Five biggest launches from Microsoft Inspire

Windows 365, additional partner benefits and a new sustainability cloud are among those announced at the conference

Microsoft's Inspire conference got underway yesterday, with CEO Satya Nadella and other senior leaders within the company using their keynote speeches to reveal several important announcements for both consumers and partners.

Opening the conference, Nadella said we were seeing "the greatest structural transformation in our economy in a generation" and that there was "no going back to digital adoption levels of two years ago".

He went on to claim that "every company will need to be a technology company in their own right", while stressing that the Microsoft Cloud will be vital in businesses continuing to digitally transform themselves.

Here are five of the biggest announcements made so far at the conference…

Windows 365

One of the key releases from the conference is the launch of Windows 365, which Microsoft labels as a "cloud PC" product that allows users to stream the operating system from anywhere and on any device.

"We are making windows available not just on Windows devices, but any device harnessing the power of the cloud," Nadella said.

"This has never been done before. And think about it, just like applications were brought to the cloud with SaaS, we are now bringing the operating system to the cloud with Windows 365."

Windows 365 will first launch on Windows 10 and then Windows 11, when the latter becomes generally available later this year following its reveal last month.

The vendor says that Windows 365 will create a "fully new personal computing category" and will allow remote and hybrid working to be carried out more easily - allowing users to "pick up right where they left off" regardless of the device being used.

It will create "new opportunities for partners", according to Microsoft, by allowing independent software vendors to "reach a broader audience" with their services, while managed service providers and system integrators will be needed to help customers "get the most out of their entire Windows estate".

"Windows 365 provides organisations whether they're a business of one or 1,000 with greater flexibility and a secure way to empower the workforce to be more productive and connected regardless of the location," Nadella added.

More investment in partners ‘than ever before'

Microsoft's corporate vice-president of global partner solutions, Nick Parker, said the company will be investing "more in partners across the company than ever before" during the fiscal year of 2022.

"We will continue to grow our investments in partner incentives, in our go-to-market areas, year-over-year, with a focus on value added elements such as activities, workshops and customer ads across our solution areas, with four times the growth from FY21," he said.

"We'll be investing in more sellers and programmes to co-sell with you to help build your scale offers, build deep industry solutions, as well as land your solutions in the marketplace to further scale and grow your business."

Microsoft currently works with more than 400,000 partners across the globe, and Parker added that the company would "continue to prioritise deep investments" in its industry teams with a focus on building solutions within the cloud.

Rodney Clark, corporate vice-president, channel sales and channel chief, also outlined a number of changes the tech giant is making to its partner efforts moving forward - including "realigning engineering teams to bring partner and seller experiences closer together" and "applying zero trust technology" to "keep fraud out" of its ecosystem.

He also added that Microsoft will be introducing new work surfaces in partner centre to "provide a consistent way to navigate", while the company is also investing in "frontline support teams" and is piloting ways for partners to schedule sessions with its experts more easily.

Cutting marketplace transaction fees

Another big change the company announced was plans to reduce its marketplace transaction fees from 20 per cent down to three per cent, which applies to "every transactable application published across AppSource and Azure Marketplace".

Nadella said this would allow companies to invest more in themselves and their people, claiming that "software and digital technologies represent the most malleable and infinite resource to drive the growth for the world".

And Charlotte Yarkoni, chief operating officer of Microsoft's Cloud and AI Division, said: "To us, this reduced transaction fee helps demonstrate our commitment to the success of partners creating value on our platform.

"This puts more margin in your pockets so that you can invest for growth."

She added that Microsoft's continued investment in its marketplace has led to "70 per cent year-over-year increase in transactable applications" and in a blog post announcing the change, said that partners have an "untapped opportunity to build productivity and collaborative applications in the new hybrid-work reality".

New benefits for independent software vendors

Yarkoni also went on to announce additional benefits aimed primarily at ISVs, including "a new private offer capability", more access to Microsoft technology and changes to the Business Applications ISV Connect programme.

The new private offer capability will allow ISVs to sell through its "90,000 cloud service providers" and to "access resellers across the globe".

Available in private preview, Yarkoni said it works by "allowing you to share margin with resellers and offer your solutions through their storefronts".

"Everyone wins. You get greater reach, cloud service providers get a broader solution offering and customers get greater flexibility and choice," she said.

"We're also announcing new benefits to help you build richer solutions with Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Viva.

"These benefits include access to Microsoft technology, like the Microsoft 365 developer sandbox and Microsoft Azure credits, one-on-one consults with Microsoft experts to help you design and build your application marketing resources to increase your exposure to new customers and support with achieving co-sell status."

Revenue sharing fees required as part of the Business Applications ISV Connect programme are also being "significantly reduced" from 20 per cent to three per cent.

"We're also improving our technical benefits with the new ISV app licence management capabilities to help ISVs manage end customer licencing as well as launching new discounted dev test environments to support our partners as they build applications," she added.

"Lastly, we're simplifying go-to-market benefits and lowering the bar to receive them. We will continue to allow our sellers to retire quota when co selling your IP, as well as have additional incentives for large deals with a select set of applications to drive even more momentum."

Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability

The new Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability will apply to "every industry", Nadella said, and will create "an entirely new business process category" to help address climate change.

It has been designed to allow companies to "measure, understand and take charge of their carbon emissions, set sustainability goals and take measurable action".

Features of the new cloud include companies being able to offer their customers a "sustainability scorecard" which tracks their progress against their carbon emission reduction goals, and CIOs being able to easily report on carbon emissions.

"In the years to come, I believe digital capability building around sustainability will be perhaps as critical for businesses as CRM is for sales and ERP for finance today," Nadella added.