Microsoft SA pushes People-Ready vision to verticals

Business is all about getting the best from your people and technology can enable a workforce transformation. That's the message that delegates to Microsoft SA's People-Ready Business Summit heard on Tuesday.

In a distinct change from the company's usual technology punt, Microsoft executives encouraged businesses to empower their biggest asset: their workforce.

"Microsoft's People-Ready business is a vision. It's about betting on people, betting on software and betting on Microsoft to empower your people," explained Belinda Godfrey, Microsoft SA's small, mid market solutions and partner group director.

Pointing to research conducted by Keystone Strategy, Godfrey said that the top 25% of companies employing IT saw an average of 23% more revenue per head.

"We have identified four main workplace trends. There is just one world of business; business - and its employees - are always on, always connected; organisations are more transparent; and pressures to reduce costs continue. However a third of people in our research are saying that their work is not being done productively," noted Godfrey.

"If we can improve employee productivity, we can make a significant impact on the business bottom line."

Microsoft's vision is now all about the people and enabling a productivity jump within the workforce.

"We need to simplify the way that people work together; whether that is in the same office, building, company or world. We need to help our employees to prioritise in a world where there is simultaneously an overload of information but an 'underload' of information which is required for performance. And we need to ensure that our processes and employee actions are efficient and inline with regulatory requirements," said Godfrey.

Microsoft's range of offerings is able to address these workforce requirements and the company has a depth of expertise in a variety of vertical industries which local businesses could leverage, Godfrey told delegates.

Moving into vertical-specific presentations, Microsoft highlighted trends and challenges it believed most relevant for business delegates.

Within professional services, Microsoft said companies would have to address the sharing of knowledge across client activities. Content would need to be created and managed for use by clients and client service teams.

The financial services industry is facing sweeping, unprecedented change, said Microsoft. Banks, insurance companies and other similar institutions face challenges presented mega-mergers, decreasing margins, a more rigorous regulatory environment and fierce competition. However, the software giant has developed a financial services-focused roadmap which addressed these issues.

As the retail and hospitality industry seeks to redefine the manner in which they do business, companies in the sector are rethinking the idea of the store itself. As a result, a new generation of digital technologies are being adopted to drive success, said Microsoft.

Noting the "formidable challenges" facing the manufacturing industry, Microsoft acknowledged that there is no 'one-size-fits-all' solution. Instead it addressed business challenges individually.

As for distribution, Microsoft said that companies within this industry were moving towards more advanced distribution management processes as competition increased and concerns of disintermediation grew.