ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, Jon Roskill. (Applause, cheers.)
JON ROSKILL: (Cheers, applause.) All right. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning WPC 2012. (Applause.) Let’s have a big hand for Cirque du Soleil, big hand, you guys were awesome. (Applause.) Cirque du Soleil, an amazing showcase of teamwork and talent. That’s really what we’re here to celebrate more than anything else at WPC 2012.
Welcome to Toronto, what a great city to be in. It’s been eight years, 2004, that WPC was last here in Toronto. At that time, it was only 5,000 people. We’ve more than tripled since then.
Any Canadian partners here? Let’s have a shout-out to Canada. (Cheers.) Sitting over here, I believe. All right.
I want to start by thanking you all for coming here. I know it’s a big investment, it’s an investment of money to get on the plane and come and see us, but more than anything else, it’s an investment of your time, your most valuable asset, your time. And we really appreciate you coming here and spending it with us, and I promise we will not waste it, we will not squander it.
I’m Jon Roskill, I’m the vice president of the Worldwide Partner Group at Microsoft, and I’m so thrilled to be here with you this morning. My job is to be your chief advocate back into the product groups back at Microsoft to help make sure that they’re building what you need to get out there every day to compete and to win in the marketplace.
I just finished my second year in the role, and what a year it’s been. One of the fun things about my job is I get to travel the world and visit with lots of you. But as I stand here and look around me, look around the stadium full of partners, I’m just blown away by the power of this partnership. This is unbelievable.
Let’s take a look at who’s in the room with us. A world-record WPC, another world-record WPC. There are over 16,000 of you here in the room with me today. Yeah, it’s amazing. 16,000. (Applause.)
Over 4,000 of you are new; this is your first time here at WPC here in Toronto. Let’s have a shout-out to them, new-timers. (Applause.) Welcome.
And we have some veterans. We have quite a few who are here for over their 10th WPC. Yeah. (Applause.)
The number from your self-reported data says there are 63, but I know there are many more. This is my 14th, this is my 14th WPC, and what a ride it’s been.
So, collectively, you represent the top of our pyramid of partners. The 640,000 partners in the Microsoft ecosystem. Those 640,000 partners that drive a collective business of $609 billion worldwide. You are our most active partners, you are our most invested partners, and I promise you, those here in the room like you see with Cirque du Soleil, like what you’re going to see in some of the other keynotes, what you’re going to see in the celebrations, we’ve got some fun and we’ve got some great surprises here for you.
We also have tens of thousands of you joining us via the Internet and watching some of the keynotes virtually. So, welcome to all of you out there watching on the Internet.
Together, today, we’re going to shine the light on something that we’ve known for some time, something we’ve known for some time, but the rest of the world is really starting to recognize, and that’s that Microsoft and its partners are getting it right. Microsoft and its partners are getting it right, and we’re onto something big.
Last year, I stood on the stage and I told you that we were being massive underestimated. We were being massively underestimated. It’s safe to say now that that is no longer true.
The press is starting to take notice. The stock market is picking up. And consumers are turning their heads. But I really knew we were onto something big when I brought my Windows 8 slate home for the first time a few months ago and my 11-year-old daughter got her hands on it. (Laughter.) I haven’t seen it since. (Laughter.)
So, you’ve seen some good quotes up there, but none can hold a candle to this one. When our CEO says, “We love our partners at Microsoft. We love our partners at Microsoft.” He really means it. And that’s because you’re at our core, partners are part of the Microsoft DNA.
So, everyone agrees, Microsoft and its partners, we’re making a big move. You guys know this, and you’re out there every day getting wins. Let’s take a look at a few.
Quadra Systems, a partner from India. Quadra Systems, yeah, must be over here. (Applause.) The sales management partner of the year. That must be India, there aren’t that many people here from Quadra Systems, I’m sure. Amazing, amazing business. Up 110 percent in profit year over year, their deal size is up 34 percent. How have they done it? They’ve done it by focusing on sales management and the methodologies that they get from the Microsoft partner network.
Second example this morning. Sapientia from Singapore. Anyone here from Singapore? (Applause.) Sapientia’s been focused on high-speed deployment of Lync, SharePoint, and Exchange. They’ve seen over 500 percent growth in their cloud business in the last two years, and it now makes up a full 30 percent of their revenue.
The last example, Sulava from Finland. Anyone here from Finland? (Applause.) Very cool. So, Sulava is a born-on-the-cloud partner, and they have leveraged Pinpoint and they have leveraged social media to help drive the Microsoft cloud solutions. And they’ve done so well, in 15 months, they now own 33 percent of the Office 365 market in Finland. Their profits are also up 44 percent year over year, so fantastic example of leveraging our cloud offerings and getting the growth going.
So, great examples of innovation, commitment, leading with the Microsoft platform. They’re awesome, all of you guys are awesome.
So, last year I told you we were being underestimated. This year, my prediction, Microsoft and its partners are going to be acknowledged as the leader. We’re going to be acknowledged as the leaders in cloud business software. This is the year we’re going to make it happen, and WPC is the launch pad. Are you guys ready? Are you guys ready? Let’s take a look.
(Video: Key WPC Highlights.)
JON ROSKILL: (Applause.) All right, looks like you guys are fired up.
Well, this is your WPC. And it’s all built around the things you guys have asked for. Number one, you’ve asked for vision. You come to WPC to get the vision, and we’re going to give you that through the vision keynote.
Secondly, you asked to network. You come here to network, and we’ve built out — we’ve had to add so many tables to the WPC Connect networking stations that we now have over 25,000 meetings that are going to happen here at WPC. And there are lots and lots of Microsoft people here who want to come and meet with you as well; take full advantage of those.
Third, you came here to build your business. We’ve got amazing assets available to you in the Solution Innovation Center. And inside the Solution Innovation Center, there’s also the Microsoft booth, and make sure you get over and take a look at what we’re showing for the MPN program, because there are some really cool new updates there that I’m sure you’re going to want to take advantage of.
And then lastly, you come to WPC to celebrate. We’ve had an amazing FY12 together, and it’s one of the things we need to do is come here to celebrate. And there’s no shortage of places to celebrate inside Toronto, so we’re going to have lots of fun together. But I want to make sure that you remember to join me on Thursday night where we’ll be joined by Grammy-Award-winning artist Train, who will be performing at our Thursday night celebration party. That’s right, Train? You guys like Train? (Applause.)
So, I’m so excited you guys are here. We have so much cool stuff to show you. This truly is my favorite week of the year. We get ready for this for so long and now we’re here and this is my favorite week of the year. It’s all about taking our collective business to that next level. Thank you so much. I want to thank you so much for being here and taking the time to join us. I promise we won’t squander it. It’s going to be a great WPC, let’s go ahead and get it started. Thank you. (Applause.)
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