Microsoft Inspire 2017 inspires close to 1500 local partners and customers for an unprecedented business opportunity from the Intelligent Cloud

18 October 2017, Hong Kong – Microsoft Hong Kong Inspire (previously called Channel Kickoff), our largest and most informative annual partner event, has successfully concluded. This year, we hosted a two-day event. The first day focused on showcasing partners with new and innovative Microsoft’s technologies around four key solutions areas to drive digital transformation; while the second day featured more than 30 exciting partner solutions for different domains to help inspire customers from across different industries to accelerate their digital transformation journeys.

“The Intelligent Cloud is transforming business operations by enabling smarter decision-making and more engaging customer experiences. Together with our expertise and our experience across different industries and domains, comes our collective experience with how AI and Data Science can help partners and customers stay ahead of the competition and to capture the massive opportunity in the market. There is an estimated US$4.5 trillion market opportunity internationally. For every dollar of Microsoft revenue, the partner ecosystem generates more than nine dollars, presenting them with an unprecedented business opportunity ahead,” Cally Chan, General Manager of Microsoft Hong Kong and Macau.

Microsoft is a partner-centric company and the partner ecosystem is an important engine to drive its business growth. In Hong Kong, the number of cloud partners is demonstrating exponential growth. Today, there are 1,000 cloud partners in our local ecosystem and almost all Microsoft partners in Hong Kong have a certain degree of cloud intertwined with their business. For Microsoft in Hong Kong, around 40% of our business now comes from cloud, and we are the leader among Microsoft’s other medium developed subsidiaries.

Inspiring partners and customers with new exciting technologies and solutions

Microsoft Inspire Day 1 showcased innovative new offerings that empower partners to achieve more in the intelligent cloud era. These include new business opportunities arising from collaboration through Surface Hub, a first-of-its-kind, cloud-powered big screen that enables fluid inking on an infinite canvas; the integration of LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Microsoft Dynamics 365, powered by AI, gives business decision-makers the social selling edge, and the revenue potential offered by Azure Stack, an extension of Azure, which strikes a balance between flexibility and control for truly-consistent hybrid cloud deployments.

Microsoft Inspire Day 2 featured more than 30 Intelligent Cloud solutions from partners under six categories, including Retail, IoT and Cognitive Services, eCommerce and Social Analytics, Connecting Sales with Dynamics, Infrastructure & Data Management and Professional Services. With these partners, which hail from across different industries and domains, came a wealth of experience and knowledge in AI and Data Science that can help today’s enterprises to stay ahead of the competition and accelerate their digital transformation journeys.

Investing US$640M in partner go-to-market

Starting in the current fiscal year 2018, Microsoft introduced a unified One Commercial Partner organization which simplifies engagement with the local partner community and optimizes the best resources and support to get enterprise customers ready for pursuing digital transformation business opportunities.

“Internationally, we have invested US$640 million in partner go-to-market. Our One Commercial Partner team is dedicated to providing the right resources to build partner capabilities, bringing their solutions to market through offers and connecting them to the right customers, at the right time. We are keen to invite more passionate partners to join our ecosystem and seizing digital transformation opportunities together in this Intelligent Cloud era,” said Cally Chan.

Outstanding partners shine at Inspire 2017
Partner of the Year – HKT Limited
Top CSP Direct Partner – HKT Limited
Top CSP Indirect Provider – Ingram Micro (China) Limited
Top Azure Partner – Mirum Hong Kong
Top MSP Partner – Accord Technologies (HK) Limited
Top ISV Partner – TFI Digital Media Limited

Ms Cally Chan, General Manager of Microsoft Hong Kong and Macau, giving opening speech to kick off Microsoft Inspire 2017
Microsoft with its award winning partners at Microsoft Inspire 2017 (From left to right: Mr. Win Mak, CEO, Mirum Hong Kong; Mr. Steve Ng, Senior Vice President, Product Marketing & Solutions Consulting, Commercial Group, HKT Limited; Ms Cally Chan, General Manager of Microsoft Hong Kong and Macau; Ms. Serena Cheung, Director, One Commercial Partner and Small, Medium & Corporate, Microsoft Hong Kong; Ms. Biga Luk, Managing Director, HK, Macau & Taiwan, Ingram Micro (China) Limited; and Mr. Leslie Yeo, Chief Operating Officer, Accord Technologies (HK) Limited

About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) is the leading platform and productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, and its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

For media enquiry, please contact:
Microsoft Hong Kong Limited
Alice Li
Tel: +852 2804 4130
Email: [email protected]

Hill+Knowlton Strategies for Microsoft 
Fran Tam / Tracy Yiu
Tel: +852 2894 6294 / Tel: +852 2894 6295
Email: [email protected] /[email protected]

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