Business thoughts inspired by Stephen Elop, President, Microsoft Business Solutions division

Stephen Elop gave the opening keynote for the Convergence Conference in Atlanta a few weeks ago. Stephen touched on a very interesting topic that was arguably Dynamics agnostic and more so about the habits and trends in our current world that are, and will continue to, transform how we all live in today’s ‘connected’ world.


What is happening in today’s world? The younger, ‘Millennial’ generation (those currently in high school and college) are communicating and working with tools in ways that were barely imagined just 10 years ago. As these young adults enter the workforce, they are not going to accept the ‘old’ way of communicating. Rather, social networking, tweeting, instant communications, sending photos and instantaneous access to information is now the norm.

At the moment I write this, I can tap on an application from my iPhone and within seconds obtain the surfing conditions in Cocoa Beach, San Diego, or the north shore of Oahu. (Cocoa Beach is choppy, San Diego too. Oahu is fine, but if I surf in those 7-foot waves, I will undoubtedly drown.) A round trip flight to Chicago this week is $340 on US Airways if I am willing to change planes in Charlotte. $725 on American if I want to go direct. If I wish to learn to kite-surf, another app will give me this week’s expected wind conditions on the Chicago shoreline of Lake Michigan (> 15 MPH average) or Fort DeSoto Park in Pinellas County Florida (< 10 MPH average). Lake Michigan will be far preferable wind-wise, but I will need my wet-suit, the air temp is only in the 50’ & 60’s and the water temp in the Great Lakes is about 50 degrees. (It is in the 80’s in Clearwater with water temps in the Gulf around 72 degrees). If I would rather ski this week, Snowbird is still open and has a 128-inch base. 3 lifts and 70 trails are open. Since there are no real airfare bargains and the wind/ski/surf conditions are marginal and the weather in Tampa is going to be sunny and 80ish this weekend, I think I will just take the road bike out for a long, hard ride on along the Suncoast Parkway.

If I tap a few more application, in another 60 seconds, I can see a few new Facebook pictures posts from friends, note that both the Phillies and Rays are in first place in their division, but interestingly, the last two perfect games in the majors were against the Rays. In another minute, I pop over to the YouTube app to view a friend’s 7-year old debut as an actor in his school play.

The ‘Cloud’, is the name given to define the ability to perform computing tasks over the internet. The vast majority of my circle of influence currently use some sort of Phone/PDA to obtain email remotely at the very least. Texting is commonplace and more sophisticated applications, ushered in by the iPhone are controlling the information that is available to us.

This information that is instantly obtainable on my iPhone helps me plan my day, weekend and sometimes, even the next month or two of activities. If this information is available to me, wouldn’t it also make sense that the information I need – or we all need to run and manage our business and departments should be this accessible? If the container load of product is going to leave the Chinese dock 5 days later than planned due to a manufacturing quality issue, shouldn’t your retail outlet customer buyer have access to this information instantly so they can plan their advertising and self stocking accordingly?

Mr. Elop believes so. Business systems must be designed to meet the needs of a mobile workforce. The Millennial Generation will demand it. Competitive forces will weed out those businesses that do not keep pace. Microsoft will invest $9 billion in research and development this year. Of that, $7 billion will be for ‘Cloud’ computing. Of course, this R&D budget encompasses the entirety of Microsoft including Bing, xBox, Live, etc. Business applications will only see a portion of that amount. But it is clear that business applications and their users will see an accelerated transformation to instantaneous computing.

If a marketing blast goes out to all 8,000 customer offering an online-only special, shouldn’t the marketing team want to know how many web ‘hits’ the blast generated in real time? And the sales team – will want to be able to respond to those hits in a timely manner – no matter where they are - not only in the office. And pricing approvals - if an order comes through requesting an extension of credit terms to place a bigger order than normal, shouldn’t the credit manager be able to see the customer’s payment history, credit score, amount of increase requested and be able to approve or deny the request instantly? All the 20-somethings that enter the white collar workforce in the next 5 – 10 years will likely think that is odd that to see the amount, flavor, and expiration dates of the inventory must be printed on screen or to a ‘report’. And why can’t they see what the item physically looks like in the report?

Tools such as Office Communicator will allow instantaneous communication and approvals while at the office. SharePoint will allow the ability to edit and approve transactions with the ERP system in Outlook or the PDA – in real time. Electronic signatures based on the user’s authority will automatically be provided. Other Microsoft products such as Dynamics, Office and SQL Server share technology with Communicator and SharePoint to facilitate instantaneous information sharing today.

Instantaneous critical business information is a reality now and those that do not start to plan for it today will be left in the dust of those that have already begun to implement those technologies. Microsoft tools and applications such as SharePoint, SQL Server, Dynamics and Office continue to share technologies that facilitate the instantaneous information feed. Those companies that fail to grasp the importance of today’s technologies in the workplace, will one day discover, that someone else in their industry has.

Convergence, from the 1st to the 14th

Convergence is the annual Microsoft Dynamics user’s group conference. Held each year since March, 1997 (before Microsoft had purchased 100% of Great Plains Software’s shares forming the Microsoft Business Solution division branded as the “Dynamics” product line) this conference was originally designed for users of Great Plains ‘Dynamics’ and Great Plains ‘accounting’ to learn about how their software can be best used for their business. The first conference in 1997 was held at the Walt Disney Swan Conference Center in Lake Buena Vista, FL. There were a total of 150 ‘users’ of which I was proud to be in attendance. Last week was the 14th event and it saw attendance nearly reach the 8,500 mark. I have heard many say that the larger the attendance the better.

 
Although I recognize the enormous benefits bestowed on all due to the significant scale and learning opportunities, I do admit that in a nostalgic way, I long for the days when there were only a few hundred people in attendance and it was ‘only’ for Great Plains users. Now however, if you are a CTO/CIO, Controller, CFO or other professional that relies on or uses Microsoft Dynamics products for a material portion of your organizations’ business processes, Convergence really should not be considered an optional event. Plan to attend next year. It will again be in Atlanta.