Photo credit: Hiroshi Watanabe/Getty Images
As countries have begun to ease travel restrictions, I’ve had increasing opportunities to meet customers face to face. During my visits, customers shared how they are bringing to life digital optimism to overcome business challenges, especially during the pandemic. Customers are increasingly capitalizing on the value of the Microsoft Cloud to enable continuous innovation. What’s more, they are recognizing the advantages of digital transformation go well beyond a simple cost-benefit analysis. With the Microsoft Cloud, customers are getting integrated solutions that meet their unique needs, including powerful collaboration tools for secure hybrid work and better employee engagement for enhancing efficient operations. Data is also being utilized to strengthen supply chains and increase resiliency through predictive analytics, machine learning and the implementation of digital twins. Plus, as more and more companies make net-zero carbon commitments, they are turning to our cloud to measure, understand and reduce their carbon emissions footprint.
This past quarter we saw the power technology can have in unlocking an organization’s potential – for employees, customers, industries and even society more broadly. Wells Fargo announced it’s working with Microsoft as its strategic partner and primary cloud provider to advance key transformation priorities across the entirety of its business, including managing risk and control, personalized banking and the digital branch of the future. AT&T shared how we are collaborating in areas like 5G, AI and the Internet of Things (IoT) to support its ambitions to reduce one billion metric tons of greenhouse emissions globally through the delivery of broadband-enabled climate solutions. Verizon debuted an on-premises, private edge compute solution with Microsoft Azure to enable the ultra-low latency needed to deploy real-time enterprise applications. We also announced a partnership with Truveta to globally scale the first health provider-led clinical data platform using Microsoft Azure and AI capabilities, and we are continuing to deepen our partnership with the NBA as the league rolls out a new direct-to-consumer platform built on Azure to deliver personalized sports fan experiences. We also expanded our collaboration with EY to support our customers’ cloud strategies through new solutions and platforms that help organizations address business and societal challenges at scale through digital transformation.
ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe bids farewell to datacenters, gaining faster system deployment with SAP on Azure.
Manufacturers are turning to the Microsoft Cloud for supply chain innovation
To support data-driven manufacturing across more than 100 factories, global manufacturer SKF implemented hybrid cloud solutions to reduce cost, improve effectiveness and streamline management. ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe moved its entire SAP landscape to Azure to gain new insights into its own systems, scale service capacity and ensure availability. Belgium-based lime and minerals producer Lhoist is renewing its focus on industrial cybersecurity in a global initiative to increase operational efficiency using Azure Defender for IoT. New Zealand’s largest rural supply cooperative, Farmlands, is using Dynamics 365 to support automation innovation and boost efficiency across the rural supply chain. To help farmers become more sustainable, Lindsay is leveraging IoT to enable data insights for agricultural irrigation, while Netherlands-based Nutreco is keeping employees connected with cloud productivity tools that provide insights for sustainable food production. Focused on power-management technologies that are efficient, safe and sustainable, Eaton deployed mixed-reality technologies to increase collaboration and speed to market, while U.K.-based medical technology leader Smith + Nephew created a highly secure environment to support its business strategies using cloud productivity tools from Microsoft 365 that empower employees with modern, mobile ways of working.
Gibson Brands streamlines its business and creates an immersive customer experience with Microsoft Dynamics 365.
Retailers are better serving customers through intelligent insights and productivity tools
Serving 100 million customers globally, Edible Arrangements built a new data warehouse and analytics platform using Azure Synapse Analytics to scale and become more agile. Procter & Gamble is driving a data-enabled culture and operationalizing algorithms into every major business decision to better understand and serve its customers using AI, machine learning and advanced analytics. Walgreens is empowering its pharmacists with an intelligent prescription data platform on Azure to better serve customers. In Brazil, Natura developed a centralized and scalable customer service system with Dynamics 365 to give a comprehensive view of customers and reinforce its culture of customer care. The world’s most iconic guitar brand, Gibson, transitioned to Dynamics 365 during the pandemic to shift its online sales strategy. Across Europe, customers are seeing the benefit of our productivity tools, including LVMH and Metro Digital, which are using Teams and Teams Phone for collaboration to enable hybrid work. Multinational retailer H&M also set up a Power Platform Center of Excellence to encourage continued citizen development while maintaining security and governance.
The Government of Nunavut strengthens IT connections with remote communities and helps secure hybrid workplaces with Microsoft 365.
From cars to neurosurgery, our cloud is fueling transformation across every industry
British electric-vehicle company Arrival is using Azure, machine learning and edge computing to accelerate development of its open data platform for vehicles and fleets, while Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Corporation adopted Surface Go 2 to enable traceability of inspection data for workers on the factory floor. Thai petroleum company PTTEP introduced Surface devices to bridge digital platforms and physical distances to achieve its vision of a work-anywhere culture, and bp is using AI and digital twin technology as a key enabler to transition to an integrated energy company. In financial services, IOL invertironline is using advanced analytics tools to personalize customer experiences and aid in realtime decision-making for its operations across Latin America, while in Denmark BEC transformed internal workflows and communications to ease hybrid work for employees using Surface Hub. During the pandemic, the Government of Nunavut maintained core community services with a secure and reliable hybrid staffing model using Microsoft 365. The City of Laval in Canada is infusing AI and machine learning into its non-emergency hotline to further develop smart city initiatives, and CSIRO is using AI and a space technology-powered digital twin to create the world’s largest remote herd management system to protect ecological and economic systems across Australia. Doctors in Singapore’s National University Health System are removing brain tumors with 3D precision thanks to mixed reality and neurosurgery, and HCA Healthcare is simplifying and improving the patient onboarding experience and cutting down on administrative time with Azure Applied AI Services. South Korean company Gamepub is hosting its database infrastructure on Azure to ensure global service availability for gamers while multinational video game publisher Bandai Namco is empowering people with disabilities to take part in a greater variety of work using HoloLens 2 and Dynamics 365 Guides. Telkom Indonesia is accelerating digital transformation to enable the country’s digital sovereignty, and NEC chose Azure as its preferred cloud platform to boost business resiliency and growth across Japan. In travel and transportation, London Heathrow Airport is using data governance and analytics tools to optimize operations, support continued growth and improve air travel experiences.
Climate change demands intelligent buildings — Nomad Go and Sony Semiconductor Solutions are helping make them smarter.
Fueling our customers’ transformation with a robust partner network
Peruvian pastry shop María Almenara is using AI and machine learning to produce daily and weekly sales forecasts store by store with the help of SP Peru. We are working with partner AIS to equip Thai startups with the necessary tools, guidance, insights and customer and partner connections to boost business growth and make crucial contributions toward rehabilitation of the country’s economy. Turkish energy distribution company Opet, with support from KoçSistem, is using Arc-enabled data services to comply with a new privacy law quickly and securely. In Sri Lanka, ZILLIONe helped Durdans Hospital adopt Dynamics 365 for its CRM solution to improve patient-care processes and experiences. Be-Cloud is helping small- to medium-sized businesses enhance their security environments through a unified portal with Microsoft 365 Lighthouse that delivers standardized services. Nomad Go, with help from Microsoft’s and Sony Semiconductor Solutions’ Co-Innovation Lab, is using computer vision to create a solution that helps its commercial real estate customers know precisely when to warm, cool and ventilate a room based on occupancy and significantly cut energy usage and greenhouse emissions. In South Africa, Old Mutual, with the help of PricewaterhouseCoopers, is using Microsoft Viva to gain visibility into workplace behavior, understand how their employees work now and will work in the future.
Digital transformation represents an opportunity for customers to achieve ongoing innovation that benefits their organization and industries in which they operate, from how employees work and stay productive, to managing the complexity, resiliency and sustainability of supply chains. I’m incredibly inspired by the success our customers are realizing through Microsoft technology and look forward to enabling every company to achieve their bold ambitions as their trusted digital advisors and strategic cloud partner.
The post Embracing continuous innovation: How Microsoft is helping customers overcome challenges to transform business and industries appeared first on The Official Microsoft Blog.
Continue reading...