Intergen Smarts 29

7/31/2019 Intergen Smarts 29

1/12

The tehnlg inust is nwn its

ai ae hange. Whethe innatin

haens t hawae stwae, the

inust is ee eling, ting

eseatel at times t ie us

all with the tls an tehnlgies t

ime the wa we lie, w an la.

Broader industry trends such as the

increasing adoption of mobile devices, the

rise in big data and business analytics, andthe empowerment of people through social

media and, even, the movement to bring

your own device means those of us in the

IT sector have to regularly assess where the

industry is heading, and whether what is

happening is an evolution or a revolution.

Regardless, both situations require

consideration and action.

Microsoft is leading this change.

Recognising that people are more closely

tied to technology than ever before,

Microsoft is, over the next 12 months,embarking on an aggressive release

schedule designed to attract and retain,

grow and shrink, evolve and upheave the

myriad ways we interact and work with each

other, our organisations and the devices with

which we interact.

Recent announcements at Microsofts

Worldwide Partner Conference, and at

the Microsoft Office 2013 update event

have explicitly laid out where Microsoft

and its partners (hardware, software and

implementation partners such as Intergen)see the industry moving. Other more subtle

signals are sent and received virtually every

day by an industry that, for once in a long

time, is experiencing as Gartner would

call it a nexus of opportunity, where the

movements of mobile, cloud and social

are creating waves of (potentially

significant) change.

Like any revolution there are believers and

disbelievers, but also like any revolution, there

has to be a recognition that change is afoot,

and that there are new opportunities for allof us to rethink how technology impacts what

we do and how we best take advantage of it.

TH E INT ELL IGE NT BU SI NE SS MA GA ZIN E | ISSUE 29 | 2012

Evolution and Revolution:Microso Challenges the Status Quo

With an active release schedule over the next 12 months, Microsoft is looking to

transform how we work, live and play with a series of exciting oerings.

IN THIS ISSUE...

INTErGENITES AT Work ANd pLAy 2

INTrodUcTIoN 3

SHArEpoINT 2013 4

cLIckdIMENSIoNS for dyNAMIcS crM 6

cASE STUdy: rock TEAM 7

THE ENGAGEd WEB 8

WINdoWS rEAdINESS 9

MIcroSofT WorLdWIdE pArTNEr coNfErENcE 11

cASE STUdy: THE co-opErATIvE BANk 12

How we as users and as organisations

look to embrace or disregard these changes

can have consequences. Being too hasty

in our decision-making can create issues,

as time, effort and funding potentially get

squandered on initiatives that have limited

value; similarly, taking too long to decide

can have similar results. In the past, it was

often the IT part of the organisation which

initiated changes in technology, which may

or may not have aligned to the objectivesof the organisation. As the industry

matured, management took a greater role

in influencing what technology decisions

were made. This is still largely the case, but

users are also having an increasing level of

influence, as software becomes easier to

access, and personal devices straddle roles

at home and in the workplace.

What is certain is that the industry will

remain dynamic and we as participants

and as decision-makers all play a role.

Evolution or revolution? Its up to us.


2/12

2

Copyright 2012 Intergen Limited. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the permission of Intergen Limited.

3. Thats how many times weve been awarded Microsoft

Country Partner of the Year for New Zealand. We thought it

was a pretty good reason to celebrate, and threw x3 parties on

both sides of the Tasman complete with flashing ice cubes,

chocolate cakes and plenty of good cheer.

YewCam.This year Intergen held its first unconference,

a chance for Intergenites far and wide from across Australia

and New Zealand to spend a weekend in Turangi sharing

ideas, getting inspired, networking with people from across

the organisation and just generally having a good time in the

company of colleagues.

Cure Kis. In the name of raising money for research into life-

threating childhood illnesses, Intergenites across New Zealand

banded together and raised more than $30,000. Fundraising

activities culminated in the Great Adventure Race, with teams

of Intergenites across the country bracing inclement elements

and treacherous terrain for the cause.


3/12SMARTS THE INTELLIGENT BUSINESS MAGAZINE ISSUE 29 3

The eall big news this issue Smats

is us winning the 2012 Mist cunt

patne the yea awa New Zealan.

It is the thi time we hae wn this awa,

but steing u in nt 16,000 u

inust ees at Mists Wlwie

patne cneene nee gets l.

You cannot overestimate how good it feels

for everyone at Intergen to be recognised for

the great work we do by our most significant

partner. We have a very broad relationship with

Microsoft, both in terms of the technologies that

we help our clients get advantage from, but

also in terms of the services we deliver to and

through Microsoft. Through our partnership with

Microsoft, we not only deliver great outcomes to

New Zealanders and Australians, but to people

all over the world.

You will see, elsewhere in this edition of Smarts,

more news from the Microsoft Worldwide

Partner Conference. Theres lots of news and

upcoming releases from Microsoft this year.

Windows 8, and the new hardware that is being

released to support it, represents a significant

opportunity to bring really positive changesto the way we all interact with our business

systems. Intergen has already been working with

clients on strategies and solutions to leverage

Windows 8. Our team loves working with the

new user interface and has developed some

really great skills in designing solutions for the

new paradigm. Very exciting stuff.

We are also very excited about our business in

Australia. Over the past year we have grown

a significant footprint and are very pleased to

announce the appointment of Michael Morgan

as our new Country Manager. Michael bringssignificant experience in growing IT services

business in Australia and we are very confident

that he can take the business we already have in

Australia to the next level. Our objective is not to

be a New Zealand business with an Australian

presence but a truly Australasian business with

a presence in Australia equivalent to the one we

have in New Zealand.

Country Partner o theYear or Intergen

Following on the Australasian theme, we are

very proud to be sponsors of the ANZ Netball

Championship Umpires and would like to

congratulate Waikato Bay of Plenty of Magic on

winning the 2012 Grand Final. It is a fantastic

sport to be associated with, and helps us cement

our brand on both sides of the Tasman.

You will also see in this issue some action shots

from the Cure Kids Great Adventure Race. We

were very pleased to be able to have three

teams competing in this years race. A large

number of Intergenites were involved in the

event as competitors, support crews and fund

raisers. Cure Kids is a great charity and we were

very happy to have been able to help their cause

by raising over $30,000.

We are more than halfway through the year now

and the days are starting to get longer again.

We have a lot happening over the next few

months, with some pretty significant projects

going live, and some really cool new projects

starting. We have Microsoft Tech.Ed to look

forward to, along with the Australian Partner

Conference and some really great product

launches. We look forward to continuing to workwith our many great clients and to becoming

familiar with some new clients as well. I hope

you enjoy this issue of Smarts and, as always,

please feel free to contact me or any of the

other contributors in this issue if you have any

questions or comments.

Tn Stewat

INTErGEN

In brie Interen aints Austraia

Cuntry Manaer

Integen is elighte t

welme Mihael Mgan t

the helm Integen Austalia.

Mihael bings with him

a wealth exeiene in

builing an managing leaing

tehnlg seies teams, anwee extemel exite abut

the utue u West an

East cast ies une his

leaeshi.

Awars seasn r Interen

It has been a bume ea

awas s a Integen.

Nt nl i we llet the

New Zealan patne the

yea awa at the Mist

Wlwie patne cneene,

but we als llete twsuise eginal awas: ApAc

Subsiia patne the yea

an Slutin patne the yea.

ANZ Neta winners

cngatulatins t Waiat

Ba plent Magi n a geat

esult. As snss the ANZ

Netball Umies 2012, we

wathe the metitin with

geat inteest, an l wa

t ing it all again in 2013.

Interen AumniHae u ee we

Integen an want t sta in

tuh with u news an eents,

as well as see what u ex-

lleagues ae u t? Then jin

u Alumni Netw.

Email [email protected]

an well a u t the

netw.

Tn Stewat is chie Exeutie oie

Integen. cntat Tn at:

[email protected]

And a new leader at the helm for Australia.


4/12

4

SharePoint 2013 is here

porTALS,coNTENT&coLLABorATIoN

The beta has just been elease an we an

exet the inal esin twas the en

2012. Shaepint 2013 ntains a signiiant

numbe imements in e aeas suh as

mbilit, utiit an sial, an i ue

nsieing a new Shaepint elment

ugae then u nee t be seiusl

ling at the new esin nw.

Intergen has already been working with

SharePoint 2013 for over six months. Were the

only Microsoft Partner in New Zealand working

with a well-known organisation to deploy

SharePoint 2013 as part of Microsofts early

adoption program. This means weve already

seen SharePoint 2013 in action in an enterprise

setting and can advise you on the best way to

move forward with this new technology.

What does SharePoint 2013 have in store?

Heres an overview of what you can expect in

the latest version.

SoCIAl foR THE ENTERpRISE

SharePoint 2013 goes well beyond 2010 and

brings Yammer, Twitter and LinkedIn capabilities

to the enterprise space. The main benefits of

these capabilities are information sharing and

connectivity between staff in order to reduce

silos and speed up knowledge transfer. Key

capabilities of Social include rich micro-blogging,

a full activity feed, following of people and

information, rich Community sites and a much

improved People search.

MobIlITY

SharePoint 2013 is almost exclusively written in

HTML 5 with full support planned for Safari on

the iPad. Users can browse, contribute and edit

documents directly from iPads.

The vast majority of organisations have iPads

in their ecosystem and are considering mobile

experiences for web content. These SharePoint

2013 capabilities are a huge benefit for mobile

access and, in a number of cases, eliminate the

need for complex development and third

party apps.

SEARCH

With so many versions to choose from, Search

has always been challenging to understand

Foundation, Standard, Express, FAST Now

there is only one version of Search, and its

amazing! The best capabilities of all products

have been combined into one. Think search

suggestions, document previews, continuous

crawl, recommendations, social distance

ranking, deep refinement, auto identification of

company names, advanced analytics, even more

integration, easy customisation and you are

getting close to what the new Search provides.

What does this mean? A highly engaging

search experience for end users that provides

the fastest, most accurate results ever seen in

SharePoint.

pRodUCTIvITY

Accessing knowledge and collaboration have

been cornerstones of SharePoint since 2001.

There are a number of improvements in this

space, taking SharePoint to the next level:

Users have a folder on their desktop which

syncs directly to their My Site. No moreDropbox for syncing and sharing files with

colleagues!

A new area in My Sites rolls up tasks for the

user across SharePoint, Project Server and

Exchange. Huge productivity boost!

A new Share feature allows users to

easily share sites and content with each

other rather than dealing with complex

permissions.

There are a number of new and well-

designed collaboration templates availablefor use.

Access Services has been completely rebuilt

and now exists as a stand-alone solution,

separate from SharePoint. Access has far

more capabilities now than in 2010 for rich

forms and reports.

And it's more social, mobile, collaborative and searchable than ever.

SharePoint 2013 takes knowledge sharing and collaboration to the next level.



I u lie t in ut me abut what

Shaepint 2013 has in ste, we le

t tal with u.

Email me [email protected] ea abut Shaepint 2013 in me

etail isit the Integen blg:

www.integen..nz/blg

THE App SToRE

Apps are here in a big way and Microsoft has fully

embraced this concept. SharePoint 2013 provides

a full-featured enterprise app store allowing staff

to access company-built, purchased or externally

available applications. There are lots of options

to control how this works, but essentially you can

think of the app store as a highly organised and

controlled way to manage add-on features which

business areas might want to leverage.

WEbSITES

SharePoint 2010 provided some great

functionality for intranet, extranet and public-

facing web sites. The capabilities in 2013 have

raised the bar and well and truly positioned

SharePoint as a leader in the web content

management space.

A new Product Catalogue capability allows

site navigation to be controlled using

metadata. This powerful capability allows

e-commerce and knowledge-based sites to be

quickly developed and to adapt over time.

Digital asset management has greatly

improved, with much better handling ofimages and video.

Search Engine Optimisation has been

implemented, with friendly URLs and auto

sitemap generation.

A new Design Manager puts all the branding

aspects of the site in one place with the

ability to import and export for designers.

ANd MUCH MoRE!

There are many, many more exciting capabilities

to talk about in SharePoint 2013. We havent

even covered full support for running 2010

sites in 2013 to allow easy migration,

improvements in eDiscovery, allowing full search

across SharePoint and Exchange with export

capabilities, or the fact that versioning now

stores only the differences instead of the full

document each time!

Were excited about bringing SharePoint 2013

to our clients and were looking forward to lots

of in-depth SharePoint conversations over the

coming months.

One Search to rule them all - faster and more accurate than ever. The SharePoint 2013 app store.


6/12

6

Empowering sales and marketing withClickDimensions or Dynamics CRM

MIcroSofTdyNAMIcS

Taitinal crM sstems ten all sht

when it mes t Maeting. The enable

lists t be geneate, amaigns t be un

an manage, but the nt ten e the

ull integate email maeting exeiene

measuing email elie, li-thugh an

atuing esnse ia laning ages an

ms. In mst ganisatins that I eal with,

u ten in a numbe seaate tls

ulilling the ull maeting exeiene.

To enable a basic email campaign the Marketing

team would need to:

1. Generate a list of people to be contacted

2. Export the list of people

3. Import that list into the email marketing

engine (or Outlook)

4. Utilise a third party to pull together the

HTML required for the email

5. Send the email via the third party tool

6. Measure the deliverability of the email via

the third party tool

This process tends to be time-consuming,

disjointed, and it often doesnt deliver the

expected results. Multiple parties are required

to be involved to deliver the entire process of

email, landing page, forms and web analytics. If

any forms have been developed then the results

are often emailed to the marketing department

to manage and distribute. Often a major step

in the process is missed, which is the importing

of activity as a result of the campaign back

into the originating CRM systems informing

stakeholders about the campaign that has

been run.

ClickDimensions for Dynamics enables a

full suite of marketing tools to be directly

accessed via the Dynamics CRM Marketing tab,

empowering Marketing to deliver a complete

integrated marketing experience for new leads

and existing customers. ClickDimensions for

Dynamics CRM utilises the power of Windows

Azure to deliver extended functionality along

with web integration and analytics, removing

the need to purchase third party services to

deliver marketing capability.

With ClickDimensions, a Marketing team

member can create their own compelling

marketing email using HTML via a wizard block

editor or free-form format, and include a link to

a micro-site for the email that ClickDimensions

create. They can add links to ClickDimensions

forms, surveys, subscription pages or landing

pages into the email content. They can then

test and preview the email via an inbox preview

tool, allowing them to view how the email will

be presented to users on different mail engines.

clidimensins es extensieuntinalit t hel ie sales an

maeting atiit m within u

Mist dnamis crM sstem.

Steen fste is Integen's crM put

Seialist. T aange a clidimensins

em, ntat: [email protected]

Then using standard Dynamics CRM Marketing

lists they can send the email (this can be a

combination of Lead, Contact or Account Lists)

either as a singular email or using split testing

(A/B with the winning email being sent to the

remaining members of the list).

Finally, to complete the process, all campaign

activity is fed back into CRM automatically so

Dynamic CRMs dashboarding and reporting

capabilities can highlight (almost in real-time)

how the campaign is running, from emails being

delivered, opened, clicked and the pages that

have been viewed as a result.

TrAdITIoNAL MArkETErS' TooL crM + EMAIL + ANALyTIcS + SUrvEyS + SocIAL

Withut Cickdimensins With Cickdimensins

MICRoSofT

dYNAMICS CRM

EMAIL

MArkETING

SUrvEyS/

SocIAL

dIScovEry

MoNITorING

dATA

WEBSITE

ANA LyTIcS

dATA

MICRoSofT dYNAMICS CRM

EMAIL

MArkETING

dATA

WEBSITE

ANA LyTIcS

dATA

SUrvEyS/

SocIAL

dIScovEry

With ClickDimensions and Microsoft Dynamics CRM, all data resides in one

place, and all marketing activity is driven from one place: within CRM.

Traditionally, marketers have had to use several separate tools to

complete their marketing campaigns.



As a ie unegun mining seies,

inluing ntating, nsultan an

easibilit stuies, peth-base r Team

neee a tehnlg unatin that wul

allw bette management an isibilit

ass its jets. Mist dnamis NAv

an Integen entee the itue thugh a

ase seeniit; an what state ut as a

well-time ut--the-blue hne all esulte in

what r Team cfo, chis Steens, alls the

best jet I hae ee been inle with.

Chris attributes part of the projects success to a

strong cultural alignment and team fit betweenRock Team and Intergen.

We were impressed by Intergens professionalism.

They really knew the product and their own

project management was excellent, Chris says.

The strength of our relationship has given us

the confidence to make further plans, including

introducing NAV into our cornerstone business,

Rapallo, and looking at how we can make use of

other Microsoft technologies.

Finance and Administration Manager, Rita Maciel,

and CFO, Chris Stevens, both attest to significant

gains from their new system.

Even after our first month-end we were really

pleased. Weve noticed in particular that billing

is much more streamlined and we can get our

bills out a lot quicker. Reporting on the profit and

loss side is much deeper and we can see actual,

budget and variance very easily, which weve

never been able to do before, Chris says. We

now have more effective control of all aspects

of a project, from budgeting to management of

Setting a solid oundationwith Microso Dynamics NAV

expenses against budget. The NAV Advanced

Job Management add-in gives us enhanced

asset management of our equipment, which is

an important thing for us with our fleet of heavy

machinery.

The greatest gain? Its on the reporting side of

things where we see the greatest advantage,

Chris explains. We can view things in detail,

right down to the job level. Its the dimensional

aspect of NAV that has shown us the greatest

benefits.

Dynamics NAV has met with such success within

Rock Team that there are now plans afoot toimplement it further afield. NAVs benefits will

be introduced to the wider company structure,

with Rock Teams 25 year-old parent company,

engineering firm Rapallo, soon to reap the

proven benefits of a new financial and project

management system.

With Microsoft Dynamics NAV and the To-

Increase Advanced Job Management add-in now

fully bedded in, Rock Team has a full view of its

organisational and project information and total

transparency across its transaction paths.

Rock Teams satisfaction levels are running

high and a daunting precedent has been set.

Best project ever is a hard one to beat, but

Intergens Perth team will do its level best to

accept the challenge in Rock Teams subsequent

project implementations.

MIcroSofTdyNAMIcS

IntergeniteIan Nuttycombe

WHAT do YoU do?

Im involved in the Dynamics AX

practice, working in our Sydney

office. I have worked with Microsoft

Dynamics on several continents. It hasgiven me the opportunity to work and

solve problems in lots of interesting

environments.

HoW do YoU MAKE A dIffERENCE?

I make a difference just by smiling,

adding knowledge and experience Ive

gained from everywhere I have been

and from the people I have worked

with, and then sharing this knowledge

and experience with the people I

currently work with.

WHAT do YoU lovE AboUT YoUR job?

I love being involved in new industries,

seeing the challenges our clients in

each industry face and then making

their systems work to meet these

challenges. I also love the teamwork

involved in the projects we do.

A bIT AboUT YoURSElf

I have worked with Dynamics on several

continents and hope to continue to

work in interesting environments. When

Im not at work I enjoy outdoor sportsand hiking, reading old books and

looking to learn as much as I can.


8/12

8

WEB&dIGITALSTrATEGy

The uture o the web

This eas The Engage Web in New Zealan

benhma et, ist nute b Integen

in 2011, shwe sme mae imements

in websites engagement leels, an ast light

n sme ail gessing tens in the

web sae.

Websites are doing more, and theyre doing

better. They are engaging their audiences in

new ways. The perennial challenge for website

owners, now more so than ever, is to embrace

a world of constant change and to be unafraid

to make small but determined ongoing

improvements.

The report sets out to benchmark engagement

levels across New Zealands 50 most trafficked

sites in 10 industries. While in 2011, most

industries got a could do better on their report

cards, this years results showed real strides

forward in engagement levels, with all but one

sector (Health and Medicine) showing marked

overall improvement in the past 12 months.

THE STANd oUTS

The top-performing industries for 2012 were

News & Media, Shopping & Classifieds andEntertainment an unsurprising result,

considering engagement is an absolute

prerequisite in these areas. Banking and Finance

showed huge improvements, as did News &

Media, and the most improved player award

went to Government while it still came ninth

out of the 10 industries, it nearly doubled its

2011 engagement score.

WHAT MAjoR TRENdS dId WE

obSERvE?

Its nt just abut the Mtheshi. Were

coming to expect brands to engage with

us wherever we are, on multiple devices,

in numerous ways. Its no longer enough

to think about your Mothership website

internet-via-mobile is New Zealands greatest

web growth area. As a result, the web

landscape has become increasingly fractured

the web isnt just about websites and

website owners will need to stay mindful of

their users changing needs (and devices) in

order to stay engaged.

Its mbile. New Zealanders are

embracing mobile technologies and

utilising smartphone and tablet devices

in increasingly large numbers. By virtue of

their personal, one-on-one nature, these

devices invite engagement, and many of the

organisations assessed in this years report

are investing heavily in this area.

While some sites and services are simply

rendering their websites in a suitable

mobile format, others are investing inthe development of targeted mobile

applications, designed for a particular

audience or a specific function or capability

(for example paying a bill or checking a bank

balance). As mobile devices become more

prevalent, investment in these solutions are

likely to significantly increase in the near

future, and for many years to come.

Sial is the nm. In many areas of our

online activity weve come to expect social

interaction. 90% of the websites assessed

in this years report have embraced social

media, showing us that social media is nowthe rule, not the exception. Social networks

such as Facebook have captured the hearts

and minds of New Zealanders, and New

Zealand organisations are following suit. And

where, in the recent past, organisations might

have looked to build their own stand-alone

community solution, now theyre embracing

existing social network platforms for their

own ends instead. Our digital footprints are

growing and digital content is becoming

increasingly ubiquitous. We consume all sorts

of content, on various devices, wrapped in

and around our lives. We expect to see an

increasing number of quality applications

that do a few things really well. But the

fundamental tenets of engagement will still

apply: make it professional, relevant, timely,

accessible, usable and interesting.

Its not getting easier but those that rise

to the challenge and remain restless will

survive, and those that think they are done

are in trouble.

Giles Bwn leas Integen's Web & digital

Stateg team. T in ut me abut the

Engage Web ret, ntat Giles at:

[email protected]

Gone are the days when your 'Mothership' website was your only concern. Think mobile, think social,

embrace change and make small, ongoing improvements, this year's Engaged Web Report tells us.

The chart above shows the overall performance of each sector, comparing 2011 to 2012.



Future-proofng in aWindows world

MANAGEdSErvIcES

IntergeniteDon Smith

WHAT do YoU do?

My role is a Solution Architect in the

Consulting & Architecture practice

working for our Seattle office, but I'm

physically located in our Aucklandoffice. For our Seattle business, I

build software solutions for various

Microsoft product teams, which

primarily involves using brand new/

beta products and technologies. For

our Auckland customers, I consult on

Web and mobile solutions and help

them position Microsoft's upcoming

technologies.


I help customers define and realise

their mobile and web strategies. I

build solutions using predominantly

new tools and technologies so when

customer requirements warrant them,

we already know the appropriate ways

to apply them.


I love that it combines my favorite

parts of the software and internet

spaces (web and mobile), which

are maturing at exciting rates, with

providing real customer solutions. It's

about combining new technologies

with interesting customer challenges.


I'm originally from the US, and I have

been married to a wonderful Dutch

woman for over 20 years. We have two

beautiful daughters (17 and 19).

I love to travel, walk in the bush,

and play tennis.

oganisatins nee t be unning uent

esins Mists eating sstems

in e t tae ull aantage the new

ea uts an seies ming m

Mist.

While Windows 8 is generating excitement,

the reality for many organisations is that

such a move needs to be considered carefully.

Many organisations will be evaluating

Windows 8 with a view to determining

whether its new features will justify the

investment of upgrading; for others, there

are other drivers that may compel such anupgrade. Windows XP, released in 2001, is

approaching its end of life and support from

Microsoft will end on 8 April 2014.

What does no support mean? At the very

least, it means that there will be no future

updates to resolve functional, performance

or importantly security issues. At another

level, it means that the productivity benefits

of later releases of Windows wont be

realised.

While this milestone is more than a year

away, any organisation running XP needs to

critically weigh up the risks of not upgrading,

versus the cost and opportunities afforded by

looking at a newer Windows release.

ExploRE WINdoWS 7 NoW

Before contemplating Windows 8, organisations

that adopt Windows 7 now can make the

transition to Windows 8 in the future, as

Microsoft asserts the new operating system will

run effectively on the same hardware.

In fact, there are many advantages to

upgrading to Windows 7, particularly for larger

organisations: support for Windows XP may end

before Windows 8 can be deployed in many

organisations; most new applications will run

on Windows 7 and 8, but not XP; and more

applications are currently available for Windows7 compared to 8, as software vendors gear up

for the arrival of Windows 8.

For anyone with only a few PCs, the process,

cost and timeframes required to upgrade can

be minimal. For larger organisations, this isnt

the case: there are usually more devices, greater

levels of complexity and increased IT demands.

Once the decision to upgrade is made, though,

there are options to ensure a good result.

Microsoft has developed a series of planning

services delivered by qualified partners that

can help organisations evaluate, plan and

manage any upgrade. These services include the

Desktop Deployment Planning Services (DDPS)

which offers evaluations, proof-of-concept

and planning help for Windows 7, Microsoft

Office, and Office 365; and the Private Cloud,

Management and Virtualisation Deployment

Planning Services (PVDPS) which provides

fundamental analysis, business case, process,

and technical procedures needed to optimise

your data centre and explore new ways of

delivering software capabilities.

E ruse is Integens Slutins Manage,

Manage Seies. f me inmatin

ntat E at: [email protected]


10/12

10

MIcroSofT

Watching the dawn o a new era at theMicroso Worldwide Partner Conerence

Ee ea, Mist uns its Wlwie

patne cneene (Wpc), a multi-a

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Mist atnes t a latin in Nth

Ameia. f 2012, the estinatin was

Tnt, canaa, an 16,000 ele mae

the te, inluing aun 300 ele m

atnes in Austalia an New Zealan.

The premise of attending a WPC is simple: Its

one of the few opportunities to hear about

Microsofts plans directly from Microsofts leaders

from Steve Ballmer, Microsofts CEO, through

to product leads and regional management.

Regardless of the offering, theres an opportunity

to hear both big picture thinking from the

leadership team, through to having discussions

about specific products and strategies with

Microsoft employees on the coal face. The role

of WPC is also changing: rather than focus

purely on Microsofts plans for the year ahead,

Microsoft is now using the event to make more

substantial announcements; the sharing of the

Windows 8 release date was an example of this.

bEgINNINg A NEW ERA

The mood at this years WPC was positive,

reflecting the enthusiasm of Microsoft CEO Steve

Ballmer: This will be the biggest product and

services launch year in our company's history,

creating massive opportunities for our partners

to grow their businesses," Ballmer said. "With

Windows Windows 8, Windows Phone 8,

Windows Server 2012 and Windows Azure and

Office 365, there's never been a better time to

be a Microsoft partner. The opportunities for us

to do amazing things for our joint customers

have never been greater." The partners in

attendance were similarly bullish about the next12 months.

More information about Windows 8 was

forthcoming at WPC, including its release

date. With Windows 8 being released to

manufacturing in early August, and available

for consumers in late October, the next release

of Windows isnt far away. With momentumbuilding, we attended a pre-conference event on

Windows 8 which provided a lot of information

around the core product, hardware partners

and the overall strategy. Microsoft is going to

be aggressively pushed by Microsoft, who will

invest significantly in above the line marketing

across the world. For those who remember the

release of Windows 95, indications are that

Windows 8 will be promoted just as heavily.

With Windows 8, Microsoft is trying to spread

its risk widely. The market has changed since

Windows 7 was released, and new form factors and tablets, specifically have emerged

that threaten Windows role at home and in

the office. Microsoft is addressing this threat

head-on: by providing a functional and flexible

operating system; and by working with hardware

device manufacturers to devise compelling

hardware. As in any situation where one is

trying to please all of the people all of the time,

the risk for Windows 8 is that its core experienceis diluted by making too many compromises,

but indications are that the feature set of

Windows 8, and the flexibility of its new user

interface framework, is sufficiently compelling

and adaptive to support a range of hardware

devices.

Hardware variety is going to be important to

Windows 8s success. Microsofts hardware

manufacturer partners were out in force at WPC,

featuring a wide range of devices and form

factors that should satisfy the needs and wants

of home and business users alike. Devices fromSamsung, Lenovo, Acer and Asus (amongst

many others) were highlighted in the Windows-

focused keynote presentation, with tablet-only

designs, designs that allowed detached a

keyboard, through to high-end, powerful (and

more conventional) laptops. The beauty of

this approach is that consumers have choice

when it comes to selecting hardware that fits

their needs. Touch plays a major role in many

devices several devices that didnt have a

touch-sensitive screen offered a touch pad, that,

in turn, offered a touch screen-like experience.It is great to see PC manufacturers looking at

both the function and form. (Interestingly, and

Simon Bright, Intergens Chief Operating Officer, accepts New Zealand Country Partner of the Year award

from Jon Roskill, Microsofts Corporate Vice President of the Worldwide Partner Group.

The Windows Phone 8 experience.



IntergeniteVictor Philp

WHAT do YoU do?

I am Intergens Infrastructure Services

Manager. Its my role to lead the

infrastructure side of our business

which includes supporting Intergen'sinternal infrastructure requirements

such as our development environments

and providing hosting services to

external clients.


By developing and leading my

team, implementing good processes

that enable quality outcomes and

implementing excellent technical

solutions. I believe we need all three

to be a successful infrastructure

service provider.


It would have to be the people and

the technology. Building a team,

challenging them and supporting

their growth is incredibly rewarding,

and after 25 years in IT I still find

the technical innovation and ability

to make a difference to businesses

exciting.


Im married to Susan and have aseven year-old son Oliver, a dog, a

cat and three horses. I spend most of

my weekends breaking in our 13-acre

lifestyle (or life sentence) property.

If Im not in a suit Im usually in

gumboots digging holes, fencing or

planting things. Its a nice balance IT

all week and spending the weekend

doing physical stuff.

frustratingly for many, Microsoft barely whispered

any mention of its own Surface device, presumably

on the basis this would be politically insensitive to

its OEM hardware partners.)

In addition to the hardware, Windows to Go was

also a highlight. This is a feature mainly targeted

at the enterprise that enables you to boot up into

Windows 8 from a USB-connected external drive

on a Windows 7 compatible PC. This allows you to

carry around your Windows 8-based desktop and

spin it up on anyone elses compatible PC, without

impacting the environment of the device. We

believe this will be of interest to organisations that

might need alternative workplaces.

WINdoWS pHoNE 8

Overshadowed to some extent by its older sibling,

Windows Phone 8 was also present in force at

WPC. Windows Phone 8 is being positioned as a

mobile operating system for business, delivering

both a compelling user experience, but anexperience that can be managed by organisations.

This a logical position to take in the market,

where competing mobile platforms either have

limited management capabilities, or are delivering

an uninspiring end user experience. Microsoft

is actively working with both its hardware and

software partners to develop innovative handsets,

and to build on the Windows Phone 7 momentum

to grow the availability of applications from the

100,000 apps that exist today.

Windows Phone 8 has a number of very

interesting features that make it even better suitedfor use by organisations. These include providing a

greater customisation of the home screen that will

allow better utilisation of the live tiles think the

ability to see email, text messages, or information

from other applications on your devices home

screen. Other key features include expanded

Skype and Lync integration, the inclusion of the

Wallet (although it will be interesting to see how

this gets adopted outside the United States),

support for near field communication (NFC)

which has been talked about for some time, and

improved systems management of Windows Phonedevices. The Company Hub is also interesting,

allowing organisations to distribute and manage

their own line of business applications to their

Windows 8 users effectively creating their own

custom app stores.

While there are lots of benefits, these come at a

cost: there is a requirement for new hardware to

allow for dual (multi) core processors, required

for Windows Phone 8. While there will be a new

Windows Phone 7 release (7.8) it will be the last

for current devices.

SolUTIoNS SEllINg

With most of Microsofts solutions getting a refresh

in the next 12 months, there were a large number

of breakout sessions on the product roadmaps.

The one exception at the time, since rectified

by Microsoft was Microsofts steadfast refusal

to talk about specific plans for Office 2013; plans

which were subsequently disclosed a week after

WPC. The one exception was SharePoint wheresnippets of information were provided at WPC,

particularly around the solution embracing the

social enterprise, and taking advantage of the

acquisition of enterprise micro-blogging service

Yammer.

Other business solutions from Microsoft, including

Dynamics AX, Dynamics NAV and Dynamics NAV

will all receive updates this year, although the

specifics of these updates and their timeframes

were generally unspecific, and will be disclosed

through existing roadmap-related documentation

or in events to be held later in 2012. Microsoftdidnt want to give away all its secrets at WPC.

bEHINd THE SCENES

As an organisation, Intergen once again worked

behind the scenes at WPC, creating many of the

demonstrations that featured in the keynotes. As

attendees, we often heard people commenting

that they liked a particular demo, only to make

them aware that the demo was created by

Intergen. The demonstrations we worked on were

across the board, including multiple examples of

new user interfaces for the Dynamics ERP andCRM solutions, and a set of demos that featured

public, private, hybrid and Azure Infrastructure as

a Service (IaaS) capabilities.

THE RoAd AHEAd

Organisations who are using or considering

Microsoft solutions need to keep a closer-than-

usual watch over what's coming up over the next

12 months. Virtually every significant Microsoft

solution will receive an update in the next 12

months, and these updates will create implications

and opportunities for all organisations. Windows 8

is at the core of these changes, however updates to

Office including SharePoint and the Dynamics

offerings will also need to be factored into

organisations plans. Regardless of your appetite

for change, the next 12 months represent an

exciting period for those of us invested in Microsoft

and its solutions.

Tim Hwell is Integen's Stategi Maeting

Manage. cntat: [email protected]


12/12

AUckLA Nd cHrISTcHUrcH dUNEdIN pErTH rEdMoNd SydNEy WELLINGToN

MIcroSofTdyNAMIcS The Co-operative Bank steps out on the right

oot with Microso Dynamics AX

www.twitter.com/teamintergen www.linkedin.com/companies/intergenfolloW US www.intergen.co.nz/blog

The c-eatie Ban, mel nwn

as pSIS, is ne the lngest seing

inanial institutins in New Zealan. The

Ban is a -eatie 100% wne b

its membes, an its use is t ie

a ange beneits t membes t hel

them get ahea inaniall. With exiting

hanges at, The c-eatie Ban

neee a new inanial sstem that ul

meet a whle new set emans as a

egistee ban.

As Peter Nicholson, Operational Risk

Manager for The Co-operative Bank,

explains:Our old GL system was written in LINC

and was well past its use-by date. We

needed a system that could handle day-to-

day accounting processes effectively and

efficiently, with the capacity to consolidate

financial information from all areas of the

business to deliver the best financial insight.

Safeguarding our financials through a new

up-to-date system was essential to ensuring

our bank got off on the right foot.

Ellen Cheyne, Financial Controller for The

Co-operative Bank, highlights:

Our old system, while still functional, was

no longer capable of efficiently meeting the

increasing reporting demands we would

have as a registered bank. Our goals were

to provide the wider business with greater

accessibility to our accounting systems and

have the flexibility to construct reports in a

manageable way that was easy to share on

a more regular basis.

To meet our reporting requirements, we

needed to produce external reports morefrequently. Our old system required all

journal entries to be manually entered,

we were limited to printing to a text

file or paper and new reports required a

programmer to write them. We needed a

system that could load information from

multiple data sources, consolidate quickly

and enable us to construct reports straight

away, to suit any users need.

Our Accounts Payable was also a manual-

based process and was reliant on our colleagues

returning their coded and approved invoices

so they could be loaded into the system for

payment. We now have real-time electronic

visibility of all invoices and their status through

the Creditors cycle. This ensures we have

accurate financial information and that invoices

are paid on time.

The Co-operative Bank chose Microsoft Dynamics

AX as its financial platform not only because it

could support their growing needs but because

it was Windows-based something their users

were already familiar with. Ensuring staff could

easily adopt the new system was especially

important. To further extend the capability of

the Dynamics AX platform, Atlas, MW Solutions

and Forecaster were implemented to give staff

the best reporting, budgeting and forecasting

functionality.

THE gAIN

Ellen explains the greatest benefits of the new

AX system:

Everything is now done in real time and we

have greater financial visibility of our financial

performance and position. ATLAS allows us to

construct reporting at the touch of a button,

meaning if our stakeholders require specific

information we can get it to them straight away.

pETER CoNClUdES:

Our financial processes are now up with the

play, all financial data is consolidated for

reporting, budgeting and forecasting.

AX safeguards our financial matters, meeting

internal and external requirements and

streamlining our financial duties. Overall,

it helps us reach our goal of giving

New Zealanders a co-operative bank thatprovides them the best financial outcome.

Integen is a tans-Tasman

inmatin tehnlg

seies man that sles

hallenging business blems

using the latest Mist

slutins. We ie u

ustmes with a ange

slutins an seies, inluing

inanial an elatinshi

management, tals, ntent

an llabatin slutins,

ustm stwae eelment,

an nsulting seies.

Intergen Smarts 29

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Transcript of Intergen Smarts 29