We are experiencing a major transformation in the way people and businesses relate to technology, Microsoft Malta country manager Panayiotis Ioannou says.

Microsoft Malta was recently awarded as one of Malta’s Best Employers Award by Business Leaders Malta.

“This award not only reflects the culture change with which we want to operate here at Microsoft Malta but also shows our desire to empower our customers and partners with the leading technology to seize the vast opportunities ahead in this digital era,” Panayiotis Ioannou, Microsoft’s Country Manager in Malta, says.

Cyprus-born Panayiotis joined Microsoft in 2006 as a partner sales lead for Cyprus and Malta. In 2008 leaded the overall channel engagement for Microsoft’s partner community as the SMS&P lead. He was appointed country manager for Microsoft Malta last October.

“When I came to Malta, I found a very dynamic and knowledgeable team of strong professional individuals who are already successful in their area of expertise but also with plenty of potential for more growth both personally and as a team,” he says. “To do this however, they needed more support to unleash their potential even more.”

The team at Microsoft Malta, composed of 11 people, is inspired to bring their best ideas and efforts every day to build products people love, and to empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more.

“We have to reflect our mission in the way we work, in our processes and in all our personal and business interactions. And this is the mind-set with which I came to lead the Microsoft Malta team over the coming years.”

How is Microsoft living this digital era?

“We encourage and empower businesses to embrace the digital transformation and reap its benefits not only to survive but also to thrive,” Mr Ioannou says. “The innovations Microsoft is talking about are disruptive. The companies succeeding at digital transformation are doing four things: they are becoming more engaged with their customers, empowering their employees, optimising how they run their business operations and transforming the products and services they offer using digital content.”

Microsoft however, remains a very ‘human’ company.

“We seek to use technology to enhance human interactions because only when interactions are improved we can achieve more out of our potential,” Mr Ioannou says. “I look at my team the same way Microsoft looks at the world it wants to improve. As a company we fundamentally believe that we need a culture founded on the mindset of growth. It starts with a belief that everyone can grow and develop – that potential is nurtured, not predetermined, and anyone can change their mindset.”

Locally our strength is our strong partner eco-system, the business sector and the community at large

Microsoft also enjoys an excellent with government.

“At Microsoft, strengthening our ties with local governments has been part of our ongoing strategic planning. Microsoft has in fact just announced the appointment of Kostas Loukas as its new general manager for the public sector division for central and Eastern Europe, including Malta. Mr Loukas will be responsible for the strategic planning and building of partnerships with public institutions across the 33 markets in the region. His focus is the modernisation of public administration, through the adoption of digital solutions, for the benefit of citizens.

“Locally, we have been closely partnering with the government to support their strategy to become more innovative, agile and open, with workforce that is more empowered. Microsoft Technologies can bring in a whole new phase of digital government transformation that involves embracing technology on a much deeper level to accomplish a broad range of advanced goals. Digital government transformation is about creating a single point of entry for citizens to access government services anytime, anyplace, from any device,” Mr Ioannou says.

Microsoft also strongly support start-ups – recently, the company supported and participated in the Zest conference organised by the Malta Communications Authority.

“We supported this event because we believe in entrepreneurship as an increasingly global phenomenon,” Mr Ioannou says. “Start-ups are the engines of innovation. This explains Microsoft’s long history when it comes to start-ups. In 2002, Microsoft opened its first Microsoft Innovation Centres to deliver world-class resources to students and developers who wanted to become entrepreneurs and give life to their start-ups. Today, there are 100 Microsoft Innovation Centres in over 33 countries, including Malta, serving as local hubs that provide resources and support for students and entrepreneurs, helping to accelerate the creation of new companies, jobs, and growth of the local ecosystem.

“Microsoft has also noted how Malta’s MIC has been achieving very positive results where in just three years, it has been an incubator for over 80 start-ups.”

With the increasingly main role that technology plays in all aspects of life, the disruption caused by start-ups, the growth of cloud services and workplace mobility, it is an exciting time to be working in IT.

“We are experiencing a major transformation in the way people and business relate to technology, as we are seeing accelerated trends towards the adoption of cloud and mobile computing, data analytics, social technologies and internet-of-things. Cloud has brought endless opportunities not only to Microsoft but also to those companies and organisations that embrace it.

“A substantial part of our work is engaging with customers and partners on their direction towards devices, cloud services and social media. Locally our strength is our strong partner eco-system, the business sector and the community at large. Our business partners, which are over 90 per cent of our business, will remain our top priority as we help them transform themselves for the new digital era, leveraging the opportunities from the cloud to take these relationships to the next level.”

How does Microsoft assist its partners in their transition to service-based business models through the adoption of Microsoft’s cloud services?

“By sharing tools and best practices, we help partners streamline their client solutions across a platform that provides customers the choice and flexibility to solve business challenges and achieve real outcomes through cloud adoption,” Mr Ioannou says.

“When it comes to pre-sales and quality service delivery of Microsoft’s technology solutions, we ensure that our partners are technically enabled to increase capacity which helps us secure through-partner wins with our customers. Another important role is to provide pre-sale technology support to Microsoft’s Enterprise clients by designing technical programs that guide customers in realising the solution’s value by establishing deployment and future product plans.”

What is going to be your main drive over the coming years?

“A leader is as good as the team he is leading. I have the right people who can drive the business and face the new challenges ahead. Microsoft is transforming and we want our people to transform with Microsoft. We need to remain innovative and creative, take risks and move quickly when we make mistakes. We also need to remain open to the ideas of others, and ensure that we seek growth where the success of others does not diminish our own,” Mr Ioannou says.

“One of Malta’s challenges for the coming years is going to be a redefinition of its competitiveness. Our commitment here is to assist the country in the direction it opts to take its economy. Therefore, my commitment here is to build on what has been achieved and to assist in taking Malta to the next level.”