On Tuesday, July 14 at the 2015 Worldwide Partner Conference, the US Partner Team is delivering a day of sessions, leading up to the Microsoft North America General Session at 4:00PM. Session content will focus on lighting up user experiences that are enabled by technology, and will help you understand how to build a new practice or enhance an existing one—while keeping your profitability in mind.
- Registered attendees: add these sessions to your WPC Schedule by signing in to WPC Connect, then clicking this link, or filtering on Partner Type > US Partner from the right side of your Connect screen. You can then select just the sessions you want to attend, or add them all to your schedule and choose among them later.
- If you’re not yet registered, you can see the US sessions list and descriptions in the Session Catalog by filtering on Partner Type > US Partner from the right side of your screen.
I would also like to invite all US partners who are registered for WPC to join me in the United States group in WPC Connect. The group is available to you from your Groups menu. As we approach the conference, that group will be a helpful source of information about US-specific activities at WPC 2015.
We look forward to seeing you at WPC 2015 in just a few short weeks!
Stay informed about WPC 2015 and US partner activities
US partner activities at WPC 2015 in Orlando, Florida include our Meet and Greet networking event, People for Innovation event, US Sessions, Microsoft North America General Session, US Celebration, and United States lounge in The Commons. Look for more details about all of these activities soon.
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US Sessions and MSNA General Session on Tuesday, July 14
| US01 9:00AM–10:00AM Selling is not enough – going beyond “speeds and feeds” for profitability Breakout session | Today’s customers are more informed than ever, and are engaging later and later in the sales cycle. To run a profitable partner business, your sales strategy has to evolve beyond selling products, features, and solutions, and instead guide customers to technology use cases that truly address the specific needs of their businesses and employees. In this session, learn about the new sales skills and metrics your business needs for the cloud-first era. |
| US02 9:00AM–10:00AM Moneyball: Winning the hybrid cloud game as a Managed Service Provider Breakout session | Cloud-based managed services is an emerging partner business model. In this US Partner Team session, learn about the Edge Cloud initiative that enabled Managed Service Providers to offer an on-premises private cloud integrated with Azure and Office 365, and deliver services like remote management and device management. We’ll discuss the results of this pilot, the emerging business models, and new MSP revenue streams, as well as how you can participate in the Edge Cloud initiative. |
| US03 9:00AM–10:00AM US03R 1:00PM–2:00PM Accelerate and simplify your Microsoft Azure sales cycle Workshop session | In this workshop from the US Partner Team, learn how to use the new Microsoft Azure Estimator, technical presales support, and the Azure consumption plan to build a powerful Statement of Work for your customer that gets results. You’ll hear best practices, tips, and guidance from the US Azure Business Development Manager team for applying these tools to accelerate and simplify your Azure sales cycle. Bring your laptop for hands-on experience creating your own estimates. |
| US04 9:00AM–10:00AM Increase your device sales and services profitability Panel session | With hardware margins continuing to decline, maintaining profitability in a practice largely based on Windows device sales can be challenging. In this session from the US Partner Team, join Steve Adams (the “Device Guy”) and a panel of Microsoft and partner experts for a discussion about how to add packaged services and managed services to round out your devices practice and prepare for Windows 10 device opportunities. |
| US05 10:30AM–11:30AM Business insights and happy employees: how your customers benefit from integrating Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics, and Power BI with Windows 10 Breakout session | Today’s employees must navigate an ever-increasing patchwork of apps, and finding the right tool or application to accomplish a task takes longer than the task itself. In this US Partner Team session, learn how Windows 10 enables you to create innovative, task-based experiences that integrate the power of Office 365, Dynamics CRM, and Power BI—as well as other desktop or web apps—and empower people to search less and do more. Wow your customers, and increase your revenues. Companion workshop: session US12 |
| US06 10:30AM–11:30AM Delivering disaster recovery and backup solutions to SMB customers Breakout session | For SMB customers, disaster recovery and backup solutions are often deemed too expensive to invest in. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), 40% of businesses affected by disaster never reopen. In this session from the US Partner Team, learn how to build a Microsoft Azure practice around storage, backup, and recovery that addresses SMB customer technology needs for being prepared when disaster strikes, so they can get back to business quickly to serve their customers. |
| US07 2:30PM–3:30PM Build your Microsoft Dynamics ERP business with Microsoft Azure Workshop session | Microsoft Dynamics ERP on Microsoft Azure is an effective solution for many companies. Configuring and quoting the right Azure environment, though, can be tricky and time-consuming. In this session, you’ll learn about a simple, yet powerful, sales toolset that will help you have the Microsoft Cloud for Business dialog with your customers. Experts from the Microsoft Azure and Dynamics teams in the US subsidiary will explain how to position and drive actionable cloud selling strategies. |
| US08 10:30AM–11:30AM Monetizing Healthcare IT: Adapting to trends in cloud, analytics, mobile, and compliance Workshop session | From 2012 to 2020, healthcare data is expected to grow 50x. Penalties for HIPAA violations can run in the millions. Healthcare providers must modernize their IT infrastructures. In this US Partner Team session, learn how Microsoft worked with Epic and other healthcare partners to unlock cloud, analytics, and mobile solutions. You’ll hear examples of healthcare providers who are using software-defined datacenter, saving costs, managing exponential data growth, and turning data into insights. |
| US09 10:30AM–11:30AM From value definition to usage: your customer’s Office 365 journey Panel session | You can lead the definition and delivery of the customer business and IT transformation journey to the cloud. In this session from the US Partner Team, learn how to take your customers from value definition to usage with Microsoft Office 365 sales assets like the Value Discovery Workshop, Microsoft Experience Center (MEC), the Customer Success Center, FastTrack, and the Customer Learning Center. We’ll share best practices and guidance that you can start applying to your business immediately. |
| US10 10:30AM–11:30AM Build a profitable Microsoft Azure practice: US partners share their success stories Panel session | The wide variety of services that Microsoft Azure offers means you have many ways to approach building a profitable practice. In a discussion facilitated by the US Partner Team, based on last year’s popular and highly rated session, a panel of some of our newest Azure partners will talk about why they decided to start an Azure practice, and how they have made that practice profitable. |
| US11 1:00PM–2:00PM Bring the benefits of technology to life for your customers: increase your sales with the Microsoft Experience Center Panel session | When making technology buying decisions, customers have access to tremendous amounts of information before ever talking to a seller. Your sales conversations with customers must focus on how new technology experiences will help them achieve their business goals and make employees more productive. In this session from the US Partner Team, learn how you can use the Microsoft Experience Center (MEC) to increase your sales. |
| US12 2:30PM–3:30PM Microsoft Experience Selling Workshop: Windows 10 Apportal Prototype Generator Workshop session | Use personalized Windows Apportal prototypes to demonstrate to customers how Windows 10, Office 365, Dynamics CRM, and Power BI can transform their businesses. In this US Partner workshop, learn how to build tailored Windows 10 Apportal demos by industry, line of business, and role. We’ll also show you how to share the demo with your customer using the Apportal Prototype Viewer. Wow your customers, and increase your revenues. Companion session: US05 |
| US13 2:30PM–3:30PM Build new, recurring cloud revenue streams by adding Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online to your practice Panel session | Microsoft Dynamics solutions energize and empower customer engagement with real-time information and collaboration. When combined with Microsoft Azure and Office 365, the suite of Microsoft Dynamics solutions, such as CRM Online, Parature, Social Listening, and Dynamics Marketing, is incredibly powerful. In this session from the US Partner Team, learn the factors for partner success with CRM Online and how it can help you get in front of the customer’s business stakeholders. |
| REG01 4:00PM–5:30PM Microsoft North America General Session: Selling experiences to win | Join Judson Althoff, President of Microsoft North America, to get insights about your opportunities, visibility to best practices for success, and guidance for working with Microsoft. Judson will be joined on stage by partners, customers, and industry experts. |