Choosing between Future Decoded and Convergence?
A closer look at how these two marquee Microsoft events can help you
Future Decoded (10-11 November) and Convergence (30 Nov. to 2 Dec) are two marquee Microsoft events designed to help organisations get a better understanding of how technology can help drive business value. As they’re less than a month apart, it might be difficult to decide which one you want to attend. To help give a bit of perspective on the value of each, we wanted to hear from a customer who will be attending both. We asked Mushtaque Ahmed, COO for JJ Foods Service – one of the UK’s largest independent food delivery services – what value he places on being able to attend both. Here’s a bit of what he had to say.
Q: What do you see as the difference between Future Decoded and Convergence?
A: It’s really the difference between breadth and depth. At Future Decoded, you get really good breadth in terms of topics participants focus on. It gives you a good insight into Microsoft’s future strategy and vision, and a good glimpse at things in the future that impact overall business strategy – not just for Microsoft, but in a larger business context. With Convergence, there are a lot more deep-dive, hands-on business and technical sessions. The focus is much more on getting the most out of the Microsoft products you have or are considering, so it’s more targeted – tailored really — at a specific set of products that you are using to meet a business need.
Q. What are the benefits of Future Decoded and Convergence?
A: I think at Future Decoded, you can really benefit from seeing how a very diverse set of organisations from very different industries are thinking about a common set of challenges or opportunities we’re going to face in the future. For instance, last year you had big companies such as O2, government organisations such as MI5, and entrepreneurial start-ups. They all have very different perspectives, but they are all looking at a similar future horizon. Being in the middle of that can really help think about your own planning.
I guess one way to think of it is this: Future Decoded doesn’t help us with what we’re doing now, it helps us with what we’re doing next; short, mid and long term. Taking part helps us in setting a strategy that helps from next year to 5 years down the road. That being said, one real practical and immediate benefit is that it can help you plan things such as your hardware procurement schedule. If you have a clearer picture of what you’ll need for the road ahead, there are very real and tangible efficiencies you can start to see impact your budget and bottom line.
With Convergence, it is about what we’re doing now. It’s great for some of our senior leadership to take part because there are plenty of opportunities to mix with Microsoft executives. It gives you a more strategic viewpoint of what’s coming in the roadmap from Microsoft. It also gives you an opportunity to have a two-way dialogue with those executives, so they have a better understanding of how you’re using their products: what challenges they’re looking to solve; what opportunities they’re trying to reach. And I think that perspective can help to filter back into the development process to make the products better.
But it’s not solely for your business decision makers. There’s a real benefit of having your team sit in a room with solution experts to really get the most of your technology investment. You’re learning about best practices and real-life use cases in using Microsoft products, and you’re getting a team of people whose goal is to help set you up with the highest likelihood of success for your projects.
Q. What are you most looking forward to with both events?
A. Personally, well for Future Decoded, it’s a lot of what I’ve talked about earlier. I really enjoy seeing how Microsoft plays host to all these different minds – some Microsoft specific, but most from outside of Microsoft. Some that have nothing to do with technology. But having an opportunity to see how those diverse viewpoints connect in some way, or to get the spark of an idea for how we’re approaching a particular area is really refreshing.
With Convergence, overall it’s that solution deep-dive that the event allows. But one particularly enjoyable aspect that’s unique to Convergence is the Business Leadership Experience. That’s where you get lots of senior business managers from various countries and various organisations, and they’re mixed up together to share ideas and do real-time case study exercises. You can really get to hear how they’re problem-solving and building strategies, and that’s also quite inspiring.
Q. So bottom line: do you think it’s worth it to go to both?
A. From my perspective? Definitely. I realise that different organisations have different needs, so there could be the need to prioritise one over the other. But I’ve found both to be quite beneficial, for two very different – but equally important reasons.
