Page 2 – Inova Solutions

Winner of 2022 Microsoft Curaçao Partner of the Year Award

Posted on September 12, 2022September 12, 2022 by Adriana Wong

Inova Solutions earns multiple recognitions in Microsoft’s 2022 Partner of the Year Awards

WILLEMSTAD, Curaçao —June 28, 2022— Inova Solutions today announced it has won the Curaçao 2022 Microsoft Partner of the Year Award. Additionally, it has earned the runner up spot in the Country Partner of the Year Award category for both Puerto Rico and Jamaica, at the Caribbean level. The company was honored among a global field of top Microsoft partners for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology.

“These recognitions are of great significance as they represent the addition of a Service Delivery Department for Inova Solutions. The specific case leading us winning Microsoft’s 2022 Country Partner of the Year Award consisted of a Cloud migration project for a client in the Financial Services sector, in which security and compliance were a priority. Inova Solutions has successfully executed many projects like this as part of our Cloud service offerings”, said Hans Kruithof, Commercial Managing Director at Inova Solutions.

The Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards recognize Microsoft partners that have developed and delivered outstanding Microsoft-based applications, services, and devices during the past year. Awards were classified in various categories, with honorees chosen from a set of more than 3,900 submitted nominations from more than 100 countries worldwide. Inova Solutions was recognized for providing outstanding solutions and services in Curaçao, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica.

Fill the form below, and we will get in contact with you.

“I am honored to announce the winners and finalists of the 2022 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards”, said Nick Parker, corporate vice president of Global Partner Solutions at Microsoft. “These partners were outstanding among the exceptional pool of nominees, and I’m continuously impressed by their innovative use of Microsoft Cloud technologies and the impact for their customers.”

Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards are announced annually prior to the company’s global partner conference, Microsoft Inspire, which will take place on July 19-20 this year.

Additional details on the 2022 awards are available on the Microsoft Partner Network blog. The complete list of categories, winners and finalists can be found here.

For additional information:

Adriana Wong
+5999 736 3545
awong@inovacorporation.com

Success Story: Taking dance lessons home

Posted on September 7, 2022June 22, 2023 by Adriana Wong

How one dance school is using Microsoft Teams to teach from afar

When the COVID-19 crisis caused schools in the country to close, Fina Dance Art School, a local dance school offering dance classes to children from 4 years up and also for adults in Willemstad, Curacao, was faced with a challenge: how to continue give dance lessons to students when the physical dance room was closed? Fina Dance School turned to Microsoft Teams to take the dance room online and keep students active from a distance.

The management team of Fina Dance Art School (Fina) were completely devasted when they had to close their dance school due to the pandemic. They were forced to stop doing what they loved the most; teaching how to dance. They have been doing so since 1983, and now after 37 years abruptly seeing their classes empty, not one single soul given their all in the dance lesson, seeing the sweat drops fall, hearing the joy after a successful move or tiers… was something that they would not get used to easily.

One of the reasons of their sadness was that they were not acquainted with any type of technology available out there that could help them deliver classes online, let alone having an IT infrastructure in place. The ladies at the school had an old-fashioned way of doing business which was working well before the pandemic arrived. This dance school offers several classes, with an overall of 280 students and 8 instructors spread out in different dance styles.

Innovating new ways of teaching

Luckily for Fina, there was one student that was using Microsoft Teams and referred Inova Solutions (Inova) to them to see if we could help the school setup the technology. Fina started to create their Online Continuity Plan to understand better and to have a strategy behind this “new normal” that was shaking the entire world. Initially, the management team was somewhat nervous about this whole Online Plan, but soon after some key conversation with the board and with Inova’s consultants they were very enthusiastic to be able to deliver their classes to their students again and fast! Now they are even thinking offering these virtual dance lessons as an added value to their normal program after COVID-19.

Seeing the little expert, the management of Fina had with technology, Inova offered its Inova Essentials Kit. The Inova Essentials kit is basically a starter package where we help implement the tool for the customer and additional configuration & services. This package comes with Office 365 including Teams. The best part of this entire kit was that it was free of charge as our response to the community in our Country. Fina could also enjoy a Crash Course from our internal champions in Teams, that helped the trainers, staff, and other members of the school jumpstart right away with the use of Teams. From the first conversation we held with the customer to the first live dance session via Teams, took less than a week to happen.

Bringing Virtual Dance Lessons

Students were ecstatic that they could continue with their dance classes virtually. At this point students where completely isolated of the rest of the world with the shelter in place order from the Government. The students could not do other classes online, because lots of other schools where also figuring out how to do so.

The students, especially the what older ones such as teenagers and young adults, where glad about the possibility of being able to continue their dance lessons virtually. They admitted that it wasn’t the same as being physically present in the classroom with the trainer, but that at least they could have enjoyed the participation and being connected with their peers. It’s now all about losing old habit and creating new ones. New tools, new rules. The cool thing was that they could still feel connected while in distant, especially that they could give instantaneous feedback to each other.

As for the trainers, just being able to dance and able to stream that to their students while at home, was something unimaginably for them. It filled their hearth with this immense satisfaction that they could somehow or the other bring sunshine to the screen for the students. It can be a lonely experience for them who are isolated back at home partway through the school year. Fina uses Teams meetings to bring some much-needed cheerfulness to this uncertain time. Fina conducts virtual dance classes for a limited group of students to ensure the best experience is being provided. They deliver interactive sessions, blended with new dance techniques and helping finetune the students’ dance moves. The trainers admit that this new method of given lessons had to make them even more creative when correcting the students’ techniques as it was quite challenging to correct them with no physical contact. However, it opened a new way of thinking and analyzing how to bring over the techniques which before you would not think so deep on it. Bottom line, the tool was functioning!

Teaching remotely, although not without its challenges, has brought a new dimension to the learning process. It was also cool to see parents joining in to say hi and meet the Fina trainers over video.

Choosing the best technology for digital transformation

The first step in Fina’s technology journey was to adopt Teams. Very rapidly after the implementation of that, we implemented Microsoft Office 365 in their infrastructure. At this moment internally they also use all the applications and use Teams to meet with the trainers to talk about new schedules, new programs and much more. So not only did Fina fulfill their expectation of delivering virtual classes to their students, but they also managed to inherit that same culture internally. That was something that the management team of this dance school never had in mind being capable of.

Fina maintained about 50% of their business productivity with the use of Teams.

This solution is now considered to be offered as an added value as part of their USP after the pandemic. With this modern approach in mind, the customer can focus on new market growth. Virtual classes are here to stay for Fina Dance Art School.

Picture: Fina Dance Art School Instagram

Are Your People Using Collaboration Tools in the Right Way?

Posted on September 7, 2022June 22, 2023 by Adriana Wong

Software procurement is C-level executive decision.
IT Managers should be able to describe the value proposition of any software purchase.

Healthy teamwork and effective collaboration are key ingredients in any company’s long-term success. But many companies struggle to find—and use—the right software to unleash their potential to meet and exceed clients’ expectations.

When it comes to collaboration and communication software, there is a diverse range of options for helping organizations achieve high-velocity teamwork, best-in-class productivity and seamless digital resource management. The proliferation of smartphones and tablets at every price-point has opened a world of intuitive, cross-platform, user-friendly apps to a growing audience of non-techie consumers.

For asset storage and sharing, a number of popular services provide enterprise-level capabilities, including secure management of sensitive or confidential information on your own servers. For boosting team productivity, a range of robust remote desktop applications work well with existing desktop setups, and several vendors provide apps for access to corporate servers.

One robust option, Microsoft Teams, acts as a virtual hub for your software-assisted productivity environment, allowing organizations of almost any size to group chat, voice call, video conference and work collaboratively, all in one place. By taking the stress out of conference calls, and allowing companies to access, share, and edit Word, PowerPoint and Excel files in real time, Microsoft Teams has for some time topped IT managers’ lists of corporate collaboration and communication software solutions.

However, as always, significant challenges to successful implementation remain. Fuzzy goals, weak strategy, inappropriate technology, undervaluing people, and lack of leadership involvement can undermine your best efforts.

In particular, leadership support can mark the difference between an IT manager making minor adjustments to localized systems and a chief executive officer or chief technology officer looking at the organization as a whole to determine what effects changes will have on the business itself. In most organizations, the CEO and chief financial officer are usually the ultimate decision-makers, although depending on the nature of the business the chief operations officer, chief technology officer and chief information officer may be highly influential.

“IT managers need to be able to express to C-level execs in clear business terms the aim and benefits of the software implementation, the expected outcomes and the implications of action and inaction—especially the financial ramifications,” Jasper Kraak, Solution Architect at Inova, said.

The CEO is primarily concerned with the overall alignment between the organization’s macro-strategic agenda and its impact on the bottom line. The CFO is concerned with managing finances, overseeing accounting and information systems, monitoring capital equipment assets and balancing taxes and other regulatory risks to the corporation. The chief operating officer is responsible for overseeing property, plant and equipment, managing the work force, and purchasing client services and information technology. CIOs and CTOs are responsible for establishing and maintaining corporate technology environment, including software and software systems integration, procurement and utilization of hardware and software assets and support for business development.

“For C-level execs, the real obstacle isn’t buying the right software but buying into how that software changes the way that the whole organization works. So the real question isn’t whether they’ve bought the right collaboration solution, but whether they’re using those collaboration tools in the way that maximizes value for their whole organization,” Kraak said.

Would you like to know more about the solutions we offer? Visit our website or schedule a complimentary discovery call with our team!

We would love to hear from you! Stay in touch with us on Facebook or LinkedIn.

5 Ways PowerApps Accelerates Achieving Your Business Goals

Posted on September 6, 2022June 7, 2023 by Adriana Wong

No idea is too out of the box when working with Microsoft PowerApps. Businesses are always looking for ways to offer their customers an increasingly exceptional experience, as this can ultimately drive sales. What if those ideas could easily be translated into an app? With Microsoft PowerApps, a brilliant idea for an app can become a reality.

Imagine a situation where a retail store owner wants to use available data to offer the best product selection and combinations to cross-sell a purchase, with just a barcode scan? What if the retailer wants to reduce carbon footprint, and e-mail receipts instead of printing them, while simultaneously having a way to stay in contact with customers? This world of possibilities opens with PowerApps. In fact, 60% of all occupations have at least 30% technically automatable activities.* The best thing is, you do not have to be a coding genius or expert app developer, because you do not need a single line of code to build with PowerApps. According to Microsoft, IT application development is gravitating towards low-code and high-productivity platforms like PowerApps to minimize cost and support rapidly changing business needs.

So, are you ready to become a #PowerAddict or do you need a little more convincing? In any case, here is a list of ways PowerApps can accelerate you achieving your business goals.

1. You can build apps without risk: PowerApps connect apps to your data, so you are always ready to act on new insights, all without compromising your security, governance, and compliance standards. Allow employees to excel and add business value by quickly and securely developing innovative apps to reduce inefficiencies and solve business challenges.

2. App development is simplified without constraints: Just because a staff member might not have a technical background, does not mean that they would not have a great idea for an app that might increase efficiency, reduce cost or improve customer experience. For example, staff members who deal with customers first and define the customer experience, have the best knowledge of customer needs, and might have ideas on how to react to them. Developing apps is made easy with PowerApps, so even a non-technical employee can bring a brilliant app idea to life, without limiting development possibilities. App development can be streamlined for non-technical team members and seasoned developers alike with out-of-the-box components and limitless customization options.

3. Apps can be deployed quickly, while value can be added continuously: In the everchanging world of today, businesses need to be able to respond to changes and developments quickly to stay competitive. PowerApps makes it possible to launch working apps in a fraction of the time with a platform designed for quick deployment, so businesses can deliver value fast and continuously evolve features for more benefit.By being able to deploy apps quickly, you can increase your competitiveness in your respective field. According to research, 80% of executives at Fortune 1000 and other industry-leading companies are concerned about threats from more agile, data-first companies. *

4. Data can be integrated with just a few clicks: Do not let the data you’ve acquired sit and collect dust! In fact, 70% of organizations believe their data is not used to its fullest extent. * Instead, create business apps with PowerApps that act on the data you collect and use every day. Capture new data directly, integrate data from hundreds of sources with pre-built custom APIs, and easily act on insights.

5. Infuse AI to add powerful InApp Intelligence: Step into the future – there are so many ways we can benefit from artificial intelligence, making our processes more efficient. As a matter of fact, 50% of work activities globally have the potential to be automated using current technology. *

Let’s take for example a product distributor that has products over a wide variety of physical locations. An important factor is always having enough stock of each product at every location. With PowerApps, a company can easily create an app where it can (A) use a picture of the product to identify it, (B) tag the product with the correct description, and program the app to count the number of a specific product present on a shelve. Imagine how much time this would save a merchandising team; they wouldn’t have to continuously spend hours of their time counting and reporting stock and will have time to visit more accounts. Furthermore, the possibility of mistakes is limited, while the company immediately has real-time access to stock reporting.

In conclusion, PowerApps offers businesses that want to be front runners in a quickly evolving world the opportunity to be able to safely develop low-code apps that allow them to immediately respond to changes, make optimal use of data and be more efficient. Are you curious to know how your overall business can benefit from PowerApps and how you can build apps on a platform without limits, like Azure? Book a discovery call with the Cloud solution experts at Inova Solutions today!

Sources:

*McKinsey, *NewVantage Partners, Big Data Executive Survey 2018, 2018 IDC, *Gartner, 2019, *IDG – Big Data Survey, *McKinsey

About Inova Solutions

Inova Solutions is the Microsoft trusted provider of Cloud services in the Caribbean. We are a Microsoft Solutions partner. Our mission is to “Empower organizations of all sizes to create business advantage by adopting digital transformation”. Inova Solutions’ focus is to help organizations ensure business continuity by embracing the smart use of technology. The main priority is to establish the ultimate customer experience by driving transformational change.

Busting 3 Myths About Azure Costs

Posted on September 6, 2022June 7, 2023 by Adriana Wong

Why cloud computing is not as expensive as you think.

When people think of Cloud computing with Microsoft Azure – dropping on-premises databases and servers and running their business’ computing through a cloud service provider – they might be convinced of several misconceptions that will make them stick to the old way of doing business.

Some might think that Azure, Microsoft’s Cloud service, only works for large enterprises, or that Cloud computing is as expensive or even more expensive than traditional computing. Microsoft’s certified Cloud Solutions Provider (CSP) in the Caribbean and Ecuador), Inova Solutions, wants customers to be confident when they choose to make their way to the Cloud, that is why we have summed up (and busted) three myths about Azure cost. Here they are:

1. Running in the Cloud versus on-premise is more expensive

The cost of doing business is different for each company, but you can easily figure this out for your own business by using Azure’s Total Cost of Ownership Calculator. Enter information about your current on-premises workloads, such as servers, databases, storage, and networking. Then, you review the suggested industry average cost for related operational costs such as electricity to power your on-premise datacenter. In the end, Azure will present you with a report with your total on-premises cost breakdown and your forecasted cost breakdown for cloud computing with Azure. You can compare your cost and see where you would save on expenses when you run your workloads on the cloud instead of on-premises. You do not need a subscription to use this calculator.

Additionally, if you just want to configure and estimate the cost for any workload you want to deploy in Azure, you can use the Azure Pricing Calculator.

Let’s be honest: not every workload is right for the cloud. But Azure provides you with tools to explore where you can save on costs, and create value, by leveraging cloud services.

2. Once your team has access to your Azure account, they have full access and control over all resources, potentially driving up cost

Meet the Azure Resource Manager (ARM) and Azure Role-based Access Control (RBAC). ARM does exactly what the name says it does – the platform enables you to manage (create, update, and delete) resources in your Azure account. There are different features, like templates, locks, and tags that can help you organize and secure your resources after deployment as well. Azure’s role-based access control lets you control who in your organization can perform actions on resources by defining roles and adding users or groups (for example a team in your organization) to the roles. Additionally, all user actions are logged so you can look them up afterwards if needed.

Combined, these two features help you keep your Azure subscriptions secure and under control.

3. You do not have an overview of your costs in Azure

You do not only get an overview of your Azure cost, but you also receive advice on how to lower your expenses. Azure Advisor is a free service that can evaluate your deployments and recommend cost savings, personalized for your account.

You can even dig deeper into your cost by utilizing the Azure Cost Management + Billing service, which is free as well. It helps you monitor and control your Azure spending and optimize resource use. The service also allows you to set up budgets and alerts, so you set budget limits and get an alert when the limit has been reached.

Another tool you can use to keep an overview of your Azure costs is tags. These help you organize billing data by identifying the cost owner. For example, if you run resources for different teams, you can use tags to categorize cost by department. When you can filter your Cost management + Billing reports by tag groups to identify who generates the biggest Azure costs, you can make targeted adjustments.

Being able to predict what you are going to spend using Azure, controlling who has access to modify your subscriptions and having a customized overview of your cloud expenses, is a great benefit of cloud computing with Azure. But the reason many businesses lean towards cloud computing with Azure nowadays is because of six fundamental facts:

1. Thanks to service level agreements (SLA, a promise on the percentage of time a cloud service is available), you can guarantee continuous user experience, even when things go wrong.

2. Computing capacity in the Cloud can quickly be scaled up or down to adjust to your needs. Scaling can happen in two ways while: computing capacity can be increased by adding RAM or CPUs to a virtual machine (vertically), or by adding instances of a resource, such as adding more virtual machines to your configuration (horizontally).

3. You can set up your applications in the cloud elastically, meaning that they are configured scale automatically and will always have the resources they need.

4. How long will it normally take you to buy a new server? With cloud computing comes agility, meaning that cloud-based resources – such as virtual machines – can be deployed and configured almost instantly.

5. If you tend to customers in a specific region, Azure’s geo-distribution allows your applications and data to be deployed to regional datacenters around the globe, so your customers always have the best performance.

6. By choosing to take advantage of cloud-based backup services, data replication and geo-distribution, businesses can deploy their applications confidently knowing they can count on Azure for disaster recovery and business continuity.

Do you have more questions about costs in Azure? Book a discovery call with the Cloud experts at Inova Solutions!

About Inova Solutions

Inova Solutions is the Microsoft trusted provider of Cloud Solutions in the Caribbean and Ecuador. We are a Microsoft Solutions Partner with extensive knowledge in software licensing. Our mission is: “Empowering organizations of all sizes to create business advantages by adopting digital transformation”. Inova Solutions’ unique formula is to assist organizations so they can lead the way through the smart use of technology, be able to continue to serve their customers and employees in the best way possible and ensure business continuity.

Source: Microsoft

Success Stories: RJRGLEANER Communications Group makes head start in digital transformation of media industry

Posted on September 6, 2022June 22, 2023 by Adriana Wong

Partner: Inova Solutions | Client: RJRGLEANER Group | Location: Jamaica | Size: 700+ employees | Industry: Media

When thinking of a media company innovating, you might think of it revolutionizing the way news, sports and entertainment is delivered to viewers, readers, and listeners. But at Jamaican media company RJRGLEANER Group there was also a drive to revolutionize the company from within; to embrace the advantages of digital transformation and build a smarter workplace for staff members.

The company recently managed to further differentiate themselves in their respective industry when they partnered up with Inova Solutions, who facilitated their migration to Microsoft 365’s modern workplace platform. The transition has helped RJRGLEANER Group increase employee efficiency and collaboration, ultimately allowing the company to provide better service to its clients.

The media giant is home to several print and digital media platforms in Jamaica. Their platforms strive to bring those who tune in the best in credible news, current affairs, human interest stories, sports, family entertainment and music.

RJRGLEANER Group for quite some time had been looking to revolutionize its Information Communication, Engineering and Technology Platforms and this included innovating the technology that staff members utilized to collaborate and serve customers with.

At the time, the company struggled with productivity and collaboration issues. Employees invested a lot of hours in a day on one task: calendaring. Arranging meetings that fit into the schedule of everyone required to attend, and individually confirming attendance of employees afterwards was an inefficient and unproductive process.

Furthermore, the Sales team used to spend hours traveling and setting up before giving presentations to contacts out of office (imagine getting there and realize you forgot your laptop charger?), only to pack up and travel back to the office afterwards. Later, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, it became impossible for the Sales team members to visit clients without risking the health of themselves and others.

Driving Differentiation Through Digital Transformation

The media company knew that, if it wanted to drive differentiation from competitors in the market, it needed to take a step in this part of its digital transformation by changing the way staff members were able to communicate and collaborate with both their colleagues and customers. RJRGLEANER Company chose to connect with the trusted Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) for Microsoft in the Caribbean, Inova Solutions.

The CSP partner offered its full support in RJRGLEANER Group’s digital transformation journey to optimize productivity and collaboration, with the media company’s end goal being to improve their services to customers. The Microsoft certified experts at Inova Solutions took note of the challenges the media company was facing and advised a tailor-made solution, designed specifically for RJRGLEANER Group. Inova Solutions also advised on any inquiries, about for example security or compliance, that the media company had.

Together, the partners assessed and discussed the opportunities that Microsoft 365 presented. Microsoft 365 provides a secure and modern workplace platform as a viable source of being able to solve the collaboration and communication issues that existed in the company.

Once the decision was made to migrate to Microsoft 365’s modern workplace, Inova Solutions provided RJRGLEANER Group with the tools needed to effectively empower communication and collaboration between colleagues, and clients alike, which will undoubtedly generate new ideas and drive innovation. The services provided by Inova Solutions included the software licenses and migration, implementation, and support services. The Microsoft Certified Trainers (MCT) at Inova Solutions additionally provided formal Administrator Training and Adoption Training.

Adoption Made the Difference

The adoption sessions hosted by Inova Solutions Jamaica consisted of delivery of workshops, that are used todrive usability of the technology with staff, groups and teams. It is to allow teams to collaborate and engage more, in order for deeper and more productive interactions to take place. This by extension improves productivity and drives effectiveness.

The adoption sessions for the RJRGLEANER Group will allow for the entire group to be powered and enabled by the Modern Workplace Platform of Microsoft 365 (also known as Office 365) to serve and engage the citizens with speed and agility.

Below is an overview of the normal flow of an adoption session:

Office 365 Suite Overview

Microsoft SharePoint (basic)

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft PowerAutomate (basic)

Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft Stream

Microsoft OneNote

Microsoft OneDrive

Microsoft My Analytics (Only for Heads of Department)

For the adoption sessions for RJRGLEANER Group, Inova Solutions Jamaica focused on 5 key groups and hosted a total of 8 sessions:

Sales and Marketing

Administration

Editorial and Newsroom

Heads of Departments

Board Members (four sessions were hosted)

A World of Difference

The migration makes a world of difference to RJRGLEANER Group, because it allows the media company to be unique by providing them with an ability to differentiate in the way they serve, engage, and provide their products and services to customers.

Calendaring runs smoothly now, because with the availability of Microsoft Outlook and Teams through Microsoft 365, employees can use the scheduling assistant feature to schedule meetings for various employees.

The Sales team can focus more on the content of their sales presentations for clients and close that amazing deal, instead of stressing and rushing while traveling and struggling with set up. With the use of Microsoft Teams, staff members can host online meetings, do their presentations, and drive deal closure with clients faster – all from behind their desk.

“RJGLEANER Group team members all across our Group are excited and engaged, now more than ever before in much more of our business processes. The led Teams adoption process is making us a stronger and more efficient team,” said Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Gary Allen

The transition the Microsoft 365’s modern workplace ultimately positions RJRGLEANER Group as more technologically advanced and apt compared to their competitors. This is part of their strategic vision to advance their content creation, delivery of that content and creation of products and delivery of items.

Michael Henlin, Chief Technology Officer (CTO), looks back on a successful migration process thanks to Inova Solutions: “The professionalism and expertise of Inova Solutions guided us through a successful migration process, from conceptualization to implementation and adoption.”

In total, 741 users across RJRGLEANER Group were assisted by Inova Solutions in their migration.

About Inova Solutions
Inova Solutions is the Microsoft trusted provider of cloud services in the Caribbean, with an outstanding Gold Partnership. Its mission is to “Empower organizations of all sizes to create business advantage by adopting digital transformation”. Inova Solutions’ focus is to help organizations ensure business continuity by embracing the smart use of technology. The main priority is to establish the ultimate customer experience driving transformational change.

Microsoft announces price increase and new commerce experience

Posted on February 12, 2022September 4, 2023 by Adriana Wong

Microsoft has announced price increases for some Office 365 and Microsoft 365 services. The price increases will affect commercial and government users of Microsoft’s software as a service (SaaS) offering starting March 1st, 2022. From March 10th 2022, all new subscriptions will be procured through Microsoft’s New Commerce Experience, which has been developed with the goal to reduce licensing complexity.

Our guide below helps you better understand what these changes mean for your organization and what you can do to be prepared.

What services are included in the price increase?
Microsoft’s updated annual and multiyear pricing will go into effect on March 1st, 2022*:

Microsoft 365 Business Basic (from $5 to $6)
Microsoft 365 Business Premium (from $20 to $22)
Microsoft 365 E3 (from $32 to $36)
Office 365 E1 (from $8 to $10)
Office 365 E3 (from $20 to $23)
Office 365 E5 (from $35 to $38)

Why the changes?
In short, Microsoft’s price increase – a decade after introducing Office 365 – is due to the increase in value over the years. Since the launch of Microsoft 365, our partner has added several much-loved apps to Microsoft 365 and Office 365, such as Teams, Power BI, and OneDrive, and not to mention countless new security features and automation capabilities.

Licensing simplified
Microsoft is also introducing a more simplified approach to licensing: the New Commerce Experience (NCE) for online services such as Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Power Platform and Windows 365. The NCE licensing model is built on an annual or multi-year commitment, aligned with the other Microsoft agreements (Enterprise Agreement, Open Value Agreement).

Here are the key highlights to the transformed CSP program:
Since March 2022, all new commercial product subscriptions are only made available via the NCE licensing model. Starting November 2023, public sector (academic, government community cloud, not-for-profit/charity) offers will be available in new commerce for new and renewing subscriptions. From January 2024, Microsoft will begin automatic migration of all renewing commercial and public sector customers to the NCE. You can find your subscription renewal dates on the Subscription page in the Inova Customer portal.

Key benefits:

Cost savings and price protection when purchasing an annual or multiyear subscription, compared to the more flexible monthly subscription
Licenses can be decreased or cancelled within 168 hours of being purchased or alternatively at the end of the subscription term
Mid-subscription seat increase will be invoiced prorated for the remainder of the subscription

Multi Geo is now available. This service allows organizations to provision and store data in various geolocations, making it easier for them to meet data residency requirements.

What to do next?
Evaluate your current and future business needs. Schedule a call with your trusted Inova Solutions account manager, who can guide you through the options and opportunities available to help you manage the upcoming changes. We will help you plan optimal use of your current IT resources, while assisting you in making valuable future investments.

*Above prices are per user per month, based on annual or multi-year billing through the NCE. The announced price changes are currently not applicable to education products.

Source: Microsoft

Success Story: Ecuadorian Wood Supplier Supercharges Customer Service Experience

Posted on September 7, 2021June 22, 2023 by Adriana Wong

Partner: Inova Solutions | Customer: AGLOMERADOS COTOPAXI-EDIMCA | Location: Ecuador | Size: 1000 employees | Industry: Manufacturing and Retail

Inova Solutions successfully created a tracking system for Aglomerados Cotopaxi’s customer orders using Microsoft technologies, helping the company provide better service to their customers because of accurate and real-time information being provided on orders. As a result, the company experienced an increase in sales and a growth in their customer base.

In today’s world, access to vital information is not only a necessity, it’s something we have come to expect. No longer we are willing to wait. After all, information is always at the tip of our fingers. One gesture, a word written and out comes the result we expected. Although we are unaware of the processes behind the construction of such information filled portals, we demand that information be ready for us. That is true for everything, and more than anything else when we order items. Ordering, whether we do this online or not, produces an automatic reaction in everyone’s mind: we immediately want to know when our order will arrive. Whether it’s pizza, clothes, a computer, or something more complex, we immediately head over to the tracking app, tracking website or anything of the sort. And if it is not available, we head call the customer service line, only to become frustrated when we do not get an answer.

Aglomerados Cotopaxi is a leader in the forest-related industry, setting up plantations for the production and distribution of wooden boards. As a company in the Forest Industry, Aglomerados Cotopaxi has the FSC® Certification (Forest Stewardship Council®), which verifies that the management of forests and plantations comply with strict international standards on Responsible Forest Management, based on social, environmental, and economic criteria. Although originally a local supplier, Aglomerados Cotopaxi has become an international reseller, through its affiliated company Edimca. Today, wooden boards produced in Ecuador are exported to several countries, and particularly to the United States.

Lost in Translation

While the production and sales side of the equation has been progressively automated in response to the increment in export sales, this wasn’t the case for order traceability. In essence, customers who placed an order had no idea of where their products would be at any given time in the shipping process. In essence, this meant there was no information available, and if it were, it would probably be outdated, or incorrectly passed onto the foreign clients. Adding other issues, such as a language barrier, poor lines of communication and the pressure on those having to provide information to exasperated customers, you get a recipe for failure. Then came 2020. And with that, the pandemic. The situation became more complicated, because for months the staff wasn’t at the office to respond to customer queries. Management started to get nervous, as customers started to divert their orders to other suppliers that could provide them with better and more immediate information, at a similar cost.

Fernando Giron, IT Apps Analyst at Aglomerados Cotopaxi, had already seen the change in productivity they obtained with Microsoft Office 365. He had witnessed firsthand how well it had worked with the help of Inova Solutions, by then their preferred supplier for Microsoft-related technologies.

Fernando and his colleagues had worked side by side with the Inova Solutions tech staff for the implementation of the solution, and then with our own Microsoft Certified Trainers to provide training on the use of Microsoft Office 365. Inova Solutions must have the solution to this problem, Fernando thought, so he contacted Enrique Cruz, a member of the Ecuador team who had helped them in the past.

Fernando remembered Enrique had previously spoken about embedding customer-centric solutions in SharePoint, and at the time he had also spoken about the benefits of Power Apps and Power Automate. Perhaps Enrique and the Inova Solutions team could help.

A Partner for the Best Solution

The parties set up a meeting using Microsoft Teams, and went through the different available options to solve the issue. The tech guys at made it sound so simple, Fernando wondered if it would be that easy to resolve. They spoke about SharePoint, SharePoint Designer, Microsoft Power Apps and Power Automate. A solution could be created utilizing the very same tools they already had. When Inova Solutions (Inova) presented a proposal using Microsoft technologies, with a cost so low management thought it was a mistake, they all agreed to give it a try. After all, Inova had already helped them in the past and had become a trusted partner.

And it worked. In three months’ time, Aglomerados Cotopaxi and its affiliated entity Edimca had a portal any customer could access to retrieve information on their orders in transit, complete with all pertaining details almost real-time status information. Whether an order is being prepared, ready to ship, in transit or at customs, immediate real-time updates are now at the customers’ disposal. No more disgruntled clients. No more calls left unattended, or incorrect and outdated information being given. At the click of a mouse, real time info is finally at the disposal of those concerned.

“There are no words to describe how this solution impacted our operation”, says Fernando. “Increased sales, a spike in customer satisfaction and the ability to have our staff perform other tasks, instead of providing information they at times did not even have at hand, have impacted our company in a tremendously positive way. Our customer base is increasing at the same time because of us being able to provide accurate and timely information, and existing customers are increasing their orders because they know when they will receive their goods, therefore having the ability to properly forecast consumption and sales. Our own staff is in a better place too. There is no need to have our people at the office. They can work remotely; with the safety and security their own homes provide while at the same time providing yet a better service to customers. Picture how much has changed at Aglomerados Cotopaxi”, Fernando details.

“Enrique Cruz and Inova have helped us take a step forward in sales, in our quality of service and organization. What was a complex problem has now been turned into a business advantage, in as little as three (03) months. And what is most notable, it has been done with a moderate investment, utilizing a set of Microsoft tools we already owned. This is proof that having the right partner does make a difference, and a statement when it comes to our trust in Microsoft. It has indeed paid out.”

About Inova Solutions

Inova Solutions is the Microsoft trusted provider of cloud services in the Caribbean and Ecuador, with an outstanding Gold Partnership. Its mission is to “Empower organizations of all sizes to create business advantage by adopting digital transformation”. Inova Solutions’ focus is to help organizations ensure business continuity by embracing the smart use of technology. The main priority is to establish the ultimate customer experience driving transformational change.