Episode 7: Hybrid working

Box recently received a $500 million investment from private equity firm KKR. Some industry experts are optimistic about the deal, seeing it as a way for the company to regain control by giving it some cash to make some moves. But Box’s stock price plummeted after the news. In this podcast, we ask tech experts Chris Pyle (President, MessageOps) and Sharon Sumner (Microsoft MVP) whether Microsoft should buy Box in the context of its continued investment in Teams, OneDrive and SharePoint. We ask whether Box could bring any additional value to Microsoft’s enterprise cloud offering, and whether an acquisition by Microsoft is realistic or merely speculative.

COVID-19 has accelerated the move to hybrid working for many businesses. As lockdowns were imposed and offices closed, the cloud became essential for accommodating remote employees. However, now that life—and business—is beginning to get back to normal, what does this mean for hybrid working? Is it here to stay? We called Rebecca Zaagman and Adam Devereaux, IT specialists at Worksighted and asked them if hybrid working may be the key to success for growing businesses now and in the future.

We speak to Microsoft’s Gavriella Schuster to get her thoughts on the future of work, the challenges we face today and the solutions we have available to us. As well as the role Microsoft partners have in shaping what that future looks like, and the power of marketing during this turbulent time. Gavriella is Corporate Vice President of Microsoft’s One Commercial Partner, a thought leader and influencer in B2B technology, TEDx Speaker, and champion of Women in Tech, among many other accolades.

In this episode, we discuss the process of designing, planning and executing a B2B marketing strategy that not only incorporates a unique brand vision but actively achieves its goals, over and over again. Joining us from the B2B marketing big leagues is Lisa Curry, Head of Marketing at Chorus. Chorus is an award-winning Managed Service Provider specialising in the design, delivery and management of cloud services. Discover how this leading Microsoft partner runs a very successful marketing operation.

In this episode, we discuss a recent change in the way businesses interact with Microsoft collaboration software. Once upon a time, Microsoft collaboration technology centred around SharePoint, Outlook and Yammer. Now Teams is becoming a ‘base of operations’ for the way people work, with SharePoint and Outlook left out in the cold. We’re joined by Lesley Crook, a Microsoft MVP and Modern Workplace Consultant for Symity Ltd. Symity specialise in Teams meeting rooms and telephony services, and Lesley has plenty to say on: The reasons for this change in collaboration habits Teams’ potential as a ‘base of operations’ The limitations of Teams The potential for the future

The recent discovery that the UK government was running its COVID-19 track-and-trace system via Microsoft Excel spreadsheets has raised a few eyebrows—especially from anyone who understands the strengths and limitations of the spreadsheet app. We are joined this week by Mark Bodger and Chris Harman from ICit Business Intelligence. Both are experts in the world of financial and operational planning and make a living from moving businesses away from spreadsheet-based processes to sophisticated and specialised solutions. We chat about everything from our monogamous relationship with spreadsheets to the challenges and reputational damage your business faces being a tech laggard in your industry.

For the last six years, Fifty Five and Five have produced an annual inbound marketing excellence report, celebrating the marketing efforts of organisations across the Microsoft Partner Network. In this episode we speak to Fifty Five and Five’s Barnaby Ellis (Head of Creative) and Stephen Reilly (Head of Content), about the release of the new Top 50 website, the transformation from hard copy report to a digital website. We also discuss the origins of the Top 50, from a piece of marketing in its own right to a solution that helps partners of all sizes improve their inbound marketing.

In this episode we speak to Nick Rameka, the CMO at LiveTiles, about brand evolution, pandemic priorities and marketing advice for other Microsoft partners. LiveTiles are a maverick marketing voice in the Microsoft Partner Network, and we were delighted to get his take on the marketing landscape in such a tumultuous year. Nick reveals the content marketing trends he sees coming around the corner and what remote working practices we can expect to stick as we try to put 2020 behind us.