2. What’s next in the enterprise?
Mobile
Social
“Things”
Natural interfaces
Machine learning
Quantum computing
Delivering
crowdsourced
services
Bridging
physical and
digital worlds
Reinventing the
value chain
Achieving
continuous
uptime
Advancing
human-centric
design
Delivering
faster, smarter
serviceGrowing
sustainably
Cloud
Data
3. Over the past several years, enterprises have invested in many initiatives focused on individual technologies, like
enabling a mobile workforce, modernizing infrastructure with cloud technology, or getting new value out of big
data. Looking ahead, Microsoft believes that the most successful organizations will increasingly take a collective
approach to reimagining what’s possible when technologies are used together.
This guide explores seven areas where we see modern technology being used to reimagine the enterprise. We
hope it sparks new ideas and we look forward to partnering with you as you become a digital business.
“In 2015, companies that successfully harness digital technology
to advantageously serve customers will create clear competitive
separation from those that do not.”
—Matzke, Pascal, Bobby Cameron, Nigel Fenwick, and Jennifer Belissent. Predictions 2015: CIOs
accelerate the business technology agenda. Forrester, Inc. November 10, 2014.
3
5. Crowdsourcing is everywhere today, from crowdfunding
platforms like Kickstarter to NASA research to the citizens
of Iceland, who used social networks to suggest ideas for
the country’s new constitution. In today’s hyper-
connected world, people outside your business can
organize and act faster than you can internally. How do
you harness that innovation to grow the business?
The vast growth of social and mobile technologies, combined
with the cloud and the advent of big data, have created a
technological shift that opens up a new world of innovative
solutions. Hyper-local data such as real-time weather or road
conditions can be used to improve crop management or traffic
routing. Real-world insights into product use, like tire pressure in
an automobile tire or wear on an assembly-line machine, can
inform how you develop, design, and sell your products.
Feedback and ideas from individuals can be mined at scale to
improve everything from retail service to network security.
Crowdsourced services today are about gathering information
where it lives and putting it to work building value for your
business. This might be feedback gathered on social networks,
data generated by users of a product or mobile device, or even
the conversations your employees have at work. We’ve reached
a tipping point where the massive adoption of mobile platforms
and social media, combined with big data and advanced
analytics, mean that it’s easier than ever to gather, sift, and
convert these massive sets of crowdsourced information into
action. The results can become a critical driver for your business,
improving the bottom line, launching new innovating business
models, and differentiating yourself from the competition.
At Microsoft, we’ve embraced the power of crowdsourcing,
using it to drive improvement in areas such as the Office user
experience and Windows security. Microsoft Research has
pioneered technologies like machine learning that can sift
valuable information from a mass of crowdsourced information,
or predictive algorithms that can use the wisdom of the crowd
to predict real-world outcomes. This knowledge and experience
has helped us develop robust technologies and services you
need to support crowdsourced innovation. We are a world
leader in mobile devices and apps, big data analytics, and
business intelligence. Microsoft collaboration tools and the
Yammer enterprise social network can help you unlock the ideas
and potential you already have within your organization. And we
provide the cloud platform upon which to build highly flexible
solutions that span organizational and geographic boundaries.
Crowdsourcing is much more than getting feedback or running
an Internet suggestion box. It’s about successfully tapping into a
new and expansive source of data, input, and ideas to find
insights and innovations you can turn into action. By using the
power of the crowd in concert with flexible and robust platform
technologies, you can turn the power of the crowd into value for
your business.
When everyone and everything is connected, the crowd may become your
greatest source of innovation.
Red Robin is one company that’s using crowdsourced
information to transform their business. With a core belief that
empowered, enthusiastic employees hold the key to both
customer satisfaction and a healthy bottom line, they sought to
become more agile and responsive as an organization by using
Yammer to give all employees a voice. Now management is able
to feel the pulse of the business from the perspective of front-
line employees and individual team members feel empowered to
make a difference. For example, the company has seen the
product feedback timeframe reduce from 12-18 months to only
four weeks and has achieved double the cost savings they
projected.
To find more ideas that can help you deliver
crowdsourced services, see the work we’re
doing on crowdsourcing at Microsoft
Research.
5
6. Reinventing
the value chain
Turning demand-
driven insights
into operational
efficiencies
Transforming from aging systems
to a connected,
dynamic
platform
Streamlining
processes to
deliver localized,
personalized experiences 6
7. In today’s modern enterprise, the entire value chain
ecosystem from operations and logistics to procurement
and distribution is experiencing a digital transformation.
Customers now desire immersive, contextually relevant,
and connected experiences that leapfrog the stand-alone
product approaches of yesterday. To deliver this new
breed of service-driven customer experiences, enterprises
must reinvent their value chain—analyzing every
component to maximize value for the end user while
keeping costs in check.
Today’s rising customer expectations and rapid technology
innovations drive the need for a modern value chain that is
focused on the customer. As a result, many leading industries
are now reinventing their value chains for a mobile-first, cloud-
first world. They are shifting from manual processes to digital
automation, from being product companies to being service
providers. How are these companies preparing their businesses
to embrace this new era of innovation?
First, industries are turning to the cloud and the rise of the
Internet of Things (IoT) to evaluate new approaches to
connecting the business and driving operational efficiencies. IoT
and the cloud will play a pivotal role in reinventing the value
chain by transforming from aging systems to a connected,
dynamic platform. For example, insurance providers can now
quickly provide new services directly to customers by
empowering their sales people with the highly secure,
connected platforms they need to rapidly access the latest
information. Manufacturers can use a combination of sensor IoT
technology and real-time insights to increase their product
reliability and uptime. The flexibility of the cloud makes it
possible for any company to prototype and test new products
and manufacturing processes quickly, accelerating time to
market for new products.
Next, enterprises can turn their sights towards streamlining
processes to deliver localized, personalized experiences.
Through mapping customer needs to the natural workflows for
product development, enterprises can eliminate waste and
accelerate product innovation towards the local, personalized
experiences that many customers crave. For example,
streamlined logistics and sourcing options can help
manufacturers offer personalized clothing options to their
discerning customers. Centralized production paired with
localized finishing can produce rapid economies of scale. By
incorporating these types of processes into the value chain,
enterprise can quickly launch the hyper-local, uniquely
individualized products that will help them stand out in a
crowded marketplace.
Once the systems and processes are in place, enterprises are
next turning demand-driven insights into operational
efficiencies to reinvent their value chain. The abundance of data
available today presents a number of new opportunities for
enterprises who want to boost operational efficiencies or
monetize their data and insights by publishing it through a data
marketplace, like the Microsoft Azure Marketplace. Retailers
can use customer demand-driven insights and flexible
manufacturing to become responsive to what’s selling in stores
and refine their inventory accordingly. In a year when delivering
modern shopping experiences is critical, companies such as
GameStop, Hardee’s, TGI Fridays, Panasonic, HP and
FreedomPay, and NCR are all announcing their selection of
Microsoft technologies to reinvent their value chain by turning
insights into action.
At Microsoft, we offer the productivity solutions and platforms
enterprises need to reinvent the value chain and transition from
a product-led approach to a service-driven organization. Our
flexible cloud products are powering manufacturers, retailers,
and other businesses as they transform their processes and
systems into the digital era. Our unique business intelligence
products deliver the insights companies need to make faster,
more accurate decisions to boost operational efficiencies. Most
importantly, our commitment to security enables us to help
protect our enterprise customers and their proprietary
information as they undergo their digital transformation.
Transforming from product companies to service providers can win the heart
of the customer.
The Carlsberg Group is one company that recognized the
importance of balancing the need for centralized operations
with the desire to stay close to local markets. The global brewery
company implemented Office 365 integrated productivity and
collaboration services to help streamline its global supply chain
while enabling local offices to customize for individual market
preferences. Etienne Dock, CIO of The Carlsberg Group, said: “No
matter what device or distance, the cloud is breaking down
traditional barriers so we’re better able to focus on brewing the
best beer in the world.”
To find more ideas that can help you reinvent
your value chain, visit the Microsoft cloud
computing site.
7
9. As the global population grows, energy, water, and other
resources are expected to become more scarce and
valuable commodities. From market perceptions around
responsible corporate behavior to the fundamental costs
of running an efficient global business, sustainable
business practices will increasingly become important
factors to fueling enterprise growth.
Real estate and facilities, datacenter operations, and the supply
chain represent a significant portion of the overall carbon
footprint in many enterprises. At Microsoft, our carbon neutral
strategy is rooted in three core principles: 1) be lean by
reducing energy use (in our offices, datacenters, and labs) and
air travel through technology-driven efficiency; 2) be green by
making more environmentally responsible choices with our
energy, waste, and water; and 3) be accountable by quantifying
our carbon impact and holding groups responsible. Across
these, we are using technology to help us grow our business
sustainably.
Today, nearly 70 percent of all electricity consumption and 80
percent of carbon emissions in the United States is from
building operations. For decades, building equipment
manufacturers have provided sensors that track things like
heaters, air conditioners, fans, and lights. However, the promise
of energy-smart buildings has eluded most given the lack of
standards. At Microsoft, we took an “Internet of Things meets
Big Data” approach to build a data-driven energy management
program that is enabling us to operate lean buildings by
saving energy and millions in maintenance and utility costs.
Today, we collect more than 500 million data transactions a day
and use technology to prioritize fixes, balancing the cost of a fix
in terms of money and energy being wasted against other
factors such as the impact fixing it will have on our employees.
As the project manager Darrel Smith remarked, “smart buildings
will become smart cities, and smart cities will change
everything.”
There’s no doubt that technology has become essential to
business growth. As the carbon footprint to power datacenters
continues to multiply, renewable energy options can help
reduce the environmental impact of technology. Sourcing
technology from carbon neutral cloud providers can be an
effective alternative to expanding private datacenter capacity.
With the massive investments required to take advantage of
emerging technology like machine learning and artificial
intelligence, working with a commercial cloud provider that has
made a commitment to being carbon neutral not only helps you
reduce your own footprint, but also ensures that you don’t
simply transfer your footprint to your suppliers.
At Microsoft, business intelligence technology has been
essential to helping us track, report, and manage our
environmental footprint for more than a decade. In 2012 we
made our commitment to become carbon neutral and went
beyond tracking and reporting our footprint to ensuring
accountability with a carbon fee. This carbon fee passes on
the costs of our carbon neutral commitment to individual
business groups across our company by charging a cost for the
air travel and energy use related to each group. More
importantly, the carbon fee has been instrumental in
establishing sustainability as a key element of business and
financial planning, helping ensure leaders make responsible
decisions that help us grow sustainably.
Operating in a lean, green, and accountable way is becoming increasingly
important to global competition.
Researchers in the “living lab” at Carnegie Mellon’s Intelligent
Workplace are exploring how to give people who work in
buildings a comfortable environment while using the least
possible energy, how to make people accountable for their
own energy footprints, and how technology can assist in that
journey. These researchers have been using advances in
technologies such as cloud computing, data analytics, and
services like Microsoft Azure Machine Learning to gather
information and determine ways to answer these questions.
According to Vivian Loftness, a researcher working on the
“living lab” project, “Technology is helping us get to better
insights, and faster. That can only help as this movement
continues to ripple across the country in the next few years,
reshaping how we live, work, and play.”
To find more innovative ideas that can help you
grow a sustainable enterprise, visit the
Microsoft Green blog.
9
11. Today’s mobile and wearable devices provide more
computing power than used to launch the Apollo space
missions or even the space shuttle. Combine these
capabilities with the virtually unlimited computing power
in the cloud and experience how mobile technology and
the Internet of Things can bridge digital and physical
worlds to usher in a new era of connected intelligence.
Screens are everywhere today, serving as a bridge between our
digital and physical worlds. Today’s always-on society is now
increasingly moving beyond just screens to seek out a variety of
physical products that can work in harmony with digital services
to deliver the engagement, efficiencies, and information
necessary to make our lives better. This Internet of Things (IoT)
is here today in the form of devices, sensors, cloud services, and
data that individuals and enterprises rely on to connect and
collaborate. But many organizations are still wondering how to
make the promise of IoT a reality. What are some of the ways
leading enterprises are using mobile and wearable devices and
the IoT to usher in a new era of connected intelligence?
Engaging people in the moments that matter is one of the
first ways enterprises are applying mobility and IoT to deliver
real benefits to their customers. Managing the customer
experience, however, is increasingly difficult in today’s digital
age, requiring the technology and automation to always stay in
step with the customer and rapidly predict and respond to their
needs. Enterprises that can deliver the types of unique digital
experiences that promote deeper engagement will win customer
loyalty in a competitive global landscape.
Customer engagement is only one component of the digital
transformation, however. Delivering new efficiencies through
connected intelligence is also taking center stage as
enterprises explore the use of smart machines, mobile devices,
and wearable products to boost productivity. Enterprises are
putting in place the devices and smart machines that deliver
improved performance at work, at home, and on-the-go. Cities
are using mobile devices to make navigation easier, safer, and
more enjoyable for their residents. Sports teams are combining
wearable devices with big data analytics to monitor the
health of their athletes and gain a competitive advantage. Time
is one of our most precious resources today and products that
hold the promise of increased productivity and efficiency will
continue to resonate.
Fundamentally, a desire for easier and faster access to new
insights and services still resides at the center of the digital
transformation. Advancing information sharing and digital
exploration is now one of the primary roles of mobile devices
and emerging technology products. Schools can transform
learning by using mobile technology to deliver lessons,
implement peer-to-peer collaborations, and communicate with
educators. Enterprises can connect more closely to partners,
customers, and employees in remote locations through new
devices and services. New mobile breakthroughs can remove
obstacles, such as helping visually impaired people safely
navigate their surroundings. Seamless mobile experiences that
unite physical surroundings with digital services open up new
opportunities for consumers, businesses, and the enterprises
that serve them.
At Microsoft, we offer the mobile-first, cloud-first solutions
necessary to bridge digital and physical worlds. Helping
companies build on their existing technology assets, devices,
and data to derive business value from the Internet of Things
(IoT) is a cornerstone of Microsoft’s vision for the future. Our
mobility solutions enable fluid, seamless mobile experiences that
deliver instant access to data and applications anytime,
anywhere. Our flexible cloud platform empowers organizations
to quickly respond to changing business needs and meet
customers rising expectations for engaging experiences.
Mobility and the Internet of Things are ushering in a new era of
connected intelligence.
Professional football club Real Madrid recognized that their
audiences were becoming increasingly technologically savvy and
craving greater interactive capabilities with the team and each
other. They turned to Microsoft devices and services to change
the way football is played, coached, watched, and experienced.
“We are taking our relationship with Microsoft a step further: a
digital alliance that will revolutionize the relationship between
the club and its fans... a digital community of 120 million fans
across the world,” said Florentino Pérez, President, Real Madrid.
To find more ideas that can help you bridge
digital and physical worlds, visit the Microsoft
site about mobility and the Microsoft site
about the Internet of Things.
11
13. Today’s manufacturing systems produces a wealth of data
from sensors, devices, equipment, and line-of-business
systems. By putting this data to work, manufacturing
organizations now have the opportunity to achieve
unprecedented levels of uptime and efficiency.
Manufacturing is approaching a new crossroads where streams
of data from connected systems are being used to revolutionize
maintenance, resourcing, and operations. With the continuing
refinement of cloud technologies and the Internet of Things,
manufacturers are increasingly connecting the factory floor and
business systems to transform the business. By harnessing the
flow of data from devices, sensors, equipment, and business
systems, you can predict and resolve maintenance issues or use
data to optimize, tune, and retool more rapidly, helping to
achieve the dream of the responsive, continuously operating
factory.
Imagine having the ability to track and calculate equipment
wear based on your changing production volume and
proactively recommend service and replacement schedules. Or
engaging an expert or engineer to calibrate a precision piece of
equipment in real time from halfway around the world. These
are the kinds of scenarios that forward-looking manufacturing
organizations are implementing today. It’s all about taking the
data your systems generate, using it to improve the business,
and ultimately outstrip the competition.
It’s an ambitious vision, but it starts with something simple—the
equipment and systems you already have. By focusing on
scenarios and systems that provide a quick return, you not only
start realizing the benefits right away, but you also extend the
value of your existing investments. Using the Internet of Things
to deliver predictive maintenance on one production line alone
could translate into big savings in the form of improved uptime
without a big investment in new equipment.
Microsoft is delivering solutions today that enable you to
monitor assets and use data to improve efficiency, drive
operational performance, and help keep your systems running.
From embedded systems to networking, data storage, and
analytics, not to mention a worldwide network of technology
partners and implementers, Microsoft is well-placed to provide
solutions built on the Internet of Things today. And the
Microsoft solution is cloud enabled from the start, providing
reliable, scalable services whether across the factory floor or the
global enterprise.
One company that’s taking an innovative approach to improving
uptime is Lido Stonework in Calverton, NY. Lido is using a
highly secure, cloud-based connection to link stone cutting
machines in New York directly to experts at the equipment
manufacturer in Italy. The result has been greatly reduced
downtime and slashed travel expenses. By tying in mobile
devices and inventory tracking, they’ve realized further savings
in inventory management. This business transformation has
improved productivity at Lido by 30 percent and revenues by 70
percent.
Continuous uptime, powered by the cloud and the Internet of
Things, is becoming a reality today. By harnessing the data
produced by sensors, devices, and equipment, manufacturing
organizations can create intelligent systems and connected
factories that are more efficient, flexible, and resilient than ever
before.
Cloud platforms and the Internet of Things are making the always-on
factory a reality.
Kuka Robotics implemented an innovative manufacturing
solution in Toledo, Ohio to build bodies for the Jeep
Wrangler. They knew that to meet demand they had to have
an automated manufacturing solution with continuous
uptime. They implemented an intelligent factory system that
connects 259 robots and 60,000 device points to function 24
hours a day, producing a new car body every 88 seconds. All
the data is shared with operational systems, monitoring, and
resource management to provide the greatest level of
flexibility and efficiency.
To find more ideas that can help you achieve
continuous uptime, visit the Microsoft cloud
computing site.
13
15. From the mouse to the touch screen to voice-activated
personal assistants, the technologies we use in work and
life every day haven’t stopped evolving. Now a new
generation of technologies are emerging that have the
intelligence to provide interactions that are truly natural
and instinctive.
As digital technologies become even more ubiquitous and easy
to use, we’re continually finding new ways to enhance
productivity and open up new digital experiences. But through
this all, natural human interactions are still at the center of what
we do. Social networks are an extension of how we interact
socially. The tools we use at work and in our daily life are
oriented towards familiar activities, such as learning,
communicating, and creating. Human-centric design takes the
growth of technologies like machine learning, natural language
processing, and visual recognition, and uses them to make
existing digital experiences more intuitive while opening up new
ways of using computers we hadn’t imagined before. With
computing now so ubiquitous, human-centric technologies are
transforming how we live—not just when we’re on a smartphone
or a PC, but everywhere.
The next generation of human-centric technologies is already
achieving these goals. By personalizing experiences with
artificial intelligence, our tools can make our work and life
easier. Imagine a smart phone that can visually recognize the
food you’re eating and provide you with nutritional information,
or provide medical information based on a photograph of a skin
rash. Or a service kiosk that can recognize an employee’s or
customer’s face and provide personalized service. By translating
spoken languages in real time such as during an online
meeting or phone call, you can communicate and do business in
places you never could have before. Or use real-time translation
software to enable your staff to provide customer service in any
language. And by making computing interactions more
natural, such as a personal assistant that knows when a call is
important enough to interrupt you if you’re in meeting, driving,
or even asleep. Or software that can respond to questions
phrased in normal language, giving you the details you need,
whether it’s the latest sports scores or important insights about
your business.
In his first email to Microsoft employees, CEO Satya Nadella
wrote about leading into the future of natural human-computer
interfaces that empower every individual. Microsoft has
continued to deliver on this promise with technologies like the
Cortana digital assistant and Delve, a new service in Office 365
which learns from how you and your colleagues work and uses
that knowledge to present you with content and information
that’s relevant to you. Microsoft Kinect motion sensors allow
people to interact with games and software through gesture
without need for a mouse or keyboard. Skype Translator is on
the leading edge of multi-lingual software, piloting the ability to
translate in real time between English and Spanish, with more
languages to follow in the future. Power BI in Office 365 today
offers the ability to frame data queries in natural language. And
Microsoft Research is continuing to advance machine learning
and artificial intelligence.
When NFL athlete Steve Gleason was diagnosed with ALS, it was
thought that he would lose his ability to communicate and
interact with others, but a new technology built on Microsoft
Kinect and Surface Pro allows Steve and other ALS sufferers to
communicate by tracking his eye movements, and using them to
drive a virtual keyboard he can use to communicate with his
family and others.
There has always been a strong drive to make interactions with
computers easier and more streamlined, Human-centric
computing continues this trend by moving towards a future
where hardware and software remove barriers and enable
people to realize their goals.
Technologies that recognize, understand, and respond to humans and the
world around them will revolutionize how we live and work.
Insteon makes home automation technology that allows lights,
thermostats, motion sensors, and other home equipment to
interoperate. And they’re working to provide the next generation
of human-centric experiences today. A new alpha pilot shows
how the Cortana digital assistant can be used to control the
lights, temperature, and even the security of your home simply
by speaking to your smart phone in a natural manner.
To find more ideas that can help you advance
human-centric design, visit Microsoft Research
and learn more about human-computer
interaction and machine learning and
artificial intelligence.
15
17. Your customers expect fast, personalized service, and they
won’t hesitate to choose your competition if they aren’t
satisfied. How do you win the loyalty of today’s
demanding customers when they have access to more
information and more choices than ever before?
Today, a new breed of businesses are appearing that are laser-
focused on the customer, driving business success by
understanding, predicting, and fulfilling customer needs faster
and more effectively than ever before. They’re doing it by using
digital technology to renew and transform how they serve
customers. But faster, smarter service isn’t just about doing a
better job of resolving customer issues, it’s about embracing a
customer-centric model from end to end, providing highly
personalized, relevant customer experiences across every touch
point and interaction.
But how do you go about providing the highest level of service
to every customer across every channel with no queues, wait
times, or delays? You could use mobile apps to deliver service
anywhere. For example, retail or hospitality staff could use
mobile devices to deliver roaming service to a customer in a
store, bank, hotel, or on a flight—or empower customers to help
themselves with a mobile app. Or, you could constantly
improve your products and services, using information from
the products your customers use to provide a better experience.
For example, by remotely monitoring an appliance or
automobile component, a manufacturer can suggest
maintenance activities or upgrades before the customer has a
problem. You can even respond to customer needs before
they ask by using data analytics that let your sales and service
agents deliver highly personalized promotions and value-added
services to your customers in the context of a service call, in-
store interaction, or through an app.
Delivering these kinds of solutions requires technologies that
work naturally together, whether on a mobile device, back-end
servers, or in the cloud. It begins with a single view of the
customer, bringing together data from customer databases,
back-end servers, mobile apps, and customer-facing systems
like point-of-sale or ecommerce. Combine this with business
intelligence and cloud services to make sure you can deliver
information and insights to customers and employees when and
where they need it. With big data, machine learning, and
predictive analytics you can take it one step further, anticipating
customer needs and fulfilling them proactively. Microsoft is well-
positioned to deliver on this promise with cloud-enabled,
mobile-ready productivity and business solutions that span the
cloud, desktop, and devices.
Microsoft Research has also been working on the cutting edge,
developing the next wave of customer-facing technologies, such
as algorithms that can predict consumer behavior. One recent
project uses real-time diagnostic data from elevators to deliver
riders to their destination faster and detect maintenance issues
before they result in an outage. When customers are
empowered by social and mobile technologies and access to
information, it’s the company that provides the best customer
experience that wins. That’s why we’re focused on giving you
solutions that help you build strong, long-lasting relationships
with your customers.
Today’s customer-focused organizations are using technology to deliver
service that’s personalized and natural without delays or hang-ups.
Gamestop is using technology to provide a new kind of digital
experience to customers in their retail stores. They’re using a
cloud-based solution to deliver rich, immersive content to
customers’ phones and tablets while they’re in the store, such
as promotional offers, trailers, and bonus content related to
Gamestop’s content. When customers opt-in, Gamestop
receives information from their devices that can be used to
provide a uniquely personalized experience.
To find more ideas that can help you deliver
faster, smarter service, visit the Microsoft cloud
computing site.
17
