Bilot has been selected as the first Finnish company to participate in Microsoft’s global Practice Development Unit. The unit, focusing on cloud applications will only include 16 Nordic partners, with Bilot selected as the first Nordic company participating in the programme.
‘Bilot has realised how to maximise the benefits of cloud computing and how to develop something totally new using the features of Microsoft Azure. I’m pleased that Bilot will be working with us to provide innovative solutions in a more efficient, flexible and reliable manner,’ says Bernard Saisse, head of partner development programme in Microsoft Western Europe.
With the Practice Development Unit, Microsoft aims to find and support partners who have what it takes to become a major player in the particular field of cloud solutions. Partners will be recruited to work in four different areas, with Bilot’s group focusing on agile development of customer solutions that utilise the PaaS layer of cloud computing.
In addition to direct technical support, Microsoft will provide partners with specific support for developing their cloud business operations. Ismo Piispa, Bilot’s Business Lead urges clients to join in right from the start: ‘The programme offers clear benefits both to us and our clients. We will make Azure’s new services available to our clients, as soon as we’ve made sure they are ready for production. As Azure’s PaaS solutions help speed up the development and deployment of applications, it is essential that these solutions become available as soon as possible. Our collaboration with Microsoft will greatly contribute to the achievement of this goal.’
‘As such, the collaboration with Microsoft will not introduce new areas of expertise into our operations but it will offer us an excellent opportunity to expand our business faster and to a greater extent than we could otherwise do. One of the program’s goals is to extend Azure expertise among our team, who are enthusiastic about it,’ explains Piispa.
The program was inspired by feedback from clients: application development projects still take too long and building test and production environments don’t always run smoothly. Bilot and Microsoft will support their clients in changing the structure of their IT costs so that a larger proportion of the budget can be directed to software development and deployment, instead of spending it on building and maintaining platforms.
Hillevi Luostarinen, the Business Development Manager of Microsoft Azure cloud services says: ‘Companies have already discovered the benefits of public cloud services, along with the benefits of continuously developing services; they are not settling for acquiring virtual computers but are also looking into platform services. Now the question is how to utilise innovative services to boost changes in business operations while companies focus on their own core areas. It is important to us that Finnish companies receive the best possible support from our partner network. Finland is among the fastest growing public cloud markets in Europe. With this partnership programme, we want to ensure that the partners have the ability to deliver top-quality solutions using the Azure platform services (PaaS). We were looking for an innovative, competent and hungry partner. Bilot ticked all the boxes,’ says Luostarinen.
Further information
Ismo Piispa, Business Lead, Bilot
+358 50 301 2514
Ismo.piispa@bilot.fi
Bilot
Established in 2005, Bilot is a rapidly growing software company. We produce comprehensive, large-scale solutions for our clients. We come into our own when we’re given the opportunity to deliver the whole package, from smart user interfaces and customer engagement solutions to integrated ERP systems.
We build tomorrow’s business environments today. We are known for having a knack for finding the most significant innovations, along with possessing the ability to implement these innovations with great expertise.
Bilot is an employee-owned company with offices in the Ruoholahti district of Helsinki and in Poznan in Poland. The company had a turnover of MEUR 15 in 2015, and it employs 120 talented professionals and creative thinkers with vision.
