Microsoft India to enable partners to work closely with govt customers

Microsoft will soon enable partners to work effectively with its rich network of government customers, helping them work around the country's mega digital initiative, a top company executive said here on Thursday.

With a rich ecosystem of over 9,000 partners and nearly 102 million developers, Microsoft works with over 200,000 large, medium and small enterprises, 29 state governments and over 5,000 start-ups in the country.

"One out of nine of our partners today does business on the Cloud and, going forward, we will endeavour to bring all of them into the Cloud ecosystem. With Cloud awareness now reaching tier II and tier III markets, we will definitely have more reach in India in 2018," Rajiv Sodhi, General Manager, Partner Ecosystem, Microsoft India, told IANS. 

Another area that Sodhi, who is driving the overall strategy and general management of the cloud and server business for Microsoft India, will focus on in 2018 is bringing more effective Cloud solutions to the market.

"The focus will be on modern workplace, business applications, more data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to generate efficient analytics for businesses. We will make sure partners are taking advantage of our Next-Gen Cloud offerings," Sodhi added.

One area Sodhi is excited about is to help CIOs/CEOs shun the legacy infrastructure and join the Cloud journey.

"Most of the top company people I interact with are concerned about how to get out of the legacy infrastructure era. With our unique license Mobility through Software Assurance, we can bring customers running Windows and SQl (database management system) with existing licenses seamlessly on to the Cloud," Sodhi informed.

Microsoft on Wednesday launched Azure Stack for India which is an extension of the company's Azure Cloud platform. Azure Stack brings the agile and fast-paced Cloud computing to on-premises environments and enables new Hybrid Cloud scenarios. 

"Microsoft is clear that hybrid is a key differentiator and is helping Indian enterprises move faster on to Cloud," Sodhi said.

When it comes to the partner ecosystem both globally and in India, Microsoft has an enormous range.

Tata Motors has partnered with Microsoft India to redefine connected and personalised driving experiences for Indian customers. It is leveraging Microsoft's connected vehicle technologies that bring together AI, advanced machine learning and Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities on the global hyper-scale Azure Cloud.

Another example is Ramco Systems, the global HCM and Payroll software provider on Cloud and Mobile. The firm has been building cutting-edge applications on top of Microsoft's Mixed Reality (MR) headset Hololens for its enterprise customers. 

It has created 3D models of jet turbines converted into detailed holograms and rendered on Hololens, resulting in an immersive training experience, simulating every scenario engineers might encounter as part of their operational responsibilities. 

The tech giant's Gold Partner Sonata has a Microsoft Centre of Excellence, covering technologies like Dynamics AX, CRM, Office 365, and Azure.

"When it comes to Cloud transformation, no industry is behind and the transformation is happening fast across industry verticals. New Microsoft Cloud solutions are helping businesses lower the cost, ease the barrier and bring in more productivity," Sodhi told IANS.

"Cloud opportunity is very real. When it comes to serving 51 million SMBs in India, our robust local channel eco-system is helping them. Our partners are building solutions for SMBs who now have more receptivity towards Cloud," he added.

Earlier this week, global data centre maintenance firm Park Place Technologies became the first company to fully deploy Microsoft enterprise Cloud services, including Dynamics 365 and Office 365, along with linkedIn Sales Navigator to help enterprises drive digital transformation.

"I see a great opportunity in India on Office 365- linkedIn integration. Our partners and customers are very excited about this unique combination which can result in better sales, talent management, rich people analytics and talent retention. lots of use cases are coming from India on this," Sodhi informed.