“It’s no longer about procuring one solution and deploying one. It’s really you yourself thinking of your own future as a digital company.” – Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella
With cloud, mobile, social, and big data transforming the everyday lives of our customers – the only option today’s businesses are left with – is to prepare for change or let competitors take over.
As a Microsoft Surface Life Brand Ambassador, I’ve been to several Microsoft events where products are being showcased, highlighting the key role they play in improving operational efficiency and meeting customer expectations for various businesses.
Very recently, I was invited to one such event: a tour to the first Microsoft Premier Store in Sydney. At the event, I met up with a few of my fellow brand ambassadors.
Initially, Microsoft’s solutions were aimed at large enterprises with huge budgets, which made overhauling their legacy systems with new innovative solutions a challenge.
On the other hand, Microsoft solutions have found much bigger success with small- to mid-sized businesses, those that are agile enough to shift from their status quo and transform in all their entirety.
So, what were the key products displayed at this Microsoft event, and why do I think this could be the answer to your SMB’s digital transformation journey? Let’s have a look.
Those of you who have followed my personal digital transformation journey have hardly ever seen me without my Surface Book. I cannot simply quantify the ease, time, and flexibility it provides me as I demo our own Digital Transformation Platform, i4tradies, to Trade Services business owners across Australia.
If you are an engineer, an artist, or someone who craves for a big digital canvas to pour out your creative juices on, Microsoft Surface Studio is the answer!
The all-in-one Studio offers integration to all of Microsoft’s business solutions and comes with a touch display and a Surface Pen, transforming the way your teams create and display ideas.
Moving to the cloud is a major step to stay competitive.
Having created my own cloud-based Customer Experience Management solution for Trades Services businesses (which I spoke about in a recent podcast interview: “How to ‘Think Digital’ to Improve Your Business Processes to Deliver Exceptional Customer Experience“), I was immediately drawn to another impressive product: the Microsoft version of CRM known as the Dynamics 365 Business Module.
If you are looking for an all-in-one solution to manage customer relations, improve marketing and sales, create power apps and handle all financials in one place, Dynamics 365 is the answer.
Connect your Dynamics 365 to the Microsoft cloud solution – Azure Platform – and you are all set to collaborate with your remote teams on a secure and reliable platform.
An exciting development by Microsoft that brings virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality has come our way. Microsoft takes us to a whole new level with its new HTC Vive Headsets and the Microsoft HoloLens.
While these seem to be the perfect complementary technology for Xbox lovers, let’s take a look at how HTC Vive headsets and the Microsoft HoloLens can help small businesses.
HTC Vive Headsets and Microsoft Hololens can transform the way your teams work in 3D data, unlocking new possibilities for productivity and learning.
Having worked with Aussie Tradies for the last three years while developing my own digital transformation innovation for Trades Services SMBs (i4Tradies), I believe it’s a great opportunity for builders to create virtual reality “walk-throughs” for their customers in a 3D format. This is also a great way to show off concept designs.
What’s more? Trades Services apprentices can learn through real work scenarios in digital environments with immersive tools like the HTC Vive headsets and the Microsoft HoloLens.
With Microsoft’s newest technology, the possibilities are endless for Australian SMBs in all industries.
Image Credit: Techcrunch
As a LinkedIn SMB trainer and a regular user of LinkedIn to expand my global network, I was delighted get some insights on some of Microsoft’s upcoming seamless integration with LinkedIn!
LinkedIn has almost 450+ million professionals globally and Microsoft saw this as a great opportunity. Plans are already in place for seamlessly integrating LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator with Microsoft’s core business solution platforms. As a Digital Transformation advocate, the benefits for me and the Australian SMBs are clear: the capability to tap into vital information and engagement with customers is within reach and indeed to expand their network to capture their target market.
If you have already invested in Microsoft Suites to manage your business, this could be the right time to take your business to the next level by leveraging the advanced integration Microsoft offers across all its hardware and software product lines.
I highly recommend adopting some or all of the above Microsoft solutions to digitally transform your business, extending the benefits across your people, processes, and products.
For more information, feel free to get in touch with one of the Microsoft Ambassadors listed below, and we will be more than happy to direct you to the right people within Microsoft to assist you in choosing a Microsoft solution that best complements your SMB.
If you are based in Sydney or visiting Sydney, feel free to visit the very impressive Microsoft store at Pitt Street and talk to one of the friendly staff to get first-hand experience on your SMB needs.
