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Dux Quax: Microsoft Graph with Elaine van Bergen

Hey y’all! Dux Raymond Sy here again with another edition of Dux Quax. This time, I got to chat with Microsoft’s Elaine van Bergen about everything from Microsoft Graph to the Microsoft partner community. Check out the video below to see just what she had to say!

Dux: Hi, everyone! It’s Dux, once again, here at Microsoft Tech Summit Sydney. Day one. Elaine, it’s a great day! Isn’t it?

Elaine: It is! It’s so exciting here. There’s so many people. I can’t believe it.

Dux: We have over 3,000 people is here.

Elaine: I believe so.

Dux: Why don’t you introduce yourself, and then we’ll get to talk about Microsoft Graph.

Elaine: Great! I’m Elaine van Bergen. I work in Microsoft Australia, in the one commercial partner team. I’m helping ISVs build leading edge solutions.

Dux: One commercial partner. Now, is that a new word? That sounds something brand new and exciting from Microsoft.

Elaine: It is. It’s quite a new structure as part of the reorganization, to really provide a bit more focus on our Microsoft partners, and make it easier for them to engage with us.

Dux: Elaine, you’ve been with the community, this ecosystem, for a while. I know at Tech Summit you’re representing Microsoft Graph. It’s just an exciting technology, and first and foremost, can you tell everybody what your session’s about, and we can jump into Microsoft Graph?

Elaine: Yeah, so, I’m presenting on how to develop with the Microsoft Graph. We’re going to go through a bunch of demos, right from the basics of how to get started through to how to do some of the more advanced capabilities. The Graph’s been around for a while. We’re starting to see people want to do bots and all kinds of exciting things that integrate with it. We’ll demo a bunch of that.

Dux: Why is this important, for everybody to learn about Microsoft Graph? I know Microsoft Graph is a critical, I guess, component of the Microsoft Cloud. What’s the value to organizations, if they tap into Microsoft Graph?

Elaine: Two of the main points are, we’ve got so many organizations on Office 365 now. We have so much data that people can leverage. But also, just to create integrated experiences. Previously, when you wanted to integrate with different pieces, there’d be one API for exchange, another one for authentication, all these different pieces, whereas now, with the Graph, it’s one API to connect to that whole ecosystem.

It gives you some really easy use cases, like one I like to talk about, to get people thinking, is in their custom app, they might want to have a user profile picture. Just show that picture from Office 365, so people feel connected to the app. They might also want to show the latest documents that the person has been working on.

There’s a million of those use cases that all can be leveraged from the Graph. Not only can you pull data, but you can use it the opposite way as well, start to notify people, push things at them, in the context of what they’re doing every day.

Dux: For me, one of the most basic examples too, is for example, Dell. Where, I can see people I work with, the content that’s related to them, and obviously Graph respects security and privacy as well. Which, is a very important part of the platform.

Elaine: Yes, definitely. Security is a huge focus. That’s the great thing about the Graph. Microsoft, and this service, takes care of all those pieces, which otherwise can be quite complex to put together.

Dux: As a developer, this morning Julia White said developers are artists. Right? I think tools like the Graph provides, then, the paintbrush and the colors to make their canvas much more meaningful and powerful, frankly.

Elaine: Yes. One of the things that I was telling people yesterday, when I presented at Partner Summit, is when I started talking about the Graph, I would do an hour-long session about how to get started, and all the basics, and now you click on the website, and usually within two minutes, picking the language of your choice, you have a fully-functional application. It’s authenticating. It’s doing things with the Graph. It’s walked you through the whole process, in average two minutes for each one of those.

Dux: If folks want to get started with Microsoft Graph, first and foremost, what are the first few steps, and where they can go, get going with this?

Elaine: Definitely, the Microsoft Graph website has all of these things. I really love those quick starts, just because you can pick the different languages, and there’s non-traditional Microsoft languages there, as well. I’m the sort of person likes to see the code.

If you’re more the sort of person that likes to look at the queries and see the data, that’s where Graph explorer is great. It has preconfigured queries you can click on without even having an Office 365 tenant, to see what the Graph does. It’s really powerful, those two pieces together.

Dux: Awesome. I’m sure your session later will be recorded, and once that’s available, we’ll put the link here. Elaine, it’s always great to speak with you, and all the best with your session. Looking forward to chat with you in the future.

Elaine: Great, thanks for that.

Dux: Thanks, everyone! Until the next episode, see you.

Dux Raymond Sy
Dux Raymond Syhttp://dux.sy
With over 20 years of business and technology experience, Dux has driven organizational transformations worldwide with his ability to simplify complex ideas and deliver relevant solutions. He serves as the Chief Brand Officer of AvePoint who has authored the LinkedIn Learning course How to Build Your Personal Brand, the book SharePoint for Project Management, as well as numerous whitepapers and articles. As a public speaker, Dux has delivered engaging, interactive presentations to more than 25,000 people at leading industry events around the world. He also hosts the modern workplace podcast #shifthappens that focuses on how leading organizations navigated their business transformation journey. Dux advocates tirelessly for inclusion, using technology for good, and philanthropic initiatives. Connect with him: http://dux.sy

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