Meet the First Strategic IoT Partners in Australia

In today's announcement of the key strategic relationships Microsoft has formed with Partners around the Internet of Things (IoT), Lee Hickin said it's like "in some small way living through history" and I couldn't agree more. It's great to see another wave of Australian partner innovation coming to life!

There has been a fundamental shift in enterprise models towards IoT. As Scott Guthrie, Executive Vice President of Microsoft's Cloud and Enterprise Division, said recently: "We live in a connected world, and the intelligent cloud is powering it all. As data and devices continue to proliferate, there is vast opportunity for businesses to tap into their data to make their applications more intelligent." 

Each of the Partners highlighted in today's announcement are already working with clients in vertical markets including manufacturing, retail, health and defence. They are co-developing client solutions around asset management, smart building facilities, remote monitoring and predicative maintenance to create an ecosystem which integrates devices, connectivity and analytics through a cloud platform.

We're working closely with these partners because they had shown at an early stage that they understood the depth of the transformation that is being wrought by the acceleration of IoT and the level of engagement they have in providing IoT solutions for clients. 

They are able to make the business adjustments necessary to take advantage of the shift in Enterprise requirements and industrial IoT, and through their deep understanding of Microsoft technologies are able to identify, initiate and manage innovation to ensure that it is deployed through solutions built for scale and agility down the track. Some have hired data scientists to work on big data analytics while others have purchased device companies to bring connectivity of devices into the business offering.

For our part, Microsoft is making a heavy investment in these Partners to ensure success in the rapidly growing IoT market, which is in addition to our recently announced launch of Azure IoT Suite which enables rapid scalability through preconfigured solutions and delivery through the Microsoft Partner network.  

To help build successful IoT practices, we’re offering a technical and sales course coming in 2016 to ensure Partners are leveraged through the end-to-end process of the sales cycle. We will also initiate a connected Partner specialist community which will allow access to MS specialist teams and access to the Innovation Centres to assist with the development of Partner business models to grow their IoT offering.

Head to the Microsoft Partner Network to learn more about Internet of things and becoming IoT Partner