Microsoft's solutions for digital transformation
https://news.microsoft.com/features/nadella-to-partners-we-have-an-unprecedented-opportunity/
An unprecedented opportunity
What differentiates Microsoft from its competition is the organisation's focus on the mission. If you ask me what the mission of Apple or Amazon is, I wouldn't be able to tell you. Google is something to like 'index all the information in the world', but even that doesn't give a good sense of what the individual employees are doing, given the scale of the company.
On the other hand, Microsoft has its focus on empowering people and organisations across the world in all industries. This mission represents the company - how they utilise technology to help people achieve more. Microsoft celebrates the fact that technology is able to help customers succeed and realise their dreams. And not only do these include the 150,000 direct employees at Microsoft, but also extends to the several million companies that partner with Microsoft.
While technology and technology paradigms come and go, Microsoft stays steadfast and committed to its mission.
A mobile, cloud-first era
So in 2017, Satya declared Microsoft's shift towards the technology of the new age, moving the company towards a mobile-first, cloud-first world by focusing its roots in the Intelligent Cloud and Intelligent Edge.
Multi-device, multi-sense
The first characteristic of this evolution is Microsoft's dedication to supporting multiple devices and multiple senses. Multi-dimensional means that Microsoft brings its digital experience to every device - on big screens, small screens or sensors with no screens. As everyone now carries their own device, the experience is no longer bound to one device that you need to carry everywhere. It simply travels with you wherever you go.
With multi-sense, the experience now transcends across different ways of interacting. You can start the experience by touch (on your phone) and end it using speech on another device. This makes it seamless to move with technology and more accessible for users with limited sensory capabilities.
Artificial Intelligence
We're all quite familiar with AI and its potential to improve experiences; making them more personalised and intelligent. Microsoft has resolved to embed Artificial Intelligence into all their experiences using Cloud capabilities. This means that no matter what digital experience you're interacting with, its powered by AI.
Serverless
The final piece of the puzzle is having a backend to facilitate these experiences. Serverless is Microsoft's need and thread to stitch together the fabric of their experiences. Serverless makes it possible for Microsoft to build applications that can be deployed across multiple devices (using containers and serverless technology) to build independent experiences.
Digital Transformation
This digital transformation towards investing in a mobile and cloud-first world brings new opportunities. So businesses are continually thinking about how they can:
Empower employees
Engage customers
Optimise operations
Transform products
This presents opportunities which Microsoft has created four solution areas to tackle.
Modern workplace
Business applications
Applications & infrastructure
Data & AI
Modern Workplace
The modern workplace involves using technology to empower employees in every organisation to be more creative and collaborate by integrating tech into their workflow. Since the workplace is transforming to be more involved with technology, the culture can shaped depending on how well this technology is used. So it's in everyone's interest to have a solution that empowers employees to be more productive and allow them to achieve more.
To address this need to keep up with technology in the workplace, Microsoft introduced Microsoft 365 - a platform that allows users to utilise their productivity tools and software in Office 365, Windows 10 and Windows Enterprise Mobility & Security.
So essentially Microsoft 365 is the suite for Office 365 + Windows 10 + Security
To cater towards businesses of different sizes, Microsoft offers different packages with Microsoft 365. For larger Enterprise customers, Microsoft has Microsoft 365 Enterprise, whereas for small business customers, they can afford Microsoft 365 Business.
So using this, businesses can concentrate on business needs because Microsoft has taken care of their technology needs. And all of this is just available easily in one place; through Microsoft 365. Businesses can thereby reframe what they want to achieve and utilise the tools and infrastructure Microsoft provides to do so.
The benefits of digital transformation
With Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365 and LinkedIn, organisations are now able to digitise business-critical functions. This has redefined how businesses now look at their operations where:
instead of sales management, it has become social selling
instead of people management, it's now employee engagement
The question has changed from how can we manage these people to how can we effective engage our employees so they can achieve more?
By leveraging Microsoft's tools - businesses can reframe what they want to achieve and do more.
Democratising AI
With Azure, Microsoft has revealed its intent to democratise AI such that EVERY COMPANY can be an AI COMPANY and every partner can build AI into their own solutions. In a data-driven world, this is critical for businesses to quickly create, deploy and scale their solutions enabled in the Cloud.
Whether it's a 50-year-old insurance business, or a new age legal startup, Microsoft is creating a better future for all its customers, empowering them through their solution areas of the Modern Workplace, Business Applications, Applications & Infrastructure and Data & AI.
Crossword fun
This task was a fun way to end off the module, with a crossword to fill in Word. Not too hard, and it helps to remember the different solution areas that Microsoft invested in.
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