Malaysian companies do well at Microsoft global partner event

• ISA Technologies wins global award; Fusionex, Info Trek and Redynamics recognised with regional awards
• IDC-Microsoft study says partners selling cloud solutions experience nearly double gross profits

FOUR Malaysian companies made their mark at the Global Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards 2013, held during the technology giant’s annual Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC 2013), with one also emerging a global winner.
 
ISA Technologies Malaysia was recognised as Microsoft’s global partner of the year for Start-Up Cloud – Emerging Markets category, one of 95 global winners. Fusionex, Info Trek and Redynamics Asia Systems Management also won Asia Pacific Regional Awards for delivering the most innovative solutions that directly addressed customer challenges in the region.
 
Fusionex was also named as the Partner of the Year for Malaysia, Microsoft Malaysia said in a statement.
 
The award winners were selected from over 3,000 entries from more than 100 countries, based on their commitment to customers, the market impact of their solutions and use of Microsoft technologies.
 
“This award is a testament of our continued belief that Malaysian IT talent can not only compete but win at the global level,” said ISA Technologies Malaysia chief executive officer Lim Fun Jin.
 
“We are honoured to have been recognised for our efforts in leading businesses to transform with the cloud, using Microsoft technologies. It has been a wonderful and rewarding 17 years running together with Microsoft, and we look forward to many more years of this partnership,” he added.
 
Fusionex managing director Ivan Teh, said, “We are honoured to be recognised as the top partner in the region for business intelligence as well as the Partner of the Year for Malaysia.
 
“This is a strong testament to the potential of homegrown Malaysian IT companies and we look forward to growing from strength to strength,” he added.
 
Local IT training provider Info Trek was recognised as the top partner in the Asia Pacific region for learning solutions.
 
“For the past 17 years since our inception, we have gained tremendous support and recognition from key partners such as Microsoft, making us a leading IT and business skills training provider in Malaysia today,” said its executive director said Sally Hew.
 
“We look forward to contributing to the growing IT landscape in Malaysia by ensuring successive generations of IT professionals have the necessary skills and training to drive the industry forward,” she added.
 
Redynamics was recognized as top Asia Pacific partner for Management and Virtualisation.
 
“Being strategically and exclusively focused on systems management, virtualisation and private cloud technologies, Redynamics is the only pure-play Microsoft System Center and Hyper-V Specialist in all Asia,” said Raymond Chou, its managing principal consultant.
 
Cloud solutions partners have the edge
 
Microsoft claims its partner ecosystem in Malaysia comprises 5,000 partners nationwide, making up a significant portion of more than 28,000 partners in the Asia Pacific region.
 
Collectively, Microsoft’s partners in the region generate US$125 billion from solutions and services based on the Microsoft platform; contributing 46% of total ICT employment and 45% of tax revenues derived from the ICT industry, Microsoft Malaysia said in its statement.
 
Citing the 2011 IDC Partner Opportunity in the Microsoft Ecosystem study, the company said that for every RM1 of revenue made by Microsoft, its partners make RM8.70. The study, also predicts that revenues could hit more than RM2.54 trillion (US$800 billion, US$1=RM3.18) by 2015 with Microsoft’s cloud efforts.
 
“Microsoft partners have the best business growth opportunities because of our long term commitment to their success,” said Microsoft Malaysia managing director Carlos Lacerda (pic).
 
“We are particularly pleased to note that our homegrown Malaysian partners have been successful even on the regional and global stage,” he added.
 
During WPC 2013, Microsoft also revealed the findings of a new IDC study it sponsored, which showed how partners with more than 50% of their revenue related to the cloud have been benefiting from higher gross profit, more new customers, increased revenue per employee and faster overall business growth (click infographic below to download 1MB version).
 
The study underscored the transformation taking place in the business world as more organisations of all sizes move their technology infrastructures to the cloud, Microsoft said.
 
In fact, according to the findings, cloud-oriented partners, defined as those that generate more than 50% of their revenue from the cloud, grow at double the rate, accrue new customers more than two times faster and generate 30% more revenue per employee compared with non-cloud-oriented partners.
 
“[The] cloud alone hasn't caused these impressive numbers, though that is absolutely part of it; top-performing partners were visionaries that took on cloud technologies before their peers,” said Darren Bibby, programme vice president of Channels and Alliances Research at IDC.
 
“We’re at the point in the industry’s overall cloud transition where partners that don’t move some of their business to the cloud likely won’t survive. And some partners that are getting ready to sell their business or retire may be okay with that. Most won't be,” he added.
 
IDC research also revealed customer buying preferences that highlight the importance of a comprehensive cloud vendor and the ability to offer various deployment options:

• 63% of customers expect to have a single cloud service provider to meet their needs.

• 67% expect to purchase a wide variety of cloud services from a single vendor.

• 74% expect their cloud service provider to be able to move a cloud offering back on-premises if needed.

“IDC’s data re-emphasises how businesses and organisations prefer to buy end-to-end IT solutions from a single cloud vendor and want to work with a company they have an established relationship with,” said Lacerda.
 
“With Office 365 now on a US$1 billion annual revenue run rate and more than 250,000 customers using Windows Azure … our partners are in a prime position to support this,” he added. “This research validates our belief that the most successful partners are the ones that offer a hybrid approach to IT.”
 
The full IDC study and more details, including a related infographic, can be found at
http://aka.ms/IDCMicrosoftCloudInfo.
 
 
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