causaLens is at the forefront of Causal AI innovation, providing solutions through the Microsoft marketplace that help organisations move beyond existing predictive models.  

In this third of our four-blog series, we’ll explore how causaLens has productised Causal AI to reimagine problem-solving across supply chains, customer journeys, manufacturing processes and more.

AI that answers your business questions 

“If I increase the price of my product by 5%, how will that affect my customer retention rate and revenue?”  

Standard machine learning struggles to provide answers to certain business questions, due to its tendency to forecast outcomes. The power of Causal AI models, which are fully transparent and explainable, is that they capture underlying causal relationships in data, not mere data correlations. This enables them to respond confidently to hypotheticals and provide actionable recommendations to optimise your business KPIs.  

While recent years have seen growing academic interest in this emerging technology, causaLens is the only company to have productised it through the decisionOS platform. 

Workflows built to answer “what-ifs” 

decisionOS lets you build and deploy decision workflows leveraging Causal AI – going from raw data to a production-ready decision-making application seamlessly. Data scientists can use decisionOS to access the latest Causal AI algorithms and build best in class Causal AI models. Business users can access “decisionApps” deployed within decisionOS to surface actionable recommendations for their use-cases and improve decision-making.  

Using decisionOS, your team is empowered to build models that go beyond correlations and understand cause and effect relationships that can predict accurately, but, more importantly, assess the impact of interventions and counterfactuals. 

decisionOS tracks decisions from data, to recommendation, to ultimate outcome and reports that back in the KPIs which your enterprise cares about That way, you can track success by the value-generating decisions you make, rather than technical metrics like model accuracy. 

Buy better outcomes 

According to Forrester, marketplaces for SaaS sourcing help alleviate issues such as SaaS sprawl, excessive cost and security risks “while still supporting business-led purchasing, which contributes to increased business agility, better business outcomes, and improved employee experience.” (Source: The Forrester New Wave™: SaaS Marketplaces, Q2 2020.)

That’s true for causaLens, which has seen customer ROI across a range of use-cases:  

• Working with a marketing team saw a 5% decrease in marketing costs by optimising allocation across campaigns. 
• Working with a European bank saw a return of $12mn from using decisionOS to manage risk. 
• Working with a leading IT manufacturer generated $19mn in savings from optimising inventory. 
• Working with a manufacturer saw a $4mn return from optimising their manufacturing lines. 

With support from the Microsoft cloud, causaLens is making an end-to-end Causal AI platform accessible to Enterprises globally via the Microsoft marketplace. This simplifies the overall process, allowing you to efficiently adopt this state-of-the-art technology while spending smarter and reducing complexity. 

Unlock the value of the cloud 

AI software published on the marketplace forms a powerful mix of innovation, reliability, security and convenience. If you’re looking for solutions to fuel your cloud transformation and grow your business, it’s the place to shop.   

To move at the speed of business today, many companies prefer buying to building cloud apps. This allows you to offload the associated costs and management onto SaaS partners.  You’re able to use private offers to get exactly what you need, including customised terms and conditions, negotiated pricing, prototypes for proof of concept, and tailor-made solutions.  

Better still, transact in a single, accessible place, reducing procurement complexity, saving time and simplifying billing. Apply 100% of the value of eligible purchases to your organisation’s Azure cloud commitment and get faster time-to-value with solutions that work with your current technology. 

All while enjoying the peace of mind that comes from buying and running solutions on a trusted cloud with industry-leading security.    

Go from raw data to decisions  

Ready to upgrade your decision making with Causal AI?  

Visit the Microsoft marketplace to buy decisionOS now, or contact our team at ISVUK@Microsoft.com.

Other blogs in this series

Blog 1: Driving your AI transformation with the Microsoft marketplace 

Blog 2: Safeguarding your business with AI-powered security solutions 

Blog 4: Deliver transformational employee experiences through AI-empowering solutions

About the author

James joined Microsoft 15 years ago and has held leadership positions across the Consumer, Enterprise, and the Partner teams at Microsoft. James is currently the ISV Ecosystem Lead and has a passion for people and technology coming together to drive customer success. James has been at the forefront of Cloud & Digital transformation for the last 10 years launching new business models and driving transformation through the Microsoft Partner ecosystem resulting in and contributing to exciting new revenue streams and significantly accelerated growth for Microsoft and Partners.

The post Optimising business operations through AI-powered solutions  appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

In this second of our four-blog series, we’ll see how prevention is truly the best defence. And as organisations continue to transition to the cloud, independent software vendors have been instrumental in building innovative cyber security solutions that appeal to customers in the fast-paced world of digital transformation.  

Darktrace, one of TIME magazine’s “Most Influential Companies” in 2021, is one such vendor. Currently protecting nearly 8,900 organisations around the world, including Royal Caribbean, City of Las Vegas, and McLaren, Darktrace works with companies of all sizes and in all verticals – from enterprises to governments, or small and medium businesses.  

Darktrace AI is designed to work with your security team across the entire attack lifecycle, providing clear analysis and context in ordinary language to drive understanding and efficiency. The solution integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Azure Sentinel and hosts its email service on Azure. Read on to discover how Darktrace’s AI-powered security products, available on the Microsoft marketplace, can help protect your organisation, building even greater confidence that your business, data and staff are safe.

On a mission to mitigate cyber-disruption  

As a global leader in cyber security AI, Darktrace is on a mission to tackle and minimise cyber-disruption. Breakthrough innovations in their Cambridge-based Cyber AI Research Centre have resulted in over 160 patents filed and research published to contribute to the cybersecurity community. That’s great news for stretched security teams, who are struggling with increasingly complex digital systems and an escalating threat landscape – from fending off ransomware attacks and data leaks, through to phishing and supply chain attacks.  

In fact, Darktrace research found that traditional email security tools, which rely on knowledge of past threats, take an average of 13 days from the launch of an attack to detection of it. (Source: Major Upgrade to Darktrace/Email™ Product Defends Organizations Against Evolving Cyber Threat Landscape.)

Darktrace has tackled the challenges of traditional cyber security efforts by turning the entire approach on its head. 

Responding to threats by knowing you

Rather than study attacks, Darktrace’s technology continuously learns and updates its knowledge of your business. Its distinction lies in the algorithms and data it uses, and how the two interact. Instead of training an AI on historical attacks – an approach that requires constant updating and maintenance – Darktrace takes their “Self-Learning AI” to your data. It’s plugged into your enterprise and learns in real time from everything that happens in your digital world – including email, cloud environments, manufacturing and operational systems, and physical locations.  

From this, the AI builds up a sense of “normal” for your organisation. This allows it to identify unusual patterns that indicate a cyber-threat – and then take targeted action to contain emerging attacks.  It then applies that understanding to optimise your unique state of cybersecurity.  

In effect, Darktrace is fuelling a continuous end-to-end security capability that can spot and respond to novel in-progress threats within seconds.  

In reality, that translates to increased threat detection accuracy and time savings – freeing you up to focus on what matters most: running your business. 

Bespoke solutions that build confidence 

According to Dan Fein, Director of Product at Darktrace, “Cyber-criminals will do whatever it takes. Daily, we see attackers impersonate CEOs or compromise vendors’ accounts to send out targeted, topical emails that look legitimate. Our security products align perfectly with Microsoft’s, allowing us to build even greater confidence among our mutual customers that their business, data and staff are protected.” 

What could that mean for your business? With Darktrace, you’ll be equipped to:  

• Detect and respond to cyber-attacks, including unknown and highly targeted attacks that evade traditional tools trained on historical attack data.   
• Stop phishing attacks with increasing accuracy, based on an understanding of “normal” user behaviour and communications.   
• Defend against threats across the entire digital enterprise – from cloud and email systems to networks, endpoints, and Operational Technology – with the same underlying AI technology.  
• Reduce triage and investigation time by automating tedious, repetitive tasks.   

Businesses are already seeing the benefits, with Darktrace customers reporting significant improvements in threat detection accuracy and time savings. One real estate enterprise reported a 95.83% reduction in time to identify potential threats. Another healthcare organisation reported a 90% reduction in triage time.  

Driving cognitive AI with Microsoft Security Copilot 

Helping to take cutting-edge cybersecurity to new levels, Darktrace is taking part in Microsoft’s Security Copilot Partner Private Preview.  

Security Copilot is Microsoft’s next-generation AI-powered security product that enables security professionals to respond to threats quickly, process signals at machine speed, and assess risk exposure in minutes. It combines an advanced large language model (LLM) with a security-specific model that’s informed by Microsoft’s unique global threat intelligence and more than 65 trillion daily signals. 

Selected for their proven experience with Microsoft security technologies and their close relationship with Microsoft, Darktrace will give feedback on Security Copilot product development, helping to refine new scenarios and drive future product releases. 

Get added benefits of buying through the marketplace 

Trust, simplicity and efficiency all count for a lot. Buying from the Microsoft marketplace means all solutions are certified and optimised to run on Azure. You’re able to use private offers to get exactly what you need, including customised terms and conditions, negotiated pricing, prototypes for proof of concept, and tailor-made solutions. 

Better still, transact in a single, accessible place, reducing procurement complexity, saving time and simplifying billing. Apply eligible purchases to your organisation’s Azure cloud commitment by contributing 100% of the purchase off your Azure Marketplace invoice.  

All while enjoying the peace of mind that comes from buying and running solutions on a trusted cloud with industry-leading security.  

Start protecting the Darktrace way today  

See what Darktrace discovers in your environment. Visit the Microsoft marketplace to buy Darktrace/Email or DarktraceDetect now, or contact our team at ISVUK@Microsoft.com.  

Other blogs in this series

Blog 1: Driving your AI transformation with the Microsoft marketplace 

Blog 3: Optimising business operations through AI-powered solutions 

Blog 4: Deliver transformational employee experiences through AI-empowering solutions

About the author

James joined Microsoft 15 years ago and has held leadership positions across the Consumer, Enterprise, and the Partner teams at Microsoft. James is currently the ISV Ecosystem Lead and has a passion for people and technology coming together to drive customer success. James has been at the forefront of Cloud & Digital transformation for the last 10 years launching new business models and driving transformation through the Microsoft Partner ecosystem resulting in and contributing to exciting new revenue streams and significantly accelerated growth for Microsoft and Partners.

The post Safeguarding your business with AI-powered security solutions  appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

In 2022, only 4% of people were employed in digital roles throughout the public sector, highlighting the need to embrace technology, upskill internally and produce better outcomes for everyone. The way to do it is by employing public sector employees as ‘change agents’.

Usually recruited from within the organisation, change agents help to manage the relationship between the organisation and the individual for a smooth digital transformation. The best change agents have extensive experience in department processes and technology and can offer moral support to those cautious of change.

Full-time change agents can be expensive and may divert some of the best and most productive people from a team. So organisations should make smart decisions about how a change agent programme is staffed, managed and supported.

As part of Microsoft’s Innovate Together programme, the Change Agent programme aims to train at least one person in every public sector service to be a catalyst for change. Delivered through expert training sessions and an online community of UK public sector change agents, the programme will provide a platform for the rapid exchange of ideas and solutions to maximise your journey to digital transformation.

This article offers insights into the powerful role of the change agent and allows you to register for the next Change Agent training programme in June 2023, open to those from Local Government organisations.

Delivering transformation benefits on the ground with a change agent

A change agent supports strategic transformations to deliver benefits locally on the ground. They also act as transformation conduits from a technology and a culture perspective. On one hand, they need to supply the central team with regular progress reports and flag up potential issues. On the other hand, they need to win over colleagues and support them in embracing new technologies and ways of working that may be unfamiliar to many.

Using technology to overcome complexity

Given the right training, change agents can match an organisation’s needs with the technology that it already has and advise on other opportunities. The Change Agent programme provides training on a whole host of transformational technologies such as AI and Power Automate, along with insights into how to leverage the tech you are likely already using day to day, from Microsoft Teams to SharePoint.

The training also equips participants with an understanding of the principles of change, how to lead and support change, different learning styles and meeting accessibility requirements through technology; providing attendees with the confidence, theory and practical examples to embrace and lead change within their own organisations.

Confidence in these ‘softer skills’ is crucial in enabling change within a complex industry, which is why one day in the five-day Change Agent programme option is dedicated to providing attendees with the skills to enable change. This content is delivered by industry experts; supporting colleagues to adopt digital tools requires empathy and an understanding of human psychology as well as knowledge of the products being used.

The programme also offers a bespoke version for managers within local government, providing them with sessions on how to support their teams with change, as well as technology specific sessions. This is imperative to fostering a culture of change through a top-down approach.

What really brings the training to life is the real-world examples of how other public sector organisations have leveraged these technologies as the catalyst for change within their own teams. After completing the sessions, the change agents are invited to join a digital community of alumni to further share best practice, providing access to a wider support network at anytime, anywhere.

Even where organisations across the public sector provide completely different services, most have shared common problems and therefore benefit from understanding what technologies others have implemented to resolve these issues. For example, many have a similar approach to technology-enabled time and task management, automation of document ingestion, and reporting. Collaboration between change agents should therefore be encouraged, even if that means overcoming competitive instincts.

How change agents enable transformations that differ in scale

Whilst all public sector transformations differ in scale and scope, the success of a change agent depends on a close understanding of how people respond to – and eventually accept – the introduction of technology into their working life. Leaning on a community of change agents continues to be an invaluable resource to previous alumni.

Large scale transformations could include the introduction of a new HR system. For a smaller transformation, a change agent might help a local council save time on admin by enabling the adoption of some simple digital tools. The Change Agent training programme looks at a wide range of common problem statements and the technologies that help to address some of those issues, with digital breakout rooms to discuss and collaborate.

The first key to achieving measurable benefits from change lies in finding opportunities for efficiencies that might start small or incrementally but can then scale across an entire organisation. The second key is to persuade colleagues to collaborate with the transformation programme and embrace technologies that empower them to do more with less. This usually begins by showing them that change is possible, even on a small scale. This is why change agents benefit from training in technology acceptance strategies throughout the course.

Acquiring change-agent skills

Change agents can be full-time professionals who are qualified to optimise a large-scale programme, or enthusiastic volunteers who work within their teams to deliver measurable results on the ground.

Giving these proactive individuals a forum to update their skills and coordinate their efforts adds value to any organisation’s transformation effort by enhancing its collective intelligence. In other words, a coalition of change agents is greater than the sum of its parts.

Change agents can benefit from learning new skills and putting them into practice at the same time. This is often more efficient than attempting to accelerate onboarding with an intense training schedule at the outset. Enabling new recruits to gradually build their confidence through practice lessens the risk of overwhelming them with too much information. Not all change agents are volunteers; some are nominated by their manager to gather insights on the transformation programme, or to develop their career.

The Microsoft Change Agent programme

This free programme is a national initiative designed to support local and regional government (LRG) in its digital transformation efforts. It is open to Microsoft customers, and offers a five-day version aimed at the ‘change agents’ within an LRG organisation, and a two-day version for managers.

The training employs industry experts from Microsoft and Socitm, and experienced local authority staff to help prepare delegates in theories of change, using a wide variety of Microsoft technologies to address common industry problem statements. Delegates will have the opportunity to learn and engage with others in similar roles across LRG. The programme also provides an opportunity for participants to join a collaborative network of Change Agent alumni practitioners, while learning about digital transformation technologies such as Power Platform, Power Automate, and Power BI.

Read more about our Change Agent programme and partnership with Socitm in the Financial Times – Equip the public sector with digital skills for better government.

Find out more

Microsoft Learn for government
Microsoft Adoption Score
Microsoft Enterprise Skills Initiative
Digital Skills Hub

About the author

I am an Account Technology Strategist (ATS) at Microsoft, with an MSc in managing and leading IT systems change. I help customers understand how Microsoft products can solve business problems, and I lead the Change Agent programme within the Innovate Together programme. I’m passionate about technology acceptance and supporting scalable, sustainable change across public services.

The post Digital public services: How to drive transformation with change agents appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

Sophisticated cyberattacks are on the rise

According to the Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2022, over 100 million attacks against remote management devices were observed in May 2022, up 500 percent on the past year. Human-operated ransomware remains the most prevalent cybercrime, however. One-third of targets are successfully compromised by criminals using these attacks, and 5 percent of them are ransomed.

Old perimeter-guarding strategies are no match for these increasingly sophisticated threats. An organisation needs to embrace a modern, data-driven and people-centred approach to managing security risk. This can help to identify and tackle existing threats more effectively while learning to anticipate new ones.

What is a security culture?

An organisation’s security culture is built on shared values, attitudes and ways of acting. It’s therefore hard to change, and it takes time. Creating a culture of security needs colleagues to understand the potential costs of a security lapse. They must also understand how bad actors tend to operate, and why existing security strategies are no longer adequate.

In the current climate, digital communications and cloud data management provide multiple ways to access organisations that previously didn’t exist. Once inside your network, cybercriminals can move laterally, seeking out value.

Zero Trust relies on strong identity verification

Adopting strong identity verification is key to Microsoft’s Zero Trust approach. Real-time data provides information on the user, the device, and the location – which is crucial in a hybrid world of work. Connecting both cloud and legacy systems to a single identity solution provides end-to-end visibility of an organisation’s digital presence. This helps to protect against internal threats that old-fashioned firewalls would miss. Where there is doubt, a Zero Trust approach applies conditional access. Where there is risk, it is assumed a breach.

A security strategy that enhances overall performance

Adopting a Zero Trust approach brings immediate improvements to an existing security posture, and builds a path that continuously improves risk management. It simplifies security processes to enhance customer experience, and potentially lowers costs by eliminating the need for external security providers.

Adopting a best-in-class security strategy can also make an organisation more forward-focused and risk-responsive in general. Nurturing a security culture brings long term benefits to a company as a brand and to its overall effectiveness in the marketplace. Security is not just a cost; it drives trust and therefore adds value.

Security culture starts small and collaboratively

When implementing a new security protocol, take a step-by-step approach beginning with a small, controlled group and a security risk that qualifies as low-hanging fruit. Once new protocols have been validated, and teams have given feedback, it can be expanded to another part of the business, such as identities, infrastructure, devices, data, networks or apps.

As for implementing organisation-wide security culture change, this will benefit from full and visible support from your senior leadership team. Aim to implement your new strategy collaboratively, and through a phased programme of activities. Taking a creative approach to security skilling and education helps stimulate staff engagement. Microsoft for example produces a successful video series that follows the security-themed adventures of its protagonist, Nelson, which gets promoted internally.

Understand and work with colleagues who may express resistance to change. While moving to new day-to-day practices – for example, new ways of working with different classes of data – openness and empathy will be crucial in empowering all teams to own, understand and learn from their inevitable mistakes.

Data-driven monitoring spots emerging risks

In time, your security strategy can become more sophisticated. AI can be deployed to detect abnormal behaviour and protect your organisation’s most sensitive information from accidental exfiltration as well as bad actors. Microsoft Azure, Azure Sentinel and Microsoft 365 apps can document your compliance with regulations, monitor access, and apply data analytics to predict where the next security risk might emerge.  Data metrics can guide security strategy on the principle of maximising costs to the attacker and prioritising your most valuable data. Many of Microsoft’s UK customers and partners have benefited from this security-first approach.

LGL money managers find security on the cloud

LGL Group are a financial services company who were frustrated by the cost and complexity of enterprise-grade cybersecurity. Microsoft worked collaboratively with LGL to design a roadmap that modernised their security controls, enhanced their security posture and reduced their reliance on third-party application subscriptions, driving down costs. By migrating to the latest Microsoft 365 and Azure security stack, LGL also benefited from a more streamlined and simplified hybrid security system.

Meanwhile Microsoft continues to work with schools and colleges to close the cybersecurity skills gap, with targeted investments here in the UK. Salford City Council leveraged the skills and resources of the Microsoft Enterprise Skills Initiative to develop a cyber strategy and a security operations centre using Microsoft Sentinel. It now aims to share its best-in-class skills with other public sector organisations to proactively monitor, detect and respond across Greater Manchester.

Zero Trust is a journey

Zero Trust is a journey, not a destination. Visit the security hub at Microsoft Business Security Solutions and discover how Microsoft can help you implement an identity environment with cloud identity federation, strong authentication and conditional access at its core.

Find out more

Microsoft security blogs

Strong identity management provides Zero Trust security

Microsoft Sentinel strengthens Salford Council’s cybersecurity

The post What is a ‘security culture’? Best practices for implementing your security strategy appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

The way forward for getting your P&L in line is to drive revenue. However, each business is unique, and its situation depends on the company’s leadership function, ownership structure, recent financial history, CapEx and OpEx exposure, and industry-specific concerns.

While digital transformation can often be mistaken as a ‘silver bullet’, it is, in fact, the cost of doing business in today’s environment. So how should finance leaders proceed? 

Balancing cost with ROI: the three biggest challenges for CFOs 

There can be a temptation to make immediate cost savings at every turn. Yet by investing in digital transformation programmes now, astute CFOs: 

• Can deliver a rapid return on investment with efficiency savings, thanks to automation and the cloud. 

• Will future-proof their company at a time of significant technological change. 

• Will make it easier to meet sustainability targets. 

While senior leaders recognise the need for digital investment, they want returns quickly. According to the Gartner Global CFO Poll 2022, 69 percent of CFOs are looking to increase spend around digital transformation initiatives – but their expectations for returns are one to two years. Agility, flexibility, and speed have become more pressing. 

To map out where savings can be made and how best to plan ahead, we advise considering the three most pressing, intersecting challenges faced by CFOs today – and crucially, where technology can win much-needed reprieve, helping organisations ultimately achieve more with less.  

These three challenges are:  

1. Cost optimisation

2. Supply chain

3. Energy

Let’s look at each factor in turn. 

1. Cost optimisation 

Following the global economic crisis of 2007-08, the world’s economy was fuelled by cheap money. With inflation making a return, this has become more difficult to find. Supply-side costs, including scarce affordable energy, have driven up inflation as never before. According to the UK’s Office for National Statistics, the annual rate of input inflation has lurched beyond 20 percent, while input cost inflation for manufacturers leapt 24 percent compared to the same time last year (end of 2022 data).  

How to balance growth aspirations with priorities around spend

This pain may not have hit every business yet. But when companies are forced to respond to it, many will go into survival mode, and some will fail. 

CFOs are having to evaluate their areas of investment to remain competitive when consumer expectations are high, but confidence is low. They also have to prioritise incremental investments designed to deliver efficiency gains. 

Organisations, in turn, are under pressure to ensure every part of their business is working as well as it can – and the digital imperative is key to resolving this. Businesses need more innovation, agility and resilience, with less complexity and at a lower cost, quickly. Put simply, they need to do more with less. 

Making the most of existing infrastructure and technology roadmaps 

We believe organisations should look to their existing infrastructure and technology roadmaps to drive further efficiencies with the assets they already own. They can reduce operational costs by digitising based on unified platforms. 

Rolls-Royce succeeded on both counts by leveraging benefits available in its existing Microsoft stack. The company trained staff to use our low-code Power Platform – including Power Automate, Power BI and Power Apps – which has since become its most popular upskilling solution. In a few months, Rolls-Royce saw a financial benefit of about 8M across the organisation, a figure that can grow organically as more staff and teams use the platform. 

Retaining talent by digitising 

At first, the COVID-19 crisis stalled attrition rates; later, it saw employees reassess their career priorities. Many left their roles in what was sensationally termed the ‘great resignation’. As a result, the war for talent heated up.  

Retaining talent is now more pressing than ever. With employee turnover forecast to be 50 to 75 percent higher than businesses have ever experienced, they need to ensure staff are both happy and productive, with enough investment in skills to keep top talent within the organisation.  

Digital investment is the only way to meet higher staff expectations. Employees want modern technology that works effortlessly, and are increasingly expecting hybrid or remote roles as a given, with all the associated technology support. 

What the pandemic demonstrated to CFOs is that every business must strive to be a technology business, or fail. Those unable to swiftly pivot to digital were punished harshly.  

2. Supply chain

The wider supply chain is the core of most businesses and must absolutely be on every CFO’s radar – but using history to make decisions for the future no longer works. Customer demand is constantly changing, whether it’s influenced by the economic climate or making environmentally conscious purchase decisions.  

To shore up customer confidence, organisations can take advantage of intelligent automation to reduce costs, maximise operating margins and recalibrate their supply chains from ‘just-in-time’ to ‘just-in-case’. 

Take the UK company Spy Alarms, for example. By switching to Microsoft Dynamics, the service team have reduced the time it takes to book a service interview from six minutes to a few seconds. Their sales operations have also benefited from a much simpler and faster quotation process for its 45,000 customers. With the seamless integration of Power BI and Microsoft Teams, all levels of the team have access to data insights – empowering data-driven decision making with incredible precision and foresight.  

3. Energy 

Energy is a hot topic and is central to the boardroom conversations CFOs are becoming involved in. Data centres and offices are an enormous cost factor; a more cost- and energy-efficient answer is to retire data centres and invest in the cloud.  

Investing in the cloud to reduce energy consumption 

At Microsoft, our customers want to use energy management tools to reduce complexities around staffing and save costs in the near to long term. Cloud-native organisations can deliver more core value, with fully managed, end-to-end Azure cloud solutions to boost developer productivity, optimise and allocate resources, and speed up the pace of innovation. 

The East London NHS Trust has been a shining example of this. By taking advantage of Microsoft’s Intelligent Data Platform such as Azure Synapse Analytics and BI, staff can sense-check, monitor metrics and look at trends to see what’s happening on the ward. These insights are accessible from any device and even off the network, building a truly efficient integrated data system. 

Three takeaways: simplify, unify, innovate 

Every business can use technology to become more efficient and effective, whether it’s driving more value from existing platforms and assets, consolidating to reduce cost and complexity, or introducing deployments with rapid payback. 

By leveraging data and AI, businesses are armed with the data and insight on how to increase agility and growth with the assets they already have. 

At Microsoft, we’re working with our customers to define how they will survive, and even thrive, in a continually changing environment. If you’d like to understand more, visit The Microsoft Cloud – Trusted Cloud Platform. 

Find out more

Read Microsoft Azure case studies and customer stories

Announcing Microsoft Azure Data Manager for Energy: Enable your data to do more in the cloud

Imagining more: How organizations are reinventing operations and finding opportunity in the face of volatility

Understanding Microsoft’s digital transformation

About the author

As CFO of Microsoft UK, Mark leads the Finance Organisation supporting Clare Barclay and the UK Senior Leadership team by delivering against the strategic priorities of the company, through influencing key decisions around people, business processes and performance.

Prior to this role, Mark held the position of International CFO at Adobe and Rackspace, where he was a key part of leadership teams driving growth across all markets outside the US. With a career spread across banking, the oil industry and technology, a breadth of finance experience contributes to his dynamic, objective approach as we pursue great customer outcomes with our product portfolio.

Mark returned to the UK recently after spending time in Zurich and Amsterdam in previous roles, is a trained accountant with the ACCA, studied Economics at the University of Leeds and is married with 3 children.

The post How to future-proof your business: a CFO’s-eye view   appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

Moving to the cloud means organisations can take advantage of new technology such as AI, intelligent security, and improve resilience and scalability. The UK Government has taken a public cloud first policy and has recently reaffirmed this approach in its new Cloud Guide for PS.

In order to keep providing great experiences for citizens, empowering employees with real-time information, and optimise and streamline services and operations, the public sector needs to adopt hyper-scale public cloud capabilities. Azure has been used to help police tackle crimes, support NHS Trusts with AI, and support social care.

Improving access to cloud capabilities

We want the public sector to have access to these capabilities in Azure. This is why we’ve worked closely with the Crown Commercial Service to agree a new non-binding Azure Pricing Arrangement (APA). It builds on the recently announced One Government Cloud Strategy and Cloud Guide for PS. It also ensures better value for money, by providing discounted pricing and beneficial terms for eligible public sector organisations when using Azure.

Doing this opens up the opportunity for public sector customers to address three important things. These are:

• Create a hybrid cloud journey – Protect existing investments by providing tools to support and manage hybrid cloud and multi-cloud capabilities, both technically and commercially.
• Turbocharge data insights and application development – Leverage tools such as Power Platform (PowerApps, PowerAutomate, Power Virtual Agents and Power BI) and Azure AI to rapidly develop solutions that offer users insights from vast quantities of data. Azure GitHub also provides the largest world-class platform for sharing code and ensuring the public sector family can take advantage of collaboration and sharing.
• Microsoft’s commitment to sustainability – Microsoft is working to become carbon negative by 2030. By using Azure, the public sector can be sure it is working with a supplier that is having a positive, constructive, and tangible impact on climate change.

The Azure Pricing Arrangement will also help public sector customers accelerate their digital transformation journey and address some important points from the Cloud Guide for PS.

Be more innovative

It’s hard to be innovative when you have to stick to budgets, but the APA gives you an opportunity to re-imagine and redesign citizen services, as well as improve and make operations more resilient and scalable.

Take advantage of analytics, AI, and machine learning to quickly analyse large government datasets. Azure services such as Azure Cognitive Services brings AI within reach of every developer – without requiring machine learning expertise. Azure Synapse Analytics is a service that brings together enterprise data warehousing and Big Data analytics. Azure Blockchain Service offers the opportunity to quickly build, govern and expand blockchain networks at scale, providing new ways to track and secure important data in distributed citizen processes.

Azure Digital Twins can create comprehensive models of physical environments using spatial intelligence graphs to model the relationships and interactions between people, places, and devices. This helps discover opportunities to improve customer experiences, create new efficiencies, and improve spaces in which people live and work.

Futureproofing your employees

Empower your employee’s up-skill and re-skill. Microsoft Learn has free, on-demand modules and learning paths to help learner’s up-skill. They can also gain industry-recognised Microsoft Certifications, including Azure Data Scientist and AI Engineers. This not only ensures your employees have the skills to get the best out of Azure and its capabilities, but its futureproofing their careers.

Supporting a hybrid and multi-cloud journey

Some organisations use multiple cloud providers, or have a hybrid model with some data stored on their own servers and some in the public cloud. The new public sector APA will enable discounts for Azure services and products that build on existing investments and support the journey to cloud. Azure Arc allows management of complex and distributed environments across on-premises, edge, and multi-cloud scenarios, and offers features such as cloud billing for existing on-premises workloads which can help optimise costs. Azure Stack is a unique hybrid cloud solution that expands the Azure cloud and lets customers run Microsoft Azure Services on-premises from their own data centre. Azure Stack shares a standardised architecture, including the same portal, unified application model, and common DevOps tools.

Intelligent security

Security is a critical component for the public sector, especially as they hold large amounts of sensitive and personal data. Azure provides the opportunity to build next-generation security operations using the cloud and AI, while ensuring organisations meet compliance and regulatory standards. Azure Sentinel uses advanced AI and security analytics to help detect, hunt, prevent, and respond to threats across the organisation. Azure Security Center helps strengthen the security posture of data centres, and provides advanced threat protection across cloud and on-premise workloads.

Helping you achieve more

The new APA has been agreed as an addendum to the existing Digital Transformation Arrangement (DTA) MoU between Microsoft and the Crown Commercial Service, which runs until April 2021. The DTA featured packages and tools to help with GDPR compliance and governance, as well as Microsoft 365, Enterprise Security, Microsoft Teams, and Windows 10 Enterprise capabilities.

Get guidance and support

In order to help the public sector on their Azure journey, we’ve launched some programmes to provide guidance, learning, and help accelerate projects. Take a look at FastTrack for Azure and the Azure Migration Programme. The new public sector APA has also launched some special offers for Azure Support.

The Azure Pricing Arrangement for eligible public sector customer will also be available until April 2021. To unlock the opportunity from this deal please talk to your Microsoft Account Manager or Microsoft certified reseller for more details on the options available.

The post How Azure can help the public sector to innovate and stay resilient appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

I was so frustrated at not being able to get the help I needed that I went home and threw my laptop on the floor and broke it. Little did I know, this teenage moment of anger actually helped me realise my passion for tech.

Being unable to buy a new computer, I had to fix the laptop. One week later and it was back in working condition. Six months later I had bought more components and built my first desktop.

As a teenager, I saw the industry as very male dominated and thought I wouldn’t stand a chance getting a job at any big company. Two decades later and I am the only Cloud Technical Expert at Microsoft working for the UK and Europe.

Microsoft and I fit perfectly together. Why? Because like me, they care about everyone, everywhere. From small businesses, enterprises, local communities all the way to charities, local schools and national universities, everyone matters. We value people for what they can achieve when they are empowered with the right tools, devices and support.

Cloud helps schools unleash their potential

One sector I’m particularly passionate about is education. Cloud is one of the most powerful resources in the world for productivity, learning, growth and security. Paired with an accessible device like Surface, students are empowered to learn in the way that suits them best. Teachers gain time back to spend it less on paperwork and more with students. It’s the perfect combination – 14 year-old-me wouldn’t know what hit them if this existed 20 years ago!

I work at Microsoft’s flagship store in London. We currently work with over 45 schools and colleges to help them realise the potential of the cloud. We keep the knowledge growing internally in these organisations by helping them with training and any other support. We want everyone to get the best out of our products. That’s why we not only have a dedicated space for in-person training, but also visit organisations away from London in-person and virtually.

Giving schools the tools to empower

Getting support from us will help facilitate teachers, students, and graduates to have better access to information. It will also boost collaboration, communication, and productivity – vital skills in today’s workplace as well as those in the future.

But I don’t just see us as the tech people helping you use the tools. We’re empowering the people who carry on that torch to empower others in their school, organisation, or even at home. We’re helping you achieve more by giving you the knowledge you need to be more productive and collaborative. We’re also honoured to encourage you to pass those skills on to others and to collectively build an empowered team around you.

When I look back at that 14-year-old disruptive girl who threw her laptop on the floor I’m proud of the person she became. If I could speak to my younger self, this is the advice I’d give her to help her along her path: Come ready with a can-do attitude, willingness to learn, and eagerness to welcome any challenges and turn them into strengths.

Educators play such a vital role in unleashing student’s potential. With the help from my team, we can help empower teachers to use technology to help develop and coach students. That way, students will cultivate vital skills they need to support themselves in the future.

About the author

As Cloud Technical Expert for the UK and Europe at the flagship Microsoft store in London, Miloni and her team aims to empower clients and to provide the complete solution to each one of them. She enjoys working collaboratively with clients, and helping provide support and training so they can get the best out of their tools and devices.

Miloni has worked with Facebook, and been featured in Forbes for her work with #techmums, an organisation which teaches women tech skills that allows them to enter a new career path, gain confidence in their current career or returning one.

The post Unleashing student potential: learnings from my own journey appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

• More students actively learn Azure skills and gain certification
• Academics will choose Azure when utilising cloud-based technologies
• Institutions will consolidate more of their services to Azure technologies

With Azure, the potential is truly unlimited.

Since joining the Microsoft UK Education team as Azure Skills Lead for Higher Education, I’ve been committed to helping HE institutions to access the learning resources available – to empower them to learn and master Azure, and achieve more with the technology. I believe that the key to harnessing this potential lies with raising awareness of what is possible and unlocking this via skills training.

One of the primary enablers for HE utilisation is through the process of achieving Azure skills. These are three Azure resources that you can make use of right now, to empower teaching, drive innovation, and realise the potential of your students.

Microsoft Learn’s Azure Fundamentals

Microsoft Learn is an incredible platform for learning all manner of new skills. It’s completely free, completely online, and lets you learn at your own pace – whether you’re a rookie or a veteran in your field. There are also options to become Microsoft Certified, an industry-recognised award that helps demonstrate your achievements.

Within Microsoft Learn is a portal for Azure Fundamentals. This is a great place to start when bolstering skillsets. Across 12 highly targeted modules, you and your team can understand what the technology will help you achieve and the big benefits it brings. Perfect for those who aren’t sure if cloud migration is right for their HE institution and want to know more.

Azure in Education

Azure for Education is designed to give both students and educators the developer tools required to boost cloud skills. With a focus on hands-on learning, this is the best place for anyone interested in the cloud to experiment with building, deploying, and managing applications within the cloud sphere.

From a free coding course to creating a cloud-based computer lab through Azure Lab Services, there’s plenty to kickstart the passions of students and your team. And don’t forget to check out the Imagine Cup, a highly prestigious competition that asks students to create world-changing applications.

Beyond the fundamentals

Once you’ve mastered the basics of Azure, it’s time to kick it up a notch. Microsoft offer lots of role-based Azure courses that will help you and your team go beyond the fundamentals, and start exploring benefits in greater depth.

Step-by-step guidance is given across topics like security, implementing virtual machines, remote desktops and everything in between – and covers all the essentials for those in a range of job roles, including administrators and business users. If you’re learning or seeking new skills at an intermediate level, these are courses you won’t want to miss.

These are three great places to start, but if you’d like more help from Microsoft, to learn more, or organise additional training sessions, get in touch with us using the Azure Skills Training enquiry form.

About the author

Andrew Bettany is an eight-time Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP), recognized for his Windows and Modern Desktop expertise. He has authored over a dozen books and many video training materials for LinkedIn Learning and Pluralsight on Microsoft technologies. He’s a Modern Management, Cloud and Mobility Solutions Consultant specialising in Microsoft 365 and Azure. Andrew is passionate about helping others learn and adopt new technology and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences such as Microsoft Ignite.

The post 3 tools to develop Azure skills in Higher Education appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

This appearance does more than just solidify a client’s misconceptions of the sector; it has a major impact on the internal culture. If the way a firm operates remains traditional, the service it delivers falls back in comparison to more modern competitors.

As such, transforming the customer experience demands transformation of the internal culture. Encouraging collaborative, flexible working practices that chime with the needs of both employees and clients alike. While tradition, precedence, and formality has stymied the sector’s ability to innovate, new technology is starting to build the foundations that help transform the experience you deliver customers.

Where to start a transformation?

The question many in the legal sector face when wanting to transform their workplace is…

Where do I start?

Step 1 – Get a technical infrastructure in place

Pivotal to the modern IT experience is an updated back-end and cloud-based workloads. However, these ‘transformations’ are invisible to the end user – rare is the employee that compliments an employer for moving their mailbox to the cloud.

Take advice whenever necessary. For many in the legal sector, upgrading systems is a new and exciting task, but not one with which they’re au fait. Successful implementation doesn’t happen overnight. It often requires consultation with those in the know in order to determine the infrastructure and complementary hardware that’s right for your business.

A major consideration at this stage is security. Choosing a system  and devices tailor-made to protect and defend your law firm from cyber-attacks doesn’t just offer peace of mind (and keeps you focused on what really matters). It also ensures you can maintain the integrity of your client records, and any private, personal, and sensitive data within.

Part of this transition will see you bring legacy and paper-based data to the cloud. Immediately, this is a revolutionary move. No longer are client records stored away in filing cabinets, lost, or forgotten. Secure in the cloud, they’re easily accessible to your team.

Step 2 – Bring employees on the journey

Internal buy-in is critical to transforming the way you work. The customer experience can’t change if employees are unwilling or unable to move to a new way of working.

Start by explaining what you wish to change, and how you intend to do it. This is the stage when most companies stop – it’s the end of the journey. Yet this is really the beginning. Now, request feedback from your team.

What issues do they face and how will a digital transformation help? What do they want from a new system and devices? How can these be used to improve service delivery?

During your ‘exploration phase’ – that is, when considering all the systems and devices that will help you alter your working ways – place employee experience at its heart. Your team wants an interface and device that makes it easy to do their job and offer an exceptional customer experience. Give it to them.

Step 3 – Choose a device that offers a good work-life balance

Your team needs to be at the top of their game – it’s one of the admirable hallmarks of the legal sector. Salaries can be matched. Perks can be offered. But nothing beats an employer that supports true investment in employees.

This is at the crux of creating a modern digital workplace.

By changing the way your team works through technology, you help encourage a healthy work-life balance. Today’s cloud-connected law graduates are used to the flexibility that modern technology affords; they’re adept at working remotely and collaboratively.

A senior associate from one Surface-enabled firm said, ‘I’ve really enjoyed the flexibility that comes with our new Surface laptops. It took an hour or so to get set up. Then, I was able to work from home within the first few days without disruption. The whole process of starting up for the day and getting going with work is so much quicker.’

Devices that deliver on the promise of the modern workplace keeps staff more engaged and productive than ever before. And they appreciate that, as an employer, you understand that life doesn’t simply stop once work starts. With an employee experience like this, it completely alters the level of service offered to clients.

Step 4 – Embrace collaboration

We’re creatures of habit. Because of that, it can be challenging when trying to encourage people to work in new, more productive ways.

Put something new and exciting, like a Surface, into their hands and suddenly it ignites enthusiasm. They find themselves able to work differently. Because the technology’s there to streamline and enhance collaboration, they begin having more video conferences with clients and other solicitors; they draw their ideas; they embrace the hot-desk mentality, when necessary.

Step 5 – Encourage diversity, inclusion, and accessibility

The more diverse and inclusive a team is, the more creative and productive they are. And that can only be a benefit to your law firm. Part of that means ensuring your workplace and the tools within it are wholly accessible for those with disabilities.

As part of this drive to be diverse, inclusive, and accessible, Surface features a number of design choices that enable a better experience for all. For instance, the power and volume buttons can be managed with one hand. The device’s microphones make use of extremely accurate Closed Captioning. Use a Surface pen, and your team will discover one of the most natural digital writing experiences available to them. Ultimately, these features help your team to work better than ever before.

Technology is changing the way we communicate, creating a modern digital workplace. If your legal organisation wishes to make a statement and cultivate a culture that empowers every employee, it starts with the user. Connect your team with the devices that help them work smarter, and support your digital transformation.

Find out more

Choose the Surface for you

How technology helps business maximise the value of ideas

About the authors

Alex is a Modern Workplace Solution Specialist working closely with our Legal and Professional services customers to transform the way they work; making them more agile, productive, mobile and empower their employees to achieve more. Watching the transformation of workplaces like the legal sector, and the people working in them, has been incredibly rewarding.

Will is a Surface Specialist at Microsoft helping Professional Services organisations realise the full value of Microsoft Surface devices in their business. He enjoys working with customers to embrace advances in technology that create a new world of work – where technology empowers people, data and systems to connect, collaborate and communicate in new innovative ways. 

Rachael is a Surface Specialist focused on the modern workplace. She loves to help customers transform their ways of working to embrace mobility and new devices that increase their productivity and enhance their work life balance.

The post 5 steps for digitally transforming the legal profession appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

Organisations are transforming, becoming ever-more driven by innovation, and seeking to establish partnerships that will boost their value proposition and optimise internal IT. In the past few years, I’ve been fascinated just how much can be done when there is a strong will to adopt new technology.

Think of the first new clearing bank in 250 years in UK – it runs exclusively in the cloud.

Think of Insurtechs like Shift Technology which helps insurance companies more effectively detect fraud. The diversity of business models that cloud solutions enable are limited only by imagination.

The first step towards bringing imagination to reality is making sure an organisation possesses relevant cloud capabilities. While technologies like AI can provide direct benefit to the customer, every organisation needs to first establish strong fundamental cloud capabilities. Only then can they build advanced, customer-centric solutions on top of them.

 

Strong cloud capabilities represent well-organised knowledge and skills, which create and maintain scalable, secure, and transparent infrastructure.

Achieving this requires skills in technologies such as Platform-as-a-Service, Infrastructure as Code, and API integrations, among others.

Learning new skills and engaging in meaningful training on a continuous basis is key to helping people across the organisation. Cloud competent organisations are aware of this. They realise the need for a robust process that allows them to operate with strong IT fundamentals.

BUILDING STRONG FUNDAMENTALS IN 5 STEPS

1. Assess current capability levels

If an organisation applies capability assessment frameworks, those can be inspected to evaluate current skills levels. If that’s not the case, an organisation should establish a framework to continuously monitor relevant skills levels.

It can be as simple as creating a heat map, as long as it provides a clear view that can be updated. Proposed methodologies for gathering information are online surveys and interviews for both groups and individuals.

2. Determine desired skills and knowledge

In alignment with overall business strategy, evaluate which skills your people need and, based on the capability framework, recognise where the gaps are.

When it comes to establishing cloud fundamentals, most customers focus on…

• Architecture: Networking, virtualisation, identity, security, business continuity, disaster recovery, data management, budgeting, and governance
• Administration: implement, monitor, and maintain Microsoft Azure solutions, including major services related to compute, storage, network, and security
• Security: implement security controls, maintain the security posture, manage identity and access, and protect data, applications, and networks

3. Invest in upskilling and training your teams

Everyone on the IT team needs solid understanding of what the cloud is, which are the most typical scenarios, and where its value lies. We see highest success when organising Microsoft-led workshops where IT professionals and relevant business divisions join to learn about the basics of cloud administration, architecture and security.

During these one- or two-day workshops, the key outcomes are…

• The whole IT team has the same understanding of cloud fundamentals
• Stronger relationship between IT and business

Once the basics are covered, try collaborating with Microsoft in designing learning paths in areas such as data engineering, containerisation, and DevOps. These types of training sessions should be tailored to specific groups of employees to make them relevant and actionable.

4. Reward employees that invest in learning

Learning rewards seem self-explanatory, but having appropriate rewards in place is not as easy as it might seem.

Rewards in IT departments are too often too meaningless and demotivating. As author Daniel Pink notes in the best-seller Drive, studies show that carrot and stick led rewarding system is not a good system. The correlation between financial rewards and outstanding work are not as high as most organisations think.

To achieve great results, you must satisfy the following needs…

Autonomy — The desire to be self-directed. It increases engagement over compliance.

Mastery — The urge to get better skills.

Purpose — The drive to do something that has meaning and is important. Businesses that only focus on profits without valuing purpose will end up with poor customer service and unhappy employees.

Giving employees the option to obtain a certificate is a great first step on the journey to Mastery. Next, consider rewarding your team with time-off work to focus on personal projects – this boosts Autonomy and Purpose. See how Microsoft does it with the ‘Garage‘.

 5. Prioritise certification in hiring and recruiting

Certificates mean transparency within and without the organisation. In a certification-driven organisation, you’ll have a good view to which skills and knowledge are present and what impact they provide. This is a major asset when designing a new job role, prioritising candidates, and assessing their proficiency. Certifications show dedication and good pressure-handling, since obtaining a meaningful certificate should be a challenge.

In a nutshell, operating with a strong cloud capability is a necessity for any organisation that desires to lead in the modern workplace. In the long-run, the winners will not be the ones who built cloud capability, but those who maintained it.

Take advantage of the learning opportunities Microsoft offers, and help us help you set up a learning organisation that will thrive for years to come.

Find out more

Microsoft skill-up offering

Microsoft Training Days: Azure Fundamentals

All you need to know before and after moving to the cloud: A Future Decoded presentation

App innovation and modernization with Microsoft Azure

Watch the session from Future Decoded: How Microsoft creates a learn-it-all culture

About the author

Tine Petric is a Specialist in the area of Applications and Infrastructure, advising organizations within UK Financial Services Industry. He is passionate about impact that technology can make in inclusive finance, interactive learning and eliminating mundane tasks. Tine is also an avid tech blogger and guest lecturer at universities where he talks about Business Model Innovation and latest tech trends.

The post Building strong cloud skills for employees in 5 steps appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.