Coopetition as a strategic means to walk the path of digital evolution? Finding success through cooperation and partnership rather that competition and isolation, can it be the way to go? Perhaps such an approach requires a lot of creative thinking, but this is precisely what our colleagues discovered at the 2019 Microsoft Business Summit in Frankfurt. From an organizational standpoint, we always encourage our experts to actively participate at events which offer valuable business insights and networking opportunities. Without a doubt, MBS was a great occasion for our AI, SAP and Cloud professionals to gain more knowledge in their fields of expertise and engage with current or potential partners.

A few details on MBS

It took place on October 22nd - 23rd in Frankfurt and it was the first edition held in this format, becoming the second largest Microsoft summit throughout the year, after Microsoft Inspire in USA. There were over 2800 participants, 120 presentations, workshops and panel discussions. Of course, the event was dedicated to the DACH market, which is our main point of interest.

The main theme was “Shared Intelligence” and it triggered rich conversations over the idea that collaboration is the only way to success.

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Key takeaways through our experts’ eyes (and ears)

According to our SAP Business Area Manager, Dacian Domocos, there were a lot of notable speakers at the event, among which:

• Sabine Bendiek – Managing Director Microsoft Germany

• Christian Mehrtens – Senior Vice-President SAP

• Wolfgang Ebermann – EMEA President Insight

Speaking of our partner Insight, we proudly accepted their invitation to hold a presentation at their dedicated booth. The topic was: “SAP migrations on Azure - how can Insight and Accesa become the dream-team partner of your company”, where we positioned ourselves as competent and trustworthy partners for the companies that want to embrace the benefits of Azure Cloud migrations. Dacian was happy to respond to a series of specific questions regarding challenges and advantages of SAP migrations.

Not only did Dacian share his SAP knowledge and engage with our partners, but he also paid close attention to the core of the “Shared Intelligence” concept. Below are his two main takeaways from the entire MBS event:

#1 Collaboration is the main driver: from research to new ways of working, from educating the new generation of specialists to strategy, all initiatives that make companies and institutions successful today have collaboration at their core.

#2 Success will only be possible if companies that have seen themselves as competitors in the past will work together as partners in the future.

On the Artificial Intelligence side of things, our AI Area Manager Ana Trisca was eager to attend as many presentations and workshops as possible, in an attempt to quench her thirst for knowledge and innovative approaches in AI.

Computer Vision, industry-applied AI research, AI services availability both for business users and developers, built-in AI features, efficient ways to learning AI, using AI for the greater good, there were several topics which spoke to Ana’s curiosity. She was also impressed with Sabine Bendiek’s keynote on Shared Intelligence and found that collaboration rather that competition can indeed trigger a different, more efficient approach to doing business. Her main takeaways from the event are:

#1 In response to Pablo Picasso’s quote, “Computers are useless. They can only give you answers”, it is our responsibility to address the right questions in digital evolution.

#2 Accessibility of AI services should be a strategic priority, enabling ease of use and effortless implementation to our customer.

While Dacian and Ana were fully engaged in presentations and workshops, our Cloud expert Peter Meckes spent a lot of time networking with current and potential partners. We highly rely on consistent communication and openness with customers and collaborators, so Peter took a wealth of inspiration and insights about our partners' next points of convergence.

For instance, Microsoft considers Cloud Security and Governance to be a hot topic for next year. Most customers are ready to “embrace” Cloud from a technical point of view, but, at the same time, there are serious concerns regarding the legal & security aspects of it. Addressing such concerns will represent a top priority in the near future, especially when it comes to Office 365 and Azure.

All things considered...

This year's Microsoft Business Summit in Frankfurt was a great opportunity for some of our experts to dive into a highly engaging topic such as Shared Intelligence. Whether it was about digital sovereignty, AI accessibility, machine learning, coopetition as a new way of collaborating or innovation empowered by strong partnerships, our #AI, #SAP and #Cloud professionals had a lot of valuable insights to amass and also share. A big thank you to the organizers for offering such a thought-provoking event and to our partners for having us at their booths.