Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2012: Toronto

Last week, the City of Toronto was flooded with more than 16, 000 people representing Microsoft Partners from all over the world! Partners from coast to coast took  part in the biggest ever Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC). 
WPC travels the globe to take place in a new city every year giving Microsoft Partners a chance to discover the latest technology and trends to come in the year ahead. It also provides a valuable forum to gain industry knowledge, and learn new strategies to ensure Microsoft Partners, like Ideaca, can continuously deliver the highest standards of care and information to our customers.


This year, the conference was held in Toronto at the Metro Convention Centre and the Air Canada Centre. The conference was said to bring in the most traffic throughout the GTA that Toronto has ever seen for a conference, and even brought in a whooping $500 million to the City of Toronto! 

Each day Ideacans experienced  dozens of sessions and key note speakers that helped us to learn new strategies and product knowledge. There were even a few ground-breaking announcements, such as a demonstration shown on Kinnect that scanned a person to virtually produce them in 3D, then their 3D image was printed out into a 3D mold!  Truly a thing to see!  We also spotted new laptops that can convert into a tablet; which will be beneficial to all those stubborn people who cannot part without their keyboards. There was also a great deal of hype around the new Windows 8 phone and operating system that is sure to make many smartphone and Windows 7 users change their mind about what they currently have. Windows CMO and CFO Tami Reller announced at the conference that the new Windows 8 operating system will be launch in 231 markets worldwide, starting in October 2012.

The 5-day conference kicked off with a stunning performance by Cirque du Soleil and wrapped up Thursday night with a packed concert by the Grammy Award winning band Train. What a week! Ideaca is proud to have been apart of it and we look forward to sharing our new learning with our customers in the year to come.

Were you at WPC this year? What was your favourite part?
 

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When the Forecast Calls for Clouds

 

Is cloud computing right for your company? Inc. posted an article on the different ways you can use Cloud Computing, and how making the switch could benefit your company. Check out the article link below and tell us how your company benefits from the "cloud".

When the Forecast Calls for Clouds.

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BI and Analytics Top Technology Priority for CIOs in 2012

Gartner's recent worldwide survey to over 2000 CIOs conducted in the fourth quarter of 2011, noted that analytics/business intelligence was the top-ranked technology priority for 2012. Gartner notes that "CIOs are combining analytics with other technologies to create new capabilities" and that increasing enterprise growth is their top priority. 
 
Some questions to keep in mind as investments in BI and analytics continue to grow in 2012:

• How can we manage Operational and Enterprise BI initiatives without impacting the business user community?
• Can we embrace BI-in-a-box and maintain the integrity of one version of the truth?
• What does the future of BI hold for information integrity and decision making accountability?

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Onshoring US Manufacturing - Strategies for the Future

A recent article published by The Globe and Mail indicates that large US manufacturers are reverting their offshoring business strategies. Larger manufacturers like Boeing Co. and General Electric Co. are now finding that the benefits of lower wages accrued through offshoring strategies are offset by higher material costs and logistics. Here are some interesting things to keep in mind:

• The US unemployment rate of 8.3% stands as a significant barrier towards full economic recovery from the economic downturn of 2007 - 2009;
• The resurgence of US manufacturing added 50,000 new jobs during the month of January;
• As some manufacturers begin transitioning their business processes by onshoring what was previously offshored work, CEO's will be looking to fill approximately 600,000 manufacturing jobs;
• According to The Institute for Supply Management, US factories grew in January at the fastest pace in seven months at a reported index rating of 54.1 (ratings above 50 indicate expansion).

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What is the Cost of Internet Freedom?

Like any other day, I went to Google and tried to "Wikipedia" a term to find out the meaning behind it. To my surprise, the page was blocked, and this sign (above picture) was hosted on the site, instead of the usual "search" page. It has come to my attention that Wikipedia has decided to black out their online encyclopedia to raise awareness against the U.S. Congress who is considering legislation that could risk our internet being free and open.

How would this change our world, and the way that we go about our daily lives, as we have come to rely so heavily on the internet? It is scary to think that something like this could take place, and that our "free" resources could be taken away from us. Wikipedia is a site that I can guarantee, most people have used on multiple occasions, to find out a quick fact, or to reference a specific topic.

If Wikipedia is a free source that can be suddenly taken away from us, what other kinds of "reliable" internet resources may be taken away too?

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The Mobile Working Population Will Continue to Grow

The "Mobile Worker" will no longer be a thing of the "future", but slowly will become a very present reality. The portable freedom one has when working on their phone is enough to change the way we work, and view our working environments.

It has come to be a serious concern of most employees, as they are feeling that they are not getting the most out of their days, as they are stuck having to go into their offices for simple tasks. The mobile device however, has started to completely erase this process of "going into the office just to answer an e-mail".

This of course adds to the flexibility of the modern day worker to have the independence and ease to come and go as they please, as they are able to get their work done, wherever they are, and not necessarily having to be present in the office. People are suddenly given the freedom to do this anywhere, at any time, in the palm of their hands.

Does this cause any problems, or take away from being social and making face time with your company/clients? Or is this the way the world is going, and it is something that we have to come to accept?

Check out this article from IDC (International Data Corporation) about the predictions for our mobile future can be found here.

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