Cloud computing is changing how we build and utilize software systems.
Given the cloud’s promise of lower costs and increased performance, you (the leaders of your company’s technology and/or business units) need to plan how the cloud will impact your business.
You don’t want to allow it to happen. You need to make it happen.
November 28, 2011. Dallas, TX. Stake your claim in the rapidly growing capabilities of the cloud market and expand your business with public cloud with Windows Azure Deployment Planning Services (AZDPS). As an Azure Circle Partner, Cogent can provide Microsoft customers with Software Assurance (SA) customers the exclusive benefit of structured consulting engagements that provide training and demos of applications on Windows Azure. Cogent can help you plan, build, deploy, manage, and support applications in the cloud and leverage the benefits of cloud computing in a flexible, rapid and viable manner with Windows Azure.
November 18, 2011. Dallas, TX. Cogent Company, a Microsoft Systems Integrator and Gold Competency Partner, announced today that Microsoft has selected the company to join the Windows Azure Circle program, a select group of managed partners who support all aspects of Microsoft’s cloud platform. Achieving this status demonstrates Microsoft’s recognition of Cogent’s depth of experience and commitment to developing on the Windows Azure platform. “We’re honored to be recognized by Microsoft for our work with Microsoft’s cloud services,” said Marc Hoppers, Cogent’s President and CEO.
October 3, 2011. Dallas, TX. On Wednesday, November 9, 2011, Cogent, along with its guests, faculty, and other members of Center for Decision and Information Technology (“CDIT”), will attend and participate in a session lead by Gartner Research Vice President Jeff Vining on the Current State and Trends of Geographical Information Systems (“GIS”) and Business Intelligence (“BI.”) One of the fastest developing areas today affecting IT and Decision Analysis is the convergence of GIS and BI systems for improved visual data exploration and analysis. This type of analysis has been driven forward by efforts in BI and GIS in developing more real-time information aggregation. GIS has always been a necessary part of BI for power and local government, but it has become a hot topic [Read more...]
July 20, 2011. Dallas, TX. Cogent Company’s team attended Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference in Los Angeles, CA, last week. The conference was the kick off for Microsoft’s fiscal year and the key training and announcement venue for Microsoft partners around the world. Cogent team members attended multiple sessions on the new technology that Microsoft is rolling out in the next year, including two key technologies that Cogent’s clients are clamoring for information on: mobility, the cloud, and data.
There’s a lot of buzz around the upcoming Mango update, which will add hundreds of new features and capabilities that build upon the unique design and integrated experiences of Windows Phone. For companies building solutions with Exchange and SharePoint, Mango adds a number of new Outlook and Office Mobile productivity features, bringing even more value to your solutions on Windows Phone. Mango will also add built-in support for Office 365 and a free Lync Mobile app, making communication and collaboration a snap for companies whose infrastructure is on premises or in the cloud. Mango will also offer added functionality for organizations to make the most efficient use of resources, allowing IT departments to use existing infrastructure to manage phones or distribute their own applications using Targeted App Distribution in Marketplace.
For developers, Mango adds a range of new capabilities for delivering richer more compelling apps. In addition to support for SQL Linq, sockets, and background processing, Mango brings new ways for app developers to make the user experience more engaging and seamless through Live Tiles and integration with Bing search services.
Senior leaders from Microsoft also discussed the transition to cloud computing. Satya Nadella, head of Microsoft’s Server & Tools business, said “Our mission, simply put, is to cloud-optimize every business,” he said, “and bring the benefits of this transformation to all of our customers.” Nadella walked through Microsoft’s strategy of spanning private and public clouds with a common set of tools for management, identity, virtualization, and development. This freedom of movement across public and private clouds is unique to Microsoft, and reflects “the realities of hybrid IT, which is the reality customers will demand from us as an ecosystem.” Nadella also emphasized the continued opportunity in the traditional server market, as private and public cloud computing drives increased appetite for servers. “Cloud computing is as big a transformation as we have ever seen and, together with our partners, Microsoft will help customers through the shift,” said Nadella.
Noting the ever-increasing importance of data in both public and private cloud computing, Nadella announced the availability of a community technology preview of the new Microsoft SQL Server, currently SQL Server codename “Denali.” For the first time, customers can begin testing the much-anticipated features of “Denali,” including Project “Crescent” for visual data exploration and SQL Server Developer Tools codename “Juneau,” for a modern development experience across server, business intelligence and cloud development projects.
Finally, Microsoft Corp. today unveiled updates to the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN), to better help partners grow their businesses and meet evolving technology needs of customers around the globe through tools, training and incentives totaling $5.8 billion for fiscal year 2012.
Cogent is pleased to continue to deepen its relationship with Microsoft in an effort to provide guidance and solutions to its clients on Microsoft technologies. Ty Anderson, Cogent Co-Founder, Vice President and leader of Cogent’s Application Development/Systems Integration Practice, said, “Marc and I started our firm based on the opportunities that we saw in the Microsoft technology around .NET, SQL, and the Office SharePoint products. While we’ve expanded our technology partnerships and delivery capabilities beyond Microsoft, we still value the work that Microsoft is doing to stay ahead of corporate IT needs.”
July 7, 2011. Dallas, TX. Cogent Company team members will travel to Los Angeles, CA, next week to join Microsoft for its Worldwide Partner Conference. Each year, Microsoft gathers its partners from around the world for five (5) full days of opportunities to hear what Microsoft is planning for the next year and beyond. Cogent team members will be able to attend a variety of session on products, marketing programs, and hear the vision of Microsoft’s direction directly from Microsoft presidents, executives, and partner speakers. At this year’s event, Microsoft will be launching more products than ever before.
WPC’s 2011 keynote line up will feature Steve Ballmer - CEO, Kevin Turner- COO, Jon Roskill – corporate VP of the Worldwide Partner Group and other key Microsoft Executives. Cogent’s Marc Hoppers, Co-Founder, President, and CEO, will be blogging through out WPC on his blog. You can read his first thoughts on WPC by following this link.
Dallas, TX. May 23, 2010: On Thursday, June 16, 2011, Cogent Company and QlikTech, makers of QlikView, will host a Mobile Business Discovery event. Business discovery is a new approach to business intelligence that puts users in control, allowing end users to meet their needs so they can solve unique business problems. This also allows users to solve their problems in a timely way to get answers to the most critical questions.
A big part of the timely delivery of insights to users is being able to serve data and analysis onto any mobile platform.
“We’ve been helping our clients press their advantage by delivering insights at a depth and speed that is unprecedented in our business intelligence experience,” said Todd Turman, Vice President and head of the Information Management practice at Cogent. “We’ve proven this technology on the laptop and desktop, but getting this kind of speed to value with the QlikTech solution is pretty amazing. This is solid technology for the end user, but it also is manageable from an IT administrator’s perspective.”
“Cogent has been helping clients move into the intersection of business intelligence and business process automation for quite some time, and we felt like that was an evolutionary productivity improvement,” said Marc Hoppers, Founder, President, and CEO of Cogent. “Taking that one step further and letting an end user carry those insights with them and continue to develop new insights away from the office is revolutionary. It can increase quality and quantity of insights and provide order of magnitude productivity improvements.”
There is no cost to attend this seminar, and all attendees will receive a Gartner MQ analyst report. Join us at the following time and location:
Thursday, June 16
3:00 PM – 6:30 PM
Omni Mandalay | Las Colinas
221 East Las Colinas Boulevard
Dallas (Irving), TX 75039
To register for the event, please follow this link.
Office 365 is still in beta but Microsoft is already producing a lot of content. If you are thinking of moving to the cloud to take advantage of things like SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, & Lync (not to mention Office 2010 Professional Plus)..then this podcast is worth you time. The podcast is 60 minutes and is filled with tips for using Office 365.
To me, one of the most compelling features of Office 365 is the various document services that are part of SharePoint Online. It has services for Word, Excel, Visio, and Access. Early in my career I developed lots of Access-based applications and I believe Access + SharePoint Access Services is a winner. We use them internally at my consulting firm, Cogent Company. I’ll have more to say about them later. For now, you can learn about them and other topics by listening to the podcast.
Are you wondering what Microsoft SharePoint Online is and how it impacts your organization? Are you curious about what role it can play in your employees’ productivity experience? Join us for a fast-paced 60-minute session that is designed to highlight the most exciting features of SharePoint Online. An instructor showcases a tip or a feature every few minutes, which provides you with a broad and real-world understanding of what the platform can do for your users. Topics include collaborating with team sites, simplifying document access through Microsoft Office Web Apps, coauthoring content by using Microsoft Office and SharePoint Online, automating business processes, and improving communication with Microsoft Lync Online integration.
Dallas, May 20, 2011. On Thursday, May 19, 2011, Cogent Company served as the title sponsor for the largest SharePoint Conference in the Central Region of the United States. This was Cogent’s third year to participate in SharePoint TechFest. The event was held at the new Irving Convention Center and featured a keynote presentation and 20 break-out sessions categorized in four distinct tracks:
This year, SharePoint TechFest was combined with the inaugural Innotech Dallas conference, a regionally focused business to business technology conference & expo. Cogent has participated in InnoTech Oklahoma for several years, so Cogent was excited to get to be a part of Innotech Dallas through SharePoint TechFest. “Sean and his team at Prospera Events do such a great job with the Innotech conferences,” said Marc Hoppers, Founder, President, and CEO of Cogent. “We are excited that they have taken point on the SharePoint TechFest conference. They are delivering a great value to this market.”
Among the speakers on Thursday were a few of Cogent’s consultants. You can find descriptions of their presentation topics and links to each of their presentations below:
In addition to the three presentations from Cogent consultants, several other Cogent team members were stationed at the Cogent booth in the Exhibit Hall and participated in a CIO Magazine Executive Roundtable on staff retention.
Dallas, TX. May 13, 2010: As previously announced, Cogent Company will be title sponsor for the largest SharePoint Conference in the Central Region of the United States. On Thursday, May 19, 2011, at the new Irving Convention Center, SharePoint TechFest 2011 will feature a keynote presentation and 20 break-out sessions categorized into four distinct tracks:
SharePoint TechFest is being combined this year with the inaugural Innotech Dallas conference, a regionally focused business to business technology conference & expo. Cogent has participated in InnoTech Oklahoma for several years. “We’ve enjoyed our affiliation with Innotech, and when Innotech took over the SharePoint TechFest, we were excited because of the new opportunities the combined conferences present to our clients and our firm, said Marc Hoppers, Founder, President, and CEO of Cogent.
Cogent is pleased to announce its final list of speakers for SharePoint TechFest:
Register Now for SharePoint TechFest using discount code COGENT149 in the discount code box to receive a special rate of $149, which includes the full day event, lunch, reception, give-a-ways, and so much more.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
9:00 am – 6:00 pm
Irving Convention Center
500 Las Colinas Boulevard West
Irving, Texas 75039
About Cogent Company
Cogent Company is a leading IT and management consulting services firm that has a proven track record of helping firms improve their productivity and solve their most complex business issues. Cogent offers a unique blend of business advice and technology expertise on process automation, collaboration, business intelligence, and infrastructure. With offices in Chicago, Dallas, and Oklahoma City, companies from Fortune 500 firms to startups have turned to Cogent for strategic business solutions and consulting services. For more information about Cogent, find your way towww.cogentcompany.com.
