Session Abstract

Imagine that a global humanitarian organization operating on every inhabited continent wants to modernize its most important core system, migrate its ERP and CRM, build an enterprise data platform, and launch multiple new AI and analytical workloads tackling scenarios ranging from medical assistance to climate change all in the span of 18 months. This is a thing. ...but it wasn't all smooth sailing. This is a session about how to recognize the big problems in a storm, how to avoid crumbling under the day-to-day pressure to fix tactical issues, root out obstacles to success, and stay true to your strategy and vision as you navigate seriously choppy technical waters. If you think this doesn't apply to you because you're working on big, long-term projects and you can't change course now, think again. Join us to learn how even the biggest, most challenging initiatives can adapt and thrive in our new era of technological change.

Note to event organizers

I will seek permission to share the name of the organization for the session, and if selected can see if the Chief Digital Officer would like to co-present with me (I think he’d be keen). The organization we’re talking about here is the International Organization for Migration, which the United Nations responsible for migrants and refugees (e.g., their movement, medical, protection such as anti sex trafficking, etc.) So it’s a very cool story :-)

Andrew Welch

Ana’s husband and Alexandra’s dad :-) Also a cloud technology leader, Founder and CTO of Cloud Lighthouse, Microsoft MVP, speaker, published author, and regular writer of essays and white papers on cloud technology including the multi-edition “Crafting your Future-Ready Enterprise AI Strategy”, “Ecosystem-Oriented Architecture in the Public Sector”, “Power Platform in a Modern Data Platform Architecture”, “Scaling your Enterprise Cloud with Power Platform”, and more. I have served as CTO, global Vice President, Practice Director, and VP of Operations, and other tech and business focused roles at various Microsoft partners. I work directly with CXOs, Microsoft partners, Microsoft product engineering groups, technologists, investors, and global humanitarian and governance organizations to guide strategy and ecosystem architecture across the cloud. Previously I have led some of the world’s largest Microsoft adoptions on all seven continents (yes, including Antarctica), serving startup to Fortune 100 organizations, public sector agencies, and global NGOs.

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