Moves to embrace total mobility

In line with the mega-trend of “mobile first, cloud first”, Microsoft is committed to working closely with local partners in each country to transform business operations across a wide range of industries onto the cloud and into mobility. 

The move forms part of Microsoft’s global strategy to help enterprises embrace the mobile-first, cloud-first world. According to Gartner, nearly half of large enterprises worldwide will likely have hybrid cloud deployments by the end of 2017.

Alvaro Celis, vice president of the Sales, Marketing, Services, IT & Operations Group at Microsoft Asia Pacific, said the mobile-first, cloud-first concept would be the mega-trend in the years to come.

Microsoft can see the increase of mobile and cloud investments across Asia-Pacific, he said, adding that this transformation is expected to accelerate economic growth in the region, while customers’ security and privacy remain among the top concerns as businesses continue their transition to the cloud. 

Microsoft has set itself as the productivity and platform company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, said the executive. 

According to International Data Corp, the public cloud market in Asia-Pacific is expected to be worth US$8.6 billion (Bt277.8 billion) by the end of next year. 

Meanwhile, mobile-application use in the workplace will double in the same year, and $68 billion will be spent on mobile devices across Asia-Pacific by 2017, said IDC.

Celis said Thailand was no exception when it came to cloud momentum, especially in the key sectors of tourism and hospitality, which generated 20.2 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product last year.

“We have 1,800 partners in Thailand. Our collaboration with Mverge has succeeded in driving Dusit International, a leading hospitality group in Asia, to achieve an unprecedented degree of business agility and efficiency, allowing the group to further uphold its high standards of service, strengthen guest loyalty, and propel a top Thai brand onto the world stage,” he added.

Srisombat Wangchin, Dusit International assistant vice president, Information Technology, said Microsoft’s cloud-based productivity suite Office 365, which incorporates communication and collaboration tools such as Lync and SharePoint, allowed Dusit employees to be productive and responsive anytime, anywhere and on virtually any device. 

“Mobile and cloud technologies now play a major role in many facets of our customers’ lives, and the hospitality sector is required to integrate these advances into operations-management processes. We now can securely share information such as guest preferences or interaction history across our entire chain of hotels and resorts,” said the executive.

Meanwhile, Anukul Piyatananukul, general manager of Microsoft’s partner Mverge, said the US-based giant was the sole cloud vendor to offer a full range of solutions for public, private and hybrid cloud set-ups, and no other vendor had received certifications from all 28 national data-protection authorities in the European Union. 

In addition to leadership in technology and security, Microsoft is also able to prime partners like Mverge for growth in a market that is undergoing rapid transformation with the rise of the cloud, he said. 

“Our success story with Dusit International spans more than seven years, and we have been a Microsoft partner for more than 10 years,” he added.

The Microsoft Partner Network encompasses 430,000 registered partners worldwide, making it the largest IT-partner ecosystem in the world, said Celis. In 2014 fiscal year, which ended in June, the firm invested $140 million worldwide in its partners.

“For every dollar we earn in Thailand, partners can generate $12 or more in revenue, and we are confident that this partner network will continue to make significant contributions to the economy,” he added.