Vertical Industries

Accelerating Performance for Risk Management of Complex Derivative Portfolios

mslosangelesblog — Fri, 25 May 2012 17:43:20 GMT

James Jockle, SVP Marketing, Numerix

When it comes to meeting the regulatory and computational demands of risk management in the post-crisis world, many financial and insurance companies have come to realize that the old way of doing things is just not going to work anymore.

Enter the cloud…

Numerix, a leading provider of cross-asset analytics for derivatives valuations and risk management, and a Microsoft Managed Partner, is now leveraging the cloud to address the colossal compute power and big data demands surrounding real-time risk analytics. With its new burst-to-Windows Azure capability, Numerix Portfolio harnesses the cloud to tackle the quantitative, computational and technological challenges of calculating advanced risk measures on today’s computationally intensive, complex derivative portfolios.

Numerix Portfolio’s burst-to-Azure deployment scenario provides a seamless, cost-effective, and time saving solution for firms that need to assess and analyze risk, more frequently and more granularly. Access to the right answer faster could be the cure to all of our sleepless nights.

According to WatersTechnology’s Max Bowie in his recent Inside Market Data article, “Officials say that leveraging Microsoft’s cloud not only enables firms to tap into on-demand resources as needed, but also offers better economics than buying, testing, installing and maintaining dedicated hardware on-site, and enables them to meet regulatory timeframes by being able to run calculations faster than on existing equipment.” [i]

Read the recently issued Numerix press release for more information.

[i] “Numerix Enables Clients to Tap into Cloud Capacity for Complex Pricing,” Inside Market Data (WatersTechnology), Max Bowie, May 2012

Microsoft Dynamics Gives Patagonia a Better View of Customer Demand

mslosangelesblog — Thu, 24 May 2012 19:58:50 GMT

Patagonia, the outdoor recreation clothing and gear provider, was founded in 1972 as both a wholesaler and a mail-order business. Today, its channels include wholesalers, international distributors, Patagonia retail stores, a catalog and a website. As the company grew, Patagonia began having issues with its ERP software. It found that inventory was managed separately for each channel and the system was unable to automatically locate extra inventory needed.

Also, forecasting demand for future seasons posed a challenge; Patagonia’s process took six weeks to complete, so planners could only run so many forecasts before a certain season began. Time was wasted re-keying relevant data to reallocate the merchandise and a lack of tools to update forecasts based on sales.

The solution??? In 2009 Patagonia worked with Microsoft Partner Sunrise Technologies to implement the Microsoft Dynamics AX ERP suite with add-on solutions, incorporating special features designed for the apparel industry. Patagonia rolled out the new software in phases, starting with Microsoft's Consumer Demand Planning forecasting tool in 2009 and then two components of the Microsoft Dynamics AX finance module in May, 2010.

Since Patagonia implemented Microsoft Dynamics AX, planners have been running pre-season forecasts monthly, allowing them to view demand across all sales channels and make adjustments. By late 2010, Patagonia calculated that Microsoft Dynamics had improved inventory turns by up to 30 percent and fill rates by 10 percent. Building on this success, Patagonia now is expanding its use of Microsoft Dynamics AX to its operations outside the United States.

Learn more about Dynamics AX and its offerings here.

Microsoft wins Pipeline Innovation Award for Best Ecosystem, 2012

mslosangelesblog — Wed, 23 May 2012 20:48:02 GMT

We are delighted to see that Microsoft’s efforts in the communications space are being recognized. This week, Microsoft was honoroed with the Pipeline Innovation Award for Best Ecosystem, 2012. Pipeline’s prestigious Innovation Awards acknowledge thought leaders for advancements in technologies, products and deployments. The Best Ecosystem award is a proof point of Microsoft’s leadership in creating a unique value proposition based on our strategy to build and cultivate a vibrant partner ecosystem. Microsoft’s partner solutions are developed using a flexible, scalable, and robust platform to provide our customers with industry leading solutions to address their most critical needs.

The telecommunications industry has undergone tremendous changes in recent years. Communications service providers are transforming their operations and their business models in order to deliver new services faster
and at a lower cost. Microsoft and our partners work together to provide solutions that address the most demanding needs of communications service providers around the world in the most cost-effective way, while offering the agility to respond to the business and technology opportunities of tomorrow.

Partnerships with ISVs such as Ericsson, Tribold, Redknee, CHR Solutions, Convergys (now part of NetCracker), MetraTech and SIs such as Tech Mahindra, Alcatel Lucent, and Capgemini continue to boost the credibility of the Microsoft platform in the communications space. Microsoft's “mashable ecosystem” is expanding as ISVs and SIs choose Microsoft technologies to deliver industry specific solutions to our service provider customers.

Communications Service Providers Prepare for Device Growth Wave

mslosangelesblog — Mon, 21 May 2012 18:16:00 GMT

There’s been a lot of talk about an explosion in the number of mobile devices. Whether you talk to an analyst, a vendor or service provider, everyone has a slightly different take on how many we can expect in circulation by 2020. What everyone does agree on is that the number of devices will be exponentially greater than it is now—potentially around 50 billion.

Aside from the infrastructure challenges that this growth surge represents, there’s a tremendous amount of upside. At the opposite end of each device will be businesses and consumers looking for information, experiences, and content or the capability to manage and control the devices For communications service providers (CSP) this provides an opportunity to add value for customers. No longer are they merely the providers of the network that ties together the endpoints. They can also be the purveyors of services that traverse the network. For example, imagine a telecom operator that enables businesses to pay their employees via a SIM card, or deposit and send money from their mobile phone!

But for all the upside, this expected growth is sure to present challenges on multiple fronts. Microsoft empowers the path to new possibilities by collaborating with CSPs to envision the future and drive innovation; creating solutions to accelerate business processes; and helping enhance agility of CSPs to transform and compete. With a host of potent solutions and our deep partner ecosystem, Microsoft delivers the speed, agility, vision and resources Communications Service Providers (CSPs) need to meet these challenges. One of our partners is Tribold, focused on business and operational support systems that help CSPs quickly develop and deliver new services and experiences for their customers. Tribold is now developing a version of its Enterprise Product Management solution that works with Windows Azure. For CSPs, this allows them to combine the functionality of Enterprise Product Management and the benefit of cloud computing deployments.

Cablemás, a CSP based in Mexico City, worked with Microsoft partner UNIKAto take advantage of cloud computing as well. The company used a Microsoft Exchange Online cloud service to extend e-mail messaging to its 2,500 offsite employees, enabling them to better serve customers and making the company more competitive — without adding IT infrastructure. More details of their deployment is available here.

Telefónica del Perú, was looking for a sales and customer service solution that would cut down on the number of customers who hung up in due to frustrating wait times. After the company rolled out a new solution based on the Customer Care Accelerator for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, customer wait times have been cut by half.

Microsoft also offers business intelligence, sales and support, and digital marketing solutions. Together they can help CSPs generate greater business insight into the type of services customers are looking for, compete and serve their customers more effectively, and create engaging online experiences for their customers. Focusing on these business essentials will go a long way toward helping CSPs ride the next wave of growth.

Leading Banks Back into the Black

mslosangelesblog — Tue, 15 May 2012 13:20:40 GMT

Like many other industries, banking embraced online and mobile channels to enable customers to take control of when, where and how they interact with their banks.

However, the proliferation of online and mobile channels has presented significant technology challenges. For decades, the industry has focused on lowering the cost per transaction – but to be competitive in today’s economy, banks need to move from a transaction-centric business model to a customer-centric model. This requires the examination of business processes, applications, and data silos across the institution to remove redundancy and improve time to market, and therefore time to business value. The real key to growth lies is in unlocking the power of data in a way that differentiates the customer experience. This can be accomplished by applying new business insights to the delivery of world-class customer service and to identifying the opportunity to deliver innovative products and services at scale, seamlessly across channels, tailored to the specific needs and wants of the target customer audiences.

Take a look at this example on how an integrated technology solution for the banking industry is supporting new customer experiences while optimizing back-end banking operations.

While there is a bright future for online and mobile sales, legacy IT systems and complex organizational barriers are preventing banks from maximizing the potential of these channels. Operational errors, lapses in internal controls, manual handoffs, continual workarounds and reprocessing efforts amount to billions of dollars in missed opportunity and operational overhead for the banking industry. These hefty operational expenses add to an already high cost of maintaining fragmented legacy IT systems.

The new Microsoft Industry Reference Architecture for Banking gives financial institutions the framework to ensure IT meets their strategic goals across channels and various customer needs. It helps to provide a much needed bridge between the line-of-business objectives and central IT goals within a bank. Management of data and technology is the cornerstone of financial services, and of banking in particular. Financial institutions that can best manage data and systems, orchestrate business processes and transactions, and have the highest level of insight into business operations and customer desires can gain a competitive edge in the industry in terms of product innovation, operational efficiency, and risk management.

More information is available at www.microsoft.com/mira-b.

Guest Column: Building Loyalty in a Digital Age

mslosangelesblog — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:53:00 GMT

by Michael Griffiths, global product director of retail, Microsoft Business Solutions

This article appeared in Integrated Solutions for Retailers

It wasn’t that long ago that building loyalty for the typical brick‐and‐mortar retailer was fairly straightforward. Businesses could rely on in‐store relationships and customer service to keep shoppers coming back. But the new reality of Web 2.0, social media and mobile apps means it’s tougher than ever to stand out, stay relevant, and create those differentiated experiences that motivate customers to come back soon – and often.

Today’s consumers are empowered as never before ‐ carrying with them immediate access to the world through mobile, connected devices. With just one touch they can compare products, review competitive pricing information and order online – often using real‐time product reviews found online to inform their choices. And with 56 percent of shoppers visiting Facebook pages to stay up‐to-date on sales and promotions, it’s not just the one‐off purchase that’s at risk during a visit to the shopping mall – it’s the very relationship between retailer and customer that’s at stake.

Just as technology has delivered dramatic leaps forward for consumers, retailers are now realizing the critical role that technology must play to enable their business. So how do retailers earn and maintain the loyalty of today’s digitally empowered consumer, while taking advantage of opportunities in ‘social commerce’ to increase brand visibility and relevance?

Multichannel capability

In this new retail paradigm, delivering a consummate seamless multichannel retail experience is the key to winning consumer hearts and minds, especially when it comes to offering the value‐added service and recognition that help retailers deliver on their brand promise. The concept of ‘the customer is king’ is not a new one. However, interpreting the multifaceted interactions with your customers and offering the services to please them is more complex today than ever before.

Today’s retailer can only gain a deep understanding of what consumers expect through true ‘omnichannel’ retail – combining the right personalized communication, relevant information and offers, at the right time, via the right channel. But it is the transparency, connection, and consistency of these insights that will define success.

Real‐time multichannel insights and synchronization

The power of choice which has created such freedom and flexibility for customers has produced a new imperative for retailers – serving customers how, when and where they want to shop, but doing so with consistency. One customer may buy on‐line but choose to pick‐up in store. Another may browse on‐line, but only purchases when in a physical store location. Finally, others may start the experience on‐line and choose to recall that activity on a mobile device while in the store. Achieving this level of complete integration between on‐line and off‐line operations – blurring that line ‐ requires a highly integrated retail platform that makes such optimized and unified customer interactions possible.

Intelligent agility

With the fight for customer loyalty becoming more fierce, it is imperative to stay engaged with the consumer throughout the buying process, using customer intelligence gained along the way to refine store execution strategies – from determining how best to allocate or replenish products to boost store performance, to defining an optimal pricing strategy, or deciding what promotions to run and how to align these to customer preferences.

The retailer must be agile and responsive. And that means linking all areas of the retail operation end‐to‐end – from POS and inventory management to sales performance tracking, stock ordering and management and payment processing, to a customer’s entire purchasing history and preferences. Ultimately this means using the data and intelligence assimilated by the technology to not only track the retail business but to optimize and drive the retail business. This is how retailers go from reactive to proactive.

Giving staff and customers visibility into inventory

Nowhere is the need for seamless IT integration across the entire retail enterprise better illustrated than real‐time inventory visibility. Today’s lean retail inventories mean that in‐store, en route or at a distribution center – retailers need to fulfil customer expectations and make sure they capitalize on every sales opportunity. And that means integrating warehouse management, order management, POS – and more – to show precise inventory levels to customers. The question for retailers is can their technology do this without the need for complex middleware – does the solution architecture provide this as foundation of its design?

Delivering on the in‐store service promise

Multichannel retailers know that differentiating the in‐store shopping experience is a central component of winning the loyalty battle. Nowadays, consumers are highly connected and often better informed than in‐store personnel. But giving sales assistants powerful role‐based access to product information, inventory and customer histories via POS technologies empowers the associate ‐ allowing them to demonstrate recognition of customer preferences and deliver the personal experience customers expect.

Personal and seamless differentiation

One thing is clear. Buying customer loyalty through discounting and promotion alone makes it difficult to maintain the brand or bottom line, and sets the tone for a relationship where customers always expect a ‘deal’. This places retailers at the whim of customers chasing the best deal and whose only loyalty is to the lowest price.

But creating differentiation that expands the overall shopping experience – regardless of channel – and provides personalized recognition of shoppers wants, needs and aspirations creates a value‐add relationship that makes a retail brand stand out from the crowd. It is crucial to establish enduring relationships where customer loyalty is earned and repaid, so that customers come to view a retail brand as its single, trusted supplier of choice. But creating a shopping experience that’s second to none depends more than ever on delivering a customer‐centric and connected experience that keeps the retailer at the forefront of the consumer’s mind.

Achieving this requires seamless integration across the entire IT retail technology ecosystem. Yet many retailers are being hampered from delivering their new retail vision, thanks to disconnected applications and IT systems that make it impossible to build those all important ‘real‐time connected bridges’ across their entire spectrum of retail activities.

And it’s here that the right technology plays an indispensable role in helping retailers to evolve and compete in a new retail landscape. Retailers are realizing that not all solutions are created equal – architecture; ease of use; global scale; and multi‐channel management must be in the DNA of a solution and at the core of its development strategy. Older technologies and disparate systems cobbled together will give way to solutions that make real‐time merchandising and multichannel synchronization possible; empowering through fully unified and connected POS and offering CRM that delivers deep customer insights to power a new era of customer experience.

GreenButton to Publicly Unveil inCus Content Indexing Solution at NAB 2012

mslosangelesblog — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 17:00:00 GMT

The annual National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) 2012 conference is a required stop on the annual convention circuit for any organization centered around media and content for broadcast, production, or management.

GreenButton is thrilled to have the opportunity to showcase our new inCus content indexing solution at the Microsoft partner booth (SL#1524) for all four days of the conference. This will be the first time we unveil and showcase the service in a broad audience setting, allowing content management and publishing organizations to see what all the buzz is about.

We’ll be giving demos of the service and answering questions along the west side of the booth, right near the Xbox and Kinect lounge. We hope to see you there!

New Broadcast Reference Architecture Builds Blueprint for Success in the Media Industry

mslosangelesblog — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 13:20:00 GMT

By Taras Bugir, worldwide managing director, Media and Cable

Make a quick mental checklist of all the ways you receive news or entertainment content this week. Then, compare that to a list of the ways you received information just five years ago. The difference between the two lists is an immediate demonstration of how drastically the media landscape has evolved in recent years. Today, people have a steady stream of new methods and new devices to find a growing universe of programming content – through both legal and illegal means. These massive changes in the media industry have spurred companies to find new ways to deliver content to their audiences and establish new revenue streams. Cloud computing provides a cost-effective way for these companies to keep up with today’s content demands and also develop long-term strategies for capturing and maintaining loyal audiences of consumer and advertisers alike. Today, at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) 2012 conference, Microsoft – along with our partners - introduced new tools to help media companies ensure they stay both relevant and profitable in this new landscape.

The new cloud-based Windows Azure Media Services is designed to make creating, managing and delivering media to any device easier than ever by offering a comprehensive set of ready-to-use first- and third-party media technologies. With Windows Azure Media Services, Microsoft gives content providers and media partners the nearly unlimited capacity of the cloud to cost-effectively handle a huge volume of digital media and make it available in the format that customers want, when they want it. Windows Azure Media Services’ ready-to-use services allow customers to simplify the creation of complex media workflows built on Microsoft Media Platform and third-party technologies.

Microsoft introduced the Broadcast Reference Architecture to help media companies make key business decisions and deliver technologies that allow them to transform their businesses and meet ravenous customer demand. Microsoft developed its comprehensive Broadcast Reference Architecture to outline the criteria for success in many different media markets and to help companies navigate specific business challenges, such as how to select new technology platforms they’ll use to engage with their audiences.

The architecture offers a broad approach to managing all major aspects of today’s ultra-competitive media environment, including the following:

Media business management, which provides media companies with guidance to make critical business decisions related to financials, logistics and resources to drive the success of creative endeavors as they delve into new channels.
Business intelligence for media and cable companies, which offers business insights for adapting content to ever-changing market and audiences demands.
Digital content management, which assists companies with decision-making to secure, preserve and transform content, from beginning to end of the content lifecycle.
Digital marketing and experiences, which support companies as they evaluate and select a variety of channels and devices to distribute content and services to consumers.

Using the Broadcast Reference Architecture, media companies can establish a way forward based on three key components: a clear vision for the future, a path to accelerate content delivery via new technologies, and a business development strategy for innovation and profitability now and in the future.

These new tools are designed to help media companies shape their future with new possibilities available in the cloud. For more guidance on transforming your media business, download the Broadcast Reference Architecture white paper or visit Windows Azure Media Services. More information about Microsoft’s presence at NAB 2012 can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/presskits/telecom/media.aspx.

Media Consumption Is Changing. So Will Media Production

mslosangelesblog — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 16:42:00 GMT

By Stephen Schindler, head of Digital Media and Media Information Services, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)

In today’s fast-changing multimedia environment, the explosion of information sources and the rapidly growing number of distribution channels of varying importance present significant challenges to anyone, such as broadcasters or publishers, who makes a living from producing, compiling, syndicating or otherwise monetizing media content.

The amount and the diversity of content and information that needs to be sifted and sorted, combined with the massive growth in variations of products that need to be produced from the same core content and the shortening time-to-air windows, create a critical need for greater efficiency on the production floor of media companies.

The combination of increased efficiency requirements — and new information gathering and distributing mechanisms characterized by ultra-fast and self-managed digital networks — forces organizations to rethink two key areas of operation:

Separation of factory-floor activities that don‘t affect how clients see products from the activities that drive innovation and change the way products and brands appear in front of a company’s target audience.
Better leveraging of companies’ internal and cross-departmental-crowd know-how through effective collaboration platforms.

Both items belong together. Today’s production floors in media organizations are often still characterized by spaghetti-like organized piles of applications and multiple screens on desktops. Highly proprietary technologies stacked on top of each other based on spontaneous production needs create information silos and in-transparency, not to mention the management difficulty of the technology and the training and hand-holding needs of users. By liberating a media company’s production staff from technical and application overhead, more energy can be put into its actual products and innovation. If this comes with additional
functionality to collaborate and share as easily as people can on the social networks they use in their private lives, then an organization is able to really transform the way it works and build the foundation for a renewed focus on innovation.

If such collaboration infrastructure is based on IT products such as Microsoft SharePoint, rather than multiple and often bespoke industry-specific products, then the technical staff and management will benefit from it. The CIO or CTO will be able to significantly reduce the amount of systems to be managed and will be able to more rapidly respond to user and business requirements without having to go down a completely custom-made development path. Both will benefit from the R&D investments of large IT players such as IBM, Microsoft and others rather than the development budgets of industry-specific vendors that have to fund
themselves from a fairly small industry.

TCS, with its Editorial Collaboration Platform approach, allows organizations to make that transition with certainty, based on its relationship with technology platform providers such as Microsoft, its unique combination of industry domain experts, and its broad and long term IT services background.

A snipit of the manufacturing dialogue at Convergence 2012

mslosangelesblog — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 17:35:00 GMT

Everything’s bigger in Texas, and Microsoft’s Convergence conference in Houston in March was no different. Nearly 11,000 attendees flocked to the Microsoft premier event for the Dynamics customer and partner community to make key business connections and discover the full potential of Microsoft Dynamics solutions.

Convergence kicked off with a tone of confidence from keynotes with Kirill Tatarinov, president of the Microsoft Business Applications group, and Kevin Turner, Microsoft’ chief operating officer and concluded with an inspiring keynote from General Colin Powell

In a presentation specific to the Microsoft Business Solution offerings enabling dynamic manufacturers, influencer Josh Greenbaum, also spoke on the need for manufacturers now to have direct customer contact and for suppliers to be visible and connected to the customer.

A variety of Microsoft Dynamics customers shared their success stories with the crowd, including Hunter Douglas, the largest manufacturer of custom-made windows treatments. With more than 100,000 retailers worldwide, Hunter Douglas struggled with managing nine different solutions across the company--each with a different language, culture and infrastructure. Hunter Douglas made the switch to Microsoft AX and was able to use across their locations in different languages, integrating it with Office and other Microsoft solutions.

Similar to Hunter Douglas, customer AB Agri, an international agriculture, food, ingredients and retail business, sells in 60 countries and throughout the U.S. AB Agri now uses Microsoft Dynamics AX and CRM solutions to connect with these suppliers and customers to manage 30,000 shipments every day. Additionally, Caterpillar, the world’s largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, and industrial gas turbines, has deployed Microsoft Dynamic’s CRM solution to help manage 800 locations in 50 countries.

With customer testimonials from some of the largest companies in the world, more than 350 learning and interactive discussions, countless excellence awards received and standing room-only demos, this year’s Convergence was a huge success for both the partner and business community. Thanks to everyone who attended.

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Helps Industries Tame Big Data

mslosangelesblog — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:02:53 GMT

The rapid growth of data volume presents a real opportunity. It’s also a challenge that most industries are either wrestling with now, or soon will be. As the cost of storing data continues to fall and cloud-hosted storage is increasingly adopted, more IT departments are transitioning to a “save everything” or “save more” approach. Accordingly, the question of what to do with all this “big data” comes up frequently. With March’s general availability of SQL Server 2012, now more than ever Microsoft is helping customers manage any data, any size, anywhere, with a data platform and tools that can extract valuable insights that lead to action.

For example, Svyaznoy, one of Russia’s largest retailers of mobile phones, digital technology, and related services and accessories, was using Jeeves enterprise resource planning (ERP) software to bring sales data
from their retail outlets into their central database, but this solution was too slow. Svyaznoy upgraded to Microsoft SQL Server 2012. Their new solution, which also includes 1C:Enterprise ERP software, uses the SQL Server Service Broker feature to verify and synchronize sales data stored in documents across multiple directories. During the workday, the solution immediately transmits detailed data on each sales transaction to the central database. Because SQL Server Service Broker supports asynchronous messaging, the system no longer loses data during a communication interruption but instead stores it offline and retransmits it to the central database after technicians have corrected the problem.

Our partners are also finding value in SQL Server 2012. PROS, a worldwide provider of profitability management and optimization software solutions, has been managing big data for more than 25 years, working
with customers to help them grow their businesses amid industry deregulation, volatility in raw materials and currency fluctuations, and today’s globally competitive marketplace. They’ve seen a substantial increase in customers’ interest in Microsoft SQL Server, and today approximately 80 percent of their pricing customers use the platform. In addition, their manufacturing, distribution and services customers are moving toward SQL Server as their database of choice, based on the quality of the technology and its price and performance.

Temenos, a provider of banking software to retail, corporate, universal, private, Islamic, microfinance and community banks, has released benchmarking results that underscore the cost efficiencies and scalability to be gained with SQL Server 2012.

Microsoft SQL Server 2012, along with HP and XIO, broke the TEMENOS T24
R12 performance record.
At peak performance, the system processed 11,500 transactions per
second in online business testing and averaged more than 10,000 interest
accrual and capitalizations per second during close-of-business testing,
processing 25 million capitalizations and account accruals in less than 42
minutes.
The testing showed a near linear scalability of 95% as the number of
agents was increased.

Andre Loustau, CTO of Temenos, commented that “banks today face significant challenges which are squeezing margins tighter than ever before and driving a rapid need for higher cost efficiency. With these benchmark results we demonstrate a powerful software combination which addresses these requirements by delivering high-end scalability with a lower total cost of ownership and increased flexibility and agility to a
market that has traditionally been hampered by legacy systems”

To learn more about SQL Server 2012, including the new features and benefits that are delivered in this release, visit our virtual launch page at www.SQLServerLaunch.com.

Check Out the 2011 Upstream Survey Results!

mslosangelesblog — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 16:47:00 GMT

Today Microsoft and Accenture issued a press release announcing the results of its annual upstream sector survey. This year’s survey included several interesting insights, but the overall theme was clear: Oil & Gas companies are upping IT investments to generate operational efficiency and excellence.

For instance:

Oil and Gas professionals are focused on using IT to create a more integrated and efficient upstream environment. Nearly half of participants (43 percent) say they anticipate lower costs due to resulting streamlined operational workflows.
Spending on IT is increasing: In 2011, 74.5 percent of respondents spent as much or more “focus and investment” on IT versus 2010.
A continued emphasis on operational excellence is a pervasive theme, particularly as it pertains to new drilling regulations in the industry. New drilling regulations have led to an increased focus risk reduction (71 percent), heightened health, safety and environmental protection (68 percent), and managing slower processes due to more regulations (61 percent).
Cloud computing continues its rapid momentum within IT organizations. We’re seeing the fastest uptake in Databases (72.7 percent full product solution or development/test purposes) and Workflow solutions (72.9 percent full product solution or development/test purposes).

Another key finding we’re particularly pleased to see is more and more O&G IT people are becoming aware of Microsoft’s Upstream Reference Architecture (MURA). We created MURA after extensive discussions with our upstream partners and customers, who sought tailored, prescriptive guidance on better and more efficient IT operations. They wanted to implement IT solutions more quickly, and with less hassle, so they could more strategically commit resources (finding new revenue streams, gaining competitive advantages and growing their businesses). Already more than 22% of respondents are aware of MURA.

For others, MURA describes a set of foundational “pillars,” or principles that govern an architecture structure. It describes how the upstream sector can create:

Performance-oriented IT infrastructures
Enhanced user experiences
Optimized domain-specific infrastructures
Rich application platforms
Comprehensive interoperability

This descriptive approach provides an agreed-upon set of principles to establish consistent performance, while also allowing for flexibility that companies need to innovate and establish competitive differences.

More succinctly, O&G companies need IT systems to be more responsive to business needs. MURA creates the foundation for them to do this.

We encourage you to check out today’s press release to better understand the needs of upstream IT departments, and the MURA for Microsoft’s guidance on how to address their needs.

It’s Raining Jobs! Cloud to Generate 14M Vertical Industry Jobs Worldwide

mslosangelesblog — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 16:00:00 GMT

by Susan Hauser, corporate vice president, Worldwide Enterprise and Partner Group, Microsoft

At the end of the day, every new job is actually a vertical job. That is, in today’s economy, new employment opportunities tend to be varied by vertical industry, such as manufacturing, telecommunications, retail or financial services. In fact, a new IDC study commissioned by Microsoft provides more insight into these differences, pointing out how cloud computing can be an engine for hiring and overall job growth – but also showing how industries that more quickly adopt cloud computing stand to innovate and grow the most.

The study found that cloud computing could drive an increase in revenue of $1.1 trillion a year by 2015, and nearly 14 million new jobs in all vertical industries by 2015. These figures represent a major opportunity for enterprises across vertical industries to examine how they apply the efficiencies gained from cloud computing. In support of this opportunity, our team is consistently focused on how to help our customers improve productivity, cut costs, and free up IT staff to focus on more mission-critical and innovative IT. These map to the benefits of cloud computing that will equate to increased revenues, which can be applied to innovation broadly (not just IT), such as hiring more sales, finance, production, marketing and other line of business positions.

From the IDC research, we can conclude that these efficiencies will translate into economic growth in industries and regions around the globe. For instance, cloud-related jobs in EMEA will more than double in all industries by 2015, and jobs in the global insurance industry will almost double by 2015. The discrete manufacturing industry will have 1.3 million cloud-enabled jobs by 2015.

Some of the study’s other key findings include:

Communications and Media Is a growing sector, predicted to have 2.4 million cloud-enabled jobs by 2015. The media segment is one of the main users of storage-on-demand-as-a-service to enable continuous service for content-heavy customer offerings. Already, this sector accounts for 20% of spending on public cloud storage in the U.S. Additionally, it will be the fastest growing sector in Asia, with 1.8 million cloud-related jobs by 2015.
Insurance, generally a heavy user of IT, is already toward the top of the list in terms of investment in public cloud services as a percentage of IT spending, and cloud-related jobs in this industry are expected to almost double by 2015.
Banking, because of regulatory requirements, privacy concerns, and security issues will be closer to the average in terms of cloud adoption, accounting for 1.43 million jobs by 2015.
Resource industries (including Agriculture, Mining and Oil & Gas), have fewer security and regulatory constraints than many industries. These businesses will have twice as many jobs by 2015.
Retail also includes a number of businesses with fewer regulatory concerns, making it easier to store records and documents in the cloud. The sector is expected to see an 81 percent increase in cloud-related jobs globally by 2015.

We have the opportunity to work with customers in Financial Services, Manufacturing & Resources, Communications & Media, and Retail industries worldwide. Our top priority is delivering IT solutions that provide the greatest value to our customers and partners. Time and time again, we hear that cloud computing is improving the way enterprises work with their customers and partners. CASON, an industrial solutions supplier, adopted the Windows Azure platform for its SIMSIM AMI application, which manages real-time data coming from electricity, gas, and water meters. CASON can now install a test operation at a customer’s site in half a day.

In addition, cloud computing is enabling businesses to complete technology integrations very rapidly. PPG Industries, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of coatings and specialty products, was looking to build a hosted application to help a customer market an inventory of 5,000 paints. PPG created the Paint Sample Selector using Microsoft Silverlight and hosted it on the Windows Azure platform for cloud computing. According to Chris Caruso, Global Business IT Director, PPG Industries “went from conception to launch in six weeks – that’s how easy and intuitive this technology is to use.”

Indeed, when I speak with customers around the world, the cloud is the topic that comes up most frequently. They want to know how they can use it to fuel growth. And they want to be sure they have the right people and skills in place to make it happen. At Microsoft, when it comes to the cloud, we’re “all in,” and we have the best cloud solutions to work with worldwide industries to meet their unique business needs and regulatory requirements, helping them drive down costs, spur innovation, and create new jobs and skillsets across the globe.

For more information on Microsoft’s Cloud Computing offerings, please visit www.microsoft.com/cloud.

Guest comment: What’s in-store for retail?

mslosangelesblog — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 20:46:59 GMT

This article appeared in Internet Retailing Magazine

Although online may have grabbed the headlines in recent years, the bricks and mortar store still has a vital role to play in the retail landscape. Because while today’s savvy consumers may research products online or chat with their social networking friends about what’s hot and what’s not, they still want to go into stores and browse, see products up close, touch them, and enjoy the genuine retail experience. It explains why smart retailers are turning to technology to build face-to-face brand value and capitalise on new opportunities to capture sales in-store.

As retailers get ready to transform the traditional bricks and mortar proposition as we know it, Michael Griffiths, Microsoft’s global product director retail and distribution, takes a look at what the future has in-store for retail.

Rumours of the death of the high street have been greatly exaggerated which explains why this year, according to a recent 2011 retail trends survey from Gartner, 31% of retailers stated they plan to increase their store count. But what’s driving this investment?

Today’s connected customers have so many choices about what to buy and where to buy it, that retailers are battling to gain (or retain) the attention and loyalty of consumers. But for retailers in the know, the bricks and mortar store represents a unique brand showcase. One in which they can demonstrate differentiation by bridging the gap between on-line and off-line experiences, extending engagement with social networks and digital marketplaces to the store itself through cross channel CRM, mobile scenarios, and connected store systems to deliver a richer, more personalized in-store experience.

Technology will play a key role in underpinning this capability, ensuring the effective sharing of customer, product and order data across all channels. Mobile commerce and integration with social networks will also flourish, and as the multi-channel experience matures we’ll see the emergence of new store formats that fulfil an exciting new experiential role.

That experience may include ‘check in’ mobile apps that give shoppers arriving in-store up-to-the-minute promos, vouchers and personalized offers – based on stored information about their retail preferences – and the ability to access their online or friends and family ‘wish lists’ to prompt in-store purchases, easing the stress of the pre-Xmas shopping expedition.

And as shoppers move along aisles, proximity-based messaging will deliver real-time information on products and models, together with information on in-store brand product promotions or pricing on alternative models to inform and recommendations on associated items – for example ‘get the complete look’ – that support the customer in their buying decision. But that’s not all.

Mobile shoppers will benefit from in-store interactions, near-field communications, and contactless payment built into phones to achieve the ultimate ‘browse-to-buy’ convenience. And having completed their unified transaction, they can elect for collection in store or home delivery, as they see fit.

Meanwhile, retailers are investigating if movement tracking, for example, can generate meaningful data on a customer’s journey through the store, enabling them to implement cross channel customer relationship management (CRM) initiatives based on this data, or fine-tune other key retail activities like planning, product allocation, pricing and inventory management.

The ability to integrate online platforms with in-store point of sale (PoS) will at last deliver a truly customer-centric view. When shoppers are in store, they can view an item ‘in the flesh’ and order at the PoS, before returning home and going online to finalize decisions like their preferred delivery date and time, using a unique ticket generated in-store to complete their purchasing transaction.

Tablet technologies are also set to take centre stage, giving sales assistants powerful role-based access to product information, inventory and customer histories to offer a uniquely informed in-store service. These technologies will also powerfully extend in-store customer interactions, allowing sales assistants to demonstrate every product option and variant, and place orders personalized exactly to customer wants – fabric type, colour and size for example.

Retailers are also looking at how to better capture orders in-store, giving shoppers the option to identify where ‘wish list’ items are located, select or scan items from their phone, and complete check out using a single barcode for their entire pick list.

The consumer technologies that previously expanded shopper choices will prove powerful tools for targeted communication and customer engagement in the future. At the same time, real-time data on what’s happening in-store will reinforce knowledge and recognition relating to individual shopping patterns, which includes targeted messaging when shoppers return online.

But the agility and responsiveness needed to translate these marketing activities into sales and profits demands instant multi-channel synchronisation. And that means linking all areas of the retail operation end-to-end – from PoS and inventory management to sales performance tracking, stock ordering and management and payment processing, to a customer’s entire purchasing history and preferences. Ultimately this means using the data and intelligence assimilated by the technology behind the store as well as other channels to optimize and drive the retail business.

For today’s dynamic retailers, delivering the complete in-store shopping experience is the aim of the game. And that means retaining cross channel awareness to deliver personalized care when a customer is in-store, empowering employees to offer higher levels of customer service and personalized convenience. All of which boosts a retailer’s ability to deliver on brand promise through excellence of execution.

A Canadian, a Venezuelan, and an Australian Get Into a Car…

mslosangelesblog — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:43:00 GMT

This guest post is written by Jay Funnell, Chief Solution Architect, Honeywell Process Solutions

No, this isn't the opening line to a rude joke but a true story. It happened while en route to a client site near Brisbane where we were hosting a product demonstration. There was the usual ebb and flow of traffic when a peculiar car drove past.

The Canadian said, "Look it's a Ranchero". The Australian said, "That's a Ute". And the Venezuelan chimed in, "No, no, El Camino!"

We grew up in different surroundings yet had a shared understanding of the vehicle that looked part car, part truck. We shared our individual experiences with this vehicle with three different names and did so without much formality.

It seems counter-intuitive to first identify all possible aspects of a thing before speaking of it, yet this is exactly what traditional modeling tools ask of us.

Traditional relational models have a great deal of flexibility…up until they are put into production. Once data lands in a table and reports are built, it becomes difficult to change the existing tables and entity relationships.

Semantic models, on the other hand, are more suited for supporting an ‘ecosystem’ of data, especially in an environment where change is the norm:

You can create a virtual data warehouse that spans multiple data silos, leaving the data as is. (Better known as “data federation”.)
You can embrace standards without starting from scratch by creating a layer on top of the native data source and re-shaping it into a standard model. You can then create dashboards, reports, and other visualizations that meet ISA-95, ISO-15926, MIMOSA, or other standards.

This fresh approach supports the Microsoft Upstream Reference Architecture (MURA), an IT architecture that serves as a common, reliable environment for the implementation and integration of the many technologies that make up the modern digital plant. Ultimately, this architecture will help to dramatically improve efficiency and cost-effectiveness for upstream oil and gas analysis, operations, and business.

Discover the outcome of the Ranchero/Ute/El Camino conversation, and learn more about the benefits of semantic data modeling in your digital plant.

The Effects of Shale on Data Management in the Energy Industry

mslosangelesblog — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:36:00 GMT

This guest post is written by Jim Pritchett, President and CEO, Petris Technology, Inc.

Many are aware of the dramatic increase in drilling activity taking place in shale plays such as Eagle Ford, Barnett, and Marcellus. Less, however, are aware of the impact it has had on data management in the energy industry. Operators are drilling more wells, more often, and as a result data managers are finding themselves overwhelmed with vast amounts of data.

Not only are they receiving massive amounts of the standard data types, operators are now collecting data types that they are unaccustomed to handling. In addition, the rush to acquire shale plays has led to countless acquisitions and partnerships frequently involving smaller operators who often do not have access to the same data management resources as larger companies. With these acquisitions and partnerships come enormous quantities of shared data from various sources and without any standard formatting.

Drilling more wells in less time not only leads to more data, it quickens the need for decision making, placing more pressure on Data Management teams to quickly turn raw data into reliable information in a usable format. This requirement to convert larger amounts of lower quality data into meaningful information faster has turned data management into a critical factor in the success of oil and gas companies.

To top it all off, most oil and gas companies are not looking to expand their data management teams to help cope with this surge of data. So how, you might ask, are data managers keeping their heads above water? This is where data management technology plays a key role.

The automation provided by industry leading data management software companies is playing a crucial part in abating the flood of data that data managers are facing. Not only does automation quicken the processes of data loading and data verification, freeing data managers’ time to focus on more strategic tasks; it diminishes the amount of errors by removing the human element.

The most innovative data management software providers are also helping to address data managers’ challenges by alleviating the disconnection between large and small operators. Structured and unstructured data can now be accessed by end users ensuring that decisions are made using all available information. By providing scalable solutions to companies of all sizes, software providers help to expedite the data sharing process initiated by acquisitions and partnerships, allowing companies to rapidly make sound decisions.

As the data management needs of the energy industry continue to change, inventive software companies with oil and gas domain expertise such as Petris will continue to create and evolve solutions that enable these organizations to succeed. www.Petris.com

The Advantages of Using a Cloud-Based IDM Platform for Oil & Gas Joint Ventures

mslosangelesblog — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:27:00 GMT

This guest post is written by Dave Miller, Chief Security Officer, Covisint

Oil and Gas companies announced more investments in joint ventures in 2011 than ever before (January 17, 2012, Oil & Gas Investor.com). In fact, joint venture announcements peaked in 2011 at $12.3 billion, and totaled $36 billion between 2006 and Year-end 2011. With this high investment in Joint Ventures, it’s not surprising to see that the majority of jobs in Oil & Gas – 77% or 7.1 million – are from resources located outside of the core Oil & Gas organization (Energy Tomorrow).

This creates major communication challenges in the industry such as:

Providing access to the extended enterprise
Obtaining visibility into activity outside of the core organization
Establishing trust with organizations or users to allow collaboration
Extended enterprise compliance to industry regulations and standards
Standardization and use of technology and building collaborative tools for all
Controlling and managing cost
Keeping up with the pace of change inside and outside of the organization
Maintaining positive and consistent user experience with applications and systems

Even when access is obtained, multiple logins are required for the various applications and systems. And how is security maintained? External users need to be provisioned and de-provisioned quickly to certain applications and information as roles change. By not controlling access quickly, security is jeopardized and business risk taken. This leads to wasted time, frustrated constituents, increased cost and poor quality results – all leading to failure of vital projects, including high investment joint ventures. This must change.

A cloud-based Identity Management (IDM) Platform supports the success of your extended enterprise by enabling simple, yet coordinated communication and collaboration between organizational constituents. This type of platform delivers the results you need, allowing you to leverage your existing investments whiles shielding you from the cost and complexity of developing and deploying IT solutions on your own.

With this type of platform, your community of users can have On Demand access to applications and information and the tools to communicate and collaborate securely with others across the extended enterprise. You are able to leverage your existing investment in applications and have the infrastructure in place to add new applications and services as your community expands and becomes more diverse.

A core benefit of a cloud-based IDM solution is you are able to maintain the security and privacy of your community of users. Within the extended enterprise, direct staff, contractors, suppliers, partners, joint venture participants and other providers change roles and job statuses frequently. Your challenge is to facilitate change while maintaining tight control and access to your proprietary systems.

A cloud-based IDM Platform works behind the scenes to help you manage the identity and authentication of users, and give them access to appropriate applications and information – all through a single login.

What are the benefits of this approach? Your organization will:

Have a centralized, auditable security and privacy framework,
Be insulated from the problem of complex security requirements,
Improve application adoption and usability within your extended enterprise, and
Have ability to manage the costs of adding additional users.

In addition to providing a single, secure point for provisioning access to all information, applications, and systems required to conduct business with your extended workforce, a Cloud-based IDM platform will:

Increase user productivity
Reduce cost and complexity
Support trusted collaboration
Remove collaboration barriers,
Harness and secures intellectual capital
Accelerate innovation and
Improve compliance and standards adoption.

For more information on the cloud-based IDM platform, please contact me directly or simply comment on the blog below.

David Miller, CSO, Covisint
dmiller@covisint.com

Introducing the Razorfish Connected Retail Experience Platform (code-named “5D”)

mslosangelesblog — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:29:00 GMT

This guest post is written by Luke Hamilton at Microsoft Partner Razorfish.

Fresh out of R&D from the Razorfish Emerging Experiences team is a product code-named “5D”. 5D started out as an idea to re-invent personal shopping. Our goal was to create a retail experience platform for both consumers and sales associates that enables multi-channel sales through immersive and connected digital devices in retail environments. And the only way to do it is to seamlessly integrate five key components – devices, content, experiences, analytics and CRM with a touch of digital magic!

The team announced 5D at the 2012 NRF Convention & Expo in New York City in partnership with NEC and Microsoft. Leveraging Windows Embedded, Microsoft Surface, MS Tag, Windows Phone and Kinect for Windows we created a prototype around a fictitious brand “Razorfashion” that demonstrates how various touch points along the customer journey can attract consumers into the store, drive product engagement and arm store associates with more contextualized digital tools.

You can read the full press release here or check out this video.

(Please visit the site to view this video)

Microsoft Showcases “The Future of Retail Today” at NRF 2012

mslosangelesblog — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:30:55 GMT

This week, New York will host the National Retail Federation’s 101st Annual Convention & EXPO at the Javits Center, with tens of thousands of attendees, hundreds of speakers, and a keynote from President Bill Clinton.

With all eyes on the consumer - whose shopping, how much is being spent and, most importantly how they’re shopping in today’s 24/7 digital age, retailers are turning to new technologies – from mobile to virtual to social media - to attract, engage and connect with its customers.

At NRF this year, Microsoft and its industry partners will showcase how the technology solutions of today can help retailers put customers at the center of their business and deliver the personalized, seamless and differentiated experiences that shoppers have come to expect.

Here are a few highlights:

Inside the Microsoft booth, visitors can step inside the future of shopping for the latest in touch, gesture and augmented reality, seeing first-hand the power of 3D technology for immersive virtual dressing room and in-store planning experiences.

Microsoft will give retailers a chance to experience how they can reinvent the customer experience through connected shopping scenarios across multiple digital channels in-store and online. With connected devices - including smartphones like Windows Phone 7, interactive digital signage powered by Windows Embedded with Kinect for Windows, the Samsung SUR40 for Microsoft Surface and POS tablets - working seamlessly together, retailers and store associates can provide a new level of interactive and personalized services.

Attendees will be able to preview the upcoming release of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 for Retail, providing retailers with an end-to-end solution that includes cross channel capabilities, social and mobile commerce, enriched point of sale, and powerful enhancements for merchandising to deliver a complete shopping experience. Retail customers joining us onsite include DavidsTea, Simon Pearce and Mattress Firm.

NRF attendees will also be the first to experience the next generation of Microsoft Surface, the Samsung SUR40 for Microsoft Surface. The Samsung SUR40 provides users with collaborative and engaging experiences with technology and digital content in a natural and intuitive way and enables companies to advance their business and generate greater customer satisfaction and loyalty.

More information about Microsoft’s activities at NRF 2012 is available at http://www.microsoft.com/nrf.

For the latest NRF news, links and photos, follow @msretail, @MSFTDynamicsERP, @MSFTWEB and @Surface on Twitter.

The Power of Place – Location Analysis for Retail

mslosangelesblog — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 20:59:00 GMT

This guest post is written by Simon Thompson, director of commercial solutions, at Microsoft Partner Esri.

Technology and the great recession have changed retailing forever. Gone is Clonetown USA with its repetitive retail landscape replaced and redesigned to engage the customer on their own terms. Today, it's all about doing business locally,bringing your store to the customer rather than thinking the customer is inclined to seek you and your products out at your store. AppFire caused a major media buzz when they announced in January 2011, that the average Smartphone user spends just over three quarters of their 84 minutes a day using maps, social networking and other activities immersed in the Web. The least important thing we now do with our phones is talk!

Smartphones have empowered the tech-savvy consumer and as a result stores are porous. According to the Mobile Movement Study 95 percent of smartphone users have looked for local information and 70 percent use smartphones while shopping in-store to price compare or find the best place to purchase a product. For the retailer the most important statistic is that about the same number visit the business they search and 53 percent actually purchase.

Retailers realize that they need to keep on top of these trends and that place matters. Doing business locally is the new kind of normal. Many companies now differentiate merchandise assortments so they are tailored to local tastes and market potential. However, in 2012 every retailer understands that their bricks-and-mortar strategy has got to be about fulfilling customers’ needs in every store, in every market, everywhere.

Yet this shift to local, store-specific awareness also means an explosion in the size and types of data that need to be tracked, stored, analyzed, cross-tabulated and made sense of. There’s data from CRM and loyalty systems, online and web marketing, local promotions, coupons and store level transactions. It’s a world in which consumers have many ways to search for a particular item and easily locate the nearest store with that product in-stock at the price the customer wants. And many of those pesky smartphone apps are going to provide incentives that drive your customer out of your store to another competitive location. Suddenly all the work you did to optimize the price, quantity and assortment mix is lost.

That’s where location analysis and GIS come in to shift the power back to the retailer. It enables you to identify, track and understand every customer shopping that particular store and get actionable intelligence about why they are doing it. Location analysis uses the same tools that are in the palm of your smartphone consumers hand but on the enterprise scale. The backend systems that are optimizing the competitive landscape are the very ones that can enable the savvy retailer shift focus and understand their customers better.

It’s a proven technology that delivers market strategies that not only enhance customer satisfaction but also drive incremental sales and margin. If you want to know how to deliver what customers want - stores in the right markets, with the right products for their demographic mix - and what you want - enough sales opportunity to overcome competition and changing consumer tastes, then you’ve got to get into location analysis.

Pre-schedule a meeting in the Microsoft Booth #1337 to discover how Esri and Microsoft are working together to provide retailers with the solutions they need to take action in the increasingly real-time retail business arena.

Go Shopping for Business Intelligence at NRF’s 101st BIG Show

mslosangelesblog — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 02:15:00 GMT

This guest post is written by Annie Bustos at Microsoft Partner Panorama Software.

Given their increasing production of data and reliance on the insights it holds, retailers are among the most serious users of business intelligence technology in the world. From customer information and tracking the performance of certain products to targeting specific marketing campaigns, analytics is key for just about any retailer.

That’s why we’re particularly excited about participating in the National Retail Federation’s upcoming conference, Retail’s BIG Show. The NRF has been promoting retailers for a long time, this is the organization’s 101st annual gathering. Panorama Software is looking forward to the opportunity to showcase how our solution can help retailers of any size.

We will be presenting along with two of our partners – Microsoft and retail solutions provider ITR Software – at the event, which takes place at New York City’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on January 15-18.

Conference attendees should make it a point to stop by to find out how ITR Software has incorporated Panorama Necto into its SPIN offering to provide retailers with a well-rounded and highly effective analytics solution. SPIN, which is a key piece of ITR’s Buyer’s WorkMate Suite, delivers relevant, timely and detailed analytics to retailers to allow for better decision-making that can be applied to a wide range of different processes.

Using the SPIN Data Repository, all pertinent performance-related metrics are housed in a central location. That supports decisions based around size optimization, store grading and seasonal forecasts. All are important for a high-performing retailer.

It’s all made possible through Panorama Necto’s cutting-edge analytics capabilities. That’s because SPIN is built on top of Necto and takes advantage of the Panorama application’s Business Intelligence 3.0 functionality. It enhances the overall analytics experience by focusing on relevancy, as well as social and self-service capabilities.

Combine that with ITR Software’s retail industry-specific expertise, and companies have access to technology that provides the insight necessary to increase sales, while giving them a leg up on the competition.

So stop by the Microsoft booth #1337, and visit Panorama at the BIG Show and see how a retailer of any size can benefit with the help of Panorama, ITR Software and Microsoft.

Microsoft Dynamics AX Paves the Way for Marshalls’ Success

mslosangelesblog — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 13:15:18 GMT

The UK’s leading manufacturer of superior natural stone and innovative concrete hard landscaping products, Marshalls was established over 130 years ago and supplies the construction, home improvement and landscape markets, specialising in a wide range of products, design services and technical expertise. The Marshalls Group operates a diverse portfolio of business interests from managing its own quarries through to manufacturing goods and running regional service centres employing around 2400 people across 54 sites, not just in the UK, but also overseas.

This diversity is one of the key reasons that Marshalls relies heavily on Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and after many years of using Baan software the company was looking for a solution that would fit better with its business strategy. Because Marshalls largely grows through acquisition, the solution had to be scalable to accommodate new businesses and systems quickly and efficiently into the Marshalls model, primarily to ensure a smooth transition, and to realise the financial benefit of the acquisition more rapidly.

“We were using the integrator eBECS to support our Baan solution, and because they understood our business we were able to work closely with them to select the best solution” said Paul Thomas, Group Information Systems Director at Marshalls. “They recommended Microsoft Dynamics AX and having assessed it for ourselves we could also see that it would provide the right levels of flexibility and scalability.”

“I’ve got over twenty years of experience using ERP packages, and I would say that Microsoft Dynamics AX is easily the best,” explained Steve Donnelly, Microsoft Dynamics AX Programme Manager, Marshalls. “This is because of its flexibility and its general usability – it is simple to customise – and this reduces lead times. By using more of the Microsoft stack, there are clear gains to be obtained in terms of total cost of ownership and return on investment. ”

One of the major advantages of Microsoft Dynamics AX to Marshalls is that it is intuitive, which makes it simple to use, and this has encouraged Marshalls employees to use it extensively and draw significant value for their business. , Marshalls has seen tangible benefits such as differences to costs, productivity, efficiency and customer service:

Cost reductions – thanks to visibility across all companies and departments, Marshalls can assess its common suppliers and customers, negotiating better deals across the group. Leveraging the new centralised functions Marshalls requires fewer people to manage them.

Finance - Marshalls was able to standardise finance processes across the Group, allowing it to reduce its reporting timescales and increase the accuracy of its reporting.

Better sales focus and increased productivity – The solution integrates with Microsoft’s Business Intelligence software to provide sales analysis, detailing which products have sold, in what quantities and the level of margin – thus helping the company to keep track and plan its future product line-up. Raising sales orders is much quicker because AX integrates smoothly with Marshalls ‘fast quote’ system, allowing the sales team to convert a quote into an order. Internal sales staff now have more time to follow up leads, talk to customers and generate new business, rather than just processing data.

Document management – All files are now held electronically and are accessible to everyone. Information fed into Word documents provides the businesses with layouts specific to customer needs, with the necessary information available directly from the central files held in Dynamics AX.

Customer service – with Dynamics AX, Marshalls has improved customer experience, reducing errors and rectification costs.

Microsoft Dynamics AX has achieved everything that was promised in terms of flexibility, integration and usability for Marshalls and the company is aiming to ensure that all its existing businesses and acquisitions in the future will be using Microsoft Dynamics AX moving forward. Paul Thomas concluded: “It provides a flexible solution that can be adapted to meet the individual needs of your business. I would recommend it to anyone.”

Team Lotus ready to hit the track, thanks to Microsoft Dynamics AX

mslosangelesblog — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 17:49:07 GMT

Team Lotus, the Formula One team that brought the highly regarded Lotus name back into Grand Prix racing last year, has recently implemented Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. Team Lotus was introduced to Dynamics AX through Microsoft Gold partner eBECS, which is highly experienced in the automotive sector. eBECS enabled the team to achieve full control and visibility of purchasing and stock and managed the development of the solution across Team Lotus’ entire operation.

Throughout the past two years, Team Lotus has expanded dramatically. With only a handful of desktop computers equipped with computer-aided design (CAD) software, it was clear that upgrades were needed. Team Lotus hired more than 150 employees, gained nearly 700 suppliers, implemented a fully functioning CAD system and rolled out Microsoft Dynamics AX to help manage their operations.

Team Lotus has already seen great success with the software. With the solution’s familiar interface, teams were able to integrate and deploy it on their own after just four weeks of working with eBECS. Richard St Clair-Quentin, commercial manager at Team Lotus, hailed Microsoft Dynamics AX as the best solution for their needs because of its control and visibility in relation to purchasing, manufacturing, stock holding and material consumption, helping Team Lotus maintain strict controls and manage its stock.

“We are delighted to see the business value being derived by customers such as Team Lotus Formula One through the manufacturing functionalities and agility of the Microsoft Dynamics AX solution as well as the depth of industry knowledge brought by Microsoft’s global partners such as eBECs.” Said Rakesh Kumar, Global Product Director, Manufacturing, Microsoft Business Solutions.

To learn more about how Microsoft Dynamics AX helped Team Lotus get back in the driver’s seat, visit Microsoft’s website.

Powering Mission-Critical Operations in the Financial Services Industry at Sibos 2011

mslosangelesblog — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 20:07:22 GMT

Perhaps no one has a keener understanding of the need for mission-critical applications than the attendees of Sibos, one the world’s largest gatherings of financial services executives, being held this year in Toronto. In fact, Microsoft has a significant presence at Sibos, where we’re showcasing our long-term commitment to support mission-critical operations in the financial services industry.

We’re joining our community of partners to highlight how, together, we’re delivering exceptional business value in enabling customers to deploy and manage mission-critical solutions on our platforms. We have a number of partners with exciting demonstrations in our booth, including CashFac, Profitstars, Luup, Peterevans, Temenos, OpenText and, Cloud Trading Technologies operating in the areas of payments, cash management and securities.

For example, we have announced that our platform powers mission-critical operations in the financial services industry worldwide. A growing number of our financial services customers – including Skandinavisk Data Center (SDC), Saxo Bank, and Nationwide Building Society -- are benefiting from significant gains in agility, operational efficiency and cost savings by moving to the high-performance Windows Server operating system and SQL Server database.

Our customers have not only reduced the cost of running their core processes but also realized substantial benefits by making these core processes part of a dynamic IT infrastructure that enables them to understand and serve customers better, bring new products to market more quickly, continuously improve operations, and collaborate with an evolving set of partners in their global value chains.

To further demonstrate our market leadership in financial services, we also have announced our successful collaboration with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citi and SWIFT in setting a higher standard regarding how corporate treasuries connect to banks. The use of the common standard opens up tremendous benefits for all parties involved. For example, the reduction in current shortcomings such as maintaining multiple customized pipes, fewer processing errors thanks to consistent formatting standards, and the flexibility to support extended, more complex messages versus the fixed format of yesterday means that both my team and our banking partners are spending less time on maintenance and more on higher value add analysis leading to higher impact and deeper relationships.

As a result, our treasury and other corporations worldwide can achieve a number of major benefits, including operational efficiencies and risk mitigation, cost savings, significant risk reduction and improved efficiency and productivity on a highly cost-effective and agile platform on which they can build a future generation of mission-critical capabilities.

As these announcements and our presence at Sibos this year show, our mission is to enable the success of our financial industry customers by working with partners to deliver industry solutions that attract and retain customers, improve profitability and accelerate business growth.

Our customers are testament to our commitment to delivering a solid foundation for mission-critical workloads, with the dependability, performance and flexibility required to achieve sustainable
competitive advantage in today’s financial services industry.

For more information, please visit: www.sibos.com

CRM Collaboration – Microsoft, Accenture and Avanade team up to deliver value for customers

mslosangelesblog — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 12:50:09 GMT

Accenture, Avanade and Microsoft are collaborating to create compelling CRM solutions for the financial services industry on Microsoft technology. For more than 10 years, we have delivered business and technology solutions to help our customers create more efficient and effective IT infrastructure, enable global collaboration, and develop and manage applications. One area in which we are powerhouse players is in the customer relationship management (CRM) space, helping companies build strong customer relationships and achieve extraordinary business value.

By combining our powers, we're leveraging CRMx3, adaptable and customizable solutions built on the Microsoft Dynamics CRM, enabling organizations to better engage customers and strengthen relationships across multiple channels through improved business intelligence and process automation. By applying invaluable industry insights and business knowledge, we can offer our customers exceptional CRM solutions designed for their specific needs.

For the financial services industry in particular, we have created two CRM solutions – CRM for Insurance and CRM for Wealth Management – that are built on Microsoft Dynamics CRM and that leverage SharePoint Server for reporting and collaboration. These solutions have broad market relevance and are being delivered to clients across the insurance, banking and capital market sectors around the globe. Since the beginning of January, 2010, we have engaged with market-leading clients, including Frankfurt-Trust Asset Management, Grosvenor and SEB, to help improve their customer-facing capabilities and spur growth, while reducing total cost of ownership.

Accenture and Avanade CRM for Insurance helps insurance organizations identify high-value clients, deliver consistent service throughout the customer lifecycle and target additional opportunities that customers truly value. The solution enables insurance carriers, agents and brokers to manage sales and access information from several departments in one familiar system, ultimately increasing sales by promoting selected products to target customers.

Accenture and Avanade CRM for Wealth Management furnishes financial management firms with a practical, flexible, and integrated solution to build financial portfolios, grow their business by quickly identifying products that match customer needs, and improve the overall customer experience.

With a complete view of the client, including up-to-date histories, financial advisors gain the information they need to spot opportunities quickly, match products to customer needs and increase customer satisfaction.

To learn more about our Microsoft Dynamics CRM offerings, visit http://crm.dynamics.com/en-us/home