Kurt Shintaku's Blog

In 2015, the retail industry saw sales increase by a mere 1.2% over 2014, despite an eCommerce growth of 14.6%.  Today, only 39% of retailers equip their sales staff to look up product information for them online, despite the expectations of half of all customers when entering a store.  There is a clear divide between online and in-person sales processes, despite 71% of in-store shoppers integrating smart phones into their in-store experience.  We’ve heard the cautionary tales of store closings by many formerly successful retail brands, but what actionable business lessons can we take from recent shifts in retail?

Will the store survive?
While brick-and-mortar retailers do face challenges, it’s also become clear that physical stores are relevant and important to shoppers’ experience. Witness former online pure-plays experimenting with actual retail locations, like Amazon did in late 2015. For retail stores to survive and thrive like their digital counterparts in 2016, they will need to provide a personalized and unified commerce experience across the shopper journey. This will include maximizing what makes the physical store experience so unique—the people.

Employees provide physical retailers with an enormously valuable asset that online stores can’t replicate. Their ability to drive exceptional customer experiences, react in real time, and utilize everyday technologies fits perfectly into a modern shopping experience. There is no online equivalent of the informed and engaged employee that makes your customer feel like royalty.

Of course, a good customer experience starts with employees that are highly engaged, informed and well trained. This is another area where retailers are now focusing: making their workforce more digitally connected, and providing the technology and open channels of communication that a new generation of workers expect.

How are retailers making this a reality?
Whether you work in a company with a retail presence, or know someone who does, you’ll want to explore the tips and trends covered in The Modern Retailer’s Survival Guide. It takes a no-nonsense look at the current state of retail, and shows how brick-and-mortar and multichannel retailers are innovating. In the eBook, you will learn how to use digital tools to break down barriers in communication, empower employees to make smart, quick decisions, and energize your workforce to provide outstanding customer service.

Download The Modern Retailer’s Survival Guide for these top 4 survival strategies for 2016:

• How to equip employees with up-to-the-minute information
• How to make employees feel heard, valued, and invested
• How employee engagement tools can create exceptional customer experiences
• How retailers in a variety of industries realized amazing results with integrated communication

The success of online retailers does not mean the end of brick-and-mortar stores. What it does mean is that successful retailers will need to rethink the way they serve empowered, well-informed customers in a competitive, always-connected world.

For more, grab the eBook here:

• DOWNLOAD: Free eBook, “The Modern Retailer’s Survival Guide” (.PDF)
  https://microsoft.docalytics.com/v/the-modern-retailers-survival-guide

Global Azure Bootcamp is around the corner, It’s a one day world-wide event, driven by Microsoft Azure experts and community enthusiasts, to help developer new to Azure as well as experienced developer, to learn and share knowledge. This is the 3rd year for this event. For the last event in 2015, there were 182 event locations in 54 countries.

For 2016, there are more locations than before, more deep dive sessions by experts, in different region of the world, scheduled to host the Global Azure Bootcamp on April 16, 2016. In addition to learning and sharing information about Azure, the hands on lab will feature pooling a huge global compute farm to perform research for charity.

We are excited to be part of this exciting event!

Taken from the SoCal Azure Users’ Group site:

Parking, Food and Drink:
Parking for the event is free in the student parking lots on campus. On the day of the event, we make arrangement with the campus parking authority to allow free parking and will not issue parking citation on the day of this event.
We will have food and drink.

What You Need:
To participate in the demos and labs, Along with your laptop computer you will need the following:

1. Microsoft Azure Subscription. Don’t have one? Get a free trial subscription here.
2. Visual Studio 2015. Free versions are available here if you don’t already have it.
3. Azure .NET SDK for Visual Studio 2015. Also free and available here.

What to expect:
The event is organized with developer and IT Pro audience in mind and will be comprised of presentations, demos, and labs that cover various Azure topics.
This is a community driven event hosted by SoCal Microsoft Azure User Group to help developer community in the Southern California region to learn and take advantage of the Azure cloud platform.

Agenda:

Will be announced closer to the event

While we don’t have all the details on prizes as yet, we will be passing out swag and prizes like last time.

—————-

DATE/TIME:
April 16, 2016  – iCal
8:30 AM to 5:00 PM

LOCATION:
Santiago Canyon College
8045 E. Chapman Ave
Room D-110
Orange, CA

REGISTRATION:

• MEETUP INFORMATION PAGE:
  http://www.meetup.com/SoCal-Microsoft-Azure-User-Group/events/228090377/
• REGISTRATION SITE:
  https://www.eventbrite.com/e/global-azure-bootcamp-socal-tickets-20789776782
• SOUTHERN CAL EVENT PAGE: http://global.azurebootcamp.net/locations/global-azure-bootcamp-socal-by-socal-microsoft-azure-user-group/
• OTHER LOCATIONS:
  http://global.azurebootcamp.net/locations/

Taking and organizing notes can be a messy affair. Between voice memos, sticky notes, notebooks, email drafts, and whiteboards, it’s easy to see how outstanding ideas never reach their full potential.

Research suggests we each spend an average of 76 hours per year looking for missing information at work. That’s nearly two full weeks… lost. Not to mention the productivity potential of lost information and ideas.

But there’s a solution.

Natural note taking takes the familiar scribble of handwritten notes and combines it with productivity-enhancing technology. Capturing, storing, and sharing notes has never been easier, and the note taking process has never been more inspiring.

Remember how you used to draw in the margins of your notebooks? It turns out that wasn’t a distraction, it was a learning aid. Did you know that doodlers actually recall an average of 29 percent more than non-doodlers? Or that doodling bolsters comprehension by merging the four different ways we learn?

The Innovator’s Guide to Modern Note Taking
By reading The Innovator’s Guide to Modern Note Taking, you’ll learn how to adopt a note taking lifestyle that combines the best of art and science to make you more productive and creative.

Check out the eBook to discover the four secrets to superior note taking, along with the following:

• How to stop the disorganized note taking activities that feed your stress monster
• Why typing less can improve your recall, comprehension, and creativity
• How the cloud can improve your organization and collaboration skills

Adopt a note taking methodology that fosters your most natural, most productive tendencies. Check out The Innovator’s Guide to Modern Note Taking to discover new ways to capture your best and brightest ideas.

• DOWNLOAD: “The Innovator’s Guide to Modern Note Taking” (.PDF)
  https://info.microsoft.com/modernnotetaking-register.html?lsd=onemsftblog&CR_CC=200767247&ls=website

I managed to get this semi-updated, color map of Microsoft’s Redmond Campus.

If you plan on visiting our headquarters, this is probably going to be useful.

• DOWNLOAD: Microsoft Redmond Campus Map
  https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=DA410C7F7E038D!454468&authkey=!ACUCCv1mjNpdbe0&ithint=file%2cpdf

In case you missed it, Bing Images did a partnership with Variety to create a site called http://CelebsLike.me that identifies your Doppelganger in the Oscar candidates as well as Hollywood in general.

Here’s mine:

I guess Ang Lee, for me, is about right… but I never saw the similarity between myself and Masi Oka, Sung Kang, or Bobby Lee until I ran my image through the web site. I’m actually stoked to be at least partially visually comparable to these amazing celebrity talents!

Read more about this collaboration here:
http://news.microsoft.com/features/bings-new-academy-awards-guide-is-one-stop-for-awards-info-including-finding-your-celebrity-doppelganger/

Tuesday, in San Francisco, Brad Smith will keynote at the RSA Conference 2016.

In a presentation entitled, “Trust in the Cloud in Tumultuous Times”, Brad will discuss our continued approach to security and privacy and our commitment to investing in security, privacy and control, compliance, and transparency. The address will be streamed live and publicly available.  (See link to the stream below)

For a preview of Brad’s keynote, as well as the 16 other sessions that we are delivering, visit Microsoft’s CyberTrust blog:

• BLOG: Headed to RSA? Here’s your event guide for trust in cloud services
  http://blogs.microsoft.com/cybertrust/2016/02/16/headed-to-rsa-heres-your-event-guide-for-trust-in-cloud-services/.

In preparation for the keynote, our Corporate VP & CISO, Bret Arsenault released information about the progress we have made on the security front, specifically for a mobile-first, cloud-first world.  Read Bret’s post here:

• Progress Report: Enterprise security for our mobile-first, cloud-first world
  http://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2016/02/25/enterprise-security-for-our-mobile-first-cloud-first-world-2/

Date/Time:
March 1, 2016 – 8:50 AM

Location:
South, Live at Esplanade Ballroom

Broadcast:
To view Brad’s keynote go to:

• WEBCAST: Microsoft President & Chief Legal Officer Brad Smith’s Keynote at RSA Conference 2016
  http://www.rsaconference.com/us16/microsoft
• SESSION: Agenda for Brad Smith’s Keynote (Attendees of RSA 2016 can add his keynote to their schedule here)
  https://www.rsaconference.com/events/us16/agenda/sessions/2750/trust-in-the-cloud-in-tumultuous-times

On Brad Smith:

Brad Smith
President and Chief Legal Officer, Microsoft
Brad Smith is responsible for Microsoft’s corporate, external and legal affairs. Smith plays a key role in leading the company’s work on privacy and security. He is also Microsoft’s Chief Compliance Officer. He has played a leading role within Microsoft and in the IT sector on government surveillance, privacy, intellectual property, immigration and computer science education policy issues. As the senior executive responsible for ensuring Microsoft fulfills its corporate responsibilities, he has helped the company achieve its consistent ranking in the top 2 percent of the S&P 500 for corporate governance scores.

In the video below from Feb 25th, 2016, Brad Smith, Microsoft president and chief legal officer, responds to a question regarding a legal case between Apple and the U.S. government as part of testimony before a U.S. House Judiciary Committee hearing titled International Conflicts of Law Concerning Cross Border Data Flow and Law Enforcement Requests.

Back in November 2015, Microsoft Azure announced the availability of Blockchain-as-a-Service via Ethereum, in partnership with the leading Enterprise provider of Ethereum Blockchain solutions, Consensys.

Since then, our Financial Services CTO, Marley Gray, has been posting nearly every other week nearly every other week about the new partners Microsoft has in this space.  We currently have 20 Blockchain providers waiting to join the Microsoft BaaS program.

And it’s gained steam, as reported in Nasdaq.com.

• NASDAQ: Microsoft’s Azure Blockchain As a Service Program Gains Momentum
  http://www.nasdaq.com/article/microsofts-azure-blockchain-as-a-service-program-gains-momentum-cm562389

Recently, Microsoft has a glut of Blockchain providers interested in being part of the Azzure BaaS program as an offering along side Ethereum:

• NEW YORK BUSINESS JOURNAL: Why Microsoft’s blockchain service has 20 companies waiting to be accepted
  http://www.bizjournals.com/newyork/news/2016/01/21/why-microsofts-blockchain-service-has-20-companies.html

Marley did a demonstration of a transaction over Ethereum on YouTube:

• Blockchain CryptoSwap – A Total Return Swap Demo using Ethereum on Azure Blockchain as a Service
  [LORES] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHCAU5dJ3Mk&feature=youtu.be
  [HIRES] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl_R9ZndeNs

For a list of updates on Microsoft’s Azure Blockchain-as-a-Service, visit:

• Microsoft Azure BaaS Posts
  https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/tag/blockchain/

For an explanation of how Blockchain technology works, visit the following sites:

• https://www.quora.com/How-does-the-block-chain-work
• http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/41868/how-does-the-blockchain-work-explained-in-layman-terms
• http://gizmodo.com/whats-the-blockchain-and-why-does-bitcoin-depend-on-it-1698025216

Lync has joined the Skype family and is now Skype for Business!

Skype for Business brings together the familiar experience that users love about Skype, with the enterprise security, compliance and control from Lync. Skype for Business builds on Microsoft’s world class productivity platform Office 365 resulting in a truly modern collaboration platform. Join Microsoft to experience how Skype for Business simplifies and unifies the different tools people use to collaborate for work. It’s all about connecting business and people, and it starts here!

We have prepared an exciting event featuring the Skype for Business Product Group, local Microsoft experts and certified partners where we will discuss these important items through a combination of demos, use cases and partners solutions:

• New Era of Collaboration: Introducing Skype for Business
• Skype for Business product, service and platform futures
• Productivity through devices
• Lync Room System (LRS) Futures and Surface Hub
• Enabling Mobile collaboration
• Simplify ‘Click to Call’ with Call via Work
• Empowering LOB apps with WebRTC & ORTC
• Skype enabled Contact Center

Agenda

This is your opportunity to get your questions answered by Skype for Business experts and Microsoft Partners, and see how Skype for Business will meet your business needs.

*There is no fee to attend.*

Skype for Business Summit Sponsors:

Win prizes and giveaways courtesy of our sponsors!

• Date:
  March 4th, 2016
• Location:
  Microsoft Playa Vista
  13031 W. Jefferson Blvd Suite 200
  Playa Vista , CA 90094
  See map and/or driving directions
• Registration:
  https://www.microsoftevents.com/profile/
  form/index.cfm?PKformID=0x92455e301

Furthering Microsoft’s commitment to cross-platform development & a mobile future, we announced yesterday that we’ll be acquiring Xamarin:

In conjunction with Visual Studio, Xamarin provides a rich mobile development offering that enables developers to build mobile apps using C# and deliver fully native mobile app experiences to all major devices – including iOS, Android, and Windows. Xamarin’s approach enables developers to take advantage of the productivity and power of .NET to build mobile apps, and to use C# to write to the full set of native APIs and mobile capabilities provided by each device platform. This enables developers to easily share common app code across their iOS, Android and Windows apps while still delivering fully native experiences for each of the platforms. Xamarin’s unique solution has fueled amazing growth for more than four years.

Microsoft’s Announcement:
http://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2016/02/24/microsoft-to-acquire-xamarin-and-empower-more-developers-to-build-apps-on-any-device/

We founded Xamarin more than 4 years ago with the mission to make native mobile development fast, easy, and fun and to help C# developers build beautiful mobile apps and reach billions of devices. We love the native iOS, Android, and Mac APIs and we love C#, and this acquisition is an ideal next step for us and for our customers.

Xamarin’s Announcement:
https://blog.xamarin.com/a-xamarin-microsoft-future/

WHAT IS XAMARIN?
For 3rd party commentary on the pending acquisition and an explanation of what the acquisition means, here’s an excerpt from Windows Weekly 454 about the subject: