Elly Yates-Roberts |
The Dynamics 365 partner community is counting the days until the Directions EMEA 2019 conference on 9-11 October. With an estimated 2,500 attendees in Vienna, the event will bring together even more Dynamics 365 partners and independent software vendors (ISVs) from all over the world than in previous years.
The conference is an important part of Microsoft’s timeline for the announcement of Dynamics 365 2019 Release Wave 2. During the event, Microsoft will introduce the latest release of Business Central, with a variety of functional enhancements and a range of tools that will speed up the process of migrating existing on-premises customers to Business Central Online. Microsoft’s migration policy also extends to ISV solutions, that with Dynamics NAV (a predecessor of Business Central) previously played an important role in customer engagement, ensuring the popularity of NAV and ISV add-ons in various industries.
With Business Central available as a cloud solution, ISVs were also confronted with a challenge to reinvent their businesses, not only in terms of investment priorities, but also software development, sales and marketing. Providing solutions for AppSource has become the main objective, although one involving substantial effort.
With more than 250 sessions presented by 200 experts, Directions EMEA will definitely be a good knowledge source on how to streamline the path to cloud-based business, how to use all the modern technology available to produce competitive business applications and how to successfully market them in the cloud.
While presenting the ‘Roadmap of Business Central’, Microsoft will discuss the whole ecosystem of Dynamics 365 applications and integration capabilities. In keynotes, top Microsoft executives such as Toby Bower, senior director for worldwide business applications and industry; and Ceclilia Flombaum, partner ecosystem lead for Microsoft business applications, will present new opportunities for cloud solution providers, ISVs and other partners.
Other speakers from Microsoft including Claus Busk Andersen, director of platform program management for Dynamics 365 and Dynamics NAV; and Janik Bausager, principal group program manager will outline the latest functional enhancements and prospects for the near future including through Business Central, Dynamics 365 for Sales, the Power Platform, artificial intelligence and machine learning.
The Directions conference has become a must-attend conference for Microsoft partners servicing the small and medium-sized business customer segment – both for commercial and technical people from the Microsoft Partner Channel. In addition to its unique content. Directions EMEA provides opportunities for face-to face meetings and networking.
Magdalena Janas is a Directions EMEA marketing committee member and marketing specialist at IT.integro