R ”Ray” Wang, Principal Analyst, Founder, and Chairman of Constellation Research, Inc., author of Disrupting Digital Business: Create an Authentic Experience in the Peer-to-Peer Economy, and longtime enterprise software blogger was on hand at this week’s Microsoft Business Applications Analyst Forum, the first such event from Microsoft in several years. He shared many observations on the fly over the course of the event’s two days and recently published an event report. Among the key findings, he wrote, was an updated Microsoft strategy focused around five key areas, at top of which was a “digital feedback loop” approach that frames technology around customers, people, and products, with data and intelligence at the center. It’s an ambitious vision, though one that the company might not yet have fully realized, Wang tells us.

Show notes:

• 2:10 – First impressions of what Microsoft is doing differently today, including the digital feedback loop
• 4:30 – Is Microsoft serious about competing with business soutions?
• 5:50 – Impressions of the leadership team shaping Microsoft strategy
• 7:30 – How the partner opportunity at Microsoft will change.
• 8:45 – Winning with Dynamics 365 in the large enterprise – what is the reality?
• 11:20 – Microsoft sees the C-Suite is pushing for digital transformation
• 12:20 – The licensing vision for business apps?
• 15:20 – Is Microsoft holding the door open for more big changes in branding and acquisitions?
• 18:15 – The importance of major partnerships in the context of the cloud wars.

21:20 – What does Microsoft leave analysts with as they look across the broader cloud and enterprise software market space?