The cloud is somehow an unstable place where tech giants are racing to the be the first in the stratosphere. On September 2016, it's Microsoft's victory when the software maker scores a major win in the cloud after replacing incumbent major providers at HP.
With employees at HP using Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft is putting a solid foundation to the cloud as the SaaS leader, making it compete only with Amazon at the top cloud spot.
Microsoft announced that it had secured a six-year deal where HP employees across marketing, sales and service operations will use its Dynamics CRM online and Microsoft cloud services. And according to the announcement, HP will use Dynamics for CRM online for its direct selling staff, partners, and services under a plan to integrate sales processes for HP's own sales representatives and its channel partners.
Additionally, Microsoft's Azure hybrid cloud will power HP's Dynamics CRM, Office 365, and Microsoft's Power BI analytics.
Previously, HP's sales staffs were using Salesforce CRM while the services staffs were using Oracle's CRM. According the HP's Chief Operating Officer Jon Flaxman, the move to an "end-to-end" deal with Microsoft made it able to drive more analytics and use of big data.
HP has 6,500 salespeople and 20,000 support staff and a total headcount of 50,000. Furthermore, 6,000 workforce is set to come to the company after HP's $1.05 billion acquisition of Samsung's printing business.
For HP, Microsoft is distinguishing its products from its competitors CRM's focus. For example, Microsoft is highlighting its Microsoft Dynamics 365, a CRM-ERP cloud service that uses Dynamics EX ERP, Dynamics CRM Online, Dynamics Financials, all integrated into Office 365, Office Graph and the planned LinkedIn.
Microsoft, Salesforce, Oracle, Amazon and HP itself are all rivals at different levels.
HP for example, is a key partner for Microsoft Windows. Salesforce is a partner with Microsoft for Outlook, and was the major provider for CRM to HP. Microsoft has a competing cloud business that rivals to some, including Amazon's AWS.
Microsoft's growing cloud business in winning big against competitors to secure a deal with HP, is an important milestone for Microsoft which has been fighting with Amazon to win customers over to its Microsoft Azure cloud.
The strategy is somehow helped with Microsoft in embracing open-source.
The majority of businesses from large to small have turned to open-source software in at least some capacity to meet better demands inside the era of internet. And Microsoft sees this opportunity to change its view about software distribution and usage.
CEO Satya Nadella even made it to a point when he said "Microsoft also loves Linux", an open-source OS that was once Microsoft's most bitter rival.
Related:
- Microsoft In Loving Linux, SQL Server 2016 And Its Step Into Open-Source Software: Focusing To Get More Focus
- Microsoft is Changing and Makes .NET Framework Open-Source and Cross-Platform
And what seems good for business really came to a reality. Microsoft edged out Facebook in open-source, and changed in an important way: the company has become one of the top contributors in the open-source ecosystem, and it has proven itself to the world that the company is practicing what it preaches, doing better than many others and succeeded with it.