Unofficial 'Australia Day' adds local twang to Microsoft WPC

It was 15 July but it could have passed for 26 January, as Australians took over Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in Orlando.

On the final Vision Keynote of the three-day conference, Microsoft Australia managing director Pip Marlow took to the main stage - the only country manager to do so - where she spoke about three local partners who epitomised successful evolution.

Marlow name-checked channel veteran ASI Solutions, the business run by Ken and Maree Lowe that has evolved from a PC builder to delivering enterprise IT services and providing data centre solutions.

Another partner who came in for praise was Cloud First, the Brisbane-based outfit run by Brad Rappell, which recently rebranded itself from Inverse Curve.

"Serial entrepreneur" Rappell began as a Sharepoint and infrastructure partner in 2008, then transitioned to become a BPOS/Office 365 reseller, then more recently the company launched its own IP with a solution for the franchise market, said Marlow.

She also spoke about Melbourne-based InfoMedix, which moved health workers from paper-based processes to digitised patient records.

Microsoft Australia's Phil Goldie with Phil Sorgen

Marlow – originally a New Zealander who celebrates 20 years at Microsoft Australia this year – started out in the channel business; Phil Sorgen, corporate vice president of the Worldwide Partner Group, told CRN that was why she was perfect for the keynote.

"Pip represented 133 countries and 3,000 field people on behalf of Microsoft today. She is a great leader, great country manager and has deep history in the channel. You take that combination and she is the perfect person to represent Microsoft globally. She did a phenomenal job presenting."

Sorgen – Microsoft's most senior channel executive – will make the trip down under this year to speak at the Australia Partner Conference.

He singled out Australia as having a strong application development scene, including Nintex, the software firm spun out of Melbourne Sharepoint partner OBS.

In fact, Nintex co-founder Brett Campbell was another Aussie to speak on the main stage during Microsoft's unofficial Australia Day. Nintex is a Titanium Sponsor of WPC, and this week announced major changes to its own partner program.

Steven Kiernan is a guest of Microsoft at Worldwide Partner Conference.