The Philippines, February 2021-Over the past year, we have experienced dramatic disruption
around the world. Companies in every industry have turned to digital
technologies for the resilience and agility necessary to survive. The urgency
for entire industries to transform at scale has never been greater.
In response, we have accelerated our efforts to support and
co-innovate with customers and partners — both now and long term — with
industry-specific cloud offerings that can provide a launchpad for further
innovations.
Today, we’re announcing another milestone in those efforts with
three new industry-specific cloud offerings: Microsoft Cloud for Financial
Services, Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing, and Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit.
We are also announcing the first update to Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, and
the public preview timing for Microsoft Cloud for Retail introduced
in January at NRF.
We created the Microsoft industry clouds by bringing together
common data models, cross-cloud connectors, workflows, APIs, and
industry-specific components and standards, with the breadth of Microsoft’s
cloud services, including Microsoft 365 and Teams, Azure, Microsoft Power
Platform, Dynamics 365, and security solutions. Through these industry clouds,
we aim to empower everyone to deliver value faster, adapt quickly to changing
conditions, build for the future and do all of this with security at the core.
Microsoft’s deep investment in industry solutions is not new.
Across the company, embedded industry experts among our employee base are
informing our priorities — doctors working alongside engineering teams on
healthcare challenges, retail executives imagining new customer experiences,
financial experts helping us understand fintech, banking and payments, and
nonprofit leaders shaping our vision and solutions to impact those helping
others.
Designed with industry challenges in mind, these clouds can enable
organizations to jump ahead and deliver value at a record pace. This is because
they provide an onramp to the broader portfolio of Microsoft cloud services,
enabling customers to begin with the areas where they need technology
transformation is most urgent.
Because of the breadth and depth of the Microsoft partner
ecosystem, Microsoft industry clouds also provide new opportunities to
strengthen and extend for the last mile of industry execution. Partners bring
new innovation and expertise to deliver tailored solutions for unique customer
needs.
Here’s what today’s announcement means for organizations in these
industries — and why we believe these new clouds are a meaningful opportunity
for our partners, too.
Financial services: Comprehensive services at customers’
fingertips with the highest security and compliance standards at the core
The financial services industry is deeply traditional and has been
steadily disrupted the past few years by trends like e-commerce, fintechs, and
cryptos. The industry was already shifting from brick-and-mortar locations to
digital services, but global lockdowns accelerated this trend.
Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services brings together Microsoft solutions, unique templates, API’s and
additional industry-specific standards, along with multi-layered security and
compliance coverage to deliver differentiated customer experiences, improve
employee collaboration and productivity, manage risk and modernize core
systems. Using these capabilities, retail banks can create a 360-degree view of
the customer with greater insight and suggested next best action, embed digital
collaboration into their process workflows to create real-time visibility to
status and streamline hand-offs, enhance insights to help reduce fraud all with
the scalable and hybrid deployment options financial services organizations
require to modernize their systems.
For example, a new feature called Loan Manager will enable
lenders to close loans faster by streamlining workflows and increasing
transparency through automation and collaboration — a critical function in the
current remote-everything world. Public preview is planned for March 2021, and
customers like ABN
AMRO and Manulife are already taking advantage of some of its capabilities.
Manufacturing: Intelligent systems and agile factories
Manufacturers have been moving toward data-driven automation, IoT,
machine learning, and AI for years. If anything, 2020 showed just how critical
those capabilities are. As factory floors ground to a halt, even the most
sophisticated, just-in-time supply chains were impacted.
Available for public preview by the end of June, Microsoft
Cloud for Manufacturing is designed to deliver capabilities that support
the core processes and requirements of the industry. These end-to-end
manufacturing solutions bring together new and existing capabilities across the
Microsoft portfolio as well as partner solutions that together can seamlessly
connect people, assets, workflows, and business processes, helping
organizations become more resilient.
Many of these capabilities were on display during the VentilatorChallengeUK, where a consortium of companies helped the UK increase
ventilator production from 50 to 1,500 per week. Partners like Accenture,
Avanade, PTC, and Siemens responded
using Microsoft’s cloud capabilities for manufacturing.
Nonprofit: Enabling and accelerating mission-driven impact
Nonprofits are addressing many of our world’s most pressing
challenges, providing critical services and support to communities everywhere.
Yet, nonprofits are often challenged with a
patchwork of disparate systems and pockets of disconnected data. Microsoft
Cloud for Nonprofit creates a connected, intelligent platform to empower
staff and volunteers to focus on the work that matters most — their mission.
Launching in public preview by the end of June, Microsoft Cloud
for Nonprofit connects the trusted cloud capabilities of Microsoft to the most
common nonprofit scenarios such as constituent engagement, program design and
delivery, volunteer management, and fundraising, all brought together by the
nonprofit common data model.
Right To Play is a global NGO dedicated to protecting, educating,
and empowering children using the power of play. Using capabilities of the
Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit, the
organization has scaled from 100 to more than 3,000 new monthly donors, deepening engagements and building better programs to serve more
than 2 million children worldwide every week.
Retail: Blurring the lines between the physical and the digital
Retail is a constantly evolving industry, and those efforts have
taken on a breakneck pace over the past 12 months to accommodate record online
sales, shifts in customer loyalty, a surge in “buy online, pick up in-store”
(BOPIS), and curbside pickup.
Microsoft Cloud for Retail
brings together different data sources across the retail value
chain and uniquely connects experiences across the end-to-end shopper journey,
using a set of capabilities that deliver more relevant personalized experiences
and optimize operations for sustained profitability.
Using this industry cloud, retailers can build more targeted and
relevant customer recommendations and notifications, expand their fulfillment
options, simplify payment processing and benefit from comprehensive fraud
protection. Currently in private preview, Microsoft Cloud for Retail will be
available for public preview in March.
Lids are already using Microsoft products included in the cloud,
like Dynamics 365 Commerce, to bring greater visibility into its sales and
supply chain and modernize its point-of-sale system. “We are excited to explore
Microsoft Cloud for Retail as another crucial tool to bring together our
stores, product, and marketing systems and unlock the power of our data,” said
Britten Maughan, senior vice president of product and partnerships at Lids.
Healthcare: Increased resiliency for the challenges ahead
Last year, we
announced Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, and today, we are announcing the first update will be available
in April, including support for eight new languages, along with new features
for virtual health, remote patient monitoring, care coordination, and patient
self-service.
With the expertise of partner Avtex, Mary Washington Health System
is
deploying a solution built on Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare that helps securely connect providers digitally with patients who
have canceled or deferred important elective procedures. Solutions like this
allow patients to reconnect with their healthcare providers and restart those
procedures that have been delayed — while also helping providers recover in a
post-pandemic world.
The core elements of our industry vision
Microsoft will always be a trusted advisor, partner, and
co-innovator to our customers and global ecosystem of partners. Today’s news is
the next step on our journey to deliver industry-specific clouds that enable
every organization to adapt to a constantly changing new reality. Across these
announcements, we believe three key factors allow Microsoft to deliver on our
industry vision, unlike no other company.
First, our industry approach is core to our mission to empower
people to achieve more. Every organization in every industry relies on the
hard work and ingenuity of individuals to achieve its goals. With our
industry-first approach, we are putting specific solutions in the hands of
people closest to the problem. This helps organizations with whom we partner to
act faster and make more intelligent decisions — ultimately providing better
experiences.
Second, our approach proves the power of partnership. Our
global partner ecosystem is unmatched in adding deep expertise and building
high-value solutions for virtually any scenario or function. We work with
industry-leading independent software vendors and system integrators to ensure
our customers have the solutions they need to address their business
challenges.
Finally, we have a deep commitment to security, compliance, and
trust. Our offerings incorporate industry-recognized standards from edge to
cloud, with more than 90 certifications and more than 35 industry-specific
compliance offerings. This creates value for partners too, allowing them to invest
in opportunities and scale their business rather than apply for certifications.
Additionally, our approach to customer data underscores our commitment to trust
—customer data belongs to our customers, not to us.
The complexity of our world is increasing daily, and the lessons
of 2020 are showing up as organizations everywhere learn to be more agile and
resilient. They are counting on Microsoft to help them master this complexity
so they can move faster, innovate thoughtfully, and be positioned for success.
To learn more about the clouds, we invite you to join the coming
previews and tune into dedicated sessions at Microsite Ignite next week and visit our industry site for more product information.
