Around 250 business executives, IT professionals and web developers convened at this year’s annual Microsoft Innovation Day, a one-day event held on Thursday 6th December to discuss and enjoy a closer look at Microsoft’s newly launched products and their respective features.
This year’s line-up of speakers included Damian Caro, Technical Evangelist from Microsoft CEE, Kristjan Kramaric, Technology Solutions Professional from Microsoft CEE, Luka Debeljak, Windows Aure Product Manager, Microsoft CEE, Tara Seppa, Windows Azure BDM from Microsoft CEE, Valentinos Georgiades, Developer Platform Evangelist Microsoft Cyprus & Malta and Karl Davies Barret, Windows Azure Technical Solution Professional, Microsoft CEE.
Mr Davies Barret, a Maltese national, started his career at Microsoft Malta and today is posted at Microsoft in Munich where he is responsible for technical promotion of the Windows Azure platform of services for the Central and Eastern European region.
Addressing the Business Executives, Adrianna Zammit, Country Manager for Microsoft Malta said “It has been a highly interesting and active year for Microsoft globally. The release of Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Office 365, Windows Phone 8 and Visual Studio 2012 across all global markets has reconfirmed Microsoft as a forward-looking leader in innovation, technology and strategic communications. We have also successfully launched these new products in Malta and their reception has been met with a lot of renewed enthusiasm also thanks to the efforts and commitment of all our local partners. Microsoft Malta’s operations are in fact conducted mainly through its business partners with whom we have nurtured an excellent relationship over the past years. It is thanks to these relationships that we have all enjoyed mutual growth and strengthening of our business.”
Ms Zammit also referred to Microsoft’s constant investment in Malta’s IT sector as well as the provision of IT support to business, the education sector and e-Government. “Microsoft Malta fully acknowledges the importance of the IT sector in Malta and remains committed to developing this sector even further. One such major initiative is the imminent launch of the Microsoft Innovation Center, a facility for collaboration on innovative research, technology and software solutions involving a combination of government, academic and industry participants. An important announcement regarding the MIC will be made in January of next year however, operations have been ongoing for these past months and we have managed to secure a number of important partners.”
During the Microsoft Innovation Day, IT developers had the opportunity to explore the new features in Windows Server 2012 as well as its application within key scenarios such as management, deployment, virtualization, networking, storage and more.
Microsoft Malta also presented its annual awards, Partner of the Year Award, Partner in SMB Award, Retail Partner of the Year Award and Technical Excellence of the Year Award to this year’s winning partners. Launched last year, these awards recognize and reward the achievements of local Microsoft Partners and Customers who show the best effort in developing their partnership engagement with Microsoft Malta through their application of Microsoft tools and technology for more growth and also the most innovative utilisation of Microsoft solutions within enterprise.
The Partner of the Year Award was won by Exigy Ltd and presented to its Executive Director Francois Grech. “Having been awarded with the Microsoft Partner of the Year 2012 is a significant achievement for us. This is a direct recognition of our competence and excellence with Microsoft technologies, gained through ongoing investment in our resources and commitment in delivering strategic software solutions,” commented Mr Grech upon receiving the award.
Intercomp was the winner of the Retail Partner of the Year Award. Kenneth Taliana, Sales Manager at Intercomp said “we are truly pleased to have achieved this prestigious award from Microsoft Malta as we consider this recognition as an acknowledgment of our loyalty in promoting Microsoft products to complement our vast range of Dell products and services. As such, we remain committed to pursue our great relationship with Microsoft Malta and look forward to another year of healthy collaboration.”
The SMB Partner of the Year Award was won by Smart Technologies Ltd and presented to Christopher Demicoli, Business Development Manager. “We have been collaborating with Microsoft on different fronts covering both commercial and educational side of the business, we have invested in Microsoft Multipoint solution, 1-1 solutions and classroom interactive technologies for schools, Office 365 for schools, whilst also promoting of Microsoft Cloud based technologies for commercial business, such as office 365, Azure, and other Microsoft license based products. Therefore, it is of great satisfaction to see that all our efforts are being noticed by the vendors we represent, which gives us greater confidence and ambition,” said Mr Demicoli.
The Technical Excellence of the Year Award was awarded to Joseph Seychell who commented “I have been working with Microsoft technologies for a good number of years and over time, I’ve seen the products going from strength to strength, adopting to the customers’ requirements as the market needs evolved. This has allowed me to recommend to our customers suitable solutions that can scale and adapt to their ever changing needs. I would thus like to thank the Microsoft Malta team for this recognition and their on-going support to the local community.”