Convergence 2009 New Orleans Interactive Keynote Summary

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March 10, 2009

INTRODUCTION

  • Welcome to Convergence 2009 in New Orleans! The global economic recession we currently face is serious, and it is important to come together in difficult times. The changes we are all facing now have an impact on the way organizations think about doing business. Today, business is all about endurance and survival (cost-cutting, efficiency, etc.), but we need to believe that tomorrow, business will be about growth, opportunity and innovation. Bottom line, we must believe that change creates opportunity.

  • I don’t know what business will look like next year — whether it will be better or worse — but I do know that in order to deal with change, people must treat their business as a continuously evolving entity — as a Dynamic Business.

DYNAMIC BUSINESS

  • Fundamentally, a Dynamic Business is about responsiveness, relevancy and impact in three key areas: people, process and ecosystem. When these areas intersect, that is a TRUE Dynamic Business.

  • When we thought about what it means to be a Dynamic Business, we thought about what it means to be able to respond to change, to be able to handle your business in a state of flux. We looked for a company that stood for change. This story is about the American Red Cross, a story that takes place right here in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit, and how the American Red Cross was able to support those in need.

PRODUCTIVE PEOPLE

  • We know that people are the lifeblood of any business. We need to focus on providing tools that people enjoy using and that make them productive. Let’s look at what actually makes people more productive. We believe the secret lies in the Microsoft Dynamics RoleTailored design approach and in creating software that is familiar, simple and desirable.

    • Familiar. Microsoft Dynamics products are intuitive to use and capture the work people need to do every day. There are 1 billion PCs in the world, and 60 percent of people use Microsoft Office, so if our applications function like Microsoft Office, then they are going to be intuitive to our customers.

    • Simple. Microsoft Dynamics applications give each user the information that is most important to that user, when and where it is needed. In a recent research study we conducted, people using the RoleTailored user experience were 40 percent more successful in completing tasks than those using a traditional client.

    • Desirable. Our vision is to make business software that people truly LOVE to use.

  • VIDEO: The Red Cross is also focused on people and increasing the productivity of people who work in their organization. Microsoft Dynamics helped the American Red Cross ease integration of both Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Dynamics GP technologies into the day-to-day functionality of the organization based on employees’ common knowledge and understanding of other Microsoft products.

  • DEMO: We know that to increase productivity, we have to focus on specific roles that people hold. The experiences that people require to be productive are as diverse as the roles themselves. Microsoft Dynamics strives to deliver role-based productivity through engaging experiences — whether to the executive in the boardroom or to the factory worker in the warehouse.

    • Microsoft Dynamics empowers customers to be more productive with our RoleTailored approach, which can be seen in the following demonstration.

  • CASE STUDY: Miles Kimball Co. is a company that has embraced change successfully. The catalog retailer recently expanded its business online, and when it set a goal to almost triple its business in five years, it decided to rebuild its business infrastructure using Microsoft Dynamics AX. The new, integrated business solution now scales to unprecedented numbers of transactions and users, and facilitates cost reductions and increased efficiencies in most business groups.

ADAPTIVE PROCESS

  • A Dynamic Business needs to have adaptive business processes that are flexible, integrated and industry-leading.

    • Flexible. Our products help business react to broad issues such as shifts in the economy and to more specific issues such as changes in suppliers.

      • Integrated. Our commitment to integration is twofold:

        • To integrate across functions within a given organization such as sales and operations or professional services and R&D

        • To integrate our Microsoft Dynamics business process software across Microsoft’s IT infrastructure, including Microsoft SQL Server, unified communications, BizTalk, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, Microsoft Office, Visual Studio, etc.

      • Industry-leading. Different industries and verticals have different needs, and we will help with out-of-the-box industry-specific functionality as well as customization capabilities.

  • We recently announced the free Environmental Sustainability Dashboard for Microsoft Dynamics AX. The dashboard aggregates information from meter readings and energy bills to give companies reports on their fuel and power consumption, and it provides them with estimates of their CO2 emissions. That data is critical for helping customers effectively manage process and environmental impact, and none of our competitors is offering anything like this.

  • VIDEO: The American Red Cross discusses how it improved internal and external processes to support the organization using Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Dynamics GP, helping manage requests and reduce costs.

  • DEMO: We are already raising the bar when it comes to process. The next demo shows how we have taken innovation that is happening across the company and blended it into the world of business applications. Using intuitive multi-touch-based devices such as Microsoft Surface to visualize the next generation of business application innovation is an area where we continue to research at the bleeding edge.

    • See an example of how Microsoft is blending consumer and business innovation together in this demonstration.

  • CASE STUDY: Network Equipment Technologies (NET) is a leader in providing network and voice exchange solutions for government and enterprise customers worldwide. NET wanted to increase its operational efficiency, cut costs, and improve government reporting and compliance capabilities, and it needed a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to reach those goals. After using an Oracle solution for almost a decade, NET implemented Microsoft Dynamics AX, with the following results:

CONNECTED ECOSYSTEM

  • In the world we live in today, no business is an island. All of us have ecosystems around our businesses — communities of customers, partners, vendors and other relationships that enable the products we produce and the services we deliver. We all want this ecosystem of people to be a seamless, vibrant community.

  • When I think about the connected ecosystem, customer relationship management (CRM) comes to mind right away. In down economic times importance of customer relationships is amplified exponentially. This is the value of CRM.

  • NEWS: We are continuously improving our Microsoft Dynamics CRM products, and are pleased to announce the Microsoft Dynamics CRM March 2009 Service Update, that includes the following:

    • Industry-leading, financially backed service level agreement of 99.9 percent uptime

    • New Internet lead capture capabilities that increase sales pipeline while reducing costs

    • Cloud integration services that provide multiple options for security-enhanced Web-based authentication with third-party applications

    • Quick-start tools that familiarize new customers with the application so they can realize value quickly

    • WEB SITE: More information can be found at http://crm.dynamics.com/march2009.

  • VIDEO: The American Red Cross has used Microsoft Dynamics to bring its chapter employees together, and also share information more broadly across other partner chapters across the country.

  • DEMO: Connecting with the ecosystem is particularly important in today’s economy where people need to take care of their customers. Most people are looking for ways to maximize their existing investment in Microsoft Dynamics, and we are helping make that possible with new functionality such as the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Accelerators, a set of freely available add-on modules that unlock the potential that exists within the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform to deliver outstanding value to customers.

  • CASE STUDY: Pathology Associates Medical Laboratories (PAML) of Spokane, Wash., provides medical testing services for hospitals, clinics, and companies across a seven-state area. To address customer service concerns, PAML installed Microsoft Dynamics CRM to provide a single database where all customer interactions could be recorded and from which service trends could be reported. PAML has seen great results:

CONCLUSION

  • We spent most of our time talking about three qualities:

    • Productive people. The lifeblood of a Dynamic Business is human resource.

    • Adaptive process. This is the skeleton that holds the organization together.

    • Connected ecosystem. The customers, partners and vendors bring your business to life and give it dimension.

  • The key is where these areas intersect and business becomes truly dynamic. With the right investment in ERP and CRM software, we believe customers can effectively transform their businesses to be dynamic, relevant, responsive and impactful.

  • VIDEO: We’ve seen how the American Red Cross through people, process and ecosystem has changed people’s lives. Let’s take a look at all how all of this has come together to help it achieve its vision.

  • Being a Dynamic Business is more than just technology — it’s about holistically thinking about business being change-ready. We are committed to all of our products and to enabling customer success. We want to help our customers become Dynamic Businesses.

  • Thank you, and have a great conference!

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