Partner takeaways from Microsoft's Future Decoded 2019 event

We round up the key messages from Microsoft's annual London show

Microsoft Future Decoded was the first UK partner conference since the vendor's summer of tension.

The elephant in the room was that since August, the Microsoft Partner Network has been rocked by partner resistance to a series of changes from the tech giant.

An announced end to "unaffordable" internal user rights (IUR) kicked up such a furore that it was hastily withdrawn. And the impending withdrawal of Software Assurance Benefits has set some partners' teeth on edge, and is still scheduled to go ahead next February.

So, what was the mood music from partners at Future Decoded at the ExCeL Centre in London?

1. Microsoft needs to show it ‘does want partners to be involved'

CDW's public cloud architect Jack Tracey was quick to say that the past three months haven't been the easiest time to be a Microsoft partner.

He's hoping to see Microsoft more clearly communicate its plans with the channel, rather than blindsiding them.

"It's been an interesting journey," he said.

"There has been a lot of hype and a lot of rumour. And not a lot has come to fruition yet.

"But they have released some really nice features, like Azure Lighthouse - from that governance perspective, having a central view of your customers in one place. And with that release, it was really nice that they showed that they do want partners to be involved.

"But it hasn't been an easy few months, and I think there's more to come. Ignite [in November] will tell a lot."

Crayon's UK MD Richard Lockey agreed that it has been "a challenging, but positively challenging time."

"The environment Microsoft is working in is changing. And the message it is taking to market and the solutions it's driving in the marketplace are different," he said.

"Because of that, they need their existing partners to evolve - something we're certainly taking to heart and trying to drive on a global level. It doesn't come without its challenges, in terms of incentive schemes and internal usage rights, and all the other well-publicised areas that are challenging. But they need to be done and Microsoft is trying to implement them in the best way it can."

However, Lockey is also hoping that Microsoft will better communicate its plans ahead of time.

"We are being listened to, but we would like changes to happen quicker. But we understand that this is quite a big organisation to turn around, with a huge partner community."

2. Azure Marketplace ‘cannot be ignored'

Computacenter's director of end-user services Rob Stanley zeroed in on the developments to Azure Marketplace.

"The Azure Marketplace is definitely maturing now, so putting in a platform around secure managed devices is an area that's a lot more mature than it has been. And it allows customers to focus on adding value over and above that," he said.

"We've had a very open discussion with Microsoft on its managed desktop and its aspirations for that. And now we can go away and work out how we will work with them on our joint customers to land that."

New Signature's founder Dan Scarfe also highlighted the advancement of Azure Marketplace as a development that partners ignore at their peril.

"Marketplaces are still a relatively new concept, but we're starting to have quite a lot of success," Scarfe said.

"It cannot be ignored…And for partners like us, it forces us to be a little bit more succinct. The fact that we've got to put something onto a marketplace means we have to describe it adequately and be able to deploy it in a repeatable fashion.

"So it's something that we are putting a lot of work into at the moment to actually get that reproducibility in terms of the services we offer to customers."

3. AI - the channel needs to scale, now

Microsoft UK CEO Cindy Rose (pictured) told partners that one of her top priorities is to encourage them to develop an AI strategy to scale, stressing that in her view, experimentation alone is no longer enough.

Rose cited a PwC estimate that AI will contribute up to $15tn to the global economy over the next decade.

"But the question for us now, a year on is are we as businesses and society ready for AI to scale?" she asked.

"Last year was about starting, and this year is about getting serious."

It was a message echoed by Microsoft's VP of commercial partners UK, Joe Macri, who predicted that every company will be an AI company in five years.

He emphasised that this is behind the vendor's repeated calls for the channel to invest in AI, now.

"It's important that the UK does not get left behind in this," he said.

Macri was positive about the progress that has been made thus far.

He revealed that out of the 1,000 Azure partners the vendor has in the UK, around 300 already have a data analytics or AI solution.

"The reason that's important is in order to get this solution in the [Azure Marketplace] catalogue, they need a combination of the certified skills, the capabilities and the customer references go with it. So that's really exciting for us to see so many of our partners already investing in this way," Macri said.

One of those is Computacenter.

Its director of end-user services Rob Stanley said that Microsoft's push on AI will drive the most significant changes for customers over the next year.

"I think we will be surprised by how quickly workplace transformation accelerates," he said.

"I think that now, even at the large-scale enterprise where we operate, the progress of transformation is accelerating rapidly. And I think we will see more change in the next five years than we have done in the last 20 years."

4. Partners welcome Microsoft Teams' new feature

Microsoft's executive team also talked up the vendor's planned roadmap to take companies away from its Skype for Business communications platform and towards Microsoft Teams.

Part of the marketing message involved hyping up its AI capabilities, and how the investments Microsoft is putting in to making Teams as intuitive and reactive as possible to customer needs, will reap dividends for partners selling it.

"We're driving a lot of change," Macri said.

"Microsoft is transforming, our partner ecosystem is transforming, and partners will see the benefits of that."

Part of that transformation means that new features have been added to Microsoft Teams, to bolster options for chatting, calling, and holding meetings.

And five more feature additions are due to come over the next few weeks.

Crayon's Lockey said that he sees Teams as an important addition to Crayon's Microsoft portfolio.

"One of the takeaways that is key for me and will be the focus for Crayon this year is around Microsoft Teams deployment usage and adoption," he said.

"The other is the traction that people are getting within the AI marketplace today, of which Crayon is extremely well positioned as the global Microsoft AI partner of the year."