Learn more about using Azure IoT in logistics and delivering intelligent supply chains.

Optimizing retail merchandising programs

E. & J. Gallo Winery is the world’s largest producer of wine. One way the organization maintains its lead is with an effective merchandising strategy that keeps its brands front-and-center to the consumer. Gallo is leveraging Footmarks’ IoT solution in their supply chains to optimize their merchandising strategy.

Previously, Gallo was only able to track the number of displays it produced and how many left their manufacturers for retail destinations. In 2020, they decided to test Footmarks SmartTrack cloud solution to gain visibility into the journey of each individual display from creation to distribution, and finally, to the store floor. The SmartTrack IoT solution would enable Gallo to accurately measure the ROI of its display campaigns by detecting the percent of displays that made it to their final in-store destination versus remaining in distribution partners’ warehouses.

Gallo and Footmarks designed a pilot project for Gallo’s popular Apothic brand and a display designed for a Halloween promotion. Footmarks worked with Gallo to deploy its innovative beacon solutions to enable tracking and monitoring. For this test, Gallo also implemented the IoT solution in warehouses of its distribution partner, SGWS. This gave Gallo visibility into the movement of displays through its partner’s warehouses and visibility of SGWS’s sell-through of the Apothic displays into test markets.

At the time of production, a Bluetooth beacon sensor with unique identifiers was installed on each individual display. Gateways were then registered in Azure IoT Central and placed in both Gallo and SGWS warehouses to provide supply, inventory, and sell-through details in real-time.

This display lifecycle information proved invaluable to Gallo’s marketing team. During execution, Gallo used these insights to provide live updates to sales teams, enabling them to ensure that displays were at the right stores, at the right time, and for the duration of the promotion period. Through the Footmarks SmartTrack dashboard, Gallo was alerted when displays arrived and were removed from the store floor. Armed with this new merchandising execution data, Gallo could measure the lift of the promotion for Apothic in the stores for which the display executed.

“Historically we have not had visibility into our merchandising execution. Through Footmark’s IoT solution we have solved that issue which will allow us to produce and measure in ways that were previously not possible.” Jason Dukhi, Operations Lead, E. & J. Gallo Winery.

“With consumer behavior shifting and consumers increasingly cooking and consuming at home, Footmarks SmartTrack solution has become a must have for market leaders such as Gallo. We are thrilled to be working with Gallo to scale SmartTrack in 2021 and beyond.” Shawn Eglund, CEO, Footmarks.

Modernizing cold chain management

A large retail chain attributed nearly $2 billion in losses to food waste. Of that, refrigeration system failures or issues accounted for roughly $300 million. The legacy refrigeration controllers generated too many false alarms and there was no mechanism in place to predict failures. Microsoft partner Cognizant worked with the retailer to build out a solution that suppressed false alarms. The solution also provided more contextual information to technicians in the event of any failures, drastically reducing the downtime and ultimately reducing food loss by $18 million in one year.

In the process of working with the retailer, Cognizant envisioned the design of a new IoT application to keep food and temperature-sensitive medicines such as COVID-19 vaccines safe across touchpoints in the supply chain ecosystem. The company built out its OneTrack solution using Azure IoT Central and the Verizon ThingSpace IoT platform to address this use case.

“The global pandemic has disrupted nearly every supply chain. Connected IoT solutions are more essential than ever to protect all of us,” Rajiv Mukherjee, North American Practice Director of Cognizant’s IoT Retail and Consumer Goods business.

“Maintaining supply chain integrity is top of mind for retailers, especially in the current climate we are in today. Our ability to connect assets on a turnkey basis with the Verizon ThingSpace Cloud Connector for Microsoft Azure IoT Central provides businesses with the visibility and traceability into their goods wherever they may be” Shamik Basu, Verizon head of Thingspace.

Managing complex supply chains at scale

To keep up with global demand, millions of Microsoft Xbox consoles and Surface devices are manufactured and shipped across the globe every year. Getting these products into customers’ hands involves a very complex supply chain ecosystem. Microsoft leverages a diverse set of partners, including contract manufacturers, distribution centers, logistics providers, and carriers.

The Microsoft Surface and Xbox supply chain teams engaged with C.H. Robinson to develop a real-time IoT tracking solution. The goal was to acquire real-time visibility into the status of Surface and Xbox shipments. Visibility was especially critical around holidays or during new product launches.

C.H. Robinson, a global technology and logistics management provider, used its visibility product Navisphere® Vision to design a transformative solution that could be deployed globally. Working with Microsoft, C.H. Robinson leveraged Azure IoT Central. The goal was to track and monitor shipments’ ambient conditions for shock, light, and temperature to identify any damage in real-time, anywhere in the world—at a scale covering millions of products.

The initial results were impactful. Live visibility into shipments—across countries, multiple modes of transportation, and multiple carriers—gave the Xbox and Surface staff a new level of confidence. C.H. Robinson has since expanded its solution for other customers.

“Gaming consoles, produce, and medical supplies all have very different handling requirements,” explained Chris Cutshaw, Director of Commercial & Product Strategy, C.H. Robinson. “We’ve worked with Microsoft and Intel to add IoT monitoring to our Navisphere Vision solution so clients can customize sensor measurement thresholds for each type of shipment. They can receive alerts if thresholds are reached so they can mitigate damage or delays.”

Summary

We have seen how the ROI of implementing IoT tracking within retail supply chains rises dramatically when shipments contain high-value items, require cold chains, or must be delivered on time. E & J Gallo Winery gained new visibility into its merchandising program’s execution enabling it to assess the ROI on its sales program. A large global retail chain saved $18 million in food losses annually by implementing a new IoT tracking system in its refrigeration units. Microsoft business units gained new confidence in shipment safety and schedules of high-value products during holidays and new product launches.

Learn more about using Azure IoT in logistics and delivering intelligent supply chains.

The post How IoT tracking in retail supply chains drives ROI appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Learn how Microsoft enables intelligent retail.

Ensuring products are available on shelves

When a customer invests time and energy to make a trip to a physical store, the retailer needs to ensure products are available on shelves. A national pharmacy leader looked to AI at the edge to address its shelf stockouts.

The pharmacy leader selected a solution from Neal Analytics called StockView. The solution relies on high-definition video streams from IP cameras pointing at pharmacy shelves. These video streams are fed to Azure Stack Edge devices in the store running a customized vision AI model. The AI models process the high-definition video in near-real-time to detect empty sections of shelves. When a stockout is detected, employees are notified. Stock View also analyzes stockout trends to help improve inventory planning across stores.

Greg Gomez, VP of Business Development, Neal Analytics stated, “By implementing computer vision AI on the Azure Stack Edge, we’re able to provide the customer with a cost-effective stockout detection solution that scales to thousands of stores without the need for costly upgrades to store shelves or hardware infrastructure.”

Reducing in-store equipment costs

Machine learning, a subset of AI, can be used to build predictive maintenance programs for retail equipment. Predictive maintenance increases efficiency while reducing expenses.

The South African Breweries (SAB (Pty) Limited), a subsidiary of AB InBev, applied an innovative IoT solution from Microsoft Strategic Partner, Consumption Information Real Time (CIRT) to monitor the location and health of its fleet of over 100,000 coolers deployed in restaurants, bars, and taverns throughout South Africa in 2020. Connecting each cooler to the Azure cloud could improve tracking and enabled SAB to reduce the number of coolers lost each year—typically up to 10 percent of total inventory.

In addition to a location sensor, the CIRT Fridgeloc^© Connected Cooler solution built with Azure IoT Central included temperature sensors—on both the inside of the cooler and on the cooler motor.  The temperature data gave SAB valuable insights to improve business outcomes. CIRT and SAB can correlate temperature data on the inside of the cooler and on the motor in terms of thermal dynamic data analyzed in Azure. Machine learning algorithms could be applied to predict when AB InBev should send a technician to repair a cooler.

Using these algorithms to drive maintenance can help SAB avoid periods of downtime while supporting efforts to minimize energy consumption when technicians traveled. This proactive approach decreases downtime, increases sales since no one wanted to drink warm beer, and eliminated the emergency call-out and high associated costs.

Ajay Lalu co-founder of CIRT said, “The ability to know when a cooler is behaving abnormally can save millions annually in single call out fees, creates a better customer experience as the bar owner does not even have to log a call thereby reducing frustrations, and increasing sales as the cooler is always operating optimally. This has an impact on C02 emissions the motor is working optimally using less electricity and fewer miles for call-outs.  When a technician is in the area s/he can service other coolers proactively.”

Creating unique in-store experiences

Retailers are applying AI in-store to create unique experiences. These experiences turn the physical store into a destination and give customers a reason to come back after the COVID-19 pandemic. In her HBR article, “What will the future of retail look like?” Kate Machtiger comments, “The biggest room for innovation lies in experiential escapes.”² Technology now provides the ability for in-store devices to see, hear, speak, search, understand, and accelerate decision-making enabling a wealth of experiential use cases.

Since 2018, H&M has successfully applied AI to create a memorable and compelling experience in its flagship store in New York City with an interactive mirror. The H&M Voice Interactive Mirror was built through a collaboration with the Ombori Group and ITAB leveraging Azure Cognitive Services. Visitors to the store control the mirror with their voices. The mirror speaks to visitors and provides a “fashion inspirations” showcase. The mirror also offers “selfie” feature. Visitors create a picture in the style of a magazine cover which they downloaded to their mobile device to share on social media via a QR code.

The interactive experience has been a win for H&M. Most visitors interacting with the mirror share their experiences on social media. This connects them with H&M for further engagement.

Andreas Hassellof, CEO, Ombori Group commented, “Experiential retail leveraging AI is key to bringing customers back to the store. Adding a fun surprise to the store visit as H&M has done makes it memorable.”

Summary

We’ve seen three examples of how retailers are using AI at the edge to innovate in-store operations: minimizing stockouts with vision detection, reducing equipment costs through predictive maintenance, and creating unique experiences to engage customers in physical stores. Technologies like Azure Stack Edge, Azure Cognitive Services, and Azure IoT Central are enabling retailers to increase customer engagement and satisfaction while decreasing costs.

Learn more about how Microsoft enables intelligent retail.

Download the Microsoft 2021 Retail Playbook.

Download the IoT Signals Report and read the retail research.

Check out the IoT retail demos on GitHub.

References:

¹ Gartner Predicts At Least Two Top Global Retailers Will Establish Robot Resource Organizations to Manage Nonhuman Workers By 2025

² What Will the Retail Experience of the Future Look Like?

The post 3 ways retailers are using AI to innovate in-store operations appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Digital twin technology enables retailers to model their supply chains as connected environments. Retailers can model assets, warehouses, logistics and material flows, inventory positions, people, and processes. Real-time sensor and equipment data, as well as ERP and other business system data, feed the model to create a live execution environment.

Retailers can use the digital twin to simulate a supply chain’s performance and identify where optimization is possible. Real-time visibility provided by digital twins enables retailers to implement new non-linear supply chain fulfillment models like curbside pick-up or micro-fulfillment. The digital twin also creates an umbrella across siloed data enabling critical information to be available throughout the supply chain. Early retail implementers of digital twins have seen CAPEX reductions of up to 10 percent, sustainable inventory reductions of up to 5 percent, and EBITDA improvements of one to three percentage points according to Boston Consulting Group. ²

To gain additional insight, I met with digital twin experts Andy Pratt, CEO, The Marsden Group, Rasmus Hyltegård, AI & IoT Retail industry lead in Avanade’s Global Azure Center of Excellence, and Aaron Reich, Global Emerging Technology Lead, Avanade.

Learn more about Azure Digital Twins and intelligent retail supply chains.

Tony Shakib, Partner General Manager, Microsoft: Digital twins is a powerful tool that can be used throughout retail—both in the supply chain and in-store.  From your point of view, how does digital twin technology uncover insights in the supply chain beyond what retailers currently have with control towers or predictive insights generated by planning models?

Andy Pratt, CEO, The Marsden Group: Predictive insights and control towers are great for understanding a specific process or piece of equipment. However, optimizing one aspect of the process well can make no meaningful gain overall as individual elements of the system can negatively impact others if changed. Some improvement can be achieved, and downsides partly avoided with good use of advanced planning models but not full optimization.

Imagine trying to play a board game wearing a blindfold that you can only remove to glance at the board every five minutes. This gives a snapshot in time, which is helpful, but due to the fast-paced nature of the game you must decide about your next move without taking your blindfold off, only referring to the previous data snapshot—but you know that the game has likely moved on!

Digital twins offer the ability to connect and optimize the entire process taking real-time data from control towers or other prediction tools and generating insight to create opportunities that have the greatest optimization benefits. The twin adapts to the dynamically changing live situation versus relying on historic snapshots of data from days, weeks, or even months ago.

Rasmus Hyltegård, AI & IoT Retail industry lead in Avanade’s Global Azure Center of Excellence: Avanade defines a digital twin as a way to take live and historical data interactions and fuse these with machine learning to create digital representations of the physical world across objects, spaces and eventually people. Control towers have been used for many years across supply chains to bring together multiple data sets

Digital Twins and simulations are a state-of-the-art business tool that enables the CxO suite to plan, optimize and model retail business scenarios in advance. For example, a retailer can use digital twins to track whether parts have received FCC, CE, or UK certification; and how those parts form a whole product enabling retailers to conform to rules of origin requirements.

Tony:  How would a digital twin help a retailer navigate the kind of disruptions they have seen with COVID-19 including variability of demand, uncertainty, and volatility of supply?

Andy: The ability to quickly adapt to emerging supply chain shocks, such as COVID-19, can be achieved via the implementation of a full end-to-end digital twin for an organization’s supply chain. This enables the creation of multiple simulation scenarios in a virtual digital world before implementing an informed and robust decision, at pace, in the real world. The digital twin can generate and support many thousands more scenarios than a manual or simple computerized process.

Identifying bottlenecks, supply shortages, and demand curves in seconds create a huge advantage. Empowering the organization with the confidence and evidence needed to make fast and effective decisions creates agility in the supply chain. Stability is maintained and performance is enhanced regardless of the challenging circumstances being faced.

Aaron: Many times retailers navigate disruptions by looking at their own data, but they don’t have the ability to integrate other external real-time data into their models. It’s important for retailers today to be able to monitor and respond to any kind of event that may disrupt their supply chain. For example, retailers could use digital twin simulations that bring in live data from local traffic and weather data, combined with inventory and warehouse management, plus employee and local store constraints to optimize logistics costs.

With the pandemic and the increase in online shopping, retailers have had to accelerate their response for on-time delivery and to enable buying online and picking up in-store. Using digital twins, you can have a better understanding of where local supply chain challenges exist across your entire store footprint.

Tony:  What are some best practices for getting started with digital twins?

Andy: Although the current version of digital twins is still relatively new, in the fast-paced, ultra-competitive world it is important to learn from those who have already implemented this approach at a global enterprise level. There are some practical considerations that can set a project up for success.  Availability and configuration of data make a considerable difference when starting out on a digital journey—easily available, organized, and correctly tagged data is a fundamental pre-requisite. This can come from pre-existing systems or be generated via simulation or inferred approaches. Without this, the time taken for a business to realize high value from any digital twin is dramatically increased.

An additional best practice is to choose proof-of-concept locations where the teams are engaged, excited, and eager to embrace change. Without buy-in from the operational teams, we have seen projects stopped in their tracks.

Aaron: The first step in working with digital twins is to ensure you’ve got a clear definition of the problem you are trying to solve and the business outcomes it will create. Part of that is ensuring alignment on how you define digital twin to replicate something in the physical world and why you would use a digital twin to do that.

We’re talking with clients today about how digital twins in some instances are better than simply an application or a database because they more accurately represent the interaction. We worked with a retailer that took video feeds of the products on its shelves to create a real-time planogram to correct price and product placement. This makes it more real than say a flat database table or analytics report and can reduce the cost of root-cause analysis or make it easier to address new business challenges.

Tony: What type of business problem suits a digital twin solution?

Andy: In spite of the potential upside, digital twins are not a magic bullet to solve all business issues. Identifying the correct business problem at the outset is critical before embarking on a digital twin. Our criteria for a great digital twin problem include:

• High volumes of data availability
• Complex decision process with multiple varied outcomes
• High value for the business if even small adjustments are made
• Scalable and repeatable across multiple locations, once proven

It is not strictly necessary to meet all these criteria before starting to explore a digital twin use case. But in our experience, these provide a pretty good rule of thumb.

Tony: We’ve talked about supply chain; for what other parts of the business should retailers be thinking about digital twin?

Rasmus: One of the current emerging areas for digital twins is the modeling of physical spaces. Any retailer that has a physical presence should consider how they turn their store into an interactive 3D digital model that includes the ability to see not just their planogram, but to simulate customer traffic patterns; and how those customers interact with the realogram. For example, we’re currently working with a grocery retailer to improve its in-store experiences, which includes reviewing its in-stock/out-of-stock situation, which parts of its store attract the most customers, and whether those customers are converting.

Next steps

Thanks to Andy Pratt from The Marsden Group and Rasmus Hyltegård and Aaron Reich from Avanade for sharing valuable insights on how digital twin technology is revolutionizing retail supply chains.

Learn more about Azure Digital Twins and intelligent retail supply chains.

¹ 5 New Retail Supply Chain Trends Caused by COVID-19 Disruption, Advanced Supply Chain Group

² Conquering Complexity in Supply Chains with Digital Twins,” Boston Consulting Group

The post Revolutionizing the retail supply chain with digital twins appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

After the last twelve tumultuous months, what will 2021 bring for the retail industry? I spoke with Microsoft Azure IoT partners to understand how they are planning for 2021 and compiled insights about five retail trends. One theme we’re seeing is a focus on efficiency. Retailers will look to pre-configured digital platforms that leverage cloud-based technologies including the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and edge computing to meet their business goals. 

Learn how Microsoft enables intelligent retail. 

Empowering frontline workers with real-time data

In 2021, retailers will increase efficiency by empowering frontline workers with real-time data. Retail employees will be able to respond more quickly to customers and expand their roles to manage curbside pickups, returns, and frictionless kiosks.  

In H&M Mitte Garten in Berlin, H&M empowered employee ambassadors with fashionable bracelets connected to the Azure cloud. Ambassadors were able to receive real-time requests via their bracelets when customers needed help in fitting rooms or at a cash desk. The ambassadors also received visual merchandising instructions and promotional updates. 

Through the app built on Microsoft partner Turnpike’s wearable SaaS platform leveraging Azure IoT Hub, these frontline workers could also communicate with their peers or their management team during or after store hours. With the real-time data from the connected bracelets, H&M ambassadors were empowered to delivered best-in-class service.   

Carl Norberg, Founder, Turnpike explained, “We realized that by connecting store IoT sensors, POS systems, and AI cameras, store staff can be empowered to interact at the right place at the right time.” 

Leveraging live stream video to innovate omnichannel

Livestreaming has been exploding in China as influencers sell through their social media channels. Forbes recently projected that nearly 40 percent of China’s population will have viewed livestreams during 2020.² Retailers in the West are starting to leverage live stream technology to create innovative omnichannel solutions.  

For example, Kjell & Company, one of Scandinavia’s leading consumer electronics retailers, is using a solution from Bambuser and Ombori called Omni-queue built on top of the Ombori Grid. Omni-queue enables store employees to handle a seamless combination of physical and online visitors within the same queue using one-to-one live stream video for online visitors.  

Kjell & Company ensures e-commerce customers receive the same level of technical expertise and personalized service they would receive in one of their physical locations. Omni-queue also enables its store employees to be utilized highly efficiently with advanced routing and knowledge matching. 

Maryam Ghahremani, CEO of Bambuser explains, “Live video shopping is the future, and we are so excited to see how Kjell & Company has found a use for our one-to-one solution.” Martin Knutson, CTO of Kjell & Company added “With physical store locations heavily affected due to the pandemic, offering a new and innovative way for customers to ask questions—especially about electronics—will be key to Kjell’s continued success in moving customers online.” 

Augmenting omnichannel with dark stores and micro-fulfillment centers  

In 2021, retailers will continue experimenting with dark stores—traditional retail stores that have been converted to local fulfillment centers—and micro-fulfillment centers. These supply chain innovations will increase efficiency by bringing products closer to customers. 

Microsoft partner Attabotics, a 3D robotics supply chain company, works with an American luxury department store retailer to reduce costs and delivery time using a micro-fulfillment center. Attabotics’ unique use of both horizontal and vertical space reduces warehouse needs by 85 percent. Attabotics’ structure and robotic shuttles leveraged Microsoft Azure Edge Zones, Azure IoT Central, and Azure Sphere.

The luxury retailer leverages the micro-fulfillment center to package and ship multiple beauty products together. As a result, customers experience faster delivery times. The retailer also reduces costs related to packaging, delivery, and warehouse space.  

Scott Gravelle, Founder, CEO, and CTO of Attabotics explained, “Commerce is at a crossroads, and for retailers and brands to thrive, they need to adapt and take advantage of new technologies to effectively meet consumers’ growing demands. Supply chains have not traditionally been set up for e-commerce. We will see supply chain innovations in automation and modulation take off in 2021 as they bring a wider variety of products closer to the consumer and streamline the picking and shipping to support e-commerce.” 

Helping keep warehouse workers safe

What will this look like? Cognizant’s recent work with an athletic apparel retailer offers a blueprint. During the peak holiday season, the retailer needed to protect its expanding warehouse workforce while minimizing absenteeism. To implement physical distancing and other safety measures, the retailer  leveraged Cognizant’s Safe Buildings solution built with Azure IoT Edge and IoT Hub services.   

With this solution, employees maintain physical distancing using smart wristbands. When two smart wristbands were within a pre-defined distance of each other for more than a pre-defined time, the worker’s bands buzzed to reinforce safe behaviors. The results drove nearly 98 percent distancing compliance in the initial pilot. As the retailer plans to scale-up its workforce at other locations, implementing additional safety modules are being considered:   

• Touchless temperature checks.  
• Occupancy sensors communicate capacity information to the management team for compliance records.  
• Air quality sensors provide environmental data so the facility team could help ensure optimal conditions for workers’ health.  

“For organizations to thrive during and post-pandemic, enterprise-grade workplace safety cannot be compromised. Real-time visibility of threats is providing essential businesses an edge in minimizing risks proactively while building employee trust and empowering productivity in a safer workplace,” Rajiv Mukherjee, Cognizant’s IoT Practice Director for Retail and Consumer Goods.  

Optimizing inventory management with real-time edge data

In 2021, retailers will ramp up the adoption of intelligent edge solutions to optimize inventory management with real-time data. Most retailers have complex inventory management systems. However, no matter how good the systems are, there can still be data gaps due to grocery pick-up services, theft, and sweethearting. The key to addressing these gaps is to combine real-time data from applications running on edge cameras and other edge devices in the physical store with backend enterprise resource planning (ERP) data.  

Seattle Goodwill worked with Avanade to implement a new Microsoft-based Dynamics platform across its 24 stores. The new system provided almost real-time visibility into the movement of goods from the warehouses to the stores. 

Rasmus Hyltegård, Director of Advanced Analytics at Avanade explained, “To ensure inventory moves quickly off the shelves, retailers can combine real-time inventory insights from Avanade’s smart inventory accelerator with other solutions across the customer journey to meet customer expectations.” Hyltegård continued, “Customers can check online to find the products they want, find the stores with product in stock, and gain insight into which stores have the shortest queues, which is important during the pandemic and beyond. Once a customer is in the store, digital signage allows for endless aisle support.” 

Summary

The new year 2021 holds a wealth of opportunities for retailers. We foresee retail leaders reimagining their businesses by investing in platforms that integrate IoT, AI, and edge computing technologies. Retailers will focus on increasing efficiencies to reduce costs. Modular platforms supported by an ecosystem of strong partner solutions will empower frontline workers with data, augment omnichannel fulfillment with dark stores and micro-fulfillment, leverage livestream video to enhance omnichannel, prioritize warehouse worker safety, and optimize inventory management with real-time data. 

Learn how Microsoft enables intelligent retail. 

Download the Avanade Microsoft white paper, Now is the moment to reimagine the store experience. 

Download the Microsoft 2021 Retail Playbook. 

Download the IoT Signals Report and read the retail research. 

¹US Ecommerce Growth Jumps to More than 30%, Accelerating Online Shopping Shift by Nearly 2 Years, Inside Intelligence eMarketer, October 2020. 

²Live Streaming E-Commerce Is The Rage In China. Is The U.S. Next? (forbes.com) 

The post 5 IoT retail trends for 2021 appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Are you one of the tens of thousands of chief information officers (CIOs), IT leaders and partners attending Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo in the coming months?

As an eight-year veteran of the event, I can say Symposium represents an excellent learning opportunity. The analysts share their latest perspectives on vital technology and then take it to the next level with a bit of shock and awe on their predictions of disruptive trends.  I am thrilled Gartner has chosen “Leading the Digital Society” as the theme for Symposium this year. This theme reflects a desire, and a need for guidance as companies adopt new technologies like AI, and data analytics, and extend their ecosystems.

This year Microsoft returns to Symposium because we are committed to your success.  We believe innovation is more powerful when done together. We want to learn with you and work alongside you — our customers and partners — to help you build digital capabilities, create new businesses, and innovate with AI, cloud, and people-centered experiences.

Our global Symposium strategy

We’re sponsoring Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo in North America (Orlando, Oct. 20-24), the Gold Coast (Australia, Oct. 28-31), EMEA (Barcelona, Spain, Nov. 4-6), and Goa (India, Nov. 11-14). When you stop by our booth and attend our speaking sessions, here are some highlights you’ll see from us:

• Learn how Microsoft 365, the productivity cloud that smartly connects people and information, can make your people, teams, and organizations more productive. You’ll hear how one of the world’s largest chemical producers, BASF, is using Microsoft 365 to enable collaboration among 122,000 employees dispersed across every time zone.
• We’ll share how you can enable your customers and employees through connected, data-driven, and intelligent processes using Microsoft Dynamics and Power Platform. The Power Platform built on Azure AI, allows business users to uncover insights and develop AI applications and workflows through a low-code, point-and-click experience.  Customers such as Virgin Atlantic use Power Platform to enable business users to build AI solutions.
• Learn best practices on cloud migration and intelligent edge devices. Microsoft works alongside customers to reimagine complex processes and turn IoT data into actionable insights. You’ll hear how we partnered with Buhler Group, a global market leader in die-casting technology, to capitalize on the power of Azure IoT Hub so it could help its customers minimize downtime, increase efficiency, and improve sustainability.
• Engage with Microsoft industry solutions specialists and digital architects for government, financial services, healthcare, and manufacturing. For those in manufacturing, we know that Industry 4.0 has elevated all of us to new levels of transformation in every area of the core value chain, from R&D to factories to the end-to-end supply chain.  We’ll share how manufacturers are leveraging AI, mixed reality and the cloud to put people at the center of their technology experiences to optimize operations, enhance productivity and empower new business outcomes.

We look forward to seeing you and working with you to make your time at Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo more valuable. Visit our website to find out more about Microsoft at Gartner Symposium 2019, and stay informed about conference updates.

The post Microsoft at Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo: Innovation is more powerful with you appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

The power and allure of AI is undeniable. Tapping into that power means understanding the challenges ahead, your organization’s readiness to meet those challenges, and its maturity on the AI continuum. This article shows how your organization can prepare to deploy AI and lock into its benefits.

Can’t wait to see where you organization falls on the readiness spectrum? Go ahead and get started with the personalized assessment now.

Understand your AI maturity

Organizations fall in to four readiness categories, beginning with Foundational (initial investigation), to Approaching (beginning digital transformation), followed by Aspirational (experimenting with the technology), and Mature (full readiness).

Understanding where your organization is in their AI journey will help set the stage for your AI strategy. For recommendations specific to your organization, complete the AI Maturity Assessment.   

Lay a foundation with ethical practices

The ethical aspects of AI should precede deployment strategy. The unprecedented potential of this technology comes with concerns about its fair and nondiscriminatory uses, usability, accountability, and governance. Ethical practices and standards lay the foundation for AI transformation.

Find the AI capabilities that are right for you

AI comprises a range of capabilities. First-tier AI conveys the impression of a human interaction—think facial recognition and tagging on social media, or apps that understand human language. Advanced, or “Strong AI,” combines multiple basic AI capabilities that can perceive and reason like human minds.

Digitize and automate your data

The first phase in unlocking the benefits of AI is a three-step digital transformation. It begins with digitization—transferring the organization’s intellectual assets to a digitized form AI can interpret. This is followed by a digitalization milestone, achieved when the digitized data automates AI system processes. In the third phase, full digital transformation, the organization has moved from automated processes to an ongoing program of developing and refining business models based on the evolving data.

Build your AI strategy

Regardless of the extent of investment or capabilities, any organization will benefit from focusing on the four areas below to build its AI strategy.

Strategy

Starting with ethical considerations, balance whether AI can be used in a given situation against whether it should be used. The most effective strategy centers not on AI itself, but on how to use it to create apps and experiences that are fast, smart, and helpful.

Culture

Support an experimental mindset that encourages employees to learn from failure and use historical, predictive, and prescriptive analytics to continually shape strategy.

Organizational Structure

Make lifelong learning the guiding principle for recruiting, nurturing, and retaining talent. You want people who adapt quickly and innovate. Foster collaboration, keeping teams focused on infusing AI into the full range of possibilities, from everyday processes to customer experience.

Capabilities

Ensure that your organization has the technical ability to curate data and ensure that it is optimized for access by AI technology. Avoid “dark data,” extracting and storing data so that AI can use it to train itself to constantly improve processes. With rapid, iterative sprints to push AI evolution in your organization, you stay ahead of the curve.

Although an organization at any level of maturity can deploy an AI-based system, understanding your organization’s readiness and choosing appropriate AI technology to support your overall strategy is key to success.

For recommendations specific to your organization, complete the AI Maturity Assessment.

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AI presents incredible opportunities for organizations to change the way they do business. With 1,000 researchers—including winners of the Turing Award and Fields Medal—in 11 labs, Microsoft has established itself as a leader in AI through its dogged focus on innovation, empowerment, and ethics. Now, the groundbreaking capabilities of AI can move beyond the lab to make a positive impact on every enterprise, every industry.

Industry leaders are already using AI

Manufacturers have accrued vast stores of data through digital technologies and IoT—offering new windows into operational efficiency and business performance. Culling that data for actionable insights on predictive maintenance and performance improvements has become increasingly essential for an industry that operates on thin margins. As a result, manufacturers like Jabil have adopted data-driven cultures, working closely with Microsoft to push advancements in production. By connecting an electronics production line to the cloud, Jabil can anticipate and correct nearly every error in the process before it becomes a costly mistake.

Retailers use AI to meet rising customer expectations for more personalized services. For a company like ASOS with more than 80,000 products, personalization really matters. The online fashion retailer launched an app with a built-in recommendation engine to match the right products with the right consumers. On the Black Friday after the platform’s launch, ASOS more than doubled its orders from the previous year. AI also empowers retailers to more precisely predict and meet customer demands and make more informed stocking decisions.

In the public sector, governments leverage AI capabilities to help control costs, protect sensitive information, and connect with their citizens. Access to quality digital services increases citizen trust in government, and public organizations have found innovative ways to meet this rising demand. The City of Los Angeles worked with Microsoft to create digital personal assistants that help residents more easily navigate government resources, freeing up employees to focus on higher-value activities. AI tools make it possible for cities like LA to connect with their citizens more effectively.

In fact, AI technology brings a world of possibilities to life for a broad range of industries, from government to retail, manufacturing to healthcare. AI delivers more services for less and that’s powerful.

An investment in the future

As Microsoft continues to research AI and incorporate its capabilities into the technologies of everyday life, it also remains committed to an ethical future. Microsoft has identified six principles—fairness, reliability and safety, privacy and security, inclusivity, transparency, and accountability—to guide the development and use of artificial intelligence so technology reflects the diversity of those who use it.

We see AI as a defining technology that every industry, every enterprise can use on the path to transformation. With the right guiding principles, intelligent technology has the potential not only to change businesses for the better, but society as well. Because, in the end, it’s less about what AI can do than what people can do with AI .

Learn how AI can transform the way you do business through our AI Business School.

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Submission Deadline:  Friday, January 18, 2019, 5 p.m. PST 

Awards presented during the Microsoft Health Forum at HIMSS, Orlando, Wednesday February 13th, 2019

For your convenience a working document is available for use, here.  Please note, all entries must be submitted online.

Healthcare, Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology, and Clinical Resource organizations are uniquely positioned to improve the quality and delivery of healthcare through evidence‐based medical innovations, sound life science research, and smart technology solutions.  Microsoft in Healthcare recognizes health organizations that drive towards Quadruple AIM and lead/empower their organizations with Intelligent Health to:

• Engage your patients for better health
• Empower your care teams & employees to improve satisfaction
• Improve clinical & operational effectiveness to reduce cost and improve outcomes
• Transform health to deliver precision care

The Microsoft Health Innovation Awards, presented annually, is an opportunity to showcase how your company is using technology to demonstrate industry leadership in innovation excellence to revolutionize medicine by bringing therapeutic breakthroughs to the market faster, to fight serious ailments, improve healthcare and enhance quality of life.

Who should enter?

The award committee will accept nominations from a qualifying healthcare, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, clinical resource, payor, provider, or medical device organization worldwide, which has developed and implemented a solution independently or working with a technology solution partner, as long as the solution is in full implementation within an organization for at least 30 days and is based on the latest Microsoft technologies. The award emphasizes the innovative application of available software and the creation of new solutions.

Why should you enter?

• Winners will be featured in promotional and marketing activities, such as the Microsoft in Health newsletter and blog, as well as possible media interviews.
• Winners will receive a “Winner” trophy.
• Winners will receive a marketing document on how to publicize the fact that the organization is a winner including a winner logo.

How do we pick the winner?

An independent panel of Judges will pick one winner from the qualified submissions received in each of the categories below. The solution (or combination of solutions) can be offered by any qualifying company worldwide as long as it is based on the latest Microsoft technologies; represents a breakthrough from the industry & historical approaches; and goes beyond incremental improvements on technologies that already exist.

(Please read 2019 Microsoft Health Innovation Awards Contest – Official Rules download document for complete details).

Categories for Entry (you must select the category that best fits your solution):

1. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Connect data to analytics and machine learning algorithms so it can help predict patient health trajectories, monitor population wellness, pull insights from research, and identify concrete ways to improve day-to-day operations.

Scenario examples include:

• Artificial Intelligence
• Machine Learning

2. Empower Your Care Teams and Employees

Tools that help care teams be more productive and collaborate more effectively. 

Scenario examples include:

• Virtual care
• Care team collaboration
• Care coordination
• Employee engagement and retention
• Clinical analytics

3. Engage Your Patients

Enable more efficient access to care, reduce delays in the care experience, and maintain contact with patients once they leave the care setting. 

Scenario examples include:

• More efficient access
• Enhanced engagement
• Continuous engagement

4. Optimize Your Clinical and Operational Effectiveness

Convert data about patient and populations into intelligent action that prevents emergencies and promotes wellness.

Scenario examples include:

• Quality improvement
• Population health
• Operational and financial efficiency

5. Transform the Care Continuum

Connect smart devices to the Microsoft Cloud to gain valuable insights into how to treat patients and manage operations.

Scenario examples include:

• Remote patient monitoring
• Precision medicine
• Managing devices and facilities

6. Outstanding Innovation

Use this category if your solution does not fit into the categories above, or fits into one of the scenarios below  

• Industry Disruption
• Security

Entries will be judged primarily on the following three criteria:

1. 1. 1. The innovation represents a breakthrough from the industry’s historical approaches.
      2. The innovation goes beyond incremental improvements on technologies that already exist.
      3. The innovation measurably improves significant business and/or clinical processes that positively impact patient care.

The entry period ends on Friday, January 18^th, at 5:00 PM Pacific Time. No entries will be accepted after the entry period closes.

For your convenience a working document is available for use, here.  Please note, your final entry will need to be submitted online.

The Participant Release Form must be signed by BOTH partner (if applicable) AND customer, then uploaded to the online submission form, or emailed to Monika_TCS@msn.com at time of entry or no later than January 18^th, 5:00 PM PST.

Documents & downloads

1. 1. • Microsoft Health Innovation Awards Working Document – Entry Form 2019
      • Microsoft Health Innovation Awards Participant Release Form 2019
      • Microsoft Health Innovation Awards Official Rules 2019
      • Meet the Judges: Learn more about the panel of experts who will determine the award winners – <coming soon>
      • Meet the 2018 and 2017 Microsoft Health Innovation Award winners

For more information

For more information, please contact Monika Skibeness at:

1. 1. • Email: Monika_TCS@msn.com
      • Phone: 425-870-4880

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open to authorized representatives of healthcare organization OR a Microsoft Technology Solution Partner (ISV or System Integrator) who is 18 years of age or older. Residents of Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria are not eligible. See Official Rules for complete details.

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Every day, the gap between now and the future seems shorter than ever before, with new technology and automation that bypass anything we envisioned even a decade ago. Artificial intelligence (AI) is the buzzword of the day, and while it sounds futuristic, AI is here now. It’s getting cheaper and more accessible to businesses of all sizes every day. What’s more: it’s rapidly being deployed all over the world. You can’t afford to wait.

Let’s talk about why AI may be for you, and how much easier it is to adopt than you might have thought.

A quick dive into AI

Buying AI is a little like buying air—you can’t see or touch it. But for many businesses today, it’s just as essential as oxygen. AI is an abstract technology: a set of cognitive abilities built into software or machines. It can parse text, images, video, and voice to find information, learn, and form deductions. With continuous input about customer interactions, for example, AI systems learn from data, building on history to continually improve the quality of answers to business questions.

A manufacturer wants to better predict when a machine might break, while a financial service needs to know when and how to intensify fraud detection. AI provides those insights—and because it digests and refines its understanding of patterns over time, those answers continually improve.

If AI can mean this much to your customers…

AI brings a new level of personalized online experiences to customers. Facial recognition and actionable information from images accessed by apps can be used to make interactions more relevant, natural, and satisfying.

With AI, your company can be more available to customers. Chatbots offer the 24/7 availability. They can handle low-level issues, providing answers in the time and place customers prefer. In fact, by 2025, it is estimated that bots will handle 95 percent of customers interactions.

…think what it can mean to you

With AI tackling more predictable, mundane tasks, your employees are freed to focus on strategic goals and dive deeply into creative solutions. AI doesn’t take over from your employees. Its precision and predictive capabilities merge with the human abilities of your team—creativity, insight, empathy, and much more—to fast track your goals. With apps that learn from the data they gather, you’ll save money on more precisely targeted preventative maintenance.

The insights gleaned from AI solutions provide an ever-richer context for building on past successes, improving products, and showing when a change in direction can optimize profit.

Your business powered by AI

The convergence of breakthroughs in AI technology and cloud computing power means that putting powerful AI technology directly in the hands of business owners is affordable—and easier than ever before. AI is becoming ubiquitous to businesses of all kinds and sizes. The transformative power of AI is here, and it can take your business to a new level. Don’t wait.

See how you can transform your business with our AI Business Basics interactive guide today.

The post What you need to know to start your AI journey appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a revolutionary technology. A new insights series with Forbes Insights details the most relevant challenges you face when building your AI strategy and highlights groundbreaking examples of AI in action today. In case you missed it, check out the key takeaways below.

Surveying the world of AI

We ask Cortona or Siri for the weather forecast or to announce our next calendar event. The answer is simple, human-sounding. In an instant, we’ve digested and acted on the information. But behind that simple human-machine interaction is a complex web of technology that digests enormous amounts of data, using state of the art algorithms to analyze those raw numbers and transform them into deep learning. AI surpasses technology we’re used to: chatbots and sophisticated search engines. It is democratizing many high-input tasks by providing the machine learning necessary to presenting a personalized service. Human-centered technology is making it all possible for businesses to truly empower their employees with intelligent experiences.

Implementing AI can help protect your people

Until now, human workers have had to take on risky and undesirable tasks, from the factory floor to oil rigs and the power grid. Consider the world of the lineman—one of the most unforgiving environments for momentary lapses in concentration. But intelligent sensors incorporated into power lines and drone inspections are reducing the dangers of working on live power lines. The algorithms that help predict problems in advance increase lineman safety and improve customer service. As Forbes describes in this article about the human-AI partnership, we’re just beginning to reap the rewards of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in industries all over the world.

Securing identities and data across key verticals

In a digital world built on trust, shrinking the gap between fast, easy access and security is key to satisfying customer expectations for convenience and safety. Happily, AI systems have advanced to the point where they are taking on mundane tasks and reducing human error while also incorporating cutting edge security technologies. Read this Forbes article on Intelligent Security about how the most privacy-dependent industries, from healthcare to financial services, are using AI technology to unlock access to data in the most time-sensitive situations while also securing customer data.

Taking inspiration from AI innovators

If you can imagine it, you can do it. From Lowe’s use of the Microsoft Cortana Intelligence Suite to help customers design their kitchens to QuarterSpot’s innovation with Azure Machine Learning to refine complex lending algorithms, a new level of ingenuity is possible as outlined in this article about customer-facing AI. The winners are future-oriented companies—and their customers. Read about them here.

Creating your AI Roadmap

Great power demands great preparation. A carefully planned strategy can ensure that customers will be delighted by their AI experience with your company. And because AI is such a potent technology, that strategy necessitates exquisite attention to everything from the persona of the AI interface to an in-depth examination of all data sets connected to customer interactions.

Want to take your organization’s intelligence to the next step? Be sure to read the top six considerations to successful AI planning as you build your plan.

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