The following is a guest blog post by Michelle Greenwald, Marketing Visualized’s CEO.

Impressions: Those thoughts and feelings you get after an encounter. I recently had the privilege of attending Avanade TechSummit 2015 for its team members, and I walked away genuinely and extremely impressed by what the company has achieved in its 15 years, and even more impressed by its bright future. Here are some of my “outsider” observations:

1) Avanade has a fabulous talent pool. Its employees are highly talented, smart, innovative, nice, and always excited about their work. The breadth of their combined knowledge can be leveraged in cutting-edge ways, in so many different directions, it was hard to keep up with the possibilities they were exploring.

2) The corporate culture is high energy and enthusiastic, with innovation in its DNA. There’s a palpable, collective passion for building both Avanade’s and its customers' businesses with creative solutions. Nearly everything Avanade does involves innovating and customizing its products and services for its varying customer needs. Change and innovation management are a major part of the corporate culture.

3) Microsoft’s exciting and cutting-edge platforms are a phenomenal base to work off. Microsoft is evolving into a helpful lifestyle brand, in addition to the office powerhouse it has always been. Their platforms can be applied in more solutions than ever before: from entertainment to enhancing the in-store shopping experience, from organizing consumers at home to greater office productivity and better and more visual data analytics. Understanding the Microsoft options is key to Avanade’s success and growth.

4) The openness of Avanade management in sharing their strategic thinking and providing a forum for listening and fielding questions from the top employees assembled in Seattle was nothing short of impressive. The content was frank and honest, and having the senior management team on stage with CEO Adam Warby signaled a cohesive and aligned management team that was thoughtful about the direction they set, but also open to new thinking.

5) The strong relationships of respect Avanade has built with its partners also impressed me. The mutual respect was evident. The customer involvement in Avanade TechSummit highlighted the importance of collaboration and good working relationships as well as provided the environment for the cross-pollination of ideas.

6) It’s OK to pivot. The most impressive message from Adam Warby’s keynote speech was that the keys to thriving in the fast-changing tech world are monitoring changes closely and having the talent, knowledge, systems and processes in place to quickly adapt, which Avanade is prepared to do.

7) The breadth of opportunity. Since nearly every aspect of business and personal lives is going digital, Avanade is clearly in the right place at the right time. Its diverse capabilities, along with its exceptional talent pool, corporate culture, proprietary platforms and offerings (including the relatively new digital creative solutions), all paint a picture of an extremely bright future for Avanade.

Impressive? You bet.

About Michelle Greenwald, Marketing Visualized’s CEO

Michelle Greenwald is the founder of Marketing Visualized, a marketing consulting firm specializing in all stages of New Product & Services and Marketing Plan development, as well as marketing training for executives.

Since receiving her MBA from Kellogg, she has worked for over 30 years for some of the world’s most respected marketing companies. She has taught at top graduate business schools worldwide, including Wharton, Columbia, NYU Stern, IESE Barcelona & HEC Paris, and has supervised hundreds of marketing research studies, marketing plans, and new business plans for international product and services companies: from Fortune 500′s to entrepreneurial start-ups (high tech and low tech), to non-profits, to Business to Business, and Business to Consumer firms.