{"id":5600,"date":"2020-09-02T10:27:21","date_gmt":"2020-09-02T17:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/?p=5600"},"modified":"2023-06-08T16:15:57","modified_gmt":"2023-06-08T23:15:57","slug":"managing-speaking-engagements-at-microsoft-with-the-microsoft-power-platform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/managing-speaking-engagements-at-microsoft-with-the-microsoft-power-platform\/","title":{"rendered":"Managing speaking engagements at Microsoft with the Microsoft Power Platform"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This content has been archived, and while it was correct at time of publication, it may no longer be accurate or reflect the current situation at Microsoft.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
What do customers and internal teams want to learn when it comes to Cloud + AI at Microsoft?<\/p>\n
In a word, everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cCloud + AI at Microsoft encompasses everything from cloud infrastructure and developer tools to business applications and Microsoft HoloLens,\u201d says Tahira Al-Faham, a business manager in Microsoft Cloud + AI who manages speaking engagement requests in this division of the company. \u201cLeaders in Cloud + AI highlight how customers are innovating and achieving their goals with our products and services, and this is an important aspect of how we can share our story.”<\/p>\n
Al-Faham says that Cloud + AI at Microsoft delivers products and services such as Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Power Platform, and GitHub, which are used by 95 percent of the Fortune 500. Leaders in Microsoft Cloud + AI team receive dozens of requests to speak about how Microsoft uses its applications in every part of the business. These speaking engagements range from coffee chats with summer interns to keynotes at national conferences.<\/p>\n
Al-Faham manages speaking requests for the entire Microsoft Cloud + AI division in partnership with the division’s chief of staff and her team.<\/p>\n
Before, tracking and categorizing requests for speaking engagements was a largely manual process that lived in email and Microsoft Excel. This created a much higher risk for error, and the team had less time and data to identify trends in speaking engagement requests. Al-Faham and her team responded to every request within 24 hours, but they didn\u2019t have a single location to collect and synthesize the rich data they were getting on the requests they received.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur team is really agile, but we hadn\u2019t set up a dashboard to capture trends or break down speaking engagements by key categories such as industry, type, and audience,\u201d Al-Faham says. \u201cHaving all the data in one place would help us understand our current focus and identify future topics we want to cover.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her team needed a tool that would get them out of email and into a connected, collaborative process that could be used to respond to, track, and identify trends in speaking engagement requests.<\/p>\n
A team at Microsoft was ready to step in and help: Productivity Studio, a partnership between Microsoft and Avanade, which is a joint venture between Accenture and Microsoft. Aptly named, this team in Microsoft Digital empowers productivity at every level of the organization.<\/p>\n
“When your process is already streamlined, you don\u2019t always pause to think about how you can make it even more efficient,\u201d Al-Faham says. \u201cI can rely on the experts in Productivity Studio because they know how to get the most out of Microsoft productivity tools.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the help of Productivity Studio, Al-Faham’s team and their partner teams in public relations and analyst relations now have access to a centralized tool for managing speaking requests from reception to delegation. Originally created for the Office of the CEO at Microsoft, this tool has now been adapted for senior leaders across the company.<\/p>\n
You never have to hit copy and paste because the tool manages the experience for you. We took the process out of email and created a connected, intelligent experience that provides more insights with less effort.<\/p>\n
– Gregory Kriegler, client executive at Avanade and Avanade lead in Productivity Studio<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The tool harnesses the power of Microsoft 365 stack and the Microsoft Power Platform to create a centralized dashboard of requests. Instead of looking for Microsoft Excel files or digging for the latest email template, Al-Faham and her partner teams are in lockstep about upcoming engagements. They can even reduce the amount of time and frequency of meetings because they can seamlessly collaborate and automatically follow up with requesters.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou never have to hit copy and paste because the tool manages the experience for you,\u201d says Gregory Kriegler, a client executive at Avanade and the Avanade lead in Productivity Studio. \u201cWe took the process out of email and created a connected, intelligent experience that provides more insights with less effort. We love to empower employees like Tahira to achieve more.\u201d<\/p>\n