memorial Day in the US has just drawn to a close. It’s the day that commemorates U.S. men and women who perished while in military service. It also marks the unofficial beginning of summer and families spend a long weekend enjoying recreational activities.

While enjoying a wonderful afternoon at the beach here in Florida, I was discussing the flat world with a friend of mine who is a medical doctor. In our conversation I told him about how I wake up talking to China and go to bed talking to China and he proceeded to tell the story of several radiologists working the night shift at the hospital where he works. Radiologists are in demand for diagnostic imaging and other needs but they hated the night shift work they were assigned to. What did they do?

They moved to Spain and by using communications and collaboration tools (e.g., IP Phones, portals, emails and IM) they are able to provide their services remotely during more “normal” working hours while enjoying the wonderful culture that Spain has to offer.

So that does this have to do with Utilities?

While Utilities and their people are not exactly doctors, they certainly have a tremendous need for talent and especially engineering talent. Microsoft partners like Bentley (www.Bentley.com) are using solutions that allow Utilities to create virtual teams of engineering talent to work collaboratively on projects for building things like power plants and substations. Using Bentley’s ProjectWise – an engineering project team collaboration system which is used by teams to help improve project quality, reduce project rework, and meet project deadlines – Utilities are able to plug engineers into a project from all parts of the world. So whether a Utility needs talent that it cannot find locally or it needs additional resources to complete a project on time or ahead of schedule, having the right tools can turn a flat world into a tremendous business asset. - Jon

Microsoft Power and Utilities Blog : Bentley

Microsoft Partner Conference Refreshes Power & Utility Industry Ideas

Tools for Business in the Flat World...