CIO.com: As you work with Microsoft though I think you have to realize there are a couple of areas where they haven’t been as strong, for example in a mobile environment or even with how challenging it can be to integrate their collaboration tools. How do you work around those kinds of shortcomings? They can’t be perfect in every area but those are a couple of critical ones where they haven’t been as strong.
Warby: Having been in and around the Microsoft Suite for 15 years at Avanade and 10 years at Microsoft before that, no technology company is ever going to get it all right. I think there’s a better understanding of that now than there ever has been at Microsoft. I have two ways to describe how we work with Microsoft in the real world. It has to exist and coexist with other technologies and then we have to have a point of view about when and how to make those things work and those get quite specific around the particular technology.
Without drilling into whether it’s a particular cloud orchestration feature or a lack of collaboration or whatever, I think you have to always look at these things as a balance. Do I get, on the whole, a better integrated, higher performing, more reliable [system] - all the things that I’m looking for - while I may not have the best of breed? That’s the other choice that we’ve always compared with. And the work that it takes to truly stitch together best of breed and does that best of breed move at the same pace? That’s the tradeoff. It’s our job to help clients make those tradeoffs.
CIO.com: I think I’m very close to time so I’ll just leave you with one question, going forward, what would our readers expect from Avanade in the next year or so?
Warby: I’ll go back to where I started, which is that we want to help our clients with their digital innovation and digital change in a secure way in the cloud. What people should expect from us is the leading Microsoft capabilities in the world and, more and more, the ability to help them think through that business transformation. That’s new for us and we’re excited to be in a position to do it and we’re looking forward to the journey.
This story, "Q&A: Avanade on why Microsoft is your best strategic partner for the future" was originally published by CIO.