Toronto solution provider TechBlocks chosen for Microsoft IoT Red Carpet program

TechBlocks’ experience with the Azure platform and their having established a presence in IoT solutions leads Microsoft to pick them as a go-to IoT partner in Canada.

Annie at TechBlocks 300

Annie Bustos, TechBlocks’ Director of Marketing

Microsoft has chosen Toronto-based TechBlocks as the latest Red Carpet Program partner for Microsoft Azure Internet of Things (IoT) offerings. They become the eighth Canadian partner to participate in the program.

The IoT Red Carpet program is a worldwide invitation-only Microsoft program, which selects partners to be the ‘go to’ partners for IoT solutions and services based upon the Microsoft Azure IoT platform.

“Microsoft provides the Azure IoT platform,” said Annie Bustos, TechBlocks’ Director of Marketing. “What they look for through the program is partners who can go to market with them in terms of both marketing and sales to create interest specifically around Azure IoT. We will work very closely with Microsoft both on sales and marketing. They will be the platform provider, but we will be the integrator who will go in and build the solution.”

TechBlocks is a long-time Microsoft partner, but have been focused on other core solutions within the Microsoft stack. The Internet of Things is a relatively new component within their arsenal, as the company looks to become an IoT leader with that market’s vast potential increasingly generating strong business opportunities.

“We’ve always worked fairly closely with the Microsoft team, particularly a lot of CRM work, and a lot of SharePoint work,” Bustos said. “We support their entire stack. We also have great experience on the Azure platform. Almost all our projects in the last two years have had some Azure component.” Their Azure background led to TechBlocks being a 2015 Microsoft Impact Award Finalist for Business Productivity.

Microsoft came to TechBlocks to check them out as a potential IoT Red Carpet partner.

“Microsoft asked us whether we have done IoT work, and we have,” Bustos said. “We completed one pretty big project, and we have been having quite a few conversations with clients about how we can integrate IoT into their existing systems. These are all things we are exploring in 2016, and that is why we were selected.”