The impact of tech intensity is a reality for every industry in Canada. Companies need to not only be fast-adopters of best-in-class technology but also build their own digital capabilities. I recently participated in STORE 2019, a conference hosted by the Retail Association of Canada. I spoke with many customers and partners about how the retail industry is experiencing a seismic shift as technology provides new ways to customize the shopping experience and as shoppers increasingly desire on-demand, personalized service. With a third of Canadian customers ending a relationship with a retailer due to insufficient personalization, companies on the front line with consumers and businesses are required to evolve to stay relevant.

Fortunately for retailers, technological innovations across cloud computing, data analytics and AI are enabling a new era, an era where it’s possible to gain ten times the insights in one-tenth the time. Retailers that embrace these technologies are well positioned to not only lead their industries, but also take share from the laggards.

Loblaw, Canada’s leading food and pharmacy retailer, is one great example of a Canadian company that is leaning into the potential of tech intensity — not an easy task for an organization that sees 1 billion visits to its thousands of grocery, pharmacy, fashion and banking locations every year. With a company purpose of “Live Life Well,” Loblaw is committed to meeting its customers’ needs and helping them live their best lives.

To help support their multi-year transformational journey, Microsoft is partnering with Loblaw as they strive to unlock new opportunities with AI, machine learning, data and the cloud.

Microsoft recently worked with Loblaw to integrate Microsoft’s AI technology within its PC Optimum loyalty program in order to match their member customers with better deals and offers based on their online preferences. By using Microsoft Azure to securely store and process data, Loblaw was able to redesign its customer data by taking apart siloed information, anonymizing, aggregating and building out a feature to customize offers at scale.

“We understood the power of what Microsoft was bringing to the market from an AI perspective,” said David Markwell, Loblaw’s Senior Vice President of Technology. “With the data already collected, but separated into different customer experiences, it made sense to move it all to the cloud and to leverage AI tools to drive results. With AI, I see this democratization of knowledge and ability to make decisions being moved out into the business units.”

Data siloes aren’t the only ones coming down. By leveraging Microsoft’s open-source cloud solutions Loblaw provided their digital teams with a familiar technology toolkit and were able to quickly upskill their employees, break down barriers between departments and build new digital skills across their teams, including a machine-learning practice. “It’s really changed the culture and how people work here,” says Jenny McConvey, Director of Decision Support. “It’s taking subject matter experts from different areas and bringing them together to work on one project.”

Loblaw has its sights set clearly on the future and Microsoft is committed to be a trusted partner to help as they continue to innovate and fulfill its longtime mission of serving customers with trust and transparency – and building a culture of innovation for its employees.

“It’s about this constant evolution, constant education, and constant looking for the next problem to solve that I find exciting,” Markwell says. “And it’s really what’s going to propel us forward.”

Learn more about how Microsoft is helping customers transform with Microsoft AI solutions.

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Lee Valley Tools is a family-run business that takes pride in doing things right. For 40 years, the company has specialized in crafting rare, high-quality hand tools for woodworkers and gardeners. Recently, it expanded into crafting tools of all kinds. The manufacturing division, Veritas, is equipped with 50 machine tools, operated by a staff of 120 employees.

The company has long been diligent about measuring the productivity of its staff and the utilization of equipment. Lee Valley Tools truly believes that quality is a data-driven profession. To maintain control over its engineering specifications, Lee Valley Tools must collect quality data to identify the patterns behind any past or potential problems.

Over the years, Lee Valley Tools has become extremely rich in data but struggled to make it usable. The Lee Valley team would record data on whiteboards, spreadsheets, and in written reports, which quickly became disconnected. With so many sources of data, it was easy to miss something and difficult to find the root cause of a problem. Employees spent countless hours drafting reports, and by the time the reports were filed, the information was often outdated.

Lee Valley Tools needed to find an organizational tool that could pull together existing data on an ongoing basis and would help chart the future. With the visual capabilities of Microsoft Power BI, the Lee Valley team gets the information they need, when they need it. They can now better understand the financial and operational impact of their manufacturing processes.

Knowledge powers each decision at Lee Valley, and real-time data provides the best source for improvement. Within a short time, Lee Valley Tools transformed its data into tangible and actionable information. The real-time data is accessible through a holistic digital dashboard fed by different dropdown menus for each contributing work center in manufacturing.

Lee Valley’s new organizational tool has a positive effect on employees, too. By using Power BI, they can arrange their data in a clear, easy-to-use dashboard that supports better, more informed decision making. With their source data arranged on one customizable interface, employees can take the hours they once spent writing reports and apply them to more useful tasks. Power BI has changed the way Lee Valley employees look at data. Productivity and quality have improved. They’ve reduced their backlog and back orders, and they’re now looking to the future.

Lee Valley is in the middle of a significant digital transformation. With the tools provided by Power BI, the company has new ways to collect and visualize data to help solve problems. It is currently establishing a digital roadmap of its business to share a single view of its customers and the enterprise.

Lee Valley Tools now lets data guide them to better, more informed decision making. It plans to grow business and relies on Microsoft Power BI to help chart the future.

Learn from more real-world examples how an agile, cloud-based business intelligence (BI) solution helps you aggregate your data into customizable, easily searchable databases and dashboards so your users can quickly access the information they need:

Click here to download the e-book.

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the defining technology of our time. Organizations that take advantage of all that it has to offer are arming themselves to compete now and in the future. A recent study of European leaders highlights how businesses that are actively implementing AI are more than twice as likely to be high-growth companies. Those that are not considering their AI strategy risk being left behind. I engage with partners and customers from across Canada daily and they regularly share with me that change can be overwhelming.  When it comes to AI, many leaders do not know where to start. Curious companies committed to success need to look no further than the companies that are doing incredible innovative work right here in Canada, demonstrating what’s possible with AI. In March we brought business leaders together from across the country to showcase, celebrate and learn what’s next at Future Now in Toronto – a focused business decision maker event where we explore innovation in action.

We started and ended the morning with amazing young Canadian talent and it is clear the future is bright. Tanisha Bassan, an ‘older and wiser’ 18-year-old former Microsoft Canada high school intern and winner of the CES 2019 Young Innovators to Watch Award for her project in quantum machine learning, opened the day with her inspiring keynote on her journey and work to fight cancer. Samin Khan, an incredible Canadian student and innovator, closed the day with a demo of his simple, inexpensive prosthetic arm, smartARM. Samin and his innovation partner Hamayal Choudhry’s ingenuity earned them the grand prize at last year’s Microsoft’s Imagine Cup – a global competition of the best and brightest innovators from 33 countries. These students drove home for me what can be achieved when you embrace technology, approach a challenge with a growth mindset and are passionate about the results.

We simply must commit to accelerating the growth of AI in Canada so students like Tanisha, Samin and Hamayal can reach their full potential here at home. Microsoft Canada is investing more than $100 million in cloud technology so Canadian organizations have the tools they need to compete in the digital age. And yet, in spite of local investments and a proliferation of AI incubators and research centres in places like Toronto, Edmonton and Montreal, Canadian businesses are not taking advantages of the enormous opportunities made possible by AI. A recent study from Gartner found that Canada is a very poor 9 out of 10 when it comes to countries adopting and deploying AI in business applications. On top of this challenge, Canadian employers are facing an enormous skills gap in the digital labour force. So how should we address this incredible challenge and ensure growth for the Canadian economy?

The solution is twofold. Not only does the Canadian workforce need the skills to work in AI, but Canadian businesses need to actively adopt AI to provide the interesting and innovative work that will keep skilled workers and innovators in Canada. We are seeing amazing innovations, life changing and life-saving, happening in every sector that will inspire our future Canadian AI workforce.  A terrific proof point is the sheer number of Canadian organizations recognized by Microsoft to receive AI for Earth grants. Many innovators stand out and we heard from several at Future Now:

Benjamin Haibe-Kains, a Senior Scientist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre at Toronto’s University Health Network, and his team are working to develop a shared database for clinicians to run biopsy results that leverages AI and the Microsoft Cloud to assist in determining personalized treatment plans for cancer patients. An initiative to enhance patient care and, ultimately, save lives.

And Humza Teherany, Chief Technology and Digital Officer at MLSE, is using data and the cloud to completely transform the fan experience and help Toronto sports fans get closer to the teams they love both in and outside of the arena.

We also provided a sneak peak at the amazing innovations that are possible with mixed reality with a demo of the recently launched HoloLens 2. The digital world has gone beyond two-dimensional screens and entered the three-dimensional world. We are seeing a new ecosystem of Mixed Reality Partners evolve, including partners like Kognitiv Spark who is working with the Canadian Army and Air Force to infuse Mixed Reality solutions and HoloLens into training support services, to ultimately improve operations and advance communications. The possibilities are truly endless.

Today was about showcasing these leading-edge examples and to helping others realize the value that AI and the power of cloud computing can bring to an organization. It was also about providing the insights organizations need to develop a new strategy and unlock the full potential of AI and machine learning.

For many business leaders, events like Future Now are just the start of their digital transformation journey. Because of this, we’ve recently launched AI Business School, a free comprehensive AI business training that helps organizations define an AI strategy, enable an AI-ready culture and understand the implications of responsible AI in business.

With all the innovation on display and the enthusiasm I heard from attendees about what’s in store, I know we are on the path to incredible and life changing innovation right here in Canada, but we need to act now. Our keynote speaker Futurist Jim Carroll said, “Do something. The time is now. The future is going to be here before you know it,” and he’s absolutely right.

Let’s continue to partner, to imagine and to bring our aspirations to life. Future Now is all about unlocking the art of what is possible, now lets go make it happen!

Learn more about how you can empower innovation with Microsoft AI.

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When Kodisoft came up with the idea for an interactive dining table, it was clear that the restaurant industry would never be the same. These multitouch, scratch-resistant, water-resistant smart tables bring the Internet of Things (IoT) to the dining experience. Customers can engage with the tables in an intuitive way to view the menu, place their orders, draw or take notes, and even play games together. But to support the varied demands of a table for the future, Kodisoft needed a robust solution.

After scouring the selection of AI and machine learning services on the market, Kodisoft found that Microsoft stood out as the top choice. Not only could Microsoft Azure provide the elasticity and scalability the Kodisoft team needed for their rapidly growing business, but the resilience and reliability of platform ensures their devices are always providing an great customer experience. Azure IoT Hub is a managed service that supports communications between millions of IoT devices and a back-end solution, making it easy for the Kodisoft team to understand the health of their devices and resolve issues on the fly. After working with Microsoft to develop the table, Kodisoft has seen huge results in restaurants across the country.

By empowering customers to explore the menu and make orders independently, Kodisoft has freed up time for restaurant servers. They can focus their efforts on tasks like upselling, providing prompt service, and delivering more attentive care to customers. And because diners can order food directly from the table and are more likely to linger over the interactive display, restaurants have seen an average increase in check size by 32 percent.

These restaurants have also gained more customer insights through data gathered by Azure Machine Learning and predictive analytics. Restaurant owners can see where patrons spend time looking through the menu and can make strategic adjustments or additions based on this information. For example, are people spending lots of time eyeing the dessert menu? It might be time to add a new option or two. Having a digital menu makes updates simple, fast, and stress-free.

Overall, customers enjoy engaging with the table. While it is easy to navigate for curious users, the table also prompts interaction by responding to objects in an intelligent way. Adults drinking from glasses of wine? Children sipping from cartoon-covered cups? The table detects these items and can present relevant games or activities. With the power of Microsoft Azure, Kodisoft is proud to spur more of what we love about traditional meals: quality time and fun with the people who matter most.

Learn more about how you can leverage Microsoft IoT to connect data to your decision making

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Another year and yet another exciting week of retail innovation for us at NRF 2019!

I had some really interesting discussions at this year’s show—both at Microsoft events and out on the floor with retailers, customers and industry experts. The National Retail Federation (NRF) Big Show was the perfect place to explore some of the biggest challenges and opportunities in Canadian retail right now—from creating amazing customer experiences to finding new ways to stand out in a super competitive time.

Of course, not every Canadian retailer could carve three days out of their schedule to make it to New York for the convention. In case you missed it, I captured some key takeaways Canadian retailers should think about in the latest episode of The Voice of Retail Podcast, a weekly podcast hosted by retail pioneer and veteran Michael LeBlanc and produced in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.

As I was hosting some of the most influential Canadian retailers during the show, one of the recurring topics that came up in our discussions was about building a successful A.I. retail strategy. More specifically, how exactly to build an A.I. strategy focused on:

• Knowing Your Customers Better Than They Know Themselves
• Empowering Your Employees to Provide the Best Customer Experience Possible
• Equipping Your Supply Chain to Anticipate and Exceed Customer Demand
• Reimagining Retail to Create New Experiences

Everything we discussed with top leaders in Canadian retail is actually available today in the A.I. Retail Playbook – a report co-authored by Microsoft and PSFK (a NYC based thinktank).

Until next year – see you at The Big Show in 2020!

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Zone·tv is a leader in the media and entertainment industry with a feature-rich suite of powerful video services that are redefining the way television content is programmed, delivered, and personalized. Zone·tv uses its Studio platform and proprietary machine learning algorithms to automatically curate video assets into personalized video channels, using enhanced metadata, customers’ unique content preferences and viewing history, and trending topics. This same technology stack allows users to automatically reprogram any channel, which results in a personalized viewing experience. Zone·tv has licensed thousands of hours of content and created a unique 13-channel service known as Zone·ify, but it also offers the Studio service to content providers and video distributors to create their own channels.

By getting to know its customers’ content preferences, Zone·tv automatically brings viewers more of what they love with less search and struggle. While Zone·tv had built an algorithm on another cloud platform to extract the data that enables this customization, it switched to Microsoft Azure because of the powerful services available to further personalize programming choices for viewers.

When Zone·tv began working with Microsoft in 2017, neither company predicted how fruitful the partnership would prove to be. With the machine learning power of Azure Media Services, specifically Video Indexer, Zone·tv has captured a richer array of metadata. This metadata then feeds into the Zone·tv machine learning algorithms to make more precise recommendations for customers. The result? Smarter, highly accurate recommendations that give customers more of what they want—before they know they want it.

Choosing a partner was easier than the Zone·tv team expected. Microsoft’s familiarity with the video space was a major factor and made the pair an ideal match. The partnership truly works both ways as Zone·tv has also helped Microsoft improve its products. The hands-on engagement has encouraged both teams to push the limits and continue to learn together, even empowering Zone·tv to emerge as a global leader in incorporating Azure Media Services into its offerings.

Moving forward, Zone·tv is excited to continue deepening its relationship with Microsoft. There are more opportunities on the horizon to continue innovating, especially in applying Azure to Zone·tv’s mobile and connectedTV Zone·ify service. This combination of passion, drive, and technological might fuels the team forward. In the meantime, Zone·tv customers are enjoying a viewing experience that is so targeted and personalized that it feels like magic.

Learn more about Microsoft Azure Video Indexer

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“Digital Transformation has raised the stakes, with 69% of senior executives telling Forbes that this is forcing fundamental changes to security strategies. If you’re going to open your organization up to new customers, new markets, and anytime, anywhere access, you need to do it securely.”

– Ann Johnson, Corporate Vice President, Cybersecurity solutions, Microsoft

The Digital Climate

How can we protect ourselves in this new digital era? It’s a question that many businesses and governments are asking worldwide. In the digital world we live in today, there is a tremendous amount of opportunity. When we think about the advancements of cloud, and the ability of employees to access applications and data from almost anywhere, the face of employee mobility and teamwork has significantly changed, but that also raises concerns with regards to security. In fact, the estimated cost due to cybercrime is expected to reach $3 trillion by 2020.

In order to build resilience in the security space, we need to understand the challenges that are out there and how to combat them.

Today’s key challenges and how to securely prepare for the Cloud

As excitement builds among organizations to move to the Cloud and leverage its benefits and advantages, it is crucial to adopt a measured and proactive approach. Only in this way can organizations prepare their Cloud environments to provide optimal impact and evolve in a manner that does not expose their data or assets to unnecessary or unreasonable risk.

The challenges organizations face in this period of transformation are straightforward but often require a change in thinking:

1) It starts with Identity Management

Identity attacks are up 300% this year alone. Identity is becoming the essential control plane for security; attackers understand this and are heavily targeting this gateway to your organization.

Traditional security boundaries are blurred and are no longer the primary defense point. Identities are the key avenues to accessing any organization’s resources and data, no matter where they are. Identity-based protection is a critical starting point for a strong defense against today’s attacks, especially for profiles with privileged access.

2) Adapting to the Cloud models

The Cloud cannot be secured like a mere extension of the traditional on premises environment. This is a new environment that requires new thinking, such as accepting the notion of shared responsibility between the enterprise and the Cloud provider in order to stay future-proof.

3) Focus on the data

The data must be secured above all else. The only assets the organization will truly own in the Cloud is its data. Security strategies must be adapted to this fact and work to ensure the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the data at all times.

4) Evolve all aspects of the security strategy, at speed

Do not focus solely on areas such as Protection and Detection. Ensure the security strategy for the new Cloud era also includes areas such as Prevention, Identity Management, Incident Response, Business Continuity and Recovery. And do it at speed.

Attacks are spreading incredibly fast, making it highly difficult for humans to keep up. 96% of the malware we detect is automated polymorphic malware that changes its look and shape every time it infects a new system.

As attackers adopt automation, you need to also have automation in your corner. The best protections can be beaten, and so you must be agile to quickly detect attacks and have automatic responses prepared to react.

Remaining Agile to Build Resistance

In order to build a digital resilience, you must understand the risk of cyber-attacks and understand the strategic areas to focus on in order to successfully combat them. In order to help customers stay informed, Microsoft publishes an update every 6 months called the Security Intelligence Report on the global security landscape. It’s a great resource to ensure you are maintaining a state of digital resilience.

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When it comes to groceries, Canadians want it all – a big selection of high-quality food at low prices (and with sales and loyalty benefits with purchase). Couple that with the increasing desire for food to come from local and ethical sources and for organic or prepared foods, it’s no wonder that Statistica estimates annual retail sales of food and beverage in Canada at $188 billion.

While other retail has experienced a digital transformation, grocery shopping has mainly remained unchanged since the dawn of the grocery store: Canadians travel to stores, browse aisles, wait in line to purchase and then transport everything home. With variables in weather, perishable foods, complex food safety requirements and the traditionally high-frequency, low-volume business model of food service, full-service grocery delivery has remained out of reach.

Sustainable Produce Urban Delivery, or SPUD, is changing that simple truth. Building on their roots as a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) company, SPUD delivers more than just fresh produce: the catalogue now includes a full range of groceries, including produce, dairy, bakery, meat, seafood, packaged goods and ready-to-eat meals. The company runs an online store with a small, high-turnover inventory, so food items don’t expire or get damaged on the shelf; with perishables, SPUD only orders based directly on customer needs, so they don’t over-order short-shelf life items. The result is dramatically lowered food waste.

And it doesn’t stop there: SPUD has offered its Food-X-Urban Delivery platform to local companies to help make delivery a reality. Housed in a new facility in Burnaby, other grocery retailers can access SPUD’s industry-leading technology, warehousing, home delivery, and food preparation platform. Integrating directly with the retailer’s point of sale systems to provide live visibility of inventory, allowing orders to be fulfilled swiftly and efficiently.

So how does it all work? SPUD uses state-of-the-art technology to facilitate their full operations. With a proprietary inventory management tool built on Microsoft Dynamics 365, the company has end-to-end visibility into operations and analytics. Combined with Office 365 and Azure cloud services, SPUD takes full advantage of Microsoft integration and scale.

Read here to learn more on how SPUD uses AI, ebikes and Microsoft Cloud!

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This year Microsoft Ignite focused on three major themes that are essential to the future of IT: Security; AI and Data; and IoT and Edge Computing.

Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, kicked off the conference with an inspiring keynote where he was joined onstage by Bill McDermott, CEO of SAP, and Shantanu Narayen, CEO of Adobe, to announce an exciting new partnership: the Open Data Initiative. This new initiative allows companies to harness and action massive volumes of data to deliver world-class, personalized customer experiences in real-time. To learn more about how Adobe, Microsoft and SAP are joining forces to empower their mutual customers, click here.

In today’s digital age, cybersecurity is of critical importance. As a leading global technology company, Microsoft is uniquely positioned to help and empower organizations to unlock the security capabilities of the intelligent cloud. This year’s announcements focused on three main areas: Security operations at a global scale that work for our customers; Enterprise-class security technology; and cybersecurity partnerships in a heterogeneous world. I encourage you to learn more and read Rob Lefferts’ blog post Delivering security innovation that puts Microsoft’s experience to work for you.

I was particularly interested to hear more about the work we are doing in AI and Data. As Canadians, we have an enormous opportunity to lead in this revolutionary field. As part of our ongoing commitment to democratizing access to AI, we launched AI for Humanitarian Action. This new $40 million, five-year program is aimed at harnessing the power of AI to aid efforts such as disaster recovery, protecting children, refugees, and displaced people, and promoting respect for human rights. I’m incredibility proud to work for a company that continues to invest in AI for Good and uses its position to empower positive action around the world.

Throughout the week, we also heard from various customers – many of whom flew in from Canada to share insights and learnings from their own digital transformation.  For example, Justin Arbuckle, SVP Cloud Engineering and Ryan Yang, VP of Cloud Infrastructure, shared Scotiabank’s journey of incorporating the public cloud into their digital transformation mandate. Using a platform mindset, they are addressing the challenges of scale and velocity in delivering applications that power the bank’s services.

We also heard from PCL Construction which was very timely given the announcement we made around IoT and Edge Computing solutions.  Microsoft announced Azure Digital Twins, a new platform that enables customers and partners to create a comprehensive digital model of any physical environment. Canada’s very own PCL Construction is on the leading edge of this technology.  As a cloud-first, technologically innovative company, PCL Construction is truly changing the perception of the construction industry. See here to learn more about their incredible work.

As I reflect on Ignite/Envision, I know I left Orlando more knowledgeable, curious, and more eager to continue my learning journey.  I’m inspired by the work my Microsoft colleagues are doing around the world and I’m proud to stand beside our Canadian customers who are on the leading edge of this technology. Until next year, I encourage everyone to continue to seek new opportunities to expand your skills and pioneer advancements. To learn about all of the announcements and advancements from this year’s conference, see here.

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I’ve said that there’s no such thing as an IoT expert. That may seem strange coming from an IoT product lead, but I’d like to explain it with a story about smart partnership and innovation. Halifax-based company HomeEXCEPT used smart collaboration, taking their product from prototype to market in only 10 weeks.

The Idea

John Robertson, founder and CEO of HomeEXCEPT, sensed an opportunity in the increasing number of seniors who want to stay in their homes. This comes with challenges—like knowing your loved ones are safe. With so many stories about major security breaches, the public is concerned with the privacy implications of video and audio monitoring in the home. John wanted to figure out a way to make home monitoring non-intrusive—no cameras, wearables, microphones, or any exploitable raw data.

The Product

It took John time to figure out how the product would work, iterating to assemble a working prototype. The idea was simple: use sensors to detect vague data like temperature, sound, light, and motion, then interpret it to enable caretakers and family members to check on aging relatives without compromising privacy or independence.

HomeEXCEPT decided to partner with T4G, an organization of tech experts and creative thinkers, to build a prototype. Together they brought the solution to MVP. From there, HomeEXCEPT hired their own team to complete the project and manage everything from user experience to AI and data science.

And as there’s no singular IoT expert, collaboration was a necessity for HomeEXCEPT: it took John’s initial idea, his team’s prototype, and the technical know-how from T4G to really bring HomeEXCEPT’s solution to life.

Where Azure Comes In

I love this part of the story. Since T4G was one of our long-time partners, we already had a great working relationship. Supporting our customers is a priority, so we sent a team of engineers to support the HomeEXCEPT team with the Azure stack.

John says that the partnership at this last stage of collaboration was key for keeping the project on track. And what’s so impressive is that HomeEXCEPT built their entire product in just 10 weeks. It’s a great example of how we approach our goal of simplifying IoT and cloud computing by providing expertise where it’s needed. When teams collaborate, the potential for building impactful solutions is unlimited.

The Takeaway

HomeEXCEPT has already received industry recognition, winning the grand prize in the 2017 AARP Innovation Champion Awards. From a tech standpoint, a non-intrusive monitor coupled with machine learning and cloud computing is an interesting challenge and from an innovation standpoint its potential is vast.

Smart partnerships enable rapid and agile innovation, and success requires collaboration more than ever. Shared expertise is the best way forward.

You can watch the full story from HomeEXCEPT and T4G here.

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