What’s next in the enterprise?

MobileSocial “Things”

Natural interfaces

Machine learningQuantum computing

Deliveringcrowdsourced

services

Bridging physical and

digital worlds

Reinventing the value chain

Achieving continuous

uptime

Advancinghuman-centric

design

Delivering faster, smarter

serviceGrowing sustainably

Cloud

Data

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.

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Delivering crowdsourced services

Tracking hyper-local conditions

Using ideas and feedback from the crowd

Collecting real-world product insights

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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.

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Reinventing the value chain

Turning demand-driven insightsinto operational efficiencies

Transforming from aging systems to a connected,dynamicplatform

Streamliningprocesses todeliver localized, personalized experiences

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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. IoTand 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 IoTtechnology 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 flexiblemanufacturing 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.

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Growing sustainably

Ensuring accountability with a carbon fee

Sourcing technology from carbon neutral cloud providers

Operating lean facilities

carbon TM

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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.

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Bridgingdigital and physical worlds

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Delivering new efficiencies through connected intelligence

Advancing information sharing and digital exploration

Engaging people in the moments that matter

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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 ofconnected 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.

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Achieving continuous uptime

Servicing and calibrating remotely through the cloud

Taking a predictive approach to maintenance

Connecting sensors and machines with operational systems

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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-onfactory 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.

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Advancing human-centric design

Making computing interaction more natural

Translating in real-time

Personalizing experienceswith artificial intelligence

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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.

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Delivering faster, smarter service

Responding to customer needs before they ask

Constantly improving products and services

Using mobileapps to delivercustomerserviceeverywhere

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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, Gamestopreceives 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.

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