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195 topics in this forum
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For Military Appreciation Month, recognizing and supporting those who serve
by Guest Kerry Olin- 0 replies
- 262 views
The U.S. Congress in 1999 officially designated May as National Military Appreciation Month, and at Microsoft we mark this as a time to recognize and celebrate the employee military community globally. In this moment I remember my own grandfathers. My dad’s father served as an infantryman in World War I. The tri-corner folded flag presented to us at his funeral is encased steps away from my desk at home. My mom’s stepfather served as a paratrooper in World War II. The map he carried with him of the 1943 invasion of Sicily, where he jumped behind enemy lines, hangs just a few feet from my desk as well. Both my grandfathers were enlisted soldiers who volunteered and ser…
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Leading change: How industries are partnering with Microsoft to empower their teams and serve customers through uncertainty
by Guest Judson Althoff- 0 replies
- 446 views
Photo credit: lupengyu/Getty Images This past quarter was shaped by global events and has renewed our focus on how the cloud enables organizations to manage risk while supporting growth. In my conversations with customers, building more resilient and adaptable supply chains is top of mind. Organizations across industries are using cloud-powered technologies to help predict supplier constraints and deliver on their customer promises. Customers have also shared how the cloud enables them to achieve more with less and better track, measure and report progress toward their sustainability goals. By deploying AI-based solutions, data sensors and predictive analytics, among o…
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Microsoft and partners are building a more sustainable future
by Guest Nick Parker- 0 replies
- 311 views
As we observe Earth Day 2022, we know that protecting the planet is critical, and we are committed to creating a more sustainable future. For Microsoft, sustainability isn’t just an ambition — it’s part of our culture. Our commitments and actions on sustainability are far-reaching and are some of the most ambitious out there. Our goal isn’t just to become more sustainable though, we want to help every organization on the planet to do the same. Organizations around the world need to transition to a net zero, environmentally sustainable future in a short period of time, and our partners are leveraging the Microsoft cloud, Cloud for Sustainability, data and AI to build innov…
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This ‘hands-on’ AI-based test project will help ensure astronaut gloves are safe in space
by Guest Tom Keane- 0 replies
- 238 views
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) aren’t space tourists. They’re workers, scientists and engineers. They are doing critical science missions in an intense operating environment where safety is paramount. On spacewalks they repair equipment, install new instruments and upgrade the largest spacecraft ever flown. Just like workers here on Earth, their gloves can show wear and tear – even rips and cuts – presenting potential safety concerns. To prevent problems from arising, astronauts working for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) must take photos of their spacesuit gloves during and after every spacewalk and transmit them down …
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Empowering families through every stage, phase and season
by Guest Ami Silverman- 0 replies
- 256 views
Each April we celebrate Families month at Microsoft, and our theme this year is “Empowering everyone through every stage, phase and season of our personal and professional lives.” The Families Employee Resource Group (ERG) has a vision to support employees in whatever family role they play. Collectively, we discard the idea that one can leave one’s personal life at the door when coming to work, because the modern reality is that our work lives are no longer fully separate from our personal lives. Being our whole selves means balancing a wide variety of personal and work responsibilities that all come with a host of expected and unexpected challenges. With the right suppor…
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Microsoft acquires Minit to strengthen process mining capabilities
by Guest Justin Graham- 0 replies
- 264 views
Photo courtesy of Minit. Today, Microsoft is announcing the acquisition of Minit, a leader in process mining technology that enables businesses to uncover opportunities for continuous process improvement and better operational efficiency. Organizations across the globe are seeking to be more operationally resilient and accelerate their digital transformation plans. Seamless operations and ensuring that every component of each business process runs smoothly is critical, but most leaders are not able to understand the actual performance of their processes and end up making decisions based on subjective information. Gartner® notes that “Recent trends in automation…
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Women belong in tech – celebrating innovation in our industry
by Guest Charlotte Yarkoni- 0 replies
- 273 views
On International Women’s Day, we celebrate the potential of women and girls everywhere, and their ideas and innovations that are shaping our future. March is also Women’s History Month in the United States. Introduced in the late 1980s, this month is a celebration of the numerous, but often overlooked, accomplishments by women across history, culture and society. This is a time to reflect — and keep working to close equity gaps. We know that companies with more diversity generate more innovation[1] and better financial results.[2] Yet less than 2% of enterprise software startups in the U.S. feature a women founder.[3] The COVID-19 pandemic has — and will continue to — …
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The metaverse is coming. Here are the cornerstones for securing it.
by Guest Charlie Bell- 0 replies
- 254 views
Beneath the buzz, the metaverse is arriving in both predictable and unexpected ways. Some new experiences using headsets and mixed reality will be in your face – quite literally – but other implications will be harder to spot. As with all new categories, we’ll see intended and unintended innovations and experiences, and the security stakes will be higher than we imagine at first. There is an inherent social engineering advantage with the novelty of any new technology. In the metaverse, fraud and phishing attacks targeting your identity could come from a familiar face – literally – like an avatar who impersonates your coworker, instead of a misleading domain name or …
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Closing the cybersecurity skills gap – Microsoft expands efforts to 23 countries
by Guest Kate Behncken- 0 replies
- 359 views
Cybersecurity continues to be a significant threat for governments, businesses and individuals around the world. From supply chain disruptions to ransomware attacks, cybercriminals have become increasingly sophisticated and the threat landscape more diverse. These cybersecurity challenges are compounded by a workforce shortage; there simply aren’t enough people with the cybersecurity skills needed to fill open jobs. This is a global problem. By 2025, there will be 3.5 million cybersecurity jobs open globally, representing a 350% increase over an eight-year period. We recently announced a national skilling campaign in the United States, where for every two jobs in cyber…
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Evolving Microsoft Partner Network programs for partner growth and customer success
by Guest Rodney Clark- 0 replies
- 252 views
The Microsoft Partner Network is comprised of more than 400,000 global organizations and these partners are essential to how Microsoft delivers innovative products and services to customers around the world. This deep relationship between Microsoft and our partners spans more than 30 years, and in that time frame our partners have provided unique solutions across numerous industries, helping countless customers succeed in an ever-changing world. They especially have played a pivotal role in helping businesses adapt amidst the pandemic. As things continue to change and evolve, we are committed to investing in and delivering what partners need to innovate, grow their busine…
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Great expectations: A road map for making hybrid work work
by Guest Jared Spataro- 0 replies
- 312 views
As organizations around the world make the definitive shift from remote to hybrid work, one thing is clear: the people who went home to work in 2020 are not the same people returning to the office in 2022. There’s no erasing the experience of the last two years and employee expectations are higher than ever. They want flexibility and face time, and are making career changes that prioritize personal goals and well-being. And based on findings from our 2022 Work Trend Index, there’s no going back to the way it once was. Understanding and keeping pace with new expectations is a challenge facing every leader today — and one that will be key to making hybrid work work. Our …
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Working toward a net zero future: Evolving our work with energy companies
by Guest Darryl Willis, Corporate Vice President, Energy- 0 replies
- 234 views
Today we shared an update on our 2021 progress against our sustainability goals. It’s been a year of progress and learning. Our commitment to climate extends to our broad ecosystem of customers, partners, and suppliers too. This includes those customers within the energy industry. We believe that technology has an important role to play in helping the industry decarbonize, and this work must move forward in a principled manner – balancing the energy needs and industry practices of today while inventing and deploying those of tomorrow. We have developed a set of principles to guide our work and have shared these principles with many of our existing energy customers a…
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An update on Microsoft’s sustainability commitments: Building a foundation for 2030
by Guest Brad Smith, President and Vice Chair, and Lucas- 0 replies
- 386 views
Today Microsoft released its annual sustainability report, offering a comprehensive look at our progress in 2021 to becoming a carbon negative, water positive, zero waste company by 2030. When we announced our climate commitments in January 2020, we also committed to transparency in sharing our learnings. This year’s report includes several important lessons, and our goals remain consistent: we aspire to build a world better than the one we found, and to help our customers and partners do the same. Progress is not linear We made progress on a number of our goals. We saw overall reduction in our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions of about 17% year over year, throug…
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Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub now open to all – no funding needed
by Guest Charlotte Yarkoni- 0 replies
- 225 views
At Microsoft, we aim to create and maintain a healthy ecosystem where our partners and customers can thrive. Startups play a pivotal role in a thriving ecosystem given their outsized ability to push the entire ecosystem forward. Despite being vital to innovation and growth, by some estimates, over 90% of startups will go out of business in their first year. With this in mind, we set out to better understand what startups need to be successful, especially when just getting started. Based on real-world feedback from thousands of entrepreneurs from around the world, across a range of backgrounds, we are excited to unveil, Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub. Open to anyon…
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Building an unlimited world: a Women’s History Month conversation
by Guest Cynthia Per-Lee, Corporate Vice President, Human- 0 replies
- 248 views
Cynthia Per-Lee, left, and Erin Chapple. Editor’s note: In recognition and celebration of Women’s History Month, Cynthia Per-Lee and Erin Chapple, two of the executive co-sponsors of the Women at Microsoft employee resource group, got together for a conversation about boundaries, access, inclusion and the powerful impact of the women’s community inside and outside of Microsoft. This is an abridged version of their chat. Learn more about Women’s History Month here. CPL: I’m excited about what’s happening for Women’s History Month and for us to spend some time reflecting. This year, our theme at Microsoft for Women’s History Month is “Unlimited.” We know when systems …
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Microsoft + Nuance: Better together to transform business and healthcare outcomes with AI
by Guest Scott Guthrie, executive vice president, Cloud +- 0 replies
- 291 views
The promise of technology to advance and meaningfully improve people’s lives has never been greater. That is why we are incredibly excited that Microsoft + Nuance have joined forces as one organization. As a pioneer in conversational AI and ambient intelligence, Nuance combines the power of cutting-edge technology and deep domain expertise across an array of industries – including healthcare, financial services, telecommunications, retail, among others – to design innovative solutions that amplify human intelligence and revolutionize how people interact with technology, so they can be their best selves. Nuance’s world-class technology has earned them a market-leading rep…
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Inspiring students to build a more peaceful world with Minecraft
by Guest Helen Chiang- 0 replies
- 215 views
Every day, millions of young people in every country and territory around the world use Minecraft as a platform to connect, solve problems together and explore their creativity in all sorts of ways. Players can truly build whatever they imagine in Minecraft, and now, this extends to their visions for world peace. Today we are honored to launch an immersive Minecraft learning experience at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, Norway. The “Active Citizen” project educates young people about Nobel Peace Prize laureates past and present and fosters an understanding of the skills needed to drive positive change in the world. “Active Citizen” is now available for millions of lea…
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The next chapter of our hybrid workplace: update on our Washington state work sites
by Guest Chris Capossela- 0 replies
- 278 views
Since the start of the pandemic, we’ve taken a data-driven approach to decision making while prioritizing the safety and well-being of our employees. For nearly two years, our hybrid workplace model has anchored each of our work sites to one of six defined stages, allowing us to quickly adjust our guidance depending on health data, local government guidance, the availability of vaccines and vaccination rates and other considerations. Based on this approach and improving local health metrics, our Washington state work sites will move to our sixth and final stage of the hybrid workplace model, effective Feb. 28, 2022. From this date, employees will have 30 days to make a…
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Small acts drive big change: A Black History Month conversation
by Guest Lauren Gardner, Corporate Vice President, Global- 0 replies
- 277 views
Editor’s note: In recognition and celebration of Black History Month, Lauren Gardner and Bill Borden, executive co-sponsors of Blacks at Microsoft (BAM) employee resource group, got together (virtually) for a personal conversation about history, action, inclusion and the powerful impact of the Black and African American community inside and beyond Microsoft. This is an edited version of their chat. Learn more about Black History Month here. LG: Bill, as you know, this year’s theme for Black History Month at Microsoft is “every act makes history.” What does that mean to you? BB: It’s a simple statement, but it’s powerful if we reflect on it. We can all think of count…
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Cloud trends show customers increasing investments in hybrid and multicloud
by Guest Erin Chapple- 0 replies
- 284 views
Across every industry and geography, companies are working hard to keep pace with evolving business needs and build on their existing digital investments. In my role leading the product team for the core of Azure, I spend a lot of time with customers learning what they need to be successful as they integrate cloud technologies into their business strategy to digitally transform. As many have experienced firsthand, the pandemic has pushed more businesses to adopt wider use of cloud computing technology. A new survey finds it’s also driving more companies to deploy a hybrid (mix of on-premises and one or more public clouds) or multicloud (multiple public clouds) approach…
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Announcing Microsoft #BuildFor2030 Hackathon winners: accelerating innovation and collective impact
by Guest Rodney Clark- 0 replies
- 263 views
As Microsoft Channel Chief, I’m passionate about engaging our powerful Microsoft partner ecosystem to help transform businesses and drive inclusive economic opportunity, especially as we face a climate crisis and step into the third year of a global pandemic that has widened inequities on multiple fronts. Together with our 400,000-strong Microsoft partner ecosystem, we have a tremendous opportunity to make a difference by empowering resilient communities and accelerating our collective impact. Through the Microsoft #BuildFor2030 initiative, we seek to drive transformational solutions and services that advance the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of 1…
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Building resiliency and spurring innovation: customers are using the Microsoft Cloud to advance industries and keep business moving forward
by Guest Judson Althoff- 0 replies
- 343 views
Since the start of the pandemic, organizations representing a cross-section of industries have mobilized to adopt digital technologies to gain insights from their data and unlock cloud-based innovation. With the Microsoft Cloud, customers are reimagining ways to deliver patient care and provide access to critical services, secure their digital environments to scale and maintain business operations, extend frontline worker productivity, enhance employee experiences, and encourage new forms of business engagement and interaction. At Microsoft Ignite, customers shared how accelerating their digital transformation with us as their partner has enabled them to better navigat…
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Microsoft donation to the Smithsonian Latino Center celebrates and supports community history and culture
by Guest Rodrigo Kede Lima- 0 replies
- 353 views
Rendering of the Molina Family Latino Gallery Digital Plaza. Courtesy of the Smithsonian Latino Center. Today, Microsoft is honored to announce a $1 million donation to the Smithsonian Latino Center to support the new National Museum of the American Latino and the development of the Molina Family Latino Gallery. The National Museum of the American Latino is the Smithsonian’s first museum space dedicated to celebrating the U.S. Hispanic and Latinx community experience. While the larger museum is being built, our contributions will support the development of the Molina Family Latino Gallery in the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. The new museum …
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Empowering 2 billion global frontline workers
by Guest Jared Spataro- 0 replies
- 333 views
The past two years have been challenging for everyone, especially frontline workers tasked with keeping the proverbial lights on throughout the pandemic. From healthcare to hospitality, the manufacturing floor to the retail sales floor, these workers have weathered health risks, labor shortages, supply chain issues and more. So, it’s not surprising to hear they’re ready for change. They want help prioritizing culture and well-being and, despite their essential roles, feel underserved by technology and training. Those are some of the key findings from our latest Work Trend Index report, which focuses on the experiences of the global frontline workforce. Just as the pand…
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Microsoft Envision: The opportunity ahead for all organizations to do good
by Guest Brad Smith- 0 replies
- 257 views
As we look to the future, organizations including Microsoft have an opportunity and responsibility to drive growth while taking timely action in crucial areas to benefit society and the world. At Microsoft, we believe in doing good while doing well. During last week’s episode of Microsoft Envision, presented with Accenture and Avanade, I described Microsoft’s work in four key areas – trust in technology, inclusive economic growth, the fundamental rights of people, and sustainability – that companies of all sizes should consider for sustainable business growth. Now in its second season, Microsoft Envision is a digital series where business leaders from around the wor…