Now that we’ve ushered in 2022 and closed the chapter on 2021, I look back highly impressed with the resilience of the automotive, mobility, and transportation industries. Presented with unprecedented global challenges, the industry’s engine never stopped running. Companies across the value chain remained resilient, innovative, and proactive. These brands tracked everything from the ongoing pandemic and the supply chain crisis to the rapid shift to hybrid work, and the impacts of a global semiconductor shortage. In fact, innovation accelerated this year and enabled businesses across the industry to develop disruptive solutions and business models to keep pace and charge ahead.

While challenges remain, the industry’s resolve to accelerate transformation will set the stage for ongoing recovery and sustained growth in 2022. The growth and rewards for efforts the industry made in 2021 were beacons for the opportunities that lie ahead.

Empowering the ecosystem

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every individual and organization on the planet to achieve more. As an integral part of the automotive, mobility, and transportation industry, Microsoft seeks to empower, not compete with, our customers and partners to create something beyond just solutions: an aim to drive true social impact. Indeed, we are all embracing and helping to develop a more sustainable future, encouraging innovative new ways to connect, interact, and engage with people and the world around us.

We witnessed growth and innovation across the ecosystem making mobility safer, more sustainable, and productive which we will explore in the sections below.

Automotive and beyond: expanding the movement of people and goods

Given the momentum in mobility and technological transformation across the movement of both people and goods, Microsoft has expanded its automotive industry team to encompass mobility and transportation.

Travel is beginning to make a comeback. However, experts agree that we will not see pre-pandemic tourism levels for several years to come. Customers in the travel industry are looking to technology providers to address challenges and demands in a post-pandemic world. Partnering with Microsoft, Amadeus has driven innovation in its travel software development cycles, and data capabilities creating closer connections with its customers.

With a focus on sustainable transportation through electric air mobility, we partnered with Vertical Aerospace for efficient fleet management to maximize battery life through AI and big data analytics.

Transforming the workplace

The global pandemic created the need for businesses to embrace a hybrid workforce model. This meant providing efficient collaboration, productivity, and skilling solutions in a secure fashion on a global scale. The Manufacturing Institute claims up to 2.1 million United States manufacturing jobs could go unfilled by 2030 because of a lack of adequate skills¹. The displacement of workers due to the impact of the pandemic has stressed this even further. Our latest Work Trend Index report highlights these trends and the impact on frontline workers.

Despite these challenges, the industry disruption was a lever to advance new, cloud-based transformative technologies to digitally empower their workforce, allowing companies to adopt more resilient, safer, and productive operations in less time. For example, operations equipped with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Remote Assist and Microsoft HoloLens allow employees to quickly learn complex tasks and collaborate from anywhere, addressing both skilling and operational effectiveness.

Mercedes-Benz USA  helped its service technicians more efficiently repair and maintain its models by providing U.S. dealerships with HoloLens 2 headsets, reducing time to resolve problems, and reducing technician travel time. Finally, ZF embraced digital and remote work for 150,000 of its global employees driving massive efficiencies in the process.

Accelerating innovation

By 2030, virtually all new cars will be connected devices, functioning as datacenters on wheels. Current trends in the automotive industry are rapidly increasing the capabilities of connected vehicles. Automakers are gaining in-house data management capabilities through partnerships with cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure which will allow them to offer a wide range of digital car-based and add-on services that will benefit business and consumer.

On this front, we announced how Cruise and General Motors partnered with Microsoft to accelerate the commercialization of self-driving vehicles—a critical milestone for the industry. Bosch also teamed up with Microsoft to develop a software platform to seamlessly connect cars to the cloud. The partnership will simplify and accelerate the development and deployment of vehicle software throughout a car’s lifetime in accordance with automotive quality standards, yet another critical requirement to help drive the global adoption of connected vehicles.

Volkswagen developed a platform for autonomous driving (AD) and advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) driving systems, enhancing the brand’s transformation as a software-driven mobility provider, delivering secure and reliable automated driving solutions to Volkswagen customers.

With accelerated change, we see the benefits and support innovation led through open ecosystems. We are proud to partner with The Eclipse Foundation and several industry leaders to define a working group focused on the software-defined vehicle.

And the shift to electrification

One of the dominant trends playing out this past year was the movement towards electrification. This year we saw initiatives and legislation around the world move towards the phase-out of fossil fuel vehicles. Car manufacturers responded by ramping up investments in technology and innovation to transition to EV fleets. Industry leaders like General Motors announced large-scale goals this year to accelerate production of electric vehicles, and new EV models are coming to the market from the traditional and new auto players.

In support of this transition, our traditional grid infrastructure cannot be overlooked and is critical to supporting this growth. Clever partnered with Microsoft earlier this year to optimize and balance the consumption of energy against the grid more efficiently.

Data-driven resilient operations and monetization opportunities

To successfully execute this innovation strategy, the industry must become more operationally resilient and efficient. Data is enabling a reduction of time-intensive and error-prone manual workflows, improving decision support, and enhancing visibility amongst trading partners throughout the value chain, creating more proactive and resilient operations and supply chains. In addition, data is providing new monetization opportunities enabling differentiated service offerings to customers for improved lifetime value.

With more than 6.5 million packages handled every day, FedEx uses advanced data analytics and machine learning operations (MLops) to reduce manual data processing, improve package handling accuracy, and reduce customer support calls. In similar fashion, Daimler Trucks North America uses Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Insights to predict supply chain issues before they happen allowing them to meet commitments more consistently to dealerships and customers.

As one of the largest suppliers to the industry, we’ve helped ZF create the ZF Cloud, digitalizing all industrial and operational production and business processes. Through the comprehensive set of cloud, AI, IoT, and data technologies, ZF is transforming into a cloud-centric mobility service provider that delivers sustainable, safe, convenient, and affordable mobility solutions to its customers.

In addition to operational and supply chain improvements, data gathered from vehicles also creates new opportunities for driving sales, enhancing product design for newer vehicles, and the monetization of new revenue streams. Wejo is partnering with Microsoft to build its cloud infrastructure to deliver near real-time vehicle data and significantly enhance predictive analytics to provide value-added services for customers.

Using the power of machine learning and AI, Arrival is creating an open data platform to extract insights from vehicle data and edge computing to streamline vehicle-to-cloud data flow. This unified, canonical data standard and transparent data sharing policy will enable insights to improve vehicle designs, advance fleet logistics, and help spur advancements in mobility ecosystems and business models.

Data security and trust

No conversation about data would be complete without addressing security. With the proliferation of data across the industry, an important foundation must be security and trust. With our focus on ecosystem empowerment, we provide industry-leading “Zero Trust” security capabilities for our customers and partners through automated threat protection, robust cloud security, and governance and protection of sensitive data.

Enhancing the customer experience

The pandemic, labor impacts, supply chain, and semiconductor shortages had a profound impact on the industry and the customers it serves. For consumers, lower inventories of new cars made the used car market a prime target, creating new opportunities for dealers to engage with their customers and build long-term customer value.

Working with Annata, Microsoft is enabling a new approach to digital sales and services which enables dealers to provide more personalized customer experiences, building long-term customer loyalty. Tekion is simplifying the traditional dealer and consumer relationship journey with the Automotive Retail Cloud (ARC), utilizing Microsoft’s cloud-native tools to modernize the end-to-end retail journey. Another example is XPENG Motors, who is building on Microsoft’s Neural text-to-speech technology to enhance the in-car customer experience.  

Building a sustainable future

In 2020, Microsoft emphasized its commitment to helping our world work towards a more sustainable future by presenting a plan towards becoming carbon negative by 2030. By 2050, we aim to remove all the carbon dioxide emissions that the company has produced either directly or by energy consumption since the company was founded in 1975.

As we commit to reaching our own sustainability goals, we are also committed to enabling other companies and organizations to reach theirs. In 2021, we announced the Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability to help companies and organizations record, report, and reduce their environmental impact through automated data connections and actionable insights. Etihad is already leveraging the cloud to measure and benchmark its environmental footprint, allowing the brand to implement and assess carbon efficiency savings across its business operations. We will continue to drive relationships with key players like the World Business Council for Sustainable Development to help advance our global sustainability goals for Microsoft and our customers.

A look ahead: 2022 and beyond

Our industry continues to drive innovation rapidly and at scale. We are seeing established players pivot and rise to challenges that create new opportunities for growth. At the same time, new players are disrupting the established ecosystem with innovations that are pushing boundaries and re-writing the playbook. Looking back at 2021, it amazes me to see everything the industry has accomplished in these uncertain times, and I am excited for what we will do together in 2022.

While Microsoft and others had to pivot from in-person engagement at this year’s CES 2022 in Las Vegas due to concerns over COVID-19, we created a digital experience to demonstrate our unique industry capabilities around accelerated innovation, mobility services, customer experiences, and resilient operations.

You can learn more about our digital presence at CES 2022 and the exciting press announcements made in our Microsoft Automotive and Mobility press kit. I also encourage you to learn more about how Microsoft is joining with customers, partners, and the automotive, mobility, and transportation industry to create a culture of collaboration through Microsoft Cloud for Automotive, Mobility, and Transportation.

With ever-exciting times ahead of us, I wish you a safe, healthy, and prosperous New Year!

Sources:

¹2.1 Million Manufacturing Jobs Could Go Unfilled by 2030—National Association of Manufacturers.

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As Microsoft remains committed to reaching its sustainability goals of becoming carbon neutral by 2030, we are also committed to enabling other companies and organizations around the world to reach theirs. In that vein, Microsoft recently announced the Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability—an extensible software-as-a-service solution that helps you record, report, and reduce your organization’s environmental impact through automated data connections and actionable insights. Etihad, for example, is partnering with Microsoft to measure and benchmark their environmental footprint, allowing them to implement and assess carbon efficiency savings across its business operations. For the Automotive, Mobility, and Transportation Industry, the Cloud for Sustainability means innovative technology solutions offering intelligent insights so organizations can focus on reducing their carbon footprint. This can in turn open organizations up to taking their data-driven transformation further, minimizing traffic and accidents, and deliver a seamless passenger experience.

We are also proud to partner with WBCSD to explore innovative solutions for a safe and sustainable future by helping companies and organizations around the globe make a tangible impact on global corporate sustainability. Microsoft participated in a virtual panel hosted by WBCSD during this year’s COP26, discussing challenges currently impeding mobility decarbonization, and supported the release of the Value Framework on Sustainable Charging Infrastructure. The framework will be critical to promote sustainability and financial incentives for companies to connect charging and smart grid technologies across the EV value chain. Microsoft is also actively supporting WBCSD in their latest initiative to forge a data coalition for sustainable urban mobility, goaled with reducing mobility emissions in line with Paris Agreement climate goals, by leveraging mobility digitalization and data sharing to increase transportation efficiencies, reduce costs and accelerate EV adoption.

Standardizing data sharing

As Brad Smith mentioned in his recap of Microsoft at COP26; the world’s path to net-zero depends on reliable and consistent measurement. Open and equitable data sharing is critical in tackling challenges across the automotive and mobility value chain. With that being said, providing the optimal level of access and control is key for transparency, and many businesses are still hesitant to trust providers with their data. It is critical to start feeling comfortable with sharing data to help address inefficiencies in terms of sustainability. Sharing of high-quality, near-time data can create significantly more optimal usage of available energy, and companies can use that to drive efficiencies across the value chain. To meet this challenge and build trust, create openness and instill confidence to share information, organizations need a framework that leverages a multi-tenant architecture scale and protects neutral privacy rights.

Achieving a framework that drives sustainable mobility requires substantial changes in behavior, systems, and policy. Data will enable stakeholders to access real-time information and influence change through pricing, government regulation, and social values encoded in community and individual practices. At Microsoft, we are working with suppliers to implement environmentally responsible practices through the use of Microsoft technologies, such as Azure Data Share and Azure Purview to measure and share sustainability data across operations. Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation’s Truckonnect uses Azure Data Explorer to boost performance, reduce complexity and cost, and ultimately help their customers—and society—be safer and more environmentally friendly.

We are pleased to work with customers like Arrival and ZF to help develop their open data and cloud platforms. Using the power of Azure and machine learning, Arrival is creating an open data platform to extract insights from the data and edge computing for vehicle-to-cloud data flow. Arrival is creating a unified, canonical data standard and transparent data sharing policy that will enable insights to improve vehicle designs, advance fleet logistics, and help spur advancements in mobility ecosystems and business models.

Most recently, we are proud to work with ZF to facilitate the creation of the ZF Cloud, digitalizing all industrial and operational production and business processes on Azure. By leveraging Microsoft’s comprehensive set of cloud, AI, IoT, and data technologies, ZF is transforming into a cloud-centric mobility service provider that delivers sustainable, safe, convenient, and affordable mobility solutions to its customers.

Converting to electric models and smart mobility solutions 

Vehicle electrification is a priority for road transport decarbonization. According to WBCSD, light-duty electric vehicle (EV) sales saw 43 percent growth in 2020 despite a declining automobile market. Technology is playing an integral role in managing growth and new infrastructure. We are seeing a shift in the automotive industry from individual hardware manufacturing to software solutions collaboration. In the development of EVs, this is critical. To enable developers to innovate and create great user experiences and applications, we must work towards a Software-Defined Vehicles future.

Microsoft’s capabilities on Azure present a powerful connectivity platform that can leverage data to deliver on-demand solutions: frictionless commerce, vehicle-to-everything communications, refreshed policymaking, enhanced energy solutions through Vehicle-to-Home, Vehicle-to-Grid, and raised productivity. A great example of this includes General Motors and Cruise, who teamed up with Microsoft earlier this year to leverage Azure to accelerate the commercialization of self-driving vehicles.

Mobility services will be a major catalyst for the development of advanced IoT capabilities that make it possible to securely transmit data in complex environments across edge devices such as vehicles, phones, traffic lights, or charging stations. Cars in development today will play a critical role in an increasingly decentralized smart city ecosystem. Wejo is partnering with Microsoft to build a suite of data and intelligence solutions including traffic and insurance solutions, remote diagnostics, integrated payments, advertising, and logistics.

The Eclipse Foundation recently partnered with Microsoft, Bosch, and other industry leaders to define a working group focused on the Software-Defined Vehicle. The partnership highlights how the industry is taking advantage of the collaboration of the entire ecosystem as the architecture evolves.

Fast build-out of smart and inclusive charging infrastructure

By 2050, two in three people will be living in urban environments, and according to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Sustainable Development Scenario, the world will require more than 200 million charging points by 2030. The rapid development of sustainable and inclusive charging infrastructure currently represents a major gap for most of the actors involved. The smart mobility industry continues to grow at a rapid pace, and to nurture this growth responsibly, it is imperative to closely manage, monitor, and optimize grid stability, energy supply, and charging sessions. Cities will require mobility and energy solutions that are integrated with customer-centric infrastructure and services. Thus, the convergence of energy and mobility is critical.

By working together with partners and customers, we are able to leverage intelligent technology to help balance the power grid and sustain business growth. Clever, for example, is partnering with Microsoft to develop an expansive network of user-centered charging stations along highways and in cities, shopping centers, workplaces, and homes. Clever is not only simplifying EV adoption in Denmark but also optimizing how and when energy is used.

At Microsoft, we are bringing technologies, platforms, and solutions to customers and partners around the world in order to accelerate their own sustainability initiatives. By committing to reducing our own emissions, fostering a common carbon language, developing effective carbon accounting, and helping customers reduce their carbon emissions—we are excited to be working towards creating a greener future.

Learn more about our approach to sustainability at Microsoft.

The post Pave the way for a sustainable future with data and smart mobility solutions appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

As I reflect on our customers’ and partners’ achievements in such trying times, their successes and innovations inspire me. Looking ahead, I’m both optimistic and excited as the industry continues its forward momentum. I’d like to highlight a few recent examples of our collaboration with leaders in the industry.

In January, General Motors and Cruise announced a long-term strategic relationship with Microsoft to bring together their hardware and software engineering expertise, computing power, and partner network to accelerate self-driving vehicles’ commercialization. Also in January, ZF selected Microsoft and PwC to build ZF’s Digital Manufacturing Platform to translate complex technical information into valuable business insights in continuing efforts around Factory 4.0. Smart factories work quickly, reliably, and offer a high degree of adaptability for rapid design changes. These benefits lead to more engaged employees, increased business velocity, and more substantial growth margins.

This month Volkswagen Group’s Car.Software Organisation announced they’re teaming up with Microsoft to build a cloud-based Automated Driving Platform (ADP) on Microsoft Azure. The solution will leverage its compute and data capabilities to deliver automated driving experiences faster and globally. With ADP running on Azure, VW is looking to Microsoft to increase the efficiency of developing advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and automated driving (AD) functions for passenger cars across Volkswagen Group brands. The effort is a continuation of an already flourishing partnership between Volkswagen and Microsoft. VW has worked on the Volkswagen Automotive Cloud since 2018, which will span all of Volkswagen’s future digital services and mobility offerings.

Then, last week, Bosch announced its efforts with Microsoft to develop a software-defined vehicle platform on Azure to connect vehicles to the cloud seamlessly. This collaboration aims to simplify and accelerate vehicle software development and deployment throughout a car’s lifetime following automotive quality standards. The new platform, built on Azure, will incorporate existing software modules from Bosch and enable the software to be developed and downloaded to the control units and vehicle computers. The process will encourage further vehicle innovation and reduce development costs for vehicle software within and across organizations.

As these examples emphasize that 2021 is off to an incredible start. We will continue our efforts to develop leading solutions that support the industry’s evolution. We remain committed to our customers’ successes and helping them build their digital platforms quickly. Together with our partners’ and customers’ efforts, we will make mobility and transportation safer, more fun, productive, and more connected and sustainable for customers and the world.

Looking in the rearview mirror

Looking back, 2020 was a year of challenge, change, and uncertainty for many. However, as the examples above illustrate, it also marked a time of acceleration for the automotive industry that spurred investments in technology and digital transformation. It was also a year of innovation.

In the face of one of the biggest modern global challenges, we focused on our role as an industry partner not just from a technology perspective, but as a trusted business ally. We sought ways to help address customers’ challenges with offerings to help them flourish in ambiguous times. I want to thank our automotive customers for stepping up to support their organizations during COVID-19. Our customers’ strength, grit, resiliency, and fortitude are humbling.

Throughout the year, we focused on five critical pillars to help our customers accelerate their businesses and drive the future of mobility:

1. Accelerated vehicle innovation
2. Differentiated customer experience
3. Resilient operations
4. Increased organizational productivity
5. Emerging mobility services

I’d like to showcase some fantastic examples across these five pillars:

1. Accelerated vehicle innovation

Vehicles are the front-line of the automotive industry. Over the last few decades, the vehicle’s purpose has transformed from a means-of-travel to a datacenter on wheels. And this evolution has been deeply influenced by the role of technology. Today, modern consumers are purchasing vehicles for their digital capabilities, including safety, compliance, and an exceptional mobility experience. To help fulfill these expectations, we partner with the automotive industry to accelerate vehicle innovation, including vehicle connectivity, autonomous development, and more.

Wayve’s partnership with Microsoft is one great example of innovation in the autonomous landscape. We had the opportunity to collaborate with the London-based startup to expand their team and develop a unique autonomous driving platform with Azure and AI. Since our initial work with Wayve when they first joined Microsoft Startups, Wayve has continuously impressed and pushed the industry through one innovation after another. Now, Wayve is working towards a future where autonomous vehicles can operate in any urban environment.

2. Differentiated customer experience

Customers are the cornerstone for our automotive partners. They must deliver an exceptional customer experience that is personalized, omnichannel-driven, and data-intensive.

Mercedes Benz is a masterful example of an organization that has harnessed technology’s power to transform its world-class customer experience. In the middle of COVID-19 challenges, Mercedes leaned in on Microsoft to help keep their employees safe, develop long-term efficiency, and create a higher customer satisfaction level. To support its service technicians more efficiently repair and maintain its models, Mercedes-Benz USA is outfitting all its authorized American dealerships with Microsoft HoloLens 2 headsets. The devices feature Microsoft Dynamics 365 Remote Assist, a mixed reality app that lets users collaborate during hands-free video calls from their computers. The tools enable diagnostic technicians at the dealerships to troubleshoot a problem in real-time by tapping into Mercedes-Benz’s remote technical specialists’ ecosystem with expertise across its various car lines.

3. Resilient operations

To quickly adapt to vehicle innovation and market fluctuation, we support our automotive customers’ needs to create an agile, responsive production process, and Microsoft’s digital and cloud technologies are transforming the future of supply chain operations and manufacturing. With our resilient operations approach, we offer advanced data integration analytics solutions to help customers stay on track with vehicle innovation while generating supply-chain efficiencies, transforming the factory floor into a “factory of the future,” and reducing costs.

As mentioned earlier, ZF tapped Microsoft technologies to make significant headway. Their digital transformation helped optimize their processes, reduce conversion costs, improve inventory, performance, and quality, and make their workforce more efficient.

4. Increased organizational productivity

Pivoting to a COVID-safe environment and navigating a new normal, every organization, regardless of industry, drastically adapted to the pandemic, and automotive organizations were no exception. With our increased organizational productivity strategy, our goal is to fuel and empower our customers’ entire organization left-to-right with collaboration tools, technical training, intelligent platform services, and the processing power of the cloud to create a connected and productive experience for employees.

Volvo Group embarked on a cross-departmental set of strategies to improve the employee experience. The organization deployed Microsoft 365 to lay the foundation for an intelligent digital workplace. It began working with HR and corporate communications to create a cultural change that adheres to Design Around Me’s precepts. The Design Around Me steering committee collects feedback from local offices through a Yammer community in Microsoft Teams and stores documentation and examples of projects from the field on a SharePoint intranet site.

5. Emerging mobility services

As automotive organizations look to the next era of mobility, data insights define the future. As more vehicles become datacenters on wheels, they map and store the continuously generated data. Data insights help to drive business strategy, build smart mobility services, and improve profitability. Our emerging mobility services approach helps our automotive customers tap data to identify new opportunities to develop, modernize, and expand their businesses’ untapped potential.

SUN Mobility is harnessing the power of Azure and data insights to reimagine electric vehicles to put India on the road to the future. Using Microsoft Azure IoT Hub, Microsoft Azure Data Factory, Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB, Microsoft Azure Databricks, and other solutions, batteries and battery swap stations can transmit performance data at speed and scale. The process helps SUN Mobility understand battery utilization, identify frequently trafficked routes, and determine peak hours. With Microsoft’s data experts’ help, SUN Mobility is thinking beyond software solutions and looking to bridge organizational gaps that are invisible without data. Today, SUN Mobility sees vast opportunities with the cloud and now looks at enhanced security, financial platform integration, fleet management, and energy consumption related to vehicle usage patterns.

I want to thank all our customers for trusting us as their business partner. We look forward to our collaboration toward a more sustainable, safe, and productive world.

The post Microsoft automotive momentum: looking forward, back, and beyond appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Over the past two weeks, we have had the opportunity to speak to automotive industry leaders from around the globe about the staggering impact of COVID-19 and the responses they are taking. Faced with almost a complete halt of all production, mandated plant closures, retooling of plants to support growing medical equipment needs, and major health and safety concerns for their employees, many automakers are navigating unprecedented times.

While all automakers have faced critical disruptions to supply and demand in their businesses, there are many examples of automakers stepping up during these trying times by reconfiguring their production, supply chains, and services to deliver critical medical supplies. Microsoft applauds their resiliency and innovation and will continue to support our customers in these incredibly important efforts.

Here are just a few of the amazing stories across the industry where leadership is stepping up to address this global crisis:

• GM is partnering with Ventec Life Systems to help increase the production of ventilators. The machines are vital for patients with severe cases of COVID-19 infection.
• A consortium of major UK industrial, technology, and engineering including automotive, has come together to produce medical ventilators for the National Health Service (NHS). The supply chain of the ventilators is being supported by Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, and Microsoft worked with Accenture to launch it in just three weeks.
• Ford, GE, and 3M announced that they are combining resources and expertise to respond to a dire need for ventilators, respirators, and medical protective equipment.
• Due to a lack of mainstream resources, Ford is now using existing stock car parts and other non-traditional components as COVID-19 spreads across the US.
• Toyota has taken a global approach to help with COVID-19 recovery including production and supply of medical equipment, patient transportation, and support of drug development and infection control research.

From an industry analyst perspective, experts have been providing their own guidance for adjusting to our current circumstances.

• McKinsey has come up with a five-stage approach to success in the long run: Resolve, resilience, return, reimagination, and reform.
• Gartner says automotive OEMs and car dealers must improve their online sales models to mitigate a Coronavirus-related sales slump.

COVID-19 response: Resources, solutions, and guidelines for your business

In addition to these analyst recommendations, we are proud to collaborate with our partners around key resources and solutions that can help support the tremendous work of our customers.

Supporting remote assistance for frontline employees and customers

To remotely assist those workers who are still needed on the manufacturing frontline and supporting customers operations, Microsoft and partners such as BluePrism, PTC, Realwear, and Tulip have announced programs for customers engaged in COVID-19 related activities:

• Dynamics 365 Customer Service, enables contact center employees to provide consistent, personalized support while working remotely. Customers are taking advantage of the ability to gain insights into case volume topics, ensuring agents are properly distributed across channels, and quickly deploying chatbots that are trained to respond to the highest volume of inquiries.
• Even as challenging as it is to maintain social distancing and still be productive, we are seeing innovation help address this necessity. Here are some examples:
  • By leveraging mixed reality tools such as Microsoft HoloLens, companies can expand their ability to enable workers to be remote, and yet still be right next to someone that needs assistance. I encourage you to watch the video of PTC delivering HoloLens capabilities combined with their solutions.
  • With Dynamics 365 Guides, operators get step-by-step instructions as they progress through their tasks and related content and documents.
  • With Dynamics 365 Remote Assist, the operator shares a session with a remote expert to collaborate on solving technical issues.
  • Dynamics 365 Remote Assist allows field technicians and engineers can collaborate with colleagues and experts from different locations, reducing travel and resolving some of the immediate obstacles facing us all. In fact, Dynamics 365 Customer Service or Dynamics 365 Remote Assist may be available free of charge for up to 6 months if you are implementing a solution in response to COVID-19, either on a Microsoft-provided template or custom implementation.

• To increase the predictability and reliability of the work being performed by manufacturers the Blue Prism COVID-19 Response Program is taking applications for their robotic process automation (RPA) resources to help maintain critical business continuity.
• To provide technical support to your manufacturing and service employees, PTC is making their Vuforia Chalk augmented reality (AR) remote support and collaboration technology freely available to their customers and partners to use through June.
• RealWear has contributed its headset technology to the medical effort in China and just announced its integration with Microsoft Teams, enabling industrial workers to use both hands for complex work procedures while remotely collaborating with subject matter experts wherever they are in the world.
• Tulip is offering support and free use of their manufacturing app platform to any manufacturer or open-source manufacturing effort engaged in fighting COVID-19.

These are just some of the ways that Microsoft and our partners are working to support the health and safety of our communities as well as help you to ensure business continuity and mitigate risk.

Microsoft is proud of all these amazing leaders and their innovative work and we want you to know that we are here to support you as a partner during these challenging times. Below are some resources that we have put together to help you as you navigate the changes that are affecting not only yourselves but everyone across the industry. You are not alone, and we are here to help.

Supporting the health and well-being of your employees and access to the most current data, situation reports, and analysis:

• Leverage this Crisis Communication App with steps to quickly build and implement an app for your organization to coordinate information-sharing and collaboration in response to evolving conditions.
• Use the Bing Coronavirus Tracker to monitor and share the latest fact-based information, statistics, and news on the current state of the virus.

Enabling remote collaboration and productivity for the C-suite and all employees:

• Your creative and production teams are no doubt geographically dispersed, and those resources are likely now even more separated due to work-from-home requirements. Microsoft Teams allows your employees to chat, meet, call, and collaborate all in one place, across multiple devices, no matter where they are. If you’re a current Office 365 subscriber, you already have access to Microsoft Teams—and now is a great time to deploy to support your transition to remote work.
• To support remote scenarios for content creation, Microsoft enables key workflows through our partners: Teradici, AVID, and Adobe have all shared resources and best practices to enable remote creativity, collaboration, and content production and post-production. We will have more updates to share in the coming weeks.
• We have compiled expertise and guidance to optimize remote work environments from our first-hand experience over the last few weeks.
• We are also sharing the comprehensive work-from-home guide we created for our employees, which you can tailor for your own organization.
• Connect your teams with our Enabling Remote Work community to stay up-to-date on best practice sharing for all employees.
• Microsoft Stores are ready to train you and your employees. Leverage our global Microsoft Store teams to virtually deliver tailored training across key Microsoft workloads. Reach out to your AE or Customer Success Manager to schedule a training.
• Use Microsoft 365 Live Events to create live and on-demand events that deliver compelling communications to employees, customers, and partners.

Planning the comeback and shaping the new normal:

• Dynamics 365 Commerce enables consumer-facing businesses to continue to transact in an environment where physical retail stores are no longer able to facilitate trade.
• Unlock powerful insights with limitless analytics to stay agile and remain relevant across all audiences with Dynamics 365 Customer Insights and Azure Synapse.
• Take control of your critical warehousing, unpredictable demand, backlogged goods, and supply chain by:
  • Streamlining operations with Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management and rapidly build and deploy supply chain solutions with Azure IoT Central.
  • Working with our partner Blue Yonder, whose solutions and data science capabilities provide a critical solution for companies that require real-time supply chain visibility in order to plan for and instantly adapt to changing circumstances.

As we continue to work on additional solutions, services, and support for automotive organizations, read the latest information, updates, and resources from Microsoft: Responding to COVID-19 together.

Also, for an update directly from Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, read the recent post on LinkedIn with his current perspective and more on how Microsoft is working to support employees, customers, partners, and communities.

The post The automotive industry in the time of COVID-19 appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

The automotive industry is rapidly transforming. With today’s breakthrough digital technologies, the pace of innovation has accelerated to Autobahn speeds, with seemingly no limits to where the industry can go.

At the end of 2018, I shared standout examples of how we are partnering with industry leaders as we drive joint innovation for automotive globally. Since then, we’ve experienced first-hand just how fast that speed of innovation can be. Here’s a look at momentum with our automotive customers and partners over the past four months in key areas of transformation:

• Connected vehicles
• Autonomous development
• Smart mobility
• Connected marketing, sales and service
• Intelligent manufacturing & supply chain

Connected vehicles

In our ongoing efforts to help automakers provide connected, productive, and safe mobility experiences anywhere to the customer, the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance announced it is deploying a vehicle connectivity platform that will transform the digital experience for their customers, powered by the Microsoft Connected Vehicle Platform.

We also have some exciting partnership updates with Volkswagen, BMW and Daimler AG. Our first lighthouse projects with Volkswagen for connected vehicles are poised to set a new bar for personalized services and redefine the future of mobility. BMW announced its newest initiative, BMW Natural Interaction, combining in-car AI with Microsoft Azure cloud technologies to allow for more intuitive interactions with the car’s systems.

And Daimler is on the path to drive innovation globally with eXtollo, the company’s new cloud platform for big data and advanced analytics. What they are doing would have normally taken years—the cloud helps them to bring this to more than 200 countries overnight.

We also entered into several new collaborations to help simplify and enhance connected vehicle services. Cubic Telecom extended its collaboration with Microsoft to become the seamless global connectivity provider as a core service offering to the Microsoft Connected Vehicle Platform. TomTom will power Microsoft cloud offerings with location-based services, and  Moovit, TomTom and Microsoft unveiled the world’s first truly comprehensive multi-modal trip planner.

Autonomous development

Microsoft’s goal is to serve as a trusted partner for those in the automotive industry looking to deploy and operate toolchains for the development of autonomous vehicles (AV), and we’re proud to be a part of this journey.

Just last month, W Motors and ICONIQ Motors unveiled their first autonomous car in partnership with AKKA Technologies, Magna Steyr and Microsoft, with production vehicles planned for 2023. And earlier this year, LG Electronics and Microsoft entered into a memorandum of understanding to enhance and further grow LG’s autonomous vehicle and infotainment system business.

Teaming with Microsoft partner Cognata, Audi AG is also speeding its AV development with Cognata’s cloud-based simulation platform, running on Microsoft Azure. And Visteon Corp. is breaking new ground by enhancing its DriveCore Studio autonomous driving development environment, tapping into Azure to securely meet the computing demands of Level 3-plus autonomous systems.

Elektrobit is doing forward-thinking work with Azure to help the industry prepare for a future of AV driving by storing and processing PB-scale test data in the cloud, while Linker Networks is using Azure for its new auto-labeling service for autonomous driving. And ZF has expanded its partnership with Microsoft to establish one of the most comprehensive digital cloud platforms in the automotive market for services including automated driving and vehicle motion control. It is all very exciting!

Smart mobility

A significant focus for us is helping to enable a connected ecosystem between cities, our infrastructures and vehicles, made intelligent by data and insights. This smart, connected ecosystem will enable new opportunities for our societies and the cities in which we live.

A great example of this is the pioneering city of Denver in the United States. Its latest step is to bring together data from many sensors—from intelligent traffic lights to air pollution sensors and connected vehicles—to gain a holistic view of city data, gather insights, and act on them to improve experiences for everyone. The system, supported by Microsoft Azure Data Lake and Azure IoT Hub, will help the city optimize travel times, prioritize emergency and transit vehicles, and make intersections safer.

The government of New South Wales, Australia’s largest state, is teaming up with Cubic Transportation Systems and Microsoft to use the latest technologies to put an end to holiday traffic jams and simplify the daily journey for millions of travelers in Sydney. And with the help of Microsoft AI, its railway engineering company, Downer Rail, built a TrainDNA program to turn data into insights for safer, more reliable commutes.

Wilson Parking has also launched an innovative digital solution, using Microsoft Azure, for drivers using the new Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, the world’s longest sea bridge, to provide a seamless parking experience and smooth traffic flows. Drivers can now pre-book parking spaces at the Hong Kong section.

Connected marketing, sales and service

With Microsoft technologies, automakers can develop distinct brand identities and omnichannel customer experiences by combining new mobility services with existing automotive retail practices.

Hendrick Automotive Group recently implemented Microsoft 365 to assure its dealerships could provide a modern, transparent experience. Here, they share how they have improved communications with customers, sped sales and service interactions, and lowered operating costs, all while being less invasive than any other upgrade in company history.

Working with our partner Annata, Brimborg, a leader in the automotive business in Iceland, is using Dynamics 365 to help them innovate their company and improve customer satisfaction with the ability to look across their five brands, access sales figures immediately, and use the right data to adjust their marketing in real-time. And with Microsoft 365, innovation is also accelerating at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, helping the company to connect with and build better experiences for its customers around the world.

vStream and Audi Ireland have also announced the launch of Audi’s new augmented reality consumer experience, exclusively across a number of select Irish dealerships, using Microsoft Hololens to immerse customers in the latest technology features of the Audi A7. And BMW Park Lane, BMW’s London dealership, has introduced a new feature that allows customers to experience the new BMW X2 through HoloLens.

Intelligent manufacturing & supply chain

Microsoft is also helping the automotive industry create efficiencies and reduce costs with an intelligent supply chain powered by the factory of the future. As part of these efforts, at Hannover Messe, Microsoft and the BMW Group unveiled the Open Manufacturing Platform, a new community-driven initiative to spur faster, more cost-effective innovation in industrial IoT development.

Using Microsoft technologies, Toyota Material Handling Group is also innovating with AI, mixed reality (MR) and IoT to help its customers move goods quickly, frequently, accurately and safely.

And when it comes to more exciting capabilities of mixed reality, Toyota Motor Corp. shows how its workers in Japan are now using the precise MR capabilities of HoloLens to streamline tasks, improve quality and solve problems on the factory floor. Commercial truck manufacturer PACCAR is also one of the first companies to test Dynamics 365 Guides with HoloLens 2 to improve manufacturing productivity and employee onboarding.

Two great examples of infusing intelligence into the supply chain are with Icertis and ZF. We are delighted to partner with Icertis to help automakers like Mercedes-Benz develop new approaches to sourcing and leverage the power of blockchain to create a more ethical, sustainable supply chain. And with the flexibility and scalability of Azure, ZF OPENMATICS was able to bring a totally new asset tracking solution to market—to not just track the location of vehicles and assets, but also their status.

The road ahead

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more. Our DNA and digital approach put automakers and mobility service providers in the driver’s seat—enabling them to transform mobility experiences, accelerate auto industry innovation, create new business opportunities and reimagine sustainable transportation.

We look forward to working with our customers and partners to drive the future of mobility, using our technology to accelerate transformation faster than ever. To learn more about Microsoft in the automotive industry, visit our new Automotive Industry page.

The post Driving the future of mobility in the automotive industry appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

CES is always an exciting time as we eagerly await the new innovations and technologies that will shape our future. This year, one thing was evident: CES 2019 was the year of artificial intelligence (AI).

AI is everywhere, making innovation faster and more accessible. AI is redefining the experiences we have across our daily lives and the experiences we have in one of the places we spend a good portion of our time—the automobile.

Microsoft’s vision for automotive is to enable connected, productive and safe mobility experiences anywhere for the customer along their journey. With Microsoft technologies as the foundation of this vision, it was no surprise that AI took center stage at our CES booth this year.

Microsoft, along with our partners, showed how we are fueling new digital experiences with Azure IoT, AI and mixed reality. From an automotive standpoint, we shared how AI is opening up rich, immersive experiences for consumers, as well as new monetization opportunities for automakers.

CES spotlight: Cloud and AI partnerships in automotive

CES was the perfect venue demonstrate how our customers and partners are enhancing their connected vehicle, autonomous vehicle and smart mobility strategies using the power of the Microsoft intelligent cloud, intelligent edge and AI capabilities.

First, LG Electronics shared how they are working with Microsoft to use Azure cloud and AI technologies to create a new benchmark in autonomous automotive AI. LGE will apply Microsoft AI capabilities in their Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, Driver Status Monitoring Camera and Multi-Purpose Front Camera. They will also incorporate Microsoft’s Virtual Assistant in their Voice Assistant as part of their Vehicle Infotainment system. LG also has plans to leverage high-performance computing and graphics processing unit capabilities, supported by Microsoft Azure, to help train LG AI self-driving software.

In addition, Visteon Corporation is breaking new ground by enhancing their DriveCore Studio^™ autonomous driving development environment. The company is tapping into Microsoft Azure to securely meet the computing demands of Level 3-plus autonomous systems. The development environment also gives automakers and partners the ability to unlock innovation potential through an open framework for developing algorithms using sensor-based artificial intelligence. By using Azure, Visteon can reach more customers as it speeds up their autonomous development work.

Last year at CES, ZF announced that it was developing their own IoT platform based on Microsoft Azure. Since then, the company has rolled out several industry-leading solutions such as fleet management, business process automation and smart transmissions—innovations we saw live at their CES booth this year. This week, we announced that we are taking our partnership one step further: ZF is establishing one of the most comprehensive digital cloud platforms in the automotive market, focusing on digital services for automated driving, vehicle motion control, integrated safety and electromobility—all built on the Azure IoT platform.

Elektrobit is also doing forward-thinking work with Microsoft Azure to help the industry prepare for a future of autonomous driving. By incorporating Azure cloud and Azure Data Box into Elektrobit hardware and software, the company is empowering developers to efficiently refine automated driving systems by storing and processing PB-scale test data in the cloud. You can learn more in Elektrobit’s new white paper.

The journey ahead with AI

It is an incredibly exciting time in the industry as we see automotive changing forever. Market intelligence firm Tractica forecasts that AI hardware, software, and services revenue in the automotive industry will grow from from $404 million in 2016 to $14.0 billion by 2025, representing a compound annual growth rate of 48.3%.

We are proud to be partnering with industry leaders to help them capitalize on this important opportunity. For example, Grab is using Microsoft AI to advance on-demand transportation, mobile payments and online-to-offline services. We are working with AKKA Technologies to help ICONIQ Motors develop cloud-enhanced driverless technology for their cars, with the goal of a fully autonomous vehicle by 2020. And Audi technology partner EFS tested and proved a new ground-breaking deep learning AI solution that will give self-driving vehicles a better understanding of the roads they are driving on.

These are just a few examples of the innovative work that is happening today. As AI takes on more and more roles across the automotive ecosystem, it is inspiring to imagine the transformational possibilities that lie ahead for our industry.

With AI, we know we have just scratched the surface of what is possible in automotive. There is definitely more to come. And we are delighted to be on the leading edge, working with our customers and partners to create value that is driving the industry forward.

Explore our infographic “The world of 2030: navigating the future of autonomous vehicles” to learn more.

Twitter: @sanrav

The post CES 2019: The rise of AI in automotive appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

I’d like to welcome you to our August-September 2017 issue of Discrete Manufacturing News.

In this issue, we share the work we are doing to help transform the automotive industry, including the news of our expanded relationship with BMW. The automaker is growing the capabilities of its BMW Connected services—powered by Microsoft Azure and Office 365—to include Skype for Business, enabling Skype meetings to be available in car. We also recently joined forces with Baidu to expand the technical development and adoption of autonomous driving worldwide. As a member of Baidu’s Apollo alliance, Microsoft will provide global scale for Apollo outside of China with the Microsoft Azure cloud.

We know that transformation in today’s digital era requires advanced technologies to achieve new levels of business value. That is why Microsoft is focused on accelerating Industry 4.0 with innovations such as our new Coco Framework, which advances enterprise adoption of blockchain technology, and our ongoing work to help manufacturers leverage cloud-driven data to gain greater visibility into the supply chain and build long-lasting customer relationships. To enable your teams to work more productively and securely as you transform your organization, we’ve introduced Microsoft 365, a new set of offerings that includes Office 365, Windows 10, and Enterprise Mobility + Security. Microsoft 365 represents a fundamental shift in how we will design, build and go to market to address your needs for a modern workplace.

I hope you can join us at Microsoft Envision, September 25-27, 2017 in Orlando, Florida. You will hear from business and technical leaders who are transforming their organizations and revolutionizing the way they compete. Our special manufacturing track allows you to connect with your peers to learn how they have built digital capabilities and seek innovative ideas for business and technology advancements. I am pleased to be leading a panel discussion focused on driving digital transformation in manufacturing with customers including ABB, Dow Chemical and Jabil.

If you like what you are reading, please subscribe to our newsletter and forward this on to your colleagues.

There’s more news below, so please read on and enjoy.

Sincerely, Sanjay Ravi, Worldwide Managing Director Discrete Manufacturing Industry: Automotive, Aerospace, Industrial, High Tech & Electronics Twitter: @sanrav

Inside Microsoft

Digital transformation in manufacturing

Manufacturing is undergoing breakthrough transformation. That’s one of the major themes explored by Sanjay Ravi at Microsoft’s 4th annual Driving Workforce Enablement through IT Innovation Summit in the Aberdeen. Take a closer look at Sanjay’s presentation on digital transformation in manufacturing and download our eBook: Manufacturing, Reimagined.

Shift and engage: The rise of the connected car

Microsoft’s Rohit Bhargava and Vijitha Chekuri discuss how automotive manufacturers are looking to bring customers’ digital lives into the vehicle.

The secret to staying ahead of the game in manufacturing

In this digital age, when it comes to remaining relevant and progressive, innovation is a key enabler. By analysing information and gaining a better view of how a product is used in the field, manufacturers can make calculated changes to ensure their product doesn’t become redundant.

Microsoft speech recognition tech now as accurate as humans

Microsoft’s research team has created technology that can recognise words in a conversation as well as professional human transcribers. In a conversational speech recognition task called Switchboard, the company’s research team reached a record 5.1% accuracy, a new industry milestone, substantially surpassing the accuracy achieved last year.

Digital transformation keeps manufacturers ahead through quality assurance

With shrinking production cycles, increasing demand for customized products, and a growing skills gap in the workforce, there are many pressures affecting the manufacturing industry. Learn how manufacturing analytics solutions can improve core production and supply chain operations like quality assurance and inventory optimization.

Technologies of tomorrow that disrupt manufacturing sales today

An in-depth look at three transformational technologies that can change and improve the selling experience in manufacturing sales today: IoT, mixed reality, and chatbots.

Security and compliance in Microsoft Azure Stack

Learn more about the security posture of the Azure Stack infrastructure and the work that Microsoft has done to accelerate the compliance certification process and reduce paperwork overhead.

Partner News

How manufacturers are bringing the cloud to the plant floor

A panel of experts from Rockwell Automation discuss how manufacturers are turning to the cloud to achieve their goals and revolutionize processes.

Transforming contracts, the foundation of commerce

Most manufacturers have a limited line-of-sight into contract information across their business and don’t have the insights they need to proactively mitigate against risks. One reason for this is that data remains siloed and inaccessible. The Icertis Contract Management (ICM) platform is built to help manufacturers, faced with digital transformation, solve their hardest contract management problems on the easiest-to-use platform.

Why is having a Quote-to-Cash solution so important today?

In the manufacturing industry, intense competition is squeezing already thin margins, making every customer count. Manufacturers must accelerate sales cycles and improve customer satisfaction to compete for new consumers and earn repeat business. Learn more about the Apttus Quote-to-Cash suite, designed to address modern business pressures and deliver better buying experiences, higher revenues and profitable growth.

COPA-DATA transforms industrial automation with Azure IoT

By powering zenon, its industrial IoT solution, with Microsoft Azure and the capabilities of Azure IoT and Machine Learning, COPA-DATA has not only transformed the nature of its own business, but enabled companies like KHS to create differentiated products and offerings for its customers in an increasingly competitive landscape.

Events and Webcasts

The manufacturer of the future: Insights for Industry 4.0 at Microsoft Envision

September 25-27, 2017, Orlando, FL

Join us for Microsoft Envision, where you will hear from business and technical leaders who are transforming their organizations and revolutionizing the way they compete. Connect with your peers in manufacturing to learn how they have built digital capabilities and seek innovative ideas for business and technology advancements.

New Customer Stories

Microsoft and Johnson Controls reinvent the thermostat

Johnson Controls is changing how spaces are viewed and controlled. As the inventors of the first thermostat, Johnson Controls has innovated once again with GLAS. Utilizing Windows 10 IoT Core, Cortana voice services, and Azure Cloud, GLAS is a simple to use, elegant thermostat that brings leading energy savings and air quality monitoring to everyday spaces.

How Hewlett-Packard enhances data analytics with Power BI

HP’s Auto-Replenishment team wanted to develop a platform that would empower employees to gather the information themselves, allowing developers to focus on supporting the company’s technology needs. Building a searchable database using Power BI’s reliable, user-friendly infrastructure provides an engaging resource for both marketing and non-marketing users, transforming employee experiences across the board.

Roadside assistance provider the RAC revolutionizes customer service with IoT

By implementing Microsoft Azure IoT Hub to connect and monitor telematics devices placed in member vehicles, RAC is revolutionizing how it serves its members.

Toyota Indonesia boosts employee productivity and collaboration

Working with Microsoft Services, Toyota Indonesia began revitalizing outdated processes by deploying a digital workplace. Using SharePoint Server and Skype for Business Server, the company and its employees benefit from better file organization, modern collaboration capabilities, improved file security—and freed time to focus on being the best in the industry.

The post September Microsoft Industry News: Discrete Manufacturing appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

The need couldn’t be more critical, as we watch our cities grow exponentially. With more people comes more cars on our roads, more pedestrians on our sidewalks and more demand on our public services. Today, cities and cars are not sharing data. It is vital that we are building an integrated ecosystem that connects our cities and infrastructures with our cars. Electric cars that reduce carbon emissions to make the smart city more sustainable. Autonomous and connected vehicles that talk to roads, traffic lights and street signs to make our commute time more efficient, as well as anticipate pedestrians and other cars to avoid accidents and make the smart city safer.

Enabling the connected ecosystem

A natural place to start connecting these digital dots is location. We are building more value in our Azure public cloud to help support the geographical data needed to power smart cities. We just announced a new public preview of Azure Location-based Services (LBS), a set of cloud capabilities that provide geographical data to power smart cities, infrastructure and IoT solutions that empower industrial transformation.

Azure LBS provides an enterprise-ready location service for customers to build mobility, asset tracking and other geospatial applications that provide useful insights through one dashboard. As our first official partner on the platform, TomTom’s API will seamlessly connect smart cities, smart infrastructures and smart vehicles. Azure LBS customers are guaranteed trusted location data through TomTom’s unique feedback loop ecosystem – a global community of users continually providing map and traffic data resulting in richer content and more trustworthy data.

Connected vehicles

Empowering the automotive industry to help accelerate this connected ecosystem is a priority for my team. We are focused on working with automakers and service providers to provide connected, productive and safe mobility experiences anywhere to the customer.

We started early on partnering with companies like Toyota to power the emerging needs of connected vehicles. We continue to build on that work to drive transformation and help automotive companies realize more value through connectivity and custom solutions. Daimler FleetBoard GmbH is a great example of a company that is using the power of the Microsoft cloud to support new digital products that will provide better availability, higher levels of flexibility and better economic efficiency for Daimler’s commercial fleet. Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation is also doing interesting work with us to digitalize its truck and logistics operations by leveraging AI, mixed reality, and other cutting-edge technologies. This allows Mitsubishi to enhance its customer relations and boost employee productivity.

Connecting the automotive ecosystem also requires being able to improve insights and engage customers across the vehicle ownership lifecycle. Tapping into a vehicle’s real-time telemetry data for things like predictive maintenance, vehicle diagnostics and vehicle analytics are all critical capabilities that help automakers accelerate their digital transformation efforts. Our partners including Bright Box and Moj.io provide a goldmine of data and insights for car manufacturers with their customizable connected car platform solutions, based on Microsoft technologies.

Some automakers themselves are even integrating their own solutions, such as the work that ICONIQ Motors is doing to provide predictive maintenance, vehicle diagnostics and analytics, and a voice assistant in its cars using Microsoft Azure.

Autonomous vehicles

Autonomous vehicles are quickly emerging as a keystone for the smart city ecosystem. Analysis from the World Economic Forum estimates that by 2025, digital transformation and the mass adoption of autonomous vehicles will drive approximately $670 billion of industry value and nearly $3 trillion of societal value, with one million lives saved.

It will be key to make sure we as an industry are developing these vehicles in a safe, sustainable and scalable way. To that end, we are focused on providing cloud services for data, artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies for things like object perception, navigation, simulation, testing, and continuous learning. An example of this is the new simulation tools we just released to test how autonomous vehicles can use AI to operate safely in the open world.

Smart mobility

The smart, connected ecosystem is also about having a smart mobility infrastructure that enables safety, convenience, and monetization opportunities. Microsoft believes this work needs to be done through trusted data sharing between vehicles, smart homes and buildings, smart cities, smart grid, public services, healthcare, and financial services entities. ABB’s electric vehicle charging stations offer a strong model of how a connected energy infrastructure can change how we think about our smart city infrastructures and transportation needs. As countries including France and the U.K. Norway, India and even China begin to implement bans on new gasoline vehicles, ABB is a pioneering leader in electrification products, providing up to 65 percent of fast charging stations in Europe.

Mass transit is another area undergoing a transformation in the smart mobility ecosystem. Our work with public sector companies including the Transport for London is helping to make things like contact payment in mass transit flawless.

As data-driven insights continue to be in great demand in the automotive industry, Otonomo is an innovative company that is building the world’s first connected vehicle data marketplace platform helping to bridge the gap between access, acquisition and integration of vehicle data. Cubic Telecom has built a proof of concept that uses aggregated (and anonymous) connectivity data to analyze the effectiveness of its charging station placements and suggest new charging locations based on network hotspots. And Fathym announced it will utilize Microsoft Azure Location Based Services to power its WeatherCloud forecasting solution that gives fleets and autonomous vehicles data for better routing around hazardous weather to improve ETA accuracy, cost savings and driver safety.

Microsoft will continue the momentum we have been driving to empower the automotive industry—and ultimately, our digital societies. Our digital solutions and new business models improve logistics, fleet management and public transportation; reduce urban traffic; and ensure connection with consumer cars vehicles all from a single, cloud-based ecosystem. We look forward to continuing to build new partnerships and deepen existing ones to bring these new capabilities to market quickly.

Twitter: @sanrav

The post The smart city ecosystem: Closing the infrastructure gap to empower societies appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

As digitalization takes over the world, manufacturers everywhere need to change to survive, developing new capabilities that can drive competitiveness and growth. But what does this really involve and how do you succeed?

In our white paper series, we address this question and much more. We share the opportunities for industrial, high-tech, automotive and aerospace manufacturers to grow, adapt and evolve to address the changing needs of their customers and capture new business potential.

Transforming manufacturing for the digital age

Digital transformation is not simply about technology—it requires business leaders to re-envision existing business models and embrace a different way of bringing together people, data, and processes to create value for customers.

The challenges facing businesses today are familiar: engaging customers, empowering employees, optimizing operations, and transforming products. While the challenges may not be new, three factors are shifting both what customers expect as the result of being armed with information in a way not previously possible and what companies can deliver to meet those expectations.

1. Volumes of data continue to rise, totaling nearly 50 zettabytes by 2020 – that’s 20,000 times the total amount of data that existed in the world less than three decades before. The digitation of ‘things,’ heightened individual mobility and collaboration, and a host of other factors continue to accelerate data proliferation.
2. Advancements in data analytics and intelligence have enhanced our ability to draw value from the data – transforming information into insight that can be acted upon, even preemptively and at the point of business processes to maximize impact.
3. And the ubiquity of cloud computing puts this disruptive power in the hands of organizations of all sizes, increasing the pace of innovation and competition.

The convergence of these factors reflects technology’s omnipresent nature, where access to digital services plays an increasing role in everything we do. And they reflect your opportunity to grow, adapt, and evolve to meet the changing needs of your customers and the new business opportunities of tomorrow by thinking and operating like a digital company.

By developing new capabilities and transforming into digital company, your business can better leverage every system, device, process, and asset in order to draw better insight out of data and convert it to intelligent action.

Microsoft is uniquely positioned to help you evolve your business to meet the changing needs of customers and capture new business opportunities. We do this through agile platforms and solutions designed to change and adapt; an amazing breadth of technologies that prioritize flexibility, integration, and trust; and one of the largest ecosystem of industry-leading partners.

Don’t be left behind. I encourage you to get started today. If you are a manufacturer in the industrial, high-tech, automotive, or aerospace sectors, and would like to learn how to quickly respond to these trends and reinvent your business for tomorrow, then I encourage you to go here to download our white papers.

If you would like to see this next revolution in digital transformation for yourself, please join us at Hannover Messe 2018 on April 23-27 in Hannover, Germany. Our industrial innovation showcases will demonstrate how some of the top manufacturers in the world are already realizing true business excellence and impactful ROI as a result of their transformations. We’ll give you a hands-on roadmap that will show you how your business can achieve similar results.

Twitter: @sanrav

The post The secrets to surviving digital disruption appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

When we first started talking about digital transformation opportunities, some questioned whether the inherently conservative manufacturing industry was ready for change. Would manufacturing leaders be willing to re-envision their existing business models and embrace a different way of bringing together people, data, and manufacturing processes to create value for their customers?

We heard the answer to this question—a resounding yes—at this year’s Envision, Microsoft’s flagship event for business leaders. I was very pleased to host a diverse panel discussion on Executing Excellence in Digital Manufacturing featuring manufacturing experts from ABB Management Services, Daimler, The Dow Chemical Company and Jabil. These leaders showed how they are moving full speed ahead, evolving their organizations and pushing the boundaries of innovation.

Beyond the huge opportunities for revenue growth, cost efficiencies and enhanced work quality, each panelist expressed a desire to stay relevant. No one wants to be blindsided by disruption, whether from a competitor or the unknown. Here is a brief recap of their stories, including lessons learned on their journey to transformation of the manufacturing process and their secrets to success.

Digital factory creates new ecosystems of intelligence at Jabil

Matt Behringer, vice president of operations-digital factory, Jabil, shared how his team is leading with a digital, intelligent, and predictive factory that delivers a high prediction accuracy rate. The company’s plant floor quality assurance solution analyzes real-time problems and defects, while also identifying errors or failures before they even occur. Their solution is based on Microsoft Machine Learning, Microsoft Azure IoT Suite, Cortana Analytics and big data analytics.

Matt says a key challenge is they have tons of data—but not a lot of information. By creating an organization that blends IT and operations, Jabil is seeing a difference in how they are driving their transformation efforts. He also credits the ability to adopt the cloud on their own terms, using Azure. It enables them to bring the agility and fast-paced innovation of cloud computing to an on-premises environment.

Dow embraces Manufacturing 4.0  

Mario Ferket, IT director, The Dow Chemical Company, agreed that the challenge is not in finding the data, but ensuring its usefulness. Wanting the insights provided by digital transformation to secure Dow’s leadership position, Mario’s team is focusing on three areas: simplicity and productivity for their people, market growth through market listening and intelligence, and exploring new business models.

One new model Mario cited is Dow’s development of specialized agriculture products that maximize crop yields in local conditions. Using Azure, team members can gain real-time access to specialized apps and data from anywhere, even farmers’ fields. With Manufacturing 4.0 a big initiative at Dow, they are exploring new opportunities to drive innovation.

ABB creates largest digital industrial ecosystem

Another panelist pursuing a wide range of digital opportunities is Rami Jokela, group vice president, ABB Management Services, Ltd. Microsoft has a long-standing partnership with ABB, which includes digital transformation innovations to create one of the world’s largest open, digital industrial ecosystems to empower customers, partners, suppliers and developers.

As the head of ABB’s digitalization group, Rami is responsible for collaborating with all business units of ABB Ability that enable the company and its customers to make the most of their digital journeys. Rami’s team is working to accelerate outcomes so that ABB can see results faster. Rami shared that they transformed a mine site that was supposed to close into one of the most efficient mines around the globe, with strong productivity improvements.

Connected vehicles at Daimler

Like other panelists, Ulli Rix, chief product owner, Daimler Fleetboard GmbH, Digital Solutions Mercedes-Benz Trucks, also wanted to gain an edge on the disruptive forces transforming the industry. Partnering with Microsoft, Ulli launched a new business unit with the goal of achieving big results in a short period of time. Recently, the Daimler Trucks of EMEA team launched their connected vehicle solution to provide mobility services to B2B customers, primarily transport companies and carriers.

I’d like to thank Rami, Ulli, Mario and Matt for sharing their insights. Hearing their real-world examples of digital transformation was inspiring, but we’ve just scratched the surface here. I encourage you to watch the full video of our session to learn tips for organizing teams to support the factory of the future, trends on data collection, and best practices for creating a culture that drives manufacturing process transformation and attracts hard-to-find talent. You’ll also take away a sense of urgency to act—the time for transformation is now.

Manufacturing is by far the largest generator of digital data so it’s exciting to see the industry growth taking place. Research shows that 70 percent of manufacturers plan to put operations at the forefront of digital transformation by 2020. Another statistic proving the vital pace of new digital projects: CEOs expect digital revenue to double over the next five years, from 22 percent to 41 percent.

Kickstart your digital transformation journey by checking out the rest of our manufacturing sessions from Envision and then contact us when you’re ready to move forward.

Twitter: @sanrav

The post Digital transformation excellence: Lessons from manufacturing leaders appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.