Speaking at Microsoft’s annual conference in Atlanta in Georgia, the chief executive Satya Nadella outlined the company’s latest enterprise software strategy, focusing on intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT) and its social tool Office Delve.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Intelligence
Big data has been a big topic for the industry for awhile now, with many predicting huge benefits for businesses from the collection and analysis of data, particular with the advent of wearable technology and other connected devices.
"I think we’re at the dawn of a new generation of business systems," Nadella said. "With the advent of unlimited computing capacity in the cloud, as well as these new rich data platforms that have the ability, in real time, to reason with data, we can now build these systems of intelligence."
As part of this strategy Microsoft has launched Power BI (Business Intelligence), a data visualiser. Now available internationally, the platform will soon be extended with plugins to the services like Google Analytics, Microsoft Dynamics Marketing and Zuora, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendor.
In addition further features will be rolled out for Microsoft Dynamics CRM halfway through the year, including the first Social Engagement tool, designed to monitor social interactions across Microsoft products.
2. Internet of Things
The world is careering towards IoT at quite a speed these days, a trend that is allowing Microsoft to realise one of its chief ambitions, to play a part in the creation of "this new era of even more personal computing".
"In any given day you’re interacting and moving with devices," Nadella said. "So when you think about mobile first we want to build devices that are about mobility of experience, not the mobility of the device."
As such Microsoft has announced an IoT Suite for its cloud platform Azure, available in preview later this year, allowing enterprise customers to better monitor their "things". Azure Stream Analytics will also allow customers to process data from those items, iSn theory to improve business processes.
Alongside those updates Microsoft has said it will release Windows 10 for a range of IoT devices, including cash points and industrial robots. All this will be rolled into a universal platform, aiding integration between business systems.
3. Social
It is a cliché for a technology company to claim that it is putting people at the centre of its innovation, but with Microsoft’s launch of Office Delve the claim is not unreasonable.
Billed as a kind of social network for the enterprise, the tool functions as a dashboard directing your attention to the most important tasks and feeds from your colleagues. This aids collaboration by improving transparency within the firm, flattening otherwise hierarchical organisations.
"I think whenever you think about any change now, especially any change that’s driven by technology, it starts as individuals becoming comfortable with these new forms of tech and how we’re using it in our daily lives," Nadella said.
Alongside Delve, Microsoft also showed off a technical preview for Skype for Business, which will be out in April as part of the cloud suite Office 365. It also previewed Office 2016, expected out in the second half of the year.
