Convergence 2012 Opening Keynote Emphasizes a New Era and the Dynamic Business

Kevin Turner, Chief Operating Officer, and Kirill Tatarinov, President, Microsoft Business Solutions, led the opening keynote at Convergence 2012 on Monday. They quickly confirmed what we had all guessed, that this is the biggest Convergence ever, with over 10,000 people and almost 270 companies presenting on the expo floor.  Wow….

Kevin opened with the theme of a “New Era:” a new era for technology, a new era for business, a new era for Microsoft and a new era for Dynamics.  Kevin went on to discuss the key components that are driving this new era:

• Cloud: “…A year ago it was sort of talked about as a trend, now it’s in full mainstream. We’re seeing tens of millions of customers move to the cloud in very, very rapid ways. And if you look at this particular quote from Forrester, it’s going to go from a $40 billion industry to a $240 billion industry just by 2020. We actually think that number is light, maybe even by 2, at the speed that we’re seeing the cloud take hold.”

• Consumerization of IT: “…Microsoft will be this year the first company on the planet to be able to have a consistent user experience from the smartphone to the tablet, to the slate, to the reader, to the laptop, to the rich client, and to the television, with our Metro UI.”

• Microsoft Dynamics ERP: “…our vision is focused on people and giving them the right tools to realize their potential.” Kevin aIso gave the example of Pete’s Coffee and Tea (a Data Masons Vantage Point EDI customer) which is a great example of technology transformation at every level.
  

Kirill followed on Microsoft’s vision, the vision that they project to business customers, is what they call Dynamic Business. “When we think about Dynamic Business, business of the future, business that is edge out, business who takes advantage of all of the technology trends, as that business overcomes the challenges of the economics and grabs onto all of the opportunities. There are a few things that we really believe are important. First and foremost, Dynamic Business is the one that takes an intently people-centric approach.”

As part of Kirill’s keynote, he highlighted how in business applications with Microsoft Dynamics, Microsoft is truly changing the game and highlighted some of what’s to come in 2012:

• Two updates to Microsoft’s CRM online service, the 1st one coming later this spring

• Announcing Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013, the first cloud-enabled ERP solution for Windows Azure

• Formal naming for Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013 which will be cloud-enabled for Windows Azure and is expected to release by the end of the calendar year

• Update to Dynamics AX 2012 with an R2 release later this year

And in the true spirit of Convergence opening keynotes, Kirill also celebrated success of customers who have achieved excellence in their field, industry, approach or other categories in which Microsoft recognizes their customers. This year Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada and DENTSPLY, an international leading manufacturer of dental products for the professional market and now for healthcare, were highlighted for their transformational success with Microsoft Dynamics. 

For More Information on the Keynote and Announcements check out:

• Press Release: http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2012/mar12/03-19Convergence2012PR.mspx
• Microsoft Official Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2012/03/19/microsoft-dynamics-maps-a-path-to-the-cloud-at-convergence-2012.aspx
• Virtual Conference:  http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/convergence/houston12/VirtualConvergence.aspx