The Department of Defense Enterprise Software Initiative (DoD ESI) and Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) have awarded Microsoft a $1.76 billion, five-year indefinite delivery indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract to provide innovative enterprise services to the DoD, Intelligence Community and U.S. Coast Guard, enabling and accelerating the DoD digital transformation strategy and pivot to the cloud, ultimately enhancing mission success.

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This Microsoft Services IDIQ will allow us to help enable these government agencies to both accelerate their adoption of cloud solutions, while also helping drive transformation throughout their organizations.

With over 40 years of experience and partnership with the DoD built on trust, the IDIQ expands the relationship to make the following Microsoft engineering and technology strategy support available, including:

• Enterprise-wide and organization-specific architectural planning, solution design and innovation, and infrastructure optimization
• Implementation, deployment and knowledge transfer of Microsoft products, cloud technologies and network solutions support
• Access to technical support, problem resolution, solution workshops, strategic guidance
• Assistance to customers with technical issues pertaining to developing cloud, intranet, internet strategies, prototyping and implementation and development of solutions spanning infrastructure and application areas.

Access to these services will enable the DoD to gain the hands-on support they need to quickly adopt the latest enterprise-class innovations, extend them all the way to the tactical edge, and optimize their general-purpose cloud to support the missions of the DoD, Intelligence Community and U.S. Coast Guard.

Today’s IDIQ award is directed by the DoD ESI, an official DoD initiative sponsored by the Defense Department’s chief information officer to lead in establishing and managing enterprise commercial-off-the-shelf information technology agreements, assets and policies. DoD ESI lowers the total cost of ownership across the DoD, Coast Guard and Intelligence Community for commercial software, IT hardware and services.

For official details about the contract, please visit the DoD’s contracts site for January 11, 2019.

For additional information about Microsoft’s commitment to empower government agencies to transform, modernize, innovate, gain efficiencies and cost savings, and achieve their missions while meeting rigorous security and compliance requirements please:

• Discover why 80 percent of U.S. government agencies use Azure and get started with Microsoft’s cloud
• Download our Defense Cloud e-book

Visit Microsoft in government and Microsoft Services.

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Barcelona may be one of the world’s major global centers for tourism, the economy, trade and culture but, starting today, it’s the apex for smart cities. Our Microsoft CityNext team and partners are excited to join government and civic leaders as well as experts at the Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC2018) to address key issues facing cities, including:

• Enhancing urban mobility
• Building smarter infrastructure
• Improving citizen and social care
• Strengthening public safety.

Innovations for smart cities

While the Internet of Things (IoT) has been part of smart cities strategy from the early days, we are now reaching a tipping point where these solutions can be created at scale and securely, using sophisticated models and artificial intelligence capabilities to improve our work and personal lives across these scenarios. Microsoft is bringing its leading capabilities from the intelligent cloud to the intelligent edge into these solutions.

This approach for creating intelligent, connected smart cities results in digital transformations and services that address priorities, better serve citizens, and enable more sustainable, prosperous and inclusive communities. For example, the convergence of the cloud, AI and IoT is behind our new Azure Digital Twins service, which allows cities and other customers to model the relationships and interactions among people, places and devices before connecting devices to that model. Learn more about Digital Twins here.

During the recent IoT Solutions World Congress, we announced that IoT has the potential to create more efficient and vibrant cities by providing new insights and approaches to transportation and traffic, energy reduction, construction, utilities, parking and much more. Learn how our IoT solutions are enabling transformations here.

In another indication that the Azure cloud continues gaining momentum, Moovit, the world’s largest urban mobility data and analytics company and No. 1 transit app, announced last week that it will integrate its sophisticated API data into Azure Maps. This partnership provides a comprehensive mapping solution that brings together location awareness with public transit data, enabling developers to build richer apps requiring public transportation routing services—such as city planning around public transit, multi-modal routing and HOV or toll-road avoidance route optimization—helping cities harness intelligence to minimize urban congestion and reduce their carbon footprint.

Cities transforming with the cloud, AI and IoT

During SCEWC2018, Microsoft will join city leaders, solution experts and partners to showcase modern solutions built on our cloud, AI and IoT. These powerful technologies are enabling “intelligent cities” across the U.S. and around the world, for example:

• Antwerp, Belgium, chose Microsoft Azure-based Be-Mobile technology to build its SlimNaarAntwerp platform, which is providing citizens with a mobility-as-a-service solution to identify an optimum trip, combining different means of transportation—car, train, shared bikes and on foot. The plan is to avoid 20,000 car movements to Antwerp’s city center during rush hours while improving satisfaction.
• Denver is aggressively embracing and testing new and better ways to deploy technology and using data to improve services for residents, businesses and visitors. Building on Azure and other Microsoft technologies, the Mile-High City is in the middle of a four-year, $12 million smart city program to reduce traffic congestion, improve pedestrian safety and enhance quality of life, particularly in underserved communities.
• Espoo, Finland, is a hub of technology and business innovation, and the city wants to deliver public services that are just as innovative. To better understand the service needs of its 282,000 citizens, Espoo together with software and services company Tieto built an experimental City-as-a-Service platform that combines Tieto’s AI and advanced analytics know-how with cloud services from Microsoft Azure. A challenge is how to offer the right services in the right time for the right customers in predictive ways. To do that, Espoo needed a platform that could process more than 500 million rows of data—from social and healthcare, daycare services and other agency records—at any one time. The successful experiment demonstrated that the city can use the platform to predict which citizens may need social welfare services, provide services proactively—and deliver far better outcomes.
• Houston is partnering with Microsoft to drive the city forward with technology innovations that address key priorities, including disaster recovery and response, building and school safety, and more efficient, capable transportation, as shown in this video. For example, using our cloud-powered IoT hub, AI and Cognitive Services, Houston is deploying a connected buses solution to provide internet access to riders and increase safety by: installing a driver panic button to get help with onboard medical emergencies or altercations, a fleet management system to confirm buses are being driven safely and an alert to identify near-term maintenance requirements that help prevent breakdowns.

Join these 12 Azure Digital Twin and Azure Map partners at SCEWC2018

These 12 CityNext partners, along with 20 additional partners, are joining us in Barcelona to showcase solutions built on our platform to support smart city initiatives and modernization projects around the world:

Connect with us—at SCEWC2018 or your city

Microsoft CityNext looks forward to connecting with city leaders attending SCEWC2018 this week. We invite you to join us at the Intelligent Cities Forum at Smart City Expo, hosted in the East Agora from 4 to 7 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 13. During this fast-paced agenda, city leaders, solution experts and Microsoft executives will showcase​ industry-leading, modern technology to enable intelligent cities. We’ll highlight areas such as smart infrastructure, urban mobility, social care and public safety in the context of two critical scenarios. This forum will focus on the “how” of building an intelligent city and provide you with real examples to ​implement today. Tapas and refreshments provided.

We also welcome the opportunity to help your city find its path to digital transformation with our cloud, AI and IoT solutions. To get started, please utilize these additional resources:

• Visit our CityNext site and take our digital transformation assessment.
• Read the Gartner IoT report Three Rules When Using AI to Add Value to Your IoT Smart Cities.
• Download the complimentary infographic on Powering Smart Cities with AI and IoT.

Learn how AI is transforming industries around the world by reading the Intelligent Economies: AI’s Transformation of Industries and Societies Report by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

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U.S. state and local governments are transforming how employees collaborate and redefining teamwork with digital innovations that deliver efficiencies and better services to citizens. This transformation is even more impressive considering that cities, counties and states face the same workplace collaboration issues as all organizations, with the added challenge of remaining in compliance with rigorous privacy, security and other regulations enforced by the federal government.

Empowering government collaboration

Here are a few examples of how cloud-based collaboration and communications capabilities are empowering organizations across the nation to modernize, streamline daily work, drive greater efficiency and productivity, and improve citizen services:

• With hurricanes, forest fires and other natural disasters capturing headlines, states need to quickly deal with emergencies that put people, neighborhoods and infrastructure at risk. State agencies working on a recent emergency response used Microsoft Teams for the U.S. Government Community Cloud (GCC) to collaborate, communicate and share updates as the devastation and recovery efforts progressed. The real-time coordination enabled the state’s leadership to make faster, more informed decisions about public safety, determine when evacuated residents could return to their homes and announce disaster recovery efforts.
• Washington’s King County and the State of Illinois are addressing an ongoing trend in government: loss of institutional knowledge. A large portion of Illinois state employees will retire in the next few years and recent research by the Center for State and Local Government Excellence reflects that government retirements are increasing at the same time it’s becoming more difficult to fill key positions. King County and the Land of Lincoln are building knowledge repositories of experienced professionals, documenting best practices and helping a new generation of employees get up to speed quickly through Microsoft Teams. With a complete chat and online meetings solution in place, both entities also are better able to attract and retain new talent that expects modern, user-friendly workplace tools.
• A large city and county committed to inclusivity wanted to ensure its website content could be easily consumed by people with dyslexia, color blindness and other disabilities. By leveraging the latest Office 365 accessibility functionality, these municipalities are demonstrating what it means to be an inclusive government that embraces equality.

Learn more: Oct. 24 virtual event

It’s exciting to see city, county and state government decision-makers using trusted cloud solutions to innovate, achieve their missions and fulfill the expectations of constituents. To learn more, please join the Transform collaboration in government with Microsoft Teams virtual event at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET, Wednesday, Oct. 24. Speakers from King County, the State of Illinois, other governments and Microsoft will share the most recent developments and challenges in workplace collaboration and how to enable more efficient teamwork.

To register for the Oct. 24 virtual event and find additional information, please visit Transform collaboration in government with Microsoft Teams, Oct. 24

Additional resources: 

• Microsoft Teams for the U.S. Government Community Cloud
• Microsoft Teams: Meet the hub for teamwork in Office 365
• Start planning your implementation at https://successwithteams.com to get the most from Teams.

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This year at Smart City Expo World Congress, the industry-leading event for urbanization, Microsoft will showcase leaders and technologies enabling the digital transformation of smart cities. This blog post is the first in a series about how a connected city—powered by our intelligent cloud and intelligent edge platform—can be more sustainable, prosperous, and inclusive.

We’ll be hosting an Intelligent Cities Forum bringing together city leaders, solution experts, and Microsoft executives to showcase how to build smart cities with industry-leading technologies. To attend this immersive forum, be sure to RSVP here.

It’s amazing to think that by 2045, the world’s urban population will increase 1.5 times—to 6 billion people. More people will generate a corresponding growth of challenges: from increased levels of traffic congestion, to strained city water and sewage systems. To keep citizens satisfied and infrastructure running efficiently, urban areas must explore how existing and emerging technologies can help them digitally transform to be more sustainable, accessible, prosperous, and livable for different populations—modelling the future of cities.

At SCEWC2018, Microsoft and our CityNext partners will showcase our main strategies, built on innovative technologies for the global smart cities initiative: optimizing urban mobility, building smarter infrastructure, and improving citizen and social care.

Optimize urban mobility

Most municipalities today suffer from road congestion, expensive maintenance, and high energy consumption. In Auckland, New Zealand alone, roughly 800 cars are added to the city’s roadways every week with a 1.4 million population expected to double by 2025.

To combat the environmental and economic consequences of crowded roads, Auckland Transport developed a smart city transformation strategy using IoT, predictive analytics, and social listening to improve mobility and accommodate growth potential. After partnering with Microsoft Services, Auckland Transport now operates on a hybrid cloud infrastructure to provide world-class citizen services and utilizes an app to track passengers’ preferred routes, receive notifications for street repairs, and suggest real-time detours for commuters.

With advanced analytics and IoT solutions, urban environments can minimize congestion and pollution, reduce maintenance costs, and empower economic productivity and success. Optimizing urban mobility for intelligent transportation systems means connecting citizens to a variety of adaptive mobility options, breaking down data siloes, providing real-time journey options, and implementing proactive intelligent assets.

Cities that optimize urban mobility constantly improve and maintain their underlying infrastructure, from roads to pipelines.

Build smarter infrastructure

Obsolete facilities and systems pose safety and health risks to populations and their economies. Proactive maintenance and appraisal help prevent public incidents: $360 billion can be saved over the next 15 years with a global annual investment of just $6 million in infrastructure preparedness.

Innovative technology supports a more productive work environment that optimizes the use of resources and reduces utility costs. To make a positive global impact and ensure occupant satisfaction, cities must improve system efficiencies throughout buildings, use automation and data analytics for remote monitoring, leverage predictive maintenance, and optimize space usage.

Florida’s Miami-Dade County Water and Sewer Department (WASD) is improving the way they supply and manage wastewater transported through 6,000 miles of piping for nearly 400,000 residents. By utilizing IoT and intelligent sensors to gather data on water pressure, flow rates, and rainfall, WASD now processes huge volumes of data and proactively pinpoints and responds to issues within hours which helps deliver water more efficiently and prevent loss of valuable water. Predictive maintenance capabilities also help prevent catastrophic leaks and waste, empowering more sustainable pipe networks.

With greener infrastructure, governments increase citizen satisfaction by minimizing downtime and maximizing efficiency.

Improve citizen and social care

As the elderly population grows, medical and accessibility demands put an increasing strain on the delivery of health and social services. It becomes more important than ever to engage citizens where they are and to provide easier access to high-quality services. Government institutions that provide a great digital experience drive a 58 percent increase in citizen trust and engagement.

To ensure citizen well-being and to protect aging populations, smart cities are leveraging new technologies in the care continuum to deliver better social care, social housing, and healthcare. In 2015, 6.9 million people over the age of 75 were living alone in the US, which will nearly double to 13.4 million by 2035. To support healthy living in the United Kingdom, the Safehouse Liverpool project deployed 2,000 IoT devices to council and housing association homes to capture data on temperature, sound, humidity, and electricity—enabling preemptive action to improve living conditions. This smart city initiative empowers tenants to live independently for longer by preventing property degradation and identifying health risks like mold. In-home IoT solutions provide opportunities for better social care and improved quality of life for elders and other at-risk populations while preventing costly hospital visits.

Los Angeles’ digital transformation effort to improve the urban citizen experience is seen with their launch of a cloud-based, spatially-enabled mobile solution. It has been designed to help citizens easily initiate a service request ticket to report cleanup issues and improve sanitation services.

We see smart cities embracing digital transformation to bridge the gap between citizens and government by enhancing citizen and social care. By improving transportation, infrastructure, and citizen engagement with technology, urban areas are leading the future of sustainable city living.

Visit Microsoft at this year’s Smart City Expo

Microsoft delivers a leading-edge approach for creating intelligent cities through digital transformation. To learn more about how Microsoft is creating a better future for tomorrow’s citizens:

1. Attend the Microsoft CityNext Intelligent Cities Forum on Tuesday, November 13^th from 4-7PM, where city leaders will learn how to utilize existing and emerging technologies to connect systems and create the fabric of our future society.
2. Visit our booth at the 2018 Smart City Expo at Gran Via, Hall P2, Stand 213 to see innovative partner solutions.
3. Attend Tuesday’s Thematic Keynote: Future of Mobility—Urban Mobility 5 Years From Now, as well as our plenary keynote on Wednesday from 11:30AM-12:30PM: The City We Want: Resource-Efficient, Resilient and Sustainable. To learn more about Microsoft’s presence at Smart City Expo, visit here.

Learn more and connect with us on the Microsoft CityNext website.

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