Today, we are witnessing an extraordinary evolution, where AI is revolutionizing every aspect of content creation, distribution, viewer engagement, and monetization. The show serves as a powerful stage to witness firsthand the profound impact of AI on the industry. At Microsoft, we are bringing these elements to life across our platform and ecosystem. Attendees will see that we have moved beyond hype and are deploying this technology at scale powered by data and the Microsoft Cloud.  

This is an era defined by tech intensity, characterized by personalized content delivery, on-demand streaming services, data-driven advertising, and a shift towards immersive and interactive experiences. We are committed to empowering our customers to navigate these changes successfully. Whether you’re a content creator, broadcaster, ad agency, or streaming platform, adapting to the expectations of a global, tech-savvy audience is imperative. This shift presents both challenges and opportunities, and at Microsoft, we stand ready with our partners in this dynamic landscape. 

Our industry-specific solutions are designed to enhance production efficiency and cost-effectiveness, while our advanced analytics unlock valuable insights. We are redefining the video editing process to drive audience engagement and amplify personalization. 

As AI catalyzes one of the most profound transformations in the industry’s history, I am personally thrilled to invite you to join us in redefining the future of creativity, content, and experiences. 

Microsoft for media and entertainment

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Join Microsoft at 2024 NAB Show to see how we are reimaging media

Microsoft empowers media organizations to achieve more through a trusted and secure platform supported by a comprehensive partner ecosystem. Join us at our booth (W2657) to see how data and AI are reimagining the media landscape.

Empower content creators and distributors

• Break down language barriers and opening content to a global audience with Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and Azure AI Services. 
• Streamline production process using Azure OpenAI Service, Microsoft Power Platform, and Adobe, enhanced by Azure AI Vision Studio and Azure AI Video Indexer.  

Elevate the viewer experience

• Experience your AI assistant at work with Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365, where AI helps automate and personalize the content creation process, offering a new way to work. 
• Captivate your audience with Microsoft Azure PlayFab tools for engaging content that automatically adapts to viewer preferences and behavior.   

Reimagine monetization strategies

• Maximize revenue with insights that help reach a broader audience, as demonstrated by YOBI with the power of Azure Databricks.   
• Optimize ad revenue by expanding reach of advertisers through precision targeting and personalization with Copilot in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights and Microsoft Fabric.

Come see the future of interactive TV

Come visit the Capitalize Zone (W2149) to experience Beat the BUZZR®️. Beat the BUZZR®️ takes the future of interactive TV to the next level by showcasing its dynamic interactivity using content from Fremantle’s BUZZR®️ television network, a treasure trove of pop culture and game show classics, such as Family Feud, To Tell The Truth, and Supermarket Sweep. Leveraging the collaborative strengths of Microsoft, NVIDIA, and an extensive partner ecosystem.   

Beat the BUZZR®️ not only invigorates these classic programs with interactive elements like quizzes, trivia, and personalized insights but also opens the door to innovative monetization strategies for content owners. This platform serves as a testament to how the intelligent use of data and AI can revolutionize both audience engagement and revenue generation. Dive deep into your favorite episodes and see how Beat the BUZZR®️ is crafting new possibilities for content monetization, making every interaction an opportunity to captivate and capitalize.  

At the heart of this transformation is a coalition of esteemed partners:

• Prime Focus Technologies breathes new life into archival content, employing their CLEAR AI to deepen and enrich metadata, unlocking a treasure trove of interactive potential.  
• MediaKind revolutionizes the broadcasting experience, making dynamic ad placements and seamless content delivery a reality, ensuring each moment resonates with crystal clarity.  
• Alice & Smith stretches the bounds of fan interaction with XR Server, making the leap from passive observation to active, immersive participation.  
• Microsoft Advertising redefines the advertising landscape, integrating interactive, real-time content that speaks directly to viewers’ interests and passions.  
• SymphonyAI’s Revedia delivers a masterclass in analytics, turning raw data into a goldmine of insights, enhancing content strategy, and fine-tuning monetization models.  
• UIC Digital elevates the user experience, melding intuitive design with captivating aesthetics while integrating all systems and components seamlessly to ensure the user journey is as engaging as the content itself.

Each partner demonstration in the NAB Capitalize Zone is a portal to understanding how these contributions not only support the Beat the BUZZR®️ experience but also contribute to new revenue models and engagement strategies in the media landscape.

Hear from Microsoft and industry expertise in the sessions

In addition to catching us at our booth, you can hear from Microsoft in a variety of ways. Below are the different sessions you’ll be able to find Microsoft at.

Keynote session

AI in Media and Entertainment—Hear from Paige Johnson, Microsoft’s Vice President of Media Industry, and other industry leaders in a conversation around the applications of AI in Hollywood and the benefits and pitfalls of its growing use in productions and development.   

Microsoft sessions

• Unscripted Evolution: How AI is Reshaping Reality TV and Documentaries—Hear from Andy Beach, Microsoft’s Chief Technology Officer of Media and Entertainment, and other industry leaders on the exciting AI technology that will help creators unleash new forms of unscripted content, even for reality TV and documentaries.   
• Leveraging Azure AI for Media Production and Content Monetization Workflows—Hear from Andy Beach, Microsoft’s Chief Technology Officer of Media and Entertainment, and Amit Tank of MediaKind as they discuss how Generative AI can streamline media production, reduce costs, and accelerate content delivery to market at scale.  
• Retro Reimagined: Monetizing the Future of Interactive TV—Hear from Andy Beach, Microsoft’s Chief Technology Officer of Media and Entertainment, and other industry leaders as they dive into the transformative journey of classic content into the interactive digital age. They’ll explore the Beat the BUZZR®️ showcase and discuss how the partnership came to be.  
• AI-Empowered Monetization: New Content Strategies for Media Companies—Hear from Andy Beach, Microsoft’s Chief Technology Officer of Media and Entertainment, as he joins NVIDIA to discuss new revenue opportunities and strategies for in the content economy, including predictive analytics and personalized recommendations to automated content curation, generation, and targeted advertising.  
• Content Credentials – New Requirements for Media Provenance Labels for Gen AI Content—Hear from Andrew Jenks, Microsoft’s Director of Media Provenance and Executive Director of the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), and other industry leaders as they give an update on the C2PA’s standards for maintaining media provenance labeling with the emergence of generative AI.  
• Panels on New Challenges and Opportunities in Media—Hear from Andrew Jenks, Microsoft’s Director of Media Provenance and Executive Director of the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), and other industry leaders as they discuss how broadcasters, service providers, and networking technology companies are creating and deploying advanced Core Networks to maximize the opportunities of NextGen (ATSC3) Broadcasting.  

Microsoft’s commitment to the media and entertainment industry

Microsoft enables media organizations to achieve more through a trusted and secure platform built to empower content creators and distributors, enhance the viewer experience, and reimagine monetization strategies. More information can be found on Microsoft media and entertainment industry solutions. 

The post Microsoft at the 2024 NAB Show: Reimagining media with data and AI appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

• Reimagine content creation and redefine content distribution: With Microsoft, your production teams will embrace the power of AI-driven tools and platforms to empower artists, filmmakers, and creators to push the boundaries of their imagination. From automated content generation and intelligent editing to immersive storytelling, Microsoft AI technologies amplify your creative vision—streamlining workflows and bringing ideas to life with unparalleled efficiency. Harness the power of AI-driven content management, automated workflows, and intelligent communication tools to streamline production processes, accelerate informed decision-making, and bring the right projects to fruition faster than ever before.
• Elevate audience experiences: No more one-size-fits-all entertainment. Microsoft AI technology will enable you to understand audience preferences, interests, and behaviors, curating personalized experiences. Whether it’s recommending the perfect show or dynamically adapting content to match a person’s mood, AI-powered solutions put the audience at the center of the entertainment universe.
• Enable media asset monetization: Gain invaluable insights into audience preferences, trends, and engagement patterns. Microsoft advanced analytics and machine learning algorithms provide media and entertainment companies with a data-driven edge—enabling targeted content creation, optimized distribution strategies, and an unparalleled understanding of audience sentiment.

I was excited to attend IBC2023: The Worlds Leading Content and Technology Event, in Amsterdam from September 15 to 18, 2023. Microsoft empowers media and entertainment organizations to achieve more through a trusted and secure platform for content production, content delivery, audience engagement, and media asset monetization.

Microsoft for media and entertainment

Transform the future of creativity, content, and digital experiences.

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Generative AI in media

Media companies are looking for solutions to stay competitive as technology evolves at an unprecedented pace. This is especially true in the field of generative AI. From generating realistic images and videos to enhancing customer experiences, generative AI has proven to be a versatile tool across the industry. Businesses are applying generative AI algorithms to design logos and product visuals, as well as to produce captivating social media content—automating the creative process and saving time and resources. It also assists in automating IT tasks, enhancing employee experiences, improving customer interactions, and boosting efficiency within a company’s developer community.

Generative AI enables media companies to reach larger audiences and overcome language barriers by enhancing language translation and natural language processing capabilities. Reliable automated support for employees results in improved efficiency, better work life, and lower operational costs.

Nota has used Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service to build two AI-assisted tools—SUM and VID. These tools do a lot of the heavy lifting needed to optimize stories for distribution and turn written pieces into engaging videos that can produce up to 10 times as much revenue as written pieces.

AI in action

• Creative Intelligence: Azure AI Video Indexer enables content to leverage at the edge when video is not in the cloud. 
• Production Automation: Evertz showcased their AI-assisted copilots for live production. DreamCatcher™ BRAVO Studio is a virtual live production studio that includes all the tools needed to create broadcast-quality productions. ​One copilot called Highlight Factory allows the producer to leverage all available data feeds (operator logging, stats feeds, and field sensors) to build rolling or on-demand highlight packages. The Highlight Factory has been enhanced with voice capabilities that allow producers to use natural language to build highlight packages.
• Intelligent Distribution: Harmonic’s demo automatically extracted relevant events and highlights from a video source. Those events and highlights will be displayed in a timeline as soon as they are detected, which allows any viewer to engage with a conversational AI experience that will interact with all of the video content. To make sure you do not miss out on the action, those highlight clips are shown in a picture-in-picture experience.
• Productivity and Insights: Avid highlighted existing and tech preview AI innovations. Avid’s MediaCentral l Cloud UX demonstrated how leveraging Azure AI Video Indexer, automating metadata enrichment through scene and facial recognition and speech-to-text, broadcast, and post organizations can enable more powerful search, turning all assets regardless of their location into liquid assets they can monetize quickly. Avid also showcased tech previews AI assists creators with more powerful asset search, sequence creation, and rapid social channel publishing including AI-assisted instructions on how to perform those functions. You also experienced an AI assistant while using Avid Pro Tools.
  
  Avid demonstrated the newly launched Avid Huddle, an interactive over-the-shoulder review and approval app for Microsoft Teams, where users can enable a distributed production staff to collaborate from any device anywhere at any time. Editors can now initiate a Teams session from within Media Composer, invite others on the production team to securely join the session, and start collaborating with time-stamped comments and drawings that, once the session is finished, can be imported into Media Composer where the editor can quickly make the appropriate adjustments. Production is accelerated through virtualized interactive reviews that can be scheduled at any time or frequency, all while the production team stays in the creative process, enabling faster time to market finished content.
• ​Customer experience and monetization: MediaKind showcased how to land targeted ads based on in-video branding—creating more relevance to inserted ads with greater impact and increasing CPM value. Using Microsoft Azure Computer Vision services for brand recognition, the system is trained in advance for the chosen brands learning the various logos. Video feeds are then analyzed and the logo will trigger an ad for that brand to be inserted at the next ad break.

Thanks to SOUTHWORKS for their support and investment in building AI-based scenarios with our partners.

Microsoft and industry experience in the sessions

• Navigating the Balance: Technical innovation and profitability in today’s media landscape.
  • Featuring Simon Crownshaw, Director, WW Media and Entertainment, Microsoft, and Andy Beach, Chief Technology Officer, WW Media and Entertainment, Microsoft.
• Powering Media Innovation: Microsoft and its partner landscape.
  • Panel featuring Mandy Rutledge, Director, WW Media Partnerships, Microsoft, and partners Avid, Evertz, Harmonic, and MediaKind.
• Navigating Media’s Next Era of Change
  • Featuring Francesco Venturini, Corporate Vice President, WW Media and Communications, Microsoft, and Allan Broome, Chief Executive Officer, MediaKind.
• SMPTE: Architecting multi-cloud and on-prem workflows’ solutions for global production needs.
  • Panel featuring Andy Beach, Chief Technology Officer, WW Media and Entertainment, Microsoft.

Industry innovation at the IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Programme

Microsoft is one of eight finalists in the IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Programme. The project “Connect & Produce Anywhere” intends to build a distributed edge and cloud computing system to remotely produce a live sports event. By deploying 5G for connectivity and utilizing software, the project aims to make the most efficient use of resources in bandwidth-constrained locations. The aim is to detach software from hardware and deploy a distributed computing architecture between ground and cloud—exploring the benefits, challenges, and sustainable potential of such an approach.

Our commitment to the industry

As media organizations pursue the transition to a cloud-first future, Microsoft will continue to help our customers navigate the blurring lines between broadcasting, commerce, engagement, and gaming.

Our commitment to innovation in media extends beyond IBC2023 and around the world. Get the latest updates and thought leadership on our dedicated media Twitter channel. Learn about Azure OpenAI Service and the latest enhancements. 

The post IBC2023: How the Microsoft Cloud is accelerating AI transformation in media appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Microsoft and our partners collaborate with content owners and partners in the media and entertainment industry to help them achieve more with live video production and engagement powered by Microsoft Azure. We work with a broad ecosystem of partners who are at the forefront of broadcasting innovation to create cloud-based live broadcasts that can reach and engage viewers in new ways across different devices and platforms. We help our customers leverage technology to thrive in a challenging and competitive market where economic pressures are increasing and advanced capabilities are not only a source of differentiation but also a source of competitive advantage.

Microsoft is excited to again be a critical part of NAB 2023 starting April 15, 2023, in Las Vegas. With an approach rooted in partnership, we look to inspire companies at the pinnacle event of the global broadcast, media, and entertainment industry. Microsoft will have a strong presence bringing to life the stages of the media production workflow while demonstrating how to elevate live events with technology and user engagement. Visit our booth (W1529, West Hall) to see it all in action.

How Microsoft technology supports media transformation

The team at Microsoft understands more than any other in recent memory that it has a unique opportunity to support true media and entertainment transformation both behind and in front of the camera. Our customers are demanding more and thinking about what will drive their business in the next few years. Here is a snapshot of two areas in which we are thinking of our technology:

1. Media Intelligence. While data is the new currency, technology is the enabler. By applying machine learning and AI algorithms, media companies will be able to provide more personalized recommendations for their users. This will lead to more targeted advertising and potentially more engagement with their content. Intelligent media workflows can help media organizations to reduce costs, increase productivity, and deliver higher quality content to their audiences. Deliver an informed customer journey to the consumer by inputting data into Azure AI.
2. The Power of the Cloud. With a cloud-first approach, media companies can store and process large amounts of data, including video, audio, images, and text, in a secure and scalable manner. They can also access cloud-based tools and services that can help them optimize their content production, distribution, and monetization workflows. Overall, a cloud-first approach enables media companies to focus on their core business of creating and distributing high-quality content, while leaving the technical details of storage, processing, and delivery to the cloud providers.

Powerful Microsoft and partner demos in the booth

Experience the power of content PLUS technology in action, through the stages of the media production workflow, at our booth (W1529, West Hall).

Ingest and acquisition

Creating a compelling story starts with high quality content. Leveraging our Azure Stack HCI, Support Partners in collaboration with SwXcth.io and Cinnafilm have created a software defined broadcasting platform allowing for the easy acquisition of content from ground to cloud via Azure Arc. As production work is a team sport, these partners have integrated Microsoft Teams and created operational dashboards allowing for the easy management of all aspects of your production.

Today, we are also faced with the fact that not all video is a simple rectangle. This is why Microsoft has partnered with Red and Meta to deliver an 8K spherical video from the show floor to a Meta Quest Pro headset via Azure; allowing you to experience the future of immersive, high-quality video.

Creation and production

Whether your content is live or on demand, experience demonstrations of tools from a wide range of partners to meet your content creation needs. All partners leverage the best of Azure, Azure Stack Edge, and Microsoft Teams technologies to create a responsive and collaborative environment. Avid highlights a cloud-based video editing platform, that integrates with Microsoft Teams and Azure Storage, to collaborate from anywhere, gather feedback and deliver content fast. Evertz demonstrates their virtual live production studio, BRAVO Studio powered by Azure, that enables content creators to deliver high-quality live experiences on any platform, from anywhere. Witness how Teradici delivers high-performance remote visualization capabilities for graphics-intensive applications and workloads on Azure instances. Blackbird enables cloud-native video editing in a browser with fast access, collaboration, and distribution of content on Azure. Lumen offers a global network infrastructure that connects media workflows across different cloud environments, including Azure. 

Finally, collaboration does not start once the content is in the cloud. Evercast shows off their video collaboration platform that allows remote creators to securely stream their work in HD and collaborate live with real-time footage reviews, on screen drawing, and time stamped notes (including surface devices), all while on the go. 

Encoding and packaging

Enable content creators and distributors to deliver high-quality content to audiences across a wide range of platforms and devices​. Harmonic is a leading provider of video streaming solutions that enable cloud streaming and broadcast services with exceptional quality and efficiency. Harmonic collaborates with Microsoft on content creation by offering its VOS360 Live Streaming platform on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace. This platform allows content creators to launch live streaming services quickly and securely via any Content Delivery Network (CDN).

Distribution and engagement

Enable content creators and distributors to reach wider audiences, build brand recognition, and unlock new revenue streams.​ Understand and meet the changing customer demands while building loyalty through personalized and unique engagement. Accenture  demonstrates how to land the end-to-end live events workflow, while Alice & Smith highlights solutions leveraging Azure Playfab and Ease Live (an Evertz company) to connect with your customers across their lives. PWC displays a few demos featuring solutions for environmental, social, and governance (ESG), smart venues and digital twins, and their Digital Network Operations Center (DNOC) Solutions. See everything from climate change reporting to personalizing experiences and optimizing operations using AI, analytics, and digital twins. 

We look forward to discussing how Microsoft’s extended partnership with OpenAI will transform every aspect of the media pipeline. Our partner Prime Focus Technologies  highlights solutions powered by the whole Microsoft AI portfolio, including Azure OpenAI, that span the production and media supply chain.  

Our commitment to the industry

As media organizations pursue the transition to a cloud-first future, Microsoft will continue to help our customers navigate the blurring lines between broadcasting, commerce, engagement, and gaming.

Our commitment to innovation in media extends beyond NAB 2023 and around the world; get the latest updates and thought leadership on our dedicated media Twitter channel.

Media and entertainment industry solutions

Empowering the media and entertainment industry to achieve more.

Discover resources today

The post NAB 2023: Elevate media and entertainment with the Microsoft Cloud appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Microsoft works closely with broadcasters and partners, empowering them to achieve more, with live video production powered by the Microsoft Cloud. 

Very few live broadcasts run exclusively in the cloud—and no single technology company can make that happen on its own. It takes an ecosystem of partners at the forefront of broadcasting to bring this vision to life. Microsoft and our partners are empowering broadcasters to reach and engage their viewers in new ways, including helping customers to:

• Move content directly from the camera to the cloud, and then to the customer.
• Distribute immediately in multiple languages.
• Use data to drive user engagement around that content.

Microsoft is excited to return to IBC 2022, from September 9 to 12 in Amsterdam. IBC is the premier global event, created by the industry for the industry that highlights the latest innovations in both media and technology. We have stepped up our commitment to IBC with a fully immersive booth experience, sharing both industry and technical expertise in multiple sessions, and sponsoring the Accelerator Programme.

Cloud-first live sports broadcasting in action

Stop by our booth and you will not just hear about how the Microsoft Cloud is transforming live broadcasts—you will see it in action as Microsoft, and our partners team up to produce live sports commentary on the convention floor. Throughout the live broadcast, guests can walk through demos in the booth and drill down into the technical elements of the broadcast.

Our booth is at 1.D25, in Hall 1. Representatives from Microsoft and our partners will be available throughout the day to answer your questions and help pursue your vision for a cloud-first future.

Microsoft and industry experience in the sessions

• Joe Newcombe, Media Technology Strategist, Microsoft:
  • Technical papers: Energy-efficiency for a more sustainable future, September 9, 11:00 AM CET to 11:45 AM CET in E102.
• Simon Crownshaw, Worldwide Strategy Director for Media and Entertainment, Microsoft:
  • The John Logie Baird lecture – The state of the TV business and the next five years, September 10, 11:00 AM CET to 11:45 AM CET in E102.
  • MovieLabs 2030 vision update: Implementing the vision, September 11, 11:30 AM CET to 12:15 PM CET in the Forum.

Industry innovation at the Accelerator Programme

The Accelerator Media Innovation Programme is back, and Microsoft is proud to be the sponsor of this platform that fosters innovation in the media and entertainment industry. All the accelerator sessions will be fascinating, and I personally recommend, “Cloud Based Live Events, Analytics, and Low Latency Protocols,” on September 11 at 10:00 AM CET on the Innovation Stage in Hall 2. This session will provide a lot of insight into the future of multi-camera live event broadcasts in the cloud.

Powerful live demos from our partners

Microsoft leverages its unique partnership with media partners and system integrators to build and operate the end-to-end production workflow experience. Check out the powerful demos throughout the stages of the lens to the screen.

Acquisition and production

Microsoft and our partners are enabling camera-to-the-cloud. Our partners will demonstrate features like highlighting, clipping, timeline management, conversion, monitoring, and other production needs. We are proud to feature Evertz, Cinnafilm, swXtch.io, and Support Partners in our Acquisition and Production pod.

Editorial and postproduction

Creating production elements such as social media segments, highlight packages, tailored reviews, newsroom features, and clipped elements are critical to delivering to the multiple endpoints that use the content that an event creates. Learn more from Avid and Blackbird in our Editorial and Postproduction pod.

Compression and packaging

Encoding, transcoding, and packaging are the true engines for delivering content to customers at scale. This vital stage touches all of the other areas we are putting on display in which MediaKind, Harmonic, and Deltatre will be part of the pod.

Distribution

Microsoft and our partners help deliver content to consumers. With the advent of more control messages, security requirements, and identity management, partners are a critical part of the broadcast ecosystem. Check out the demo from our partner Akamai to learn more.

Data

Microsoft has engaged in a long history of implementing AI and machine learning applications to the media workspace, and our partners have been with us the entire time. You can get to know AI and machine learning better with demos from Aptitude Software and Azure Video Indexer.

Telemetry and observability

Our distribution and data insights demo will highlight dashboards and application wireframes for streaming and video-on-demand services (VOD) asset workflows. We have got great demos from Telestream, Datazoom, and PwC in our Telemetry and Observability pod.

User engagement

Data makes it possible for media companies to engage their viewers like never before, including retention, monetization, gamification, and even augmented reality experiences. Our partners Ease Live, an Evertz Company, and Alice & Smith will show how they have used Azure PlayFab and Azure Communication Services to drive engagement and Tech Mahindra shows off creating truly global live experiences in real-time with Tellyo. We have basketball experiences to show off augmented reality using Microsoft HoloLens.

Our commitment to the industry

As media organizations pursue the transition to a cloud-first future, Microsoft will continue to help our customers navigate the blurring lines between broadcasting, commerce, engagement, and gaming.

Very few live broadcasts run exclusively in the cloud—and no single technology company can make that happen on their own. It takes an ecosystem of partners at the forefront of broadcasting to bring this vision to life. Microsoft and our partners are empowering broadcasters to reach and engage their viewers in new ways.

Our commitment to innovation in media extends beyond IBC 2022 and around the world; get the latest updates and thought leadership on our dedicated media Twitter channel.

The post IBC Conference: Transforming media and entertainment with the Microsoft Cloud appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Our promise to partners

To help our partners benefit from the tremendous growth that we are seeing across industries, we have developed four primary value propositions:

• Build. Our partners build on the Microsoft Cloud for industries (Manufacturing, Retail, Financial Services, Healthcare, Nonprofit) as a platform, using their capabilities to enrich solutions already in the market—either for a specific customer or at scale. The Microsoft Industry Cloud Platform helps industries transform with speed and agility, with solutions that address customer business needs. ​ 
• Enrich. Partners make more of the Microsoft Cloud for Industry by building or updating software as a service (SaaS) or platform as a service (PaaS) solutions that take advantage of unmet customer needs. With unified data and analytics, partners can now remove traditional data siloes for customers and extend the core capabilities of the Cloud for Industry.
• Unlock. Partners can unlock new revenue and high-value service opportunities, including adapting the Microsoft Cloud for Industry to each customer’s environment and business processes. Partners are empowered to start new conversations and solve new customer scenarios by leveraging our go-to-market (GTM) offers and incentives.
• Scale. We facilitate strong partner-to-partner connections so they can bring the best value to our customers. They also can work with Microsoft to provide the best solutions for customers, and co-sell with Microsoft to understand customer needs and leverage the Microsoft sales team to advance customer opportunities.

Make the most of your Microsoft Inspire journey

Microsft Inspire has a lot to offer; here are a few recommendations for you:  

• Join Judson Althoff, Microsoft EVP and Chief Commercial Officer, as he kicks off day two of Microsoft Inspire. You will hear about the outsized opportunities partners have as we bring the unique value of the Microsoft Cloud to more customers than ever, together. Judson will also share the importance of digital perseverance in navigating uncertainty and why leaning into innovation is the only path forward. 
• Join Nick Parker, President, Industry and Partner Sales, and Alysa Taylor, Corporate Vice President, Industry, Apps and Data Marketing, to discuss how to put Microsoft Industry Clouds and opportunities into perspective. 
• Join us for a panel discussion and gain key insights into Microsoft’s industry innovation and investments. Learn about the opportunity this creates for your business, investments we are making to enable partner solutions, and how we can help you scale through our GTM engines. 
• Through a series of in-depth discussions, you’ll discover details of Microsoft’s commitment to sustainability, the business opportunities that can come from adopting a comprehensive sustainability strategy, and how your organization can partner with Microsoft to implement sustainability solutions. 
• Attend industry-focused sessions:
  • Drive growth and profitability with Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare 
  • Accelerate your financial services solutions with the industry cloud 
  • Inspiration to action: The partner value in Microsoft Cloud for Retail 
  • Manufacturing a resilient and sustainable future with Microsoft Cloud 
  • Drive innovation and social impact with Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit
• On-demand sessions. We also have a wide array of sessions on-demand, so you can watch when convenient—even after Microsoft Inspire. These include:
  • Accelerate your business in Automotive, Mobility, and Transportation 
  • Modernizing Defense and Intelligence customers through partnerships
  • Accelerating the energy transition through innovative partnerships
  • Engaging with Media & Entertainment and telecommunications worldwide
  • Partner opportunities in the Education industry
  • Delivering Citizen Centric Services Through Digital Government
• Networking with friends. Even though Microsoft Inspire is virtual, there will be plenty of opportunities to network with peers or just see old friends. Start now with our Connection Zone and build your profile and make a contact list.

Time to get inspired!

I hope you’re looking forward to Microsoft Inspire as much as I am. It’s a chance for us to celebrate you, our partners, reaffirm our commitment to serving our customers across all industries, and demonstrate our commitment to equipping our partners with the most innovative tools and technologies in the industry. 

The post Microsoft Inspire 2022: Empowering partners to drive transformation in every industry appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

But in many ways, this is nothing new. The media and entertainment industry are the earliest adopters of digital advancements. We continue to push the boundaries of physical and digital environments and produce volumes of content in new ways. It also doesn’t have a choice; it must change as consumers have upped their expectations as technology has evolved and creators and producers competing for consumer time are no longer limited to traditional media.  

At this year’s National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) conference, Microsoft is reinvesting in our commitment to the media and entertainment industry. At our booth #W3017 located in the new West Hall, Las Vegas Convention Center, we’re excited to showcase how we are empowering the future of creativity, content, experiences, and technology through our investments in partnerships, experiences, and products.    

Reimagine content creation with anytime collaboration and creativity 

The demand for content continues to grow. So does the demand for creative and production staff: more content with less budget, increased output with the same staff, higher quality, you name it. These demands are putting stress on ways of working, workflows, and production systems developed over the decades. 

In our booth, partner Avid will be showcasing Avid Edit On Demand solution that provides a full virtual post-production environment in the cloud—complete with cloud-optimized media composer software and Avid NEXIS storage—making it easy to scale teams and ramp up new projects at a moment’s notice. With a simple subscription, team members can work and collaborate from anywhere in a fully configured secure environment. 

We’re excited to highlight Evertz’s BRAVO Studio virtual production solution powered by Microsoft Azure that allows content creators to tell their stories from anywhere. BRAVO Studio delivers a professionally produced, high-quality live experience for any audience on any platform.  

Speaking of content creation, come to our booth #W3017 to see our live streaming podcast studio. You’ll have the chance to see our technology live and in action as we interview industry thought leaders, partners, and customers. In partnership with Discovered, join us with entertainer, digital brand evangelist, and host of Discovered.tv Podcast, Taylor Mosby.  

Redefine content delivery for broadcasting and live events 

As of August 2021, 84 percent of United States consumers said they were spending more time on online entertainment in the home and less time on in-person entertainment outside it.¹ Even when the pandemic subsides in a meaningful way, it will likely leave a mark on behaviors for some time to come. The industry has proven itself to be resilient with remote broadcasts, virtual productions, streaming platforms launched, and sporting events won, all during a very disruptive time in history. 

During NAB, attendees can see firsthand how Microsoft Digital Experience solution brings together proven technology from partners Epiphan, Disguise, Evertz, Blackmagic, Lumen, Aoto, and Mediakind in scalable on-demand services that move the entire live stream process offsite and into the cloud, enabling remote teams to work together in real-time. It leverages Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights to deliver rich insights analytics for event measurement hand feedback in a secure environment.   

Explore this NAB session, Live Production in the Cloud, where our Microsoft team shares how technology enables distributed teams to produce digital experiences (for example, concerts, e-sports) through a cloud-based solution. This solution reduces the carbon footprint needed to manage events, enables companies to enter the space with a low investment footprint, and brings expertise together from wherever they are, rather than relying on them to travel to locations. In this session, we will review, demonstrate, and discuss how we can build a distributed broadcast setup to support remote or work-from-home operations that can also take advantage of 5G.   

In honor of the 2022 professional football draft, we’re also showcasing our latest augmented reality (AR) technology using Microsoft HoloLens to produce a sports arena digital twin that can help satisfy key sports stadium requirements, such as health and safety, wayfinding, space management, and facilities management. Great examples of how event venues can improve efficiency, support preventative maintenance, and manage the safety of your business.  

Our partner MediaKind announced an extension to our strategic partnership to accelerate video digital transformation. This extended partnership significantly increases the integration and optimization of MediaKind and Microsoft products, platforms, and cloud capabilities within a sustainable framework. It enables MediaKind to provide new opportunities for video content owners, broadcasters, operators, and enterprises to accelerate their video digital transformation. This new collaboration has been designed to significantly enhance the integration and optimization of both companies’ products, platforms, and cloud capabilities, to enable its respective customers in media and entertainment—and beyond—to drive new levels of growth within the media industry. In our booth, Mediakind will be highlighting their solution, Engage, a live, end-to-end, direct-to-consumer streaming solution that showcases a personalized, broadcast-quality, and reliable media experience.

Additionally, our partner Blackbird will be showcasing how their solution provides professional video editing in a browser that allows media organizations to drive efficiencies across their organization with cloud-native video editing anywhere, publishing everywhere, and helping media organizations be first to market with quality content. 

Enable next-gen experiences with data and AI 

Every organization wants to be more data-driven and this is especially true for media and entertainment companies, which have new requirements for customer data due to the industry’s shift to direct-to-consumer. Today, businesses must not only understand their clients better, but they need data to decide what content to produce, what media to acquire for their streaming platforms, how to sell in non-linear ways, and more. Data is equally important to the operational side of the business, whether it’s improvements to how we managed content at scale through metadata or empowering media operations with great knowledge of the entire delivery pipeline, data intrinsically drives forward all aspects of the modern media ecosystem.

On Tuesday, April 26, 2022, our own Andy Beach, Chief Technology Officer of Media and Entertainment, will give a talk on the role of media metadata in modern data-driven workflows. He will talk about how we have worked with customers to change the way they think about the creation of metadata, and how to use it to improve their own operational efficiencies while continuing to evolve into new ways for customers to experience their content.

The Microsoft Customer Experience Platform helps organizations unlock the power of consumer data to deliver personalized experiences and create raving fans. We’re eager to demonstrate how this complete marketing stack helps media organizations accelerate their business growth and deepen customer connections. At NAB, we’ll showcase how it can deliver connected experiences from awareness to purchase that feel human and real whether through digital ads, website, content, or conversations.  

With a 360-degree view of customers and rich out-of-the-box insights, organizations can understand and predict customer intent to deliver the right content at the right channel and at the right moment. Your organization will be able to win more hearts and minds in an omnichannel world by personalizing every interaction in real-time using AI-orchestrated journeys. In a privacy-first landscape, ensure full control of customer data and protect an organization’s brand reputation with unmatched data governance and privacy.  

Using customer insights and AI technology will continue to have a transformative impact on the media industry. The use of data, automation, and AI technologies (for example, voice recognition) will help to deepen fan and audience engagement through personalized, connected, and relevant experiences. 

Attendees can also discover how speech translation, part of Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services, can help media organizations add accessible and localized content. Grab some time to learn about Azure’s text-to-speech and custom neural voice services, and how a media organization can reach a broader and more diverse audience with natural sounding voices.  

Our partner PWC will be showing off new solutions they have been jointly developing with Telestream and Datazoom on Microsoft Azure to provide video observability for any over-the-top (OTT) or live video platform. This solution brings together data telemetry from across the media pipeline to deliver end-to-end quality of service (QoS) and quality of experience (QoE) for real-time analytics in network operations, support, and improved video playback experience. 

Innovate with gaming technology 

Media organizations can unlock new revenue streams by engaging audiences through immersive and connected experiences that build a community around content and digital good. I recommend seeing our NAB session, Using Real-Time Data to Drive Engagement and Build Community, where the Microsoft team will discuss LiveOps techniques developed by the gaming (video game) industry when it was faced with similar challenges of audience fragmentation and personalization, and how those techniques can be selectively applied to streaming media.  

As media streaming has become increasingly fragmented, engaging with viewers and fans in a personalized way is critical to growth. At the same time, viewers’ expectations for media are rapidly shifting, as they demand more information, control, and interaction with their streaming services. In our booth, Microsoft and our partners Alice & Smith and Ease Live (an Evertz company) will explore how XR Server, Ease Live Studio, and Microsoft Azure PlayFab for Media LiveOps can be used by media companies and content owners to drive increased engagement and monetization opportunities with the gamification of the user experience. We’re excited to explore how media companies can leverage first-party data to better understand their users and react in real-time with targeted programming, promotions, and user experiences.  

Looking ahead to the future

As exciting as the past few months have been, I know we’ve only taken the first few steps to address the challenges in media and entertainment that we have tried solving. I believe the work that we are doing now with great people and fantastic partners from across the industry will open the door to new ways that we’re only beginning to imagine. 

In that spirit, I look forward to sharing more news with you at NAB as we continue to push the boundaries of what technology can do to maximize collaboration and productivity, streamline operations, enable insights-driven decision-making, deliver engaging customer experiences, and accelerate innovation and business growth. At NAB 2022 , we’ll share news of exciting partnerships and, hopefully, have a chance to connect with many of you. 

Resources

Learn more about our NAB virtual showcase at Microsoft Media and Entertainment Industry Solutions.

¹ Media companies strive to retain subscribers as social begins to bite, Rapid TV News. 

The post Microsoft at NAB: Showcasing the future of media and entertainment appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

As a Digital Strategist working within Media & Entertainment I often hear customers express frustration over having more data than they know what to do with. If you can relate, what a wonderful problem to have given data truly is the new currency of this digital age. I believe the problem is best flipped to ask what is needed to position a media organization as a data-driven digital-first business operationally optimizing every decision with meaningful intelligence and algorithmic insight.

As a business, when truly planning and forecasting for digital optimization as part of overall growth strategy, data is the central tenant of enablement.

This rings true even more so for the Media Industry uniquely impacted by COVID-19 as the world shuttered closed. When we now look at life and workplace redefined by the pandemic, the industry is poised for dramatic rebound and transformation. If not out of necessity, then for sheer survival as more consolidation is forecasted ahead.

Lockdown proved the need for a constant refresh of entertainment for all of us hankering for escapism during these challenging past two years. Mega trends arose with consumers hungry for at-home binge worthy content, social media became increasingly more important as a connector to the ‘outside’ world and gaming became a staple for enthusiasts across the globe. And as the box office, theme parks, sporting arenas, and music venues reopen, several key and critical factors will determine not only survival but the ability to thrive in this new normal world with digital leading the way.

1. Audit your data estate. A data audit allows for a deep microscopic view of disparate data silos that most likely exist across various divisions of an organization. This is a foundational step in bringing those silos together in a secure environment with company-wide governance in order to activate business optimization, operational efficiencies, disruptive innovation, faster speed to insight and better ways of engaging customers.
2. Build a platform, not a gate. Once the burdensome need for a deep data audit is addressed, most organizations realize the need to consolidate, modernize and optimize by building a tech intense roadmap or what we refer to as cloud scale analytics. Cloud scale analytics deploy a set of big-data solutions that help gather, store, process, analyze, and visualize data of any volume, variety, or velocity, all by realizing the power of the cloud.

Microsoft is clear on our position pertaining to customer data and the ownership of that data. Our success relies on our customer’s success by securely protecting their data and data estate, not gating nor profiting from it.

Only when an organization’s data effectively resides on a single platform that informs the entire organization, can a customer realize modern business intelligence that drives data driven decision making. By working with a cloud-based low latency platform that enables extracting intelligence seamlessly, anyone within the organization is able to connect to data while performing unique modeling, digestible visualization, and deliver actionable insights.

These steps are true cloud enablement that not only better serve the organization operationally but more importantly help interpret emerging trends with front end consumers and customer wants and needs. Whether on-premises, hybrid, or entirely in the cloud, harnessing the elasticity and power of data and artificial intelligence (AI) presents new opportunities for each business domain and organization to improve the speed and accuracy of how data is modeled, governed, and abstracted from the underlying platform that enables revenue growth and cost efficiency.

3. Find the pulse of your audience. Segmentation and mobility are a reality more so than ever before, as are new consumer habits that will likely remain, if not increase, post-pandemic. Traditional media companies now find themselves in new and emerging markets with the explosion of virtual reality, gaming, celebrity generated posts and social influencers as well as every day folks producing very engaging and addicting content on Snap, Reels, TikTok and countless others. The quest to find an audience of one is even more elusive and fan engagement is increasingly competitive.

The development of faster and more reliable networks, especially the extensive rollout of 5G, will certainly drive the need for more immersive content. Even more so, given the accelerated pace of the Internet of Things (IoT) connected devices becoming ubiquitous to our everyday lives, the upside for Media is to serve content on any device any where be it in our connected homes, cars, workplace or favorite entertainment venues.

According to Statista, “The total installed base of Internet of Things (IoT) connected devices worldwide is projected to amount to 30.9 billion units by 2025, a sharp jump from the 13.8 billion units that are expected in 2021, almost 4 IoT devices per person on average.” Embracing this new paradigm is a crucial opportunity for Media and Entertainment especially as more platforms emerge hungry for content.

The industry has proven itself to be resilient with remote broadcasts, virtual productions, streaming platforms launched, and sporting events won, all during a very disruptive time in history. Business signals from operational data telemetry coupled with consumer behaviors, captured and visualized, enable more interpretable and meaningful insights that will drive the future. Those insights will help redefine end-to-end content creation and omnichannel distribution; empower employees and workplaces; better connect remote studio workers on location; and enable more seamless collaboration cross-teams and cross-divisions.

Technology and tech intensity has played a vital role, and will continue to do so, in how Media & Entertainment defines itself going forward. Consumers are no longer solely voyeuristic but active participants in content creation and distribution. As that power paradigm shifts, it certainly gives pause. Data, in all of its facets, will help dictate market longevity, true innovation, and rich, loyal customer interactions almost anywhere on the planet and beyond.

Microsoft empowers media and entertainment organizations to achieve more with our powerful and flexible development platforms supported by a comprehensive partner ecosystem with industry-leading solutions for creativity, collaboration, content management, audience insights, and personalized customer experiences.

Learn more about intelligent media and entertainment to see how the capabilities of solutions from Microsoft and our partners have optimized workflows, streamlined content delivery, and deepened audience engagement for the likes of Digital Domain, Waave, Wunderman+Thompson, the NFL, LaLiga, and Thomson Reuters.

The post 3 data-driven strategies that drive digital optimization appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Over the past 18 months, organizations in media & entertainment and telecommunications turned to digital technologies for the resilience and agility necessary to maintain business continuity and, in many instances, simply survive. With a host of lessons now learned—and with a marketplace that has been forever changed—the urgency for these two industries to continue to transform at scale has never been greater.

Forces driving transformation in media & entertainment and telecommunications

The forces that continue to accelerate the pace of transformation in media & entertainment and telecommunications organizations include:

Telco’s transition from connectivity provider to digital service provider. The erosion of traditional telco business models continues due to innovative and non-traditional competitors, as well as ever-increasing customer expectations for personalization, immediacy, and choice. Greater importance is now being placed on the development of digital ecosystems to expand the reach and scope of business models, with telcos providing connectivity for new products and services co-created with ISV’s, hyperscale cloud providers, device manufacturers, enterprise customers, and other strategic partners.

The development of industry-specific edge services. The capabilities of 5G open up a new world of low-latency edge services targeted at specific industries including agriculture, retail, automotive, manufacturing, healthcare, gaming, entertainment, and many more. 5G will provide low-latency connectivity to autonomous vehicles and devices, facilitate highly tailored service agreements through dedicated network slices, support high-density sensory devices for industrial IoT, and enable the deployment of advanced private mobile solutions.

Scaling and accelerating content creation and production. In response to the explosion of (in particular) video consumption across traditional and OTT/D2C channels, media and entertainment organizations must scale and accelerate their content production workflows to meet audience demands for new content. At the same time, organizations must look for every opportunity to reduce cost, better manage and monetize assets, and enable productivity and collaboration amongst remote and distributed teams—all while maintaining the security of their high-value creative IP.

Making better use of data to create differentiation and drive monetization. In many media & entertainment and telecommunications organizations, data is often siloed which creates governance inconsistencies and value gaps due to the lack of end-to-end visibility—a challenge that often leads to an inability to extract business and consumer insights that can inform decision-making across the entire value chain. What’s more, the increased importance of OTT/D2C channels further underscores the need to more deeply understand audience preferences and behaviors—and to “do more with data” in general—to better personalize and monetize content and experiences.

Five essential business outcomes for each industry

To address these and other challenges and opportunities, media & entertainment and telecommunication business leaders must remain focused on the business outcomes necessary to maximize operational agility and efficiency, optimize collaboration and productivity across all teams and partners, increase relevance and deepen engagement with customers, and speed the design and delivery of innovative new products and services.

For media & entertainment organizations, these essential business outcomes are:

1. Streamlining content production. Accelerating production workflows and scaling content creation with industry-leading tools, intelligent processes, and automation on an open and secure platform.
2. Enhancing creativity and collaboration. Empowering individuals and teams with intelligent and secure tools for anywhere, anytime productivity, collaboration, and teamwork.
3. Optimizing content discoverability and delivery. Improving content management, distribution, and monetization through automated processes on an intelligent and secure cloud.
4. Transforming audience and content intelligence. Simplifying access to insights from multi-channel data to drive informed, proactive decision-making.
5. Reimagining and monetizing experiences. Deepening fan and audience engagement with personalized, connected, and immersive experiences across all channels, platforms, and venues.

For telecommunications organizations, the five essential outcomes are:

1. Empowering the Telco workforce. Enabling secure teamwork across employees, suppliers, and partners with intelligent tools for anywhere, anytime productivity and collaboration.
2. Streamlining operations and business support systems. Simplifying workflows and realizing operational efficiencies through cloud-native applications, intelligent processes, and automation on a trusted and secure cloud.
3. Deploying and optimizing next-gen networks. Using the power of a carrier grade, hybrid cloud to reduce cost, improve network efficiency, scalability, and reliability, and grow revenue.
4. Transforming customer experiences. Using data-driven insights and AI to enhance care, deliver personalized content and experiences, and earn customers for life.
5. Accelerating innovation and growth. Building new revenue streams with an AI-enabled platform for the rapid development, deployment, and monetization of innovative cross-industry edge and IoT services.

Our approach to media & entertainment and telecommunications

Microsoft’s approach to the media & entertainment and telecommunications industries is core to our mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Guided by the four key principles of business model alignment, customer ownership and control of data, industry customization, and an unmatched partner ecosystem, we are working to ensure that every M&E and telco organization has the tech intensity required to succeed going forward.

Learn more about intelligent media and entertainment to see how solutions from Microsoft and our partners have optimized workflows, streamlined content delivery, and deepened audience engagement for the likes of Digital Domain, Waave, the BBC, Wunderman Thompson, the NFL, LaLiga, and Thomson Reuters.

And, learn more about intelligent telecommunications to see how Microsoft and our partners have increased productivity, streamlined operations, optimized networks, and accelerated innovation for industry leaders such as AT&T, Etisalat, Deutsche Telekom, Telefónica, Telstra, and Vodafone.

The post 5 essential business outcomes for media and telco organizations appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Customer centricity has been at the heart of Microsoft’s enterprise mission and perhaps that focus in no more important than right now within the media and entertainment (M&E) industry. The last 18 months has certainly driven several changes in media consumption habits along with the processes and tools companies are using to continue to produce new material in a very different way. While many of the changes over this time have been significant, perhaps the one that is most significant and the most persistent is the increasing role data plays in supporting decisioning and how new data entities are being created through these new consumption habits. Over the last 6 months Microsoft and PwC have been listening to the voices inside M&E organizations to help gauge how the data landscape has changed and what can be done to support these companies going forward. In sights and recommendations drawn from these conversations with industry leaders have been documented in a new whitepaper, now available for download.

This process involved interviewing executives, data scientists and strategic advisors focused on the media and entertainment industry. The takeaway from this was that companies are no longer concerned about the ability to generate vast libraries of data. Rather, these companies are focused on the ability to generate insight from this data. Indeed, this was being limited by several consistent pain points.

• Privacy. Consumer knowledge and engagement around the use of data and personal privacy has changed. Add to this GDPR, CCPA and other regulations have made the collection (and storage) of personally identifiable information (PII) more difficult thus making personalization tasks based on purely in house data has become much harder.
• Volume. The sheer size of company data has created storage overheads along with process problems that can now lead to a greater amount of time being used on data collection rather than data for insight.
• Granularity. Companies in the media and entertainment space still want to be able to offer personalized experiences through persona creation but the increasing level of granularity required to generate these narrower and narrower segmentations is proving difficult.
• Quality. In connection with issues around the volume of data needed, there are also the overheads spent on cleaning data so it can actually be usable in any insight generation.
• Unification. Understandably there are many larger M&E organizations who still have problems getting data unified across their whole landscape and federation of data across different platforms can also create downstream implications.

The validation of these pain points lead directly to the creation of the consumer knowledge graph. As an aggregator of cross-company data, the consumer knowledge graph is a creation designed to address these problems directly by focusing on level of insight rather than volume of data. Granted, a concept such as this will require companies to become comfortable with both data sharing and data monetization, however, the benefits of this way of working are likely to make that business transition easier. Once an organization has agreed that value lies in the analytics and models that sit on top of the data rather than the data itself, the benefits of this new model start to become clear.

So, what if you have lots of data but no way of generating any real insight? What if you know your data is incomplete and therefore any insight being generated is based on only a portion of the information available? What if data availability across systems is preventing your media company from taking a single view of each customer you have? And what is the cost of never being able to connect the sentiment of your customers back into your content creation process? This is where the consumer knowledge graph comes in.

The consumer knowledge graph will:

• Help organizations keep data anonymous and build trust.
• Allow ever more refined persona creation.
• Help break down interorganizational silos as data can be fed into the consumer graph from multiple business units with insight then shared across multiple functions.
• Drive a more diverse thought process by ensuring that individual bias is not overstated as data is coming from multiple sources.
• Creates an easier to manage data process as data storage and third-party data aggregation tactics are less relevant.
• Enable a more holistic view of consumers that would not be possible through a data set from a single organization.

Microsoft and PwC are already underway in the development of a proof of concept and conversations are taking place with early adopting companies on how this can be integrated into their processes and built upon. Throughout this process the hypothesis has been “that a consumer graph deriving insight centrally based on multiple cross organizational data sources would not only provide better customer segmentation, but it would also drive new opportunities for the integrated organizations.” While this is a vision for the future, if the last 18 months has taught us anything, it’s that the future may become the present before we know it.

If this is a topic you would like to know more about, I encourage you to read the new whitepaper Consumer Knowledge Graphs for Media Companies, and to also connect with me and other members of Microsoft’s Media & Entertainment team.

Microsoft empowers media and entertainment organizations to achieve more with our powerful and flexible development platforms supported by a comprehensive partner ecosystem with industry-leading solutions for creativity, collaboration, content management, audience insights, and personalized customer experiences.

Learn more about intelligent media and entertainment to see how the capabilities of solutions from Microsoft and our partners have optimized workflows, streamlined content delivery, and deepened audience engagement for the likes of Digital Domain, Waave, Wunderman+Thompson, the NFL, LaLiga, and Thomson Reuters.

The post Driving next gen insights and segmentation through the consumer knowledge graph appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs.

Like 72 percent of organizations¹, Telcos have long had customer experience (CX) top of mind and been investing to drive revenue growth.

In 2008, when I started my career as a Telecom consultant, my first project “Data is Key” set to identify the data key to power a new business intelligence (BI) engine. This engine, combined with a single customer identity across all business units, was a first step to facilitate a better, more lucrative experience for customers.

Next, a multi-year program was launched, building new data capabilities, streamlining billing streets and CRM systems. Today, they face the same core challenges, just every more complex and with a less forgiving, outspoken set of social-media active customers.

In 2019, their top management changed. This new team was curious, prepared to challenge the status quo, and ask hard questions. Why do we need a billing street? Netflix doesn’t need one. Many why’s later, eyes opened and the foundation for their 2021 strategy was set—focused on customer experience and continuous digital transformation.

While this story is similar for many Operators, we do encourage you to join the leading Telcos who made transforming the Customer Experience their core priority. We know how hard it is to constantly question whether the company is reaching its potential, to be never complacent.² At Microsoft this is ingrained in our culture. Satya refers to this as ‘Growth Mindset’. It’s about every one of us having that attitude—that mindset—being able to overcome any constraint, stand up to any challenge, making it possible for us to grow, and thereby, for the company to grow.³

Fortunately, a set of unlikely forces recently came together, creating an imminent opportunity for Operators to do something profound. These forces are:

1. Customers experience their Telcom providers as disjoined organizations, unable to meet their needs and issues in these challenging times.⁴
2. Operators must make costly investments in 5G spectrum and infrastructure. Adoption is slow and consumers are unwilling to pay the fees that would economically warrant these investments.
3. The conventional consumer behavior and expectations due to the pandemic and fueled by experiences with digital native businesses have changed at a primary level.
4. The evolution in intelligent cloud and edge technology.

Together, they shape the perfect storm for you to rethink the intended experience and to transform your B2C capabilities into new B2B revenue streams. Do this well, and these changes shall create sustainable differentiation.

Microsoft’s strategy to transform the CX is designed to help Operators outpace the competition and outperform customers’ evolving expectations, comprising three levers:

1. Next-Gen customer satisfaction with intentional and memorable experiences.
2. Customer service as a sustainable differentiator across their journey.
3. Data is key, but actionable insights in the moment are what you need.

The definitions that follow underpin our strategy.

Customer experience: the customer’s cognitive, emotional, behavioral, sensorial, and social responses to an Operator’s offerings during interactions across the entire purchase journey⁵, Telefonica and Vivo’s “Aura” serve as an example.

Customer satisfaction: a customer’s emotional response that reflects the degree in which the outcome met the customer’s expectations and needs for a specific service experience⁶, Telia is transforming to increase customer comfort.

Customer intimacy: a holistic set of tailored experiences that cater to the individual needs and expectations of a customer, aimed at driving a customer’s loyalty and advocacy.⁷ Vodafone’s TOBi, illustrates how technology can help build customer intimacy as part of a larger journey.

Customer journey management: a firm’s capability of effectively using actionable psychological, economical, and behavioral insights, combined with technology, to develop customer intimacy, the intended CX, and lead to maximum customer satisfaction.

Next-Gen customer satisfaction with intentional and memorable experiences

Imagine placing a video call to get some help in making a purchase decision or to solve an issue. There is no queue. You get to immediately speak with the brand’s face. A beautiful animation, with its trusted and original voice, “How can I help?”

Imagine, having a real conversation, persistent and carried as if you were speaking with a real person. And the best thing, you carry this experience in your pocket for help anywhere, anytime. This isn’t science fiction; this is real.

We understand though, that relying purely on technology inherits business risk. Hence, at Microsoft we believe in always creating a seamless augmented presence.

Augmentation blends the physical and virtual worlds as such they become a seamless reality. Presence is the psychological stage that focuses the customer. The medium used to get to this stage, is the intelligent technology. Presence can be triggered by reading a book, listening to a song, and by virtual interactions.⁸

When the limit of these tech-interactions is reached, a human agent backfills, a seamless transition in the same presence, assuring that the customer’s outcome is met while the technology learns from the agent’s interaction and body language.

Microsoft brings you the metaverse of cloud capabilities that facilitates such interactions. Ranging from Augmented Reality on smartphones to fully immersive Mixed Reality via the Hololens, backed by an always learning knowledge base, neural voice fonts, and high-quality AI powered animations that embody natural language and enact body language to evoke the intended emotional response.

Brands like Salvatore Ferragamo, AT&T with Bugs Bunny, and Progressive Insurance are just a few examples who realized that Microsoft is at the forefront of immersive technology and offers the best cross-platform mixed reality solutions.⁹

Early adopters will foster customer intimacy by creating next generation, highly memorable, customer experiences.

Customer service as a sustainable differentiator across their journey

Not every problem can be solved this way. The complex landscape wherein Operators find themselves, includes a wealth of possibilities that could be at the root of customers’ issues.

Solving the issue first time right is essential. Whether a service agent needs to visit the customer, a BTS site, etc. you must ensure that the visit is productive and solves the issue.

By creating an Always On service experience your team can succeed at once. All required knowledge, contacts, and real-time expertise is at their fingertips. Saving you cost and driving customer satisfaction.

Imagine having to deal with a complex repair, while the engineer on-site just recently started with your company. He uses Hololens and contacts the expert, working together, they are able to collaborate in real-time and explore different scenarios to implement the right fix.

Next, a moment of truth for customer intimacy. A customer, John, enters one of your stores. Highly frustrated and after a nearly twenty-minute wait, he reaches the desk of the assigned representative, Jane. A heated conversation follows, Jane is left flustered and unable to deal with John. She missed the opportunity to evoke a satisfactory emotional response and John left furiously.

This can easily be avoided. What if, you could better prepare your staff for these situations? What if, they could learn these skills at the convenience from your store or their home, with real-time feedback about the use of language, their body language, their knowledge, etc. Why not have them practice in a safe environment so that they can shine when their moment comes?

Both scenarios are feasible today. But what is perhaps more important, all discussed scenarios present a new revenue opportunity for your B2B business. You will already have created the right to play, showcasing your capabilities across your consumer business. Moreover, let’s monetize your big data by merging data-driven insights into a complete portfolio of B2B solutions and services—creating sustainable differentiation across your consumer and enterprise businesses.

Data is key, but actionable insights in the moment are what you need

The real-time nature of the discussed scenarios, require real-time actionable insights and intelligence. While the cloud provides everything you need, it is at a distance. A subset of these services must be at the intelligent edge for both your consumer experience and the enterprise B2B offerings.

Microsoft’s Azure Edge Zones with Operators—an infrastructure service that is an extension of Azure public cloud—brings the Edge into your 5G infrastructure combined with the power of the cloud, enabling the last mile. Combined these capabilities offer a complete package for your B2C and B2B business needs.

How to get started

1. Setup an empowered cross-organization task force in charge of customer journey management, end-to-end.
2. Operate holistically—based on the selected target customer segments —discover, analyze, and define the problem. Respect the premise that the problem is not any individual touchpoint but the journey as a whole.
3. Prepare a lightweight business case that defines the intended CX outcomes from a financial perspective.
4. Design the first solutions, expand the solution space—leverage Microsoft’s highly skilled experts to ideate and envision the art of the possible whilst being pragmatic and outcome focused.
5. Jointly, both organizations to develop the first set of prototypes and decide on the best path forward.
6. Develop and architect the solution in a repeatable and extensible format to benefit the immediate needs of the consumer business and to facilitate seamless adoption for enterprise B2B customers.

One final recommendation, across the six steps, ensure actual customers are involved, early and frequently to validate assumptions and to learn what works and what doesn’t.

In anticipation for the next article, please enjoy watching how Microsoft is enabling operators to deliver IoT solutions with 5G and learn more about Intelligent Telecommunications

.

References:

¹ VanBoskirk, S. (July 2019). Prioritize Customer Value, Not Just Customer Experience. Forrester Blog.

² Radicioni B. (October 2019). How Microsoft got its Groove Back. Babson Thought and Action.

³  Nadella. S. (2017). Hit Refresh, Employee Edition. HarperCollins Publishers.

⁴ Singapore Management University (June 2021). Info-Comm Sector’s Customer Satisfaction Declined by 4% in 2021. Newroom.

⁵ Adapted from Lemon, K.N. and Verhoef, P.C. (2016). Understanding Customer Experience Throughout the Customer Journey. Journal of Marketing.

⁶ Adapted from Bae S., Jung, T.H, Moorhouse, N., Suh, M., Kwon, O. The influence of mixed reality on satisfaction and brand loyalty in cultural heritage attractions: A brand equity perspective. Sustainability 2020, 12, 2956.

⁷Deloitte (November 2019). Experience selling: The future of B2B sales. Deloitte Digital.

⁸ Flavian, C., Ibanez-Sanchez, S., and Orus, C. (2018). The impact of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality technologies on the customer experience. Journal of Business Research.

⁹Hypothesis Group and Microsoft. (2020). Mixed Reality Intelligence. Manufacturing Edition.

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