Microsoft last year changed its business approach to dealing with Partners. Introducung a new win win strategy. A startegy where Microsoft see’s its partners as its growth engine. Ibrahim Youssry Microsoft Regional General Manager MEA MCC put’s it this way. “Our success comes with success to our partner ecosystem. To make you successful driving Microsoft business or your business on our technologies“.
“We believe that it takes an ecosystem to build a successful startup”
Muhammad Nabil
An Ecosystem for Startups to Thrive
It’s with this same kind of win win drive that Microsoft wants to engage Startups. Microsoft put’s it this way “you’re here to do great things. we’re here to help“. Microsoft announced Microsoft for Startups a platform for startups to grow, build and connect. The program gives startups access to technology, market and a community. The idea with this offering as shared during the Head Start Program in South Africa is to help startups grow their customer and revenue bases. It is also to ease the pressure and headaches associated with starting up. Director Commercial Partners Ecosystem, Lionel Moyal, explains it this way. “We will support you to find your first customers and get your products to market as quickly as possible“.
At RiseUp Summit in Cairo, Egypt last year Microsoft’s Partner and Startup’s Strategy Lead, Muhammad Nabil shared some more details in relation to the region.
“Microsoft has shaken up how it works with startups! Microsoft aims to help startups at every stage of their journey. Whether it’s taking an idea from inspiration to working code. Gaining access to Microsoft tools, building a business, making connections with customers through Microsoft Accelerators or getting the funds needed to really take off through Microsoft Ventures, Microsoft wants startups to know: it is here to help.”
Muhammad Nabil, Partners and Startup’s Strategy Lead, Microsoft 4Afrika
For Muhammad, Microsoft believes it takes an Ecosystem to build a successful startup. He shares that “the reality is that the contribution to economies by SMEs in Africa and Middle East could be so much more if ecosystems worked together to enable true growth. If the focus is moved from only access to funds to true access to markets. [That’s] Helping the entrepreneurs to grow their businesses by helping them get more business.”
For Muhammad it has to be a delibrate decision and a long term approach of collaboration for mutual benefits. He said Microsoft 4Afrika’s strategy is not only to bring cutting edge technology to startups. But also to unlock markets to both business to business and buisness to consumer startups through Microosft’s scalable go to market programs.
Muhammad says Microsoft is committing $500M over the next two years through the Microsoft for Startups program. To offer joint sales engagements with startups, along with access to technology and new community spaces that promote collaboration across local and global ecosystems.
“We believe that a focus on giving the startups and partners tools to grow their market access will greatly add to the overall growth of economies“.
Muhammad Nabil
This approach has turned trust into cash for Microsoft with its partners. Recording quater on quater sales growth especially in the cloud. Microsoft has been making the right calls lately, Is this the break startups in Africa and the Middle East need or are looking for?
One of Satya Nadella’s vision as Microsoft CEO is to empower every organization and individual to achieve more. One of such’s is empowering startups with microsoft technologies to realise their visions.
In a recent post by Sayed Hashish, Regional Manager, Microsoft Gulf region, he shared how Microsoft has “so far helped over 4000 startups across the region”. Sharing on how Microsoft lights up the Gulf startup scene, he said “we have entered into partnerships that will prove crucial to our commitment to boosting innovation through the MENA region”.
“By working with BECO Capital as exclusive technology partner and Bahrain FinTech bay as founding partner, Microsoft is trying to support early stage startups in the Gulf region”.
At Microsoft, we believe that cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) enable digital transformation, bringing the benefits to entire societies. That’s why we aim to help innovators launch and grow products using these advancements. Examples of startups empowered by access to our tools and services include TeachMeNow, an online platform for teachers who sell classes online, and KinTrans, a Dubai-based venture which took advantage of Microsoft Kinect to develop software that translated physical sign language.
Microsoft 4Afrika’s Skills #Interns4Afrika Internship Africa initiative offers you a way to build work experience in a thriving environment.
Do you live in Accra, Ghana? Get to be a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Technical Support, Sales or Marketing intern. Microsoft’s Intern4Afrika initiative is offering a unique experience with a dynamic and agile technology organization.
The intern will get the opportunity to work for 6 months with a Microsoft partner organization on real projects. Get to collaborate and skill up on the job with the help of colleagues. You can also get to be hired by the firm depending on your performance and if you are interested in being hired after the internship program.
All the best to you as you apply. If you do get in, come back and share the experience with us? Also kindly report any broken links so we can fix them. Thank you.
Microsoft 4Afrika’s Skills #Interns4Afrika Internship Africa initiative offers you a way to build work experience in a thriving environment.
Do you live in Nigeria? Get to be a Dynamics 365 Technical Support, Sales or Marketing intern. Microsoft’s Intern4Afrika initiative will offer the intern a unique experience with a dynamic and agile technology organization. The intern will get the opportunity to work for 6 months with a Microsoft partner organization on real projects. Get to collaborate and learn from your colleagues. You can also get to be hired by the firm depending on your performance and if you are interested in being hired after the internship program.
For more question about the Interns4Afrika program, check out the program FAQ’s
Kindly click on links below to apply on the Microsoft 4Afrika Interns4Afrika FUZU page. Sign up and fill away. All the best.
All the best to you as you apply. If you do get in, come back and share the experience with us? Also kindly report any broken links so we can fix them. Thank you.
In Nairobi, Kenya, Microsoft 4Afrika Skills IT Technical Support Internship opportunity, Get real experience and real training
Are you looking for a way to kick start your career? Looking to build some work experience in a thriving environment? The Microsoft 4Afrika Skills IT Technical Support Internship in Kenya will offer you a unique experience. One that is dynamic and agile with partner organizations in Kenya.
The Interns4Afrika internship program offers talented young people a unique experience with a dynamic and agile technology organization on the African continent. Whether you’re aspiring for a future in sales, marketing or technology, this is your chance to kick-start your future. – Microsoft 4Afrika
The IT Technical Support Internship in Kenya will offer work for 6 months with a Microsoft partner organization in Nairobi, Kenya on real projects. You’ll collaborate and learn from your colleagues.
World-Class Skills is about Microsoft’s plans to help Africans develop skills for entrepreneurship and improved employability and competitiveness.
Microsoft says, as a leader in platform and productivity for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, “we believe in what people make possible. Our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.”
Internship in Nairobi, Kenya
Do not apply if you :
– Are not a Kenyan citizen
– Have not completed your degree
– Are employed
– Have not completed your National Service
You should be able to commit to completing full time internship in 6 months. You must have a right to work in Kenya. Click to find out more information and apply.
Have you had a previous experience? Are you going to apply? Talk to us in the comments. Also kindly share, you might save or help someone’s career. Asante sana ?.
Microsoft and the CPGR unveil a first-for-Africa platform to advance medical research and healthcare on the continent
Press release : 30 October 2018, Cape Town –
Microsoft, through its 4Afrika initiative, and the Centre for Proteomic & Genomic Research (CPGR) have embarked on a joint project bringing together the intelligent cloud and genomics research to create a scalable, cost-effective technology platform to power advanced medical analysis and research. This platform will be enabled by Microsoft Azure – to support the data transfer, storage and processing capabilities for genomics datasets – and will allow African scientists and academics to perform and collaborate on ground-breaking genomics research.
The project aims to make genomic applications (such as, non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT), BRCA sequencing for breast cancer, HLA typing for stem cell match making and ancestry profiling) available on an accessible, secure and versatile cloud-based platform.
It is the first such initiative in Africa and could have enormous social and health care provision benefits, including avoiding prescription of ineffective drugs and sidestepping potential side effects, as well as enhancing the analysis of data, the dissemination of information and the aggregation of data to support regional genomic research, innovation and health provision.
“Working with Microsoft Azure gives us an opportunity to explore data management solutions that are flexible in scope and scale when supporting large-scale research projects or developing precision medicine solutions,” says Reinhard Hiller, managing director at CPGR.
Partnering for health
Based in Cape Town, the CPGR provides advanced ‘omics’ services to the life science and biotech communities in South Africa. ‘Omics’ groups, together with several specialties within the field of biology – including proteomics and genomics, which ‘zoom in’ on the proteome (the proteins output of an organism) and genome (the genetic makeup of an organism) respectively. This non-profit organisation uses leading technologies and bio-computational data pipelines to create and support tailored services for both academia and industry customers alike.
A universe of data within us
Arguably the most famous of omics projects – to a broader, non-specialist audience – was the Human Genome Project which set out to map the entire human genome. This ambitious inward journey of discovery took 15 years to be declared ‘complete’ and uncovered, among other things, that the length of the average human genome – measured in base pairs (letters of the DNA sequence) – is approximately three billion. If we think of this as kilobytes of data, we’re talking about three terabytes of data points to be unpacked and explored per person.
To analyse this amount of information, a robust technology platform for analytics is needed, and so the need for a partnership such as this becomes more apparent. Combined with the power and stability of Azure (Microsoft’s dynamic cloud computing service) and coupled with technical and financial support from Microsoft 4Afrika, this project will boost the depth and breadth of the African medical sciences research community’s output and nurture the establishment of a stronger and sustainable African medical research community.
From data to utility
“The project allows us to use an existing cloud-based data management ecosystem, while amplifying our own expertise in developing and running a genomics technology platform. We envisage creating a system that allows us to deliver value, and collaborate with others across the continent,” says Hiller.
In this way, the platform aims to counter the often-incomplete access to cutting-edge medical solutions for many people in Africa. The platform will:
(i) enhance access to patient eco-systems;
(ii) ease collection and transfer of information;
(iii) support the processing and down-stream analysis of genomic (e.g. DNA sequencing) data;
(iv) allow for the secure, efficient and safe aggregation of such data; and
(v) provide a means to combine and mine such data for research purposes.
Common diseases, such as cancer or diabetes, are influenced by the interplay of many different genetic markers. To study these linkages requires the aggregation and analysis of very large datasets. In addition, provision of gene-based diagnostic testing requires the careful comparison of an individual patient’s data with appropriate reference data sets. Given the rapidly expanding nature of biomedical science and the genetic diversity found in African populations, having a means to store and analyse data is a key pillar of Africa-led research and innovation. Such a solution will aid in reducing “data drain” from Africa as researchers will have solutions to better manage and analyse their data.
Microsoft for medicine
This project speaks directly to the potential of cloud technologies in enabling cutting-edge science and medicine. With a scalable platform like Azure as the backbone of a project, medical researchers can get to work on unlocking the secrets embedded in our cells – a giant leap for mankind into ‘inner space’ – and towards a better, healthier life.
“For Microsoft 4Afrika, it is one of the most exciting fruits of our long-term investment into Africa’s economic, social and technological development,” says Ryno Rijnsburger, chief technology officer at Microsoft 4Afrika. “We are providing both financial and technical support to the CPGR and also intend to bring out Microsoft experts to work with the team through our MySkills4Afrika volunteer programme.”
“Another of the intended outcomes is to stimulate interest and support the CPGR in accessing additional funding to continue operationalizing the platform, which will in turn lead to additional technology investments into things like mobile apps and reporting capabilities.”
“The sheer volume of data that can flow through the system will drive genomic research and medical innovation, and public health across Africa will reap the benefits,” concludes Rijnsburger.
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
The 4Afrika Initiative is Microsoft’s business and market development engine in Africa. Launched in 2013, it promotes affordable access to the internet, world-class skills and innovation to unlock and accelerate Africa’s potential to create technology not only for the continent, but for the world.
About CPGR
The CPGR is a non-profit company located in Cape Town, South Africa, based on an initiative by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), and financially supported by the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA). The CPGR combines state-of-the-art information-rich genomic and proteomic (‘omics’) technologies with bio-computational pipelines to render services and support projects in the life science and biomedical arena in (South) Africa.
