Retrospective on Microsoft Inspire 2018: 4 highlights of the event

A few days ago, Microsoft Inspire gathered thousands of partners from all over the world. This huge annual event which took place in Las Vegas over a 5-day period, was organized by Microsoft for its international community of partners. Microsoft took the opportunity to introduce their most recent developments as well as their objectives for the year ahead. XRM Vision was there, following our return from this event, here are the 4 points that impressed us the most during this recent event:

1 - Proven results and acclaimed leadership

When Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella came on stage to give his speech, he was greeted with a huge wave of appreciation. The crowd stood up in one instant to give him a standing ovation, this was before he even said a word. The praise he received is certainly a result of his remarkable leadership. During his 4 years at the head of the software giant, Satya’s vision has taken Microsoft to another level. Their shift to cloud computing, which is at the heart of the strategy used by the company, rendered very positive results:

➤ The stock market shares continue to rise ➤ The value of Microsoft shares continues to rise. It has reached a new historical high and now stands at $107.48.

➤ Sales exceed the numbers predicted by analysts ➤ The Microsoft turnover now stands at 30.1 billion. This is an increase of 17%, which exceeds what the experts predicted.

➤ The ecosystem has generated over $5 billion in services in the past year ➤ The big impact made by Microsoft, is greatly due to an ecosystem consisting of partners such as ourselves. These thousands of companies act as an extension of Microsoft, powering digital transformation around the world.  By offering leading-edge products to millions of customers, they have generated more than $5 billion in value over the past 12 months.

2 - Dynamics 365 reaches a phenomenal growth

The business application suite Dynamics 365 by Microsoft has reached a 65% increase in profits over the first three quarters of the 2018 fiscal year! Analysts predict an even greater success for the following year. This exceptional growth makes this Microsoft division the fastest growing. It has even surpassed Office 365!Dynamics 365 will therefore be at the heart of the Microsoft strategy for the years to come.  A variety of features integrating both business and artificial intelligence are to be expected. The addition of these new features will be done at a rate of twice a year while maintaining the implementation of patches on a regular basis.

3 - The Common Data Service has arrived

The arrival of Common Data Service (CDS), has played a great role in the successful year of Dynamics 365. Introduced one year ago, CDS is the latest available release of the last year. This business solution enables the integration between all components of the Dynamics 365 business application as well as Office 365.Because it facilitates the flow of data between applications, CDS improves the ability to use information to make better decisions. This allows better usage of business and artificial intelligence. This breakthrough more than ever puts Dynamics 365 in a better position to maintain its leadership position in cloud business solutions integrated with the Office 365 productivity environment.

4 - PowerApps can now be connected to CDS

PowerApps is a platform that allows your company to quickly create mobile applications. The platform facilitates the use of applications across different operating systems (IOS, Android, Windows). PowerApps allows you to have a better grasp at building your application yourself by putting it on citizen developer mode. PowerApps gets even better! The platform can now be connected to the Common Data Service. Allowing the employees of your company to deliver business applications connected to different systems by implementing them in days rather than months! In addition to the 4 highlights mentioned above, we have other exciting news worth sharing. Through its research on artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies, Microsoft has innovated by creating tools that will improve the world in which we live. Particularly inspiring examples of these, can be seen in the health and environment sectors. But since we are CRM implementation specialists, the 4 points we mentioned are the ones that enthused us the most. They lead to incredible opportunities to better help unleash the full power of the solutions we offer. Would you like to further discuss the possibilities available to your company? Do not hesitate to contact one of our experts! Stay up to date with the latest news, follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter!