The top 5 things retailers won’t want to miss from Microsoft Ignite 2016
Autumn means different things to different people. The busy back-to-school time. The kick off of football season. The start of the holidays. Or the time for their beloved, or despised, pumpkin spice everything. For Microsoft, it also means our Ignite technology conference where thousands of IT professionals gather to learn about some of the latest breakthroughs in digital technology that will empower them to drive innovation and transformation in their organizations.
Just back from the event, I wanted to share the exciting new technology innovations Microsoft showcased to make it easier to do just that, addressing some of the most pressing challenges and opportunities facing technology professionals today, spanning productivity, security, intelligence and the cloud.
Here are the top five things retail tech professionals won’t want to miss.
Productivity/Empowerment. We’re pleased to introduce Microsoft StaffHub—a new app for deskless workers to manage their life at work. With Microsoft StaffHub, it’s easy to create and manage shift schedules for your retail employees and provide relevant information needed for the job. For deskless workers, their work schedule, and other important information, is right at their fingertips—on their mobile device. Starting today, Microsoft StaffHub is available in public preview for Office 365 customers. Learn more here.
Security. Security enhancements across Microsoft’s products, including Windows 10, Office 365 and Enterprise Mobility + Security, offer powerful protection against security threats. Read more here.
Intelligence. New artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities that span agents, applications, services and infrastructure transform what’s possible for people and organizations. You can learn more here.
Cloud. Building on the industry’s richest hybrid cloud portfolio, the release of Windows Server 2016 and System Center 2016 helps transform a retail organization’s infrastructure to support future-ready cloud applications, while advances in the Microsoft cloud infrastructure provide a path toward an AI supercomputer in the cloud. You can learn more here. And in other cloud-related news, Adobe and Microsoft announced a strategic partnership to strengthen customer engagement with the help of Microsoft Azure, Adobe Marketing Cloud and Microsoft Dynamics 365.
Industry Innovation Examples. Retail and consumer goods innovators like Allrecipes, Crystal Group, The Hershey Company, Lowe’s, Renault-Nissan and Ziosk were in full force, sharing exciting examples this week of using technology to transform their businesses.
You can see and learn more about these opportunities by watching the event’s on-demand keynote videos and checking out all the news here. We look forward to hearing what you think! Feel free to share your comments with us on Twitter at @msretail.
LinkedIn: Chris Barnard
