OakLeaf Systems: Sessions at WPC 2012 Containing the Keyword “Azure”

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Sessions at WPC 2012 Containing the Keyword “Azure”

Following are the 22 sessions at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partners Conference (WPC) 2012 being held in Toronto, Ontario on July 8 through 12, 2012:

Updated 7/12/2012 with the following newly announced session:

SDC24 Growing Your Business with the Microsoft Hosted Cloud solution

Session Type: Breakout Session
Track: Server Data and Cloud
Speaker(s): Bradley Bartz

Session Details

Microsoft is committed to delivering consistency between Windows Server and Windows Azure. Microsoft’s solution allows you to create and operate high density web sites as a service, deliver infrastructure as a service, and includes an extensible, scalable self-service control panel for your customers with Windows Server and System Center.  In this session you will learn about the business opportunities, the customization and capabilities available to differentiate your services, and how these services can be integrated into your business with the common usage store for all services.

DYN11 Microsoft Dynamics CRM—Demonstrating the Power of the Connected Cloud

Session Type: Breakout Session
Track: Microsoft Dynamics
Speaker(s): Reuben Krippner

Session Details

Interested in learning how to build and deliver a powerful customer-focused demonstration showcasing a business solution from Microsoft? Then this is the session for you. We will demonstrate how to tell the story of the connected cloud highlighted by Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft Office 365, and Windows Azure. You will also learn how Microsoft has made it easier than ever to quickly spin up a connected cloud demo experience and tell a compelling story. These powerful new tools will help you:

Reduce demonstration environment setup time from 40 hours to less than 1 hour.
Deploy a "Business Solution from Microsoft" demo showcasing Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, Microsoft Office 365, and Windows Azure.
Tell a story about how sales organizations leverage social, mobile, and cloud-based business applications to amplify sales and drive productivity.

EP01i Leverage Channel Incentives to Drive Business Growth for Key Workloads and Solutions

Session Type: Interactive Discussion
Track: Enterprise
Speaker(s): Laurent Mechain

Session Details

Learn about the new and updated Channel Incentives programs available for you to grow your business with Microsoft for key workloads and solutions (Office 365, Windows Azure, Windows Intune, Voice, Application Platform, Management, and Virtualization).

EP05i Microsoft SQL Server Partner Opportunity

Session Type: Interactive Discussion
Track: Enterprise
Speaker(s): Rafael Hiciano, Robert Baker

Session Details

Partners attending this session will learn about the Microsoft SQL Server partner opportunities spanning solutions, capabilities, and modernization. Participants will also learn about our SQL Server road map and the hybrid deployment opportunity extending into Windows Azure.

EP09i Windows Azure—Partner Opportunities and Customer Momentum in the Public Cloud

Session Type: Interactive Discussion
Track: Enterprise
Speaker(s): Rita Alexandrou

Session Details

Attend this session to understand the partner opportunities in the enterprise, partner sales programs, customer momentum, and the impact that new features of Windows Azure will generate. Our expert panel of Microsoft sellers and product managers will discuss a range of topics from SharePoint and Windows Azure working together to the ISVs that are generating the most interest in enterprise accounts today. This interactive session is part presentation, part discussion to allow you to ask the questions you need answered.

IND03 Driving Revenue with Innovative Solutions in Retail Industries

Session Type: Breakout Session
Track: Industry – Manufacturing & Resources Financial Services Retail & Consumer Goods Communication & Media
Speaker(s): Tracy Issel

Session Details

Learn more about the Microsoft strategy for FY13, our priorities, how we work with partners, and how key technologies can help retail and hospitality, consumer goods, and professional services companies to overcome their business and IT challenges. Lastly, in this session learn why current Microsoft technologies and future innovation, together with your expertise, can help you grow your business. Take-aways from this session are:

How to use Microsoft strategy for the retail and hospitality, consumer goods, and professional services industries.
Why Microsoft technologies such as Windows Azure, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and Application Platform are helping you grow your business.

ISV02 Gateway to a Gold Mine: Winning the Global Market with the Latest Breakthrough from Microsoft Translator Cloud Services

Session Type: Breakout Session
Track: ISV
Speaker(s): Vikram Dendi

Session Details

Be the first to learn about the breakthrough new translation technology being launched at WPC and the new business models that it enables. This game-changing, cloud-based offering opens up exciting new commercial opportunities in any vertical that has multilingual customers or content. Discover how you can expand your market, drive increased revenue, and enhance your offerings to existing customers by using the power of Microsoft Translator and integrating this exciting technology into your cloud-based, on-premises, or hybrid solutions.

Increase your global footprint through innovative and unique translation and language services from Microsoft. Incubated at Microsoft Research, built on top of Bing big data, and delivered via the Windows Azure Marketplace—Microsoft Translator is a world-class, web-scale machine translation cloud service that has been making huge strides in breaking down language barriers. Since its commercial launch the service has been adopted at a tremendous pace, enabling ISVs and businesses to reduce costs and increase reach. The service powers billions of translations every day across Microsoft products like Office, Bing, Windows Internet Explorer, Windows Phone, and partner products like Facebook, Kindle, and eBay.

You want to be at this session to learn how partners have built valuable solutions using this powerful cloud service and how you could do the same. All session attendees will receive a special offer to experience this powerful technology first-hand today!

ISV04p SaaS Go to Market: Reaching Customers Through Partners

Session Type: Partner Panel Session
Track: ISV
Speaker(s): Yvonne Muench

Session Details

The SaaS model can have dramatic impact on traditional partner channels. It can affect compensation and margin, "ownership" of things like billing and customer service, and more—all of which influences which customers your partner channel goes after, and how motivated they are to do so. Join our panel discussion to hear directly from two Windows Azure ISVs that use partners as their primary channel. Learn what strategies and tactics are working, and what changed and what stayed the same as they moved to SaaS applications hosted on the Windows Azure platform. The panel will also include partner channel expert Harald Horgen, CEO of The York Group, to share the norms he sees emerging with SaaS.

ISV07rt SaaS Go to Market: Reaching Customers Through Marketing

Session Type: Roundtable
Track: ISV
Speaker(s): Ashley Kartic, Danny Kim

Session Details

Many Windows Azure ISVs find that marketing-led demand generation rises in importance for their SaaS applications. Sometimes this is due to a lower price point and/or smaller target customers, for which a direct sales force is cost prohibitive. But even for ISVs targeting large enterprises, expectations are higher that an online service would be discoverable online with an easy path to learn, try, buy. Many Windows Azure ISVs find that a key part of their SaaS go-to-market involves strengthening their muscle in things like:

Digital marketing
Search and display advertising
Social media marketing
Viral, grass roots referral techniques

Come to this interactive roundtable to discuss with Windows Azure ISVs which marketing tactics are helping them generate demand and find SaaS customers.

ISV08 Secrets of a Successful SaaS Business: Examples from the Real World

Session Type: Breakout Session
Track: ISV
Speaker(s): Jeana Jorgensen

Session Details

This session is targeted at any partner who is looking to monetize a SaaS application using Windows Azure, Microsoft’s public cloud computing platform.  In this session, we will use real world examples from among the most successful ISVs to discuss how partners can take advantage of the monumental change that cloud computing has created. Through these case studies we’ll develop an understanding both the benefits and its risks of the cloud.  Come to this session to get the details on transformative business in the cloud, and learn how ISVs are using Windows Azure to enhances their profitability.  We hope you will leave this session able to make better decisions about why, when, and how your organization should embrace cloud computing, so you can successfully bring your application to market.

ISV11 ISV Leadership: PAR Springer-Miller, a Case Study in Innovation

Session Type: Breakout Session
Track: ISV
Speaker(s): Larry Hall

Session Details

Learn how one company went on the strategic offense in the heart of a deep global recession to deliver the most innovative technology to hit the hospitality industry in 25 years. Launching a new cloud-based technology initiative within a 28-year-old software company required rethinking everything from business models, people, and technologies to business partners. Speed-to-market and use of the Windows Azure cloud represent some of the driving forces behind the success of the project and the product. With the initial product development efforts completed and market acceptance firmly established, Larry Hall, president and CEO of PAR Springer-Miller, will share an approach to innovation that established a new growth engine for the company.

ISV14 Taking Your SaaS Solution Global with Hybrid Cloud Services for Windows Azure

Session Type: Breakout Session
Track: ISV
Speaker(s): Jeff Stucker

Session Details

Is your SaaS solution global and compliant? Customers are demanding the flexibility of cloud delivery options, but must also satisfy regulatory compliance for sensitive data in various countries. A hybrid cloud model gives you the freedom to locate your applications and data where it makes the most sense, for performance, compliance, and necessary cloud-to-on-premises systems integration. This session covers the hybrid IT model, and how to take advantage of predefined deployment options including:

Windows Azure in Microsoft data centers around the world or the Fujitsu data center in Japan,
On-premises private cloud, and
Hosted private cloud.

Learn how Fujitsu has worked closely with Microsoft to support customers and partners around the world who need to deploy their solutions in a hybrid cloud scenario. This session will cover concrete examples of retail transaction processing using a hybrid cloud model, including what performance issues must be addressed in a global deployment when you separate data at rest from applications that process that data.

ISVVK The Next Step Forward: New Opportunities for ISVs

Session Type: Value Keynote
Track: ISV
Speaker(s): Robert Kelly

Session Details

ISVs continue to realize the benefits of the ever changing technology landscape. Businesses and consumers are adopting new cloud solutions at a rapid pace in infrastructure, mobile, and on the client side with hybrid scenarios becoming commonplace. Please join Bob Kelly, corporate vice president, Microsoft Server and Tools, to hear insights on how ISVs have been successful in delivering cloud services as well as strategies they should consider as they build their business. Bob will also share how ISVs can deliver cloud services based on Windows Azure along with new opportunities on Windows 8 and Windows Phone to achieve broad-based growth across the platforms.

MIT06 Bringing the Cloud Down to Earth - Fujitsu Hybrid Cloud Service for Windows Azure

Session Type: Microsoft Innovation Theatre
Track: SIC

MIT25 Helping Friends Over Azure

Session Type: Microsoft Innovation Theatre
Track: SIC
Speaker(s): Tomer Dvir

PS07i Government Industry Table Discussions

Session Type: Interactive Discussion
Track: Public Sector
Speaker(s): Eric Basha, Erika Smith, Jose Antonio Ondiviela Garcia, Marco Manuello, Mark Dodds, Nicos Tsilas, Thomas O'Neil

Session Details

Each table discussion will run three times from 2:30–4:30 P.M., Thursday, July 12.

Table Topic #1:The Microsoft City Government Strategy and Approach
Cities are the economic engines, innovation hubs and social epicenter for most countries around the world. Cities are responsible for a wide range of public services and functional areas—and seeking new and innovative ways to drive efficiencies and improve service levels. The combination of the global urbanization trend and persistent economic malaise in many parts of the world is increasing pressure on cities. Increasingly city leaders are turning to technology to address their challenges. The ICT market is growing from over $89B in 2011 to over $111B in 2015. Join this discussion of how Microsoft and its partners are sharpening their focus on cities to drive success in FY13.

Table Topic #2: Local and Regional Government—How to Tap into and Leverage SMS&P Campaigns
For Microsoft and its Partners to effectively take advantage of the opportunity in the Local & Regional Government market, we cooperatively need to build industry capability through existing channels that drive scale.
At the WPC Industry Roundtable, we want to share with you Microsoft’s FY13 plans to create velocity and government sales opportunity through three primary categories: Tele Sales, Digital / Online and the Microsoft Partner Network. We’d like to engage with you on go-to-market sales capabilities and plans.

Table Topic #3: Consuming the Connected Government Framework (CGF) Reference Architecture
Microsoft has recently published this comprehensive solution architecture, which blueprints how partners and customers can implement the end-to-end Microsoft stack to support on-premises and cloud-based government solution projects. Join a discussion to understand this new resource and how to use it properly in both presales solution development and implementation. Join Alan Merrihew, author of this new tool, for a lively discussion.

Table Topic #4: New, Hot Government Solution Scenarios for Citizens, Workers, and Execs—Windows 8, Mobile, Big Data, Microsoft Dynamics, and Azure
See and discuss new, high-value applications being built and deployed by government partners which use the latest Microsoft products and technologies. Active government partners looking to expand the scope and reach of their solutions and efforts should attend to better understand the revenue opportunity and differentiation benefits.

Table Topic #5: Working with and Succeeding with Government Influencers: Understanding the Microsoft Strategy and Approach
Join a discussion to share tips and techniques for working most effectively with "political influencer organizations"—a group of powerful influencers working at the highest levels of governments to provide advice, consulting, and influence that translates to buying criteria, RFPs, and procurements. The Microsoft US Public Sector leadership will share its strategies and current practices for working with this specialized set of companies and resources.

PST18 Kofax TotalAgility 6: Managing Business Processes on the Azure Cloud Platform

Session Type: Partner Solution Theatre
Track: SIC
Speaker(s): Carl Hillier

SD04 Microsoft/IAMCP Partner to Partner Speed Dating Session – Azure/Cloud Business Community of Interest - REGISTRATION REQUIRED

Session Type: Speed Dating
Track: Business Leadership/Sales Excellence/Marketing

SDC21 What's New in Windows Azure

Session Type: Breakout Session
Track: Server Data and Cloud
Speaker(s): Stephanie Ferguson

Session Details

Join Stephanie Ferguson, general manager of Windows Azure Worldwide Marketing team, to learn about the newest capabilities of Windows Azure—the Microsoft cloud operating system. Windows Azure is a key bet for Microsoft in the public cloud space because we expect the market will exceed $9 billion worldwide next year. Windows Azure is an open and flexible cloud platform that enables our customers to quickly build, deploy, and manage applications across a global network of Microsoft-managed data centers. Customers can build applications using any language, tool, or framework and they can integrate their public cloud applications with existing IT environments.

Stephanie will also cover our current customer and partner momentum as well as where we are headed in terms of investments and priorities to win with you in the public cloud space!

SDC22 New Partner Opportunities on Windows Azure

Session Type: Breakout Session
Track: Server Data and Cloud
Speaker(s): Joshua Waldo

Session Details

Cloud computing platforms, such as Windows Azure, have both the power to bring truly disruptive changes to the existing business models of partners as well as significant new opportunities to expand into new markets. New partners to Microsoft are building innovative solutions taking advantage of the reduced barriers to entry to a global, scalable computing infrastructure while traditional Microsoft partners are looking at emergence of Cloud as both a threat and as an opportunity. If you are a Systems Integrator, Managed Services Provider, Digital Marketing Agency, Web/Hosting company or simply looking to build a practice or business that leverages the public cloud platform you should attend this session. You will hear firsthand from partners who have successfully taken advantage of Windows Azure and hear about the challenges and opportunities they have uncovered.

SDC23 Windows Azure in the Enterprise

Session Type: Breakout Session
Track: Server Data and Cloud
Speaker(s): Nelson Gonzalez

Session Details

Join us in this session to learn about the opportunity that Windows Azure represents for enterprise partners and how you can use our business model to build a robust practice around public and hybrid cloud. We'll share key enterprise sale scenarios and how to engage with your customers. Some of the scenarios included are: deploy third-party solutions, develop Windows Azure applications, transform application portfolio, advise customers enabling Hybrid DCs, etc.

US02 U.S. Independent Software Vendor: Why Build Your Application on Windows Azure?

Session Type: Breakout Session
Track: US Sub
Speaker(s): Alysa Taylor, David Eidson, Patrick Okeeffe, Randy De Meno

Session Details

Join three ISV partners as they share their journey to Windows Azure. They will discuss the benefits of Windows Azure over other platforms, how it has changed their business, and how they have planned their business to be successful using a cloud strategy. The partners are Quest Software (who chose a horizontal application that expands their current offerings on the value of SQL Server 2012), Johnson Controls (developed a vertical manufacturing application), and Commvault (released a leading storage application that compliments their on-premises solutions). Target audience: ISV.

US27 U.S. Windows Azure: Monetize IaaS Service in the United States

Session Type: Breakout Session
Track: US Sub
Speaker(s): Francesco Rietti, Jason Rook

Session Details

Come join this session designed for existing Azure Circle Partners as well as Microsoft Core Infrastructure Partners who are building hybrid and/or public cloud offerings with Windows Azure Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). This will be a 100-level presentation on Windows Azure IaaS with deep emphasis on go-to-market strategies for expanding pipeline, revenue, and profits. Target audience: ISV, SI.

Full disclosure: I’m a Registered Microsoft Partner (Build and Develop)