Insights from Microsoft Inspire 2019.
I recently went to the annual Microsoft Inspire event for partners and had a chance to hear about the company’s market focus. I liked what I heard, particularly at a high level. Microsoft is moving away from a product-focused agenda to a platform approach, under an open framework. There are several implications of this strategy – which also happens to dovetail very nicely with our approach. Here are some takeaways on how the strategy will impact the market:
- Encourages the growth of the ecosystem. By providing the tools and technology that make it easy to develop solutions, Microsoft is stimulating the development of new solutions from many different players, and growing its ecosystem.
- Enables greater innovation. With more players and more development comes more innovation. Users will benefit from greater options, capabilities and functionality. It’s a win-win situation.
- Focuses on the cloud. Microsoft is doubling down on the cloud, strengthening the Azure platform and focusing on collaboration tools.
- Creates integration challenges as more products are being developed that need to work together.
What does that mean for us at Dooap? Microsoft’s open architecture and cloud approach directly supports our product strategy. Our technology was built from the ground up for the cloud, and given our Microsoft ERP focus, open architecture and robust APIs, integration with Dynamics ERPs is seamless and easy.
Also, since Microsoft is primarily focused on developing its core ERP platform and promoting the adoption of the Azure cloud and collaborative tools, there continues to be a strong need for partners to round out its offerings. The company is continuing to rely on niche industry experts, such as Dooap, to provide advanced capabilities and technologies in key areas such as AP.
And, there’s great need for this – as well as a great opportunity. Many of the thousands of Dynamics customers are still processing invoices manually or need greater AP capabilities than the ERP offers, and can benefit from the improved efficiencies and reduced time and costs that invoice automation brings.
We not only feel in sync with Microsoft’s corporate and product strategy, but also with its corporate culture and values. Its focus on learning, listening and growth are in line with our values at Dooap. We see the continuation of a great partnership with Microsoft in our future – which will not only be beneficial for both companies, but for our customers as well.
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