We launched IRiS Version 3 and our new website just before setting off for Europe. Over the following weeks we showed IRiS at two events and sat down with Microsoft teams and partners in Spain, the UK, Germany and Belgium. The conversations told us a lot about how people think about AI, data and the layer in between.
At FabCon Barcelona we demonstrated IRiS on stage, recorded a partner testimonial and spoke with hundreds of data professionals at the stand we shared with TD SYNNEX. The reaction we noticed most was surprise. Many people had not seen modelling and code generation for the Silver layer come together in one guided interface, with the ontology for Microsoft Fabric IQ produced along the way.
One Microsoft architect told us it was the most interesting thing he had heard at the event. We will take that.
In Mechelen we shared a booth with our partner Scalefree. The audience was more technical, which made for good conversations with data engineers, consultants and potential end customers. Our Wordle game at the booth drew a crowd, and plenty of people stayed on afterwards to talk about modelling, business keys and what their teams are building on Fabric.
Scalefree is leading follow-up as the local partner, which is how we want to work in the region: the people who know the market best, backed by a product that does the repeatable work.
After FabCon we ran a session in London with Microsoft Cloud Solution Architects, the technical leads who support customers and Fabric sellers in their accounts. They saw IRiS run, and it was well received. Cloud Solution Architects and solution engineers in Australia and the UK now hold their own IRiS licence, with more to follow in the UK and Belgium.
Why this matters to us: an architect who has seen IRiS work is the best possible introduction. Our message to them is simple. IRiS onboards sources faster, and the code it generates runs on Fabric itself, so value from Fabric starts sooner.
A working demo beats a slide. Architects responded to seeing IRiS run. Putting it in their hands matters more than describing it.
"The right answer, not just any answer" lands. Every executive worries about AI giving a confident but wrong answer. When three systems hold three versions of the same customer, that worry is justified. People at both events connected straight away with the idea that a trusted Silver layer is what fixes it.
Solving the business problem matters more than the approach. Some people hear how IRiS models data and file it under a decision they have not yet made. It is not one. IRiS delivers a proven, standards-based approach to building and growing a trusted Silver layer, so you can focus on solving the problems facing the business with confidence. That is why we now start with the problem and let the detail follow if asked.
Ontology specialists are natural partners. The people who design ontologies for Fabric IQ depend on a clean, identity-resolved foundation underneath. That is the layer IRiS builds, and we are in conversation with specialists in the UK about working together.
Mergers expose the problem fast. After an acquisition, two CRMs hold overlapping customers. Our Fabric walkthrough shows exactly that problem, two source systems becoming one trusted view of the customer, and it resonated with the teams who deal with it.
We are continuing to build relationships with partners across the UK and Europe, putting IRiS in front of more Microsoft teams. IRiS now generates the ontology for the latest version of Fabric IQ, so that Microsoft's Copilot ontology agent can understand the data model in the Silver layer and help build Gold layer dimensional models from simple, plain-language requests. If you would like to see what the Silver layer looks like when it is built around your business entities, the Fabric walkthrough in our Guides is the quickest way in.
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