It was great to connect with so many of you in person and virtually at Ignite, Microsoft’s annual gathering of developers and IT professionals. While acknowledging the business implications of the current macroeconomic challenges, attendees remain committed to maximizing the value of their digital investments by leveraging economies of scale with the Microsoft Cloud. Doing more with less is more important than ever as companies navigate uncertainty and shape the future. Cloud-based technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and machine learning provide organizations with unprecedented agility and efficiency, accelerating innovation and ensuring end-to-end security while fueling growth and driving sustainability commitments.
At Ignite, we showcased how companies are helping people embrace digital opportunities to improve their personal and professional lives: The German carmaker Mercedes Benz infinitely simulates and refines its vehicle production processes on the Microsoft cloud to make its car production 20% more efficient by 2025. In order to provide mutual customers with more choice, Cisco and Microsoft provide the ability to run Microsoft Teams natively on Cisco room and desk devices. 3M offers its publish it® App on the Teams App Store that allows users to digitize handwritten notes. UK based Haleon enables blind or partially sighted people to hear the labels of more than 1,500 consumer healthcare products in the US and UK using Microsoft Seeing AI. With a redesigned global app running on Azure, the NBA offers fans new personalization features such as in-depth content from every NBA game and an unprecedented behind-the-scenes look at players and teams. And just last week, the Swiss-based global bank UBS announced it will move over 50% of its applications to Azure as its primary cloud platform to further modernize its global technology portfolio.
Industry leaders unlock economies of scale with public cloud commitments
The cult brand of motorsport McLaren automobile is committed to exceptional customer service and uses Azure for its production and development systems, achieving cost savings of up to 70% by reserving resources for dedicated use on a one- or three-year basis. Global manufacturer Mars runs about 10,000 cloud flows and 4,000 apps, and uses Power Platform to automate processes, including enterprise-wide approvals. telecommunications company O2 Czech Republic reduces total cost of ownership by 30% for any workload moved from its on-premises infrastructure to Azure. Manufacturer from Taiwan inventor improves production efficiency with Azure IoT, machine learning and 5G services, saving 50% in deployment time for its AI and automated optical inspection application and 25% in maintenance effort. With Power BI, based in Denmark G.N increased the quality of its data by about 50% in just three quarters. The Greece-based energy company still has its cloud migration underway HELLENIC PETROLEUM Group has already seen a 30% reduction in IT infrastructure costs after migrating 50% of its workloads to Azure. Bahrain Public Transport Company offers its customers more timeliness and reliability while reducing costs by 30% with Azure.
Organizations are reinventing their operations for a greener future
Coca-Cola Hellenic adopts the industrial metaverse with HoloLens and Microsoft Mesh to visualize its bottling plants and gain transparency across production lines. The technology also enables the company to reduce its energy consumption based on insights into the operating status of machines and their carbon emissions. equinor is designing products and simulating their effectiveness before implementing them in the physical world. With Microsoft Energy Data Services and Azure, the Norway-based energy company is breaking down data silos to optimize operations for a low-carbon future. Energy company based in Germany AEON Accelerates the rollout of sustainable district heating and cooling networks by training its models 50% faster with Azure Data Factory and Azure Machine Learning. Telstra aims to help corporate, government and small business customers in Australia accelerate their sustainability progress and business growth through data insights powered by Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability. Canada based Power generation in Ontario chooses Azure to modernize its applications and IT infrastructure, ultimately reducing its carbon footprint by accelerating its cloud migration and transforming its business operations. The company has also joined the CEO Pledge initiative to provide its technology to the Canadian government’s Computers for Schools Plus program.
AI is the bridge to re-engage People in physical and digital worlds
UK based Barclays uses Microsoft Teams to bring its employees closer together around the world. Unit is working with Microsoft to enable digital creators, 3D artists, and developers to build and run 3D experiences in real time on Azure, facilitating publishing to Xbox consoles and PCs for gaming and non-gaming audiences -Gaming communities can reach. Nissan chooses HoloLens 2 and Dynamics 365 Guides to help its operators learn and reduce instructor workload. Luxembourg based SES uses Viva Insights to save 100,000 meeting hours per year, with meeting-free Wednesdays already making 70% of SES employees feel more productive. ESPN Employees use a virtual career development community with games and real-time analytics built with SharePoint spaces and low-code Microsoft Power Platform capabilities. From Australia Bank of Queensland Leverages Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services and Microsoft Surface devices to provide more personalized and intuitive experiences for its customers and bankers.
Digital skills enable social inclusion and support education
Based in India SEEDS applies an AI model to generate heatwave risk information for vulnerable communities. nonprofit NWEA creates opportunities for improved accessible math testing for students with visual impairments. That Welsh Government holds multilingual meetings using the language interpretation feature in Microsoft Teams to enable citizen participation. With Azure Cognitive Services, Twitter makes live audio conversations accessible to deaf or hard of hearing users, and Sweden’s public television broadcaster SVT improves access to public news in 21 regions. Blind Veterans UK brings together veterans of different ages for peer support with Microsoft Teams, accessible via their mobile devices and landlines. In order to promote digital justice and make it easier to find jobs, education and access to healthcare, the Seattle Housing Authority equips residents with Surface Laptop Go devices.
Winning the good fight requires relentless security commitments
That Queensland Department of Education in Australia secured 271,000 devices and servers with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint in just six weeks. Agricultural and food companies Country O’Lakes turns to Microsoft Defender for Cloud and Microsoft Sentinel as a recipe for multicloud protection. With Microsoft Purview is the PrightInc William County School District in the USA ensures that confidential information is properly handled and harmful content is kept away from students. That State of Michigan Office of the Children’s Ombudsman improves data integrity and automates processes to more effectively investigate complaints about Michigan’s child welfare system. Based in Brazil Group Fleury uses Microsoft 365 to integrate advanced security and compliance controls into the company’s internal communications. FUJIFILM Group introduces Microsoft 365 as a global communications foundation to provide security without compromising user experience. Microsoft Intune enables a unified experience for the group’s more than 10,000 employees.
Despite economic and societal challenges, companies across all industries continue to adapt to evolving market dynamics to meet customer needs. Their strong digital foundation has helped them innovate quickly and achieve important business outcomes. As their business and technology advisor, Microsoft is incredibly proud to see how many of our customers have achieved and even thrived in the current environment, and we look forward to innovating with them to lay the foundation for their future success.
