Qcells seeks to supply more than 2.5 gigawatts of solar panels and EPC services to solar project developers in partnership with Microsoft
The first-of-its-kind collaboration is rooted in the companies’ collective commitments to diversify the global energy supply chain and reduce carbon emissions
SAN FRANCISCO — Jan. 25, 2023 — Qcells, a global solar leader investing in building a U.S. solar supply chain, and Microsoft Corp., a global technology company with a commitment to be carbon negative by 2030, are partnering to enable a strong supply chain for new renewable electricity capacity projected to require at least 2.5 gigawatts of solar panels and related services — equivalent to powering over 400,000 homes.
Qcells, owned by Hanwha Solutions headquartered in Seoul, will work with Microsoft to develop solar projects as well as provide panels and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services to selected solar projects Microsoft has contracted for through power purchase agreements (PPAs).
Microsoft has committed to purchasing renewable energy with a goal of achieving 100% coverage of electricity consumption with renewable energy by 2025. Microsoft is extending its sustainability activities to support domestic production of green energy equipment in the regions it operates globally. Microsoft is supporting Qcells’ solar products, including those manufactured domestically, to bring more renewable energy to the grid. Qcells is the only company in the U.S. that will have a complete solar supply chain and provides one-stop clean energy solutions.
Addressing the growing need for a sustainable solar value chain
This alliance is the first time a company that procures energy is working directly with a solar supplier to adopt clean energy on a big scale. The new collaboration is rooted in the two companies’ collective commitments to diversify the global energy supply chain, proactively lead the development of more reliable energy supply chains in the United States and abroad, and reduce carbon emissions.
“Building a resilient solar energy supply chain is essential to advancing a global green energy economy. Microsoft’s partnership with Qcells will help make this vision a reality by bringing innovation and investment to rural Georgia,” said Brad Smith, vice chair and president, Microsoft. “As one of the world’s largest purchasers of renewable energy, this work will help bring more solar energy to the grid, faster.”
“We’re striving to build and deliver turnkey clean energy solutions, including those made in America, and this partnership with Microsoft will help accomplish this vision,” said Justin Lee, CEO of Qcells. “Similarly, Qcells is proud to play a role with Microsoft to bring more renewable energy online in the years to come. This first step is only the beginning of a great partnership that not only supports our two companies but helps deliver a clean energy future for customers and communities.”
Growing need for American-made solar products is expected to accelerate Qcells’ transition into a one-stop shop for clean energy solutions. Being the only company in the U.S. with a complete solar supply chain, Qcells intends to become a leading developer for solar and other clean energy solutions such as energy storage system. Combining its growing EPC expertise with smart energy management system, Qcells will continue to provide completely clean energy solutions and lead the global fight against climate change.
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
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Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://news.microsoft.com. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at https://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-public-relations-contacts.
REDMOND, Wash. — January 24, 2023 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the following results for the quarter ended December 31, 2022, as compared to the corresponding period of last fiscal year:
Revenue was $52.7 billion and increased 2%
Operating income was $20.4 billion GAAP and $21.6 billion non-GAAP, and decreased 8% and 3%, respectively
Net income was $16.4 billion GAAP and $17.4 billion non-GAAP, and decreased 12% and 7%, respectively
Diluted earnings per share was $2.20 GAAP and $2.32 non-GAAP, and decreased 11% and 6%, respectively
“The next major wave of computing is being born, as the Microsoft Cloud turns the world’s most advanced AI models into a new computing platform,” said Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft. “We are committed to helping our customers use our platforms and tools to do more with less today and innovate for the future in the new era of AI.”
“We are focused on operational excellence as we continue to invest to drive growth. Microsoft Cloud revenue was $27.1 billion, up 22% (up 29% in constant currency) year-over-year as our commercial offerings continue to drive value for our customers,” said Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Microsoft.
The following table reconciles our financial results reported in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) to non-GAAP financial results. Additional information regarding our non-GAAP definition is provided below. All growth comparisons relate to the corresponding period in the last fiscal year.
Three Months Ended December 31,
($ in millions, except per share amounts)
Revenue
Operating Income
Net Income
Diluted Earnings per Share
2021 As Reported (GAAP)
$51,728
$22,247
$18,765
$2.48
2022 As Reported (GAAP)
$52,747
$20,399
$16,425
$2.20
Severance, hardware-related impairment, and lease consolidation costs
Revenue in Productivity and Business Processes was $17.0 billion and increased 7% (up 13% in constant currency), with the following business highlights:
Office Commercial products and cloud services revenue increased 7% (up 14%in constant currency) driven by Office 365 Commercial revenue growth of 11% (up 18% in constant currency)
Office Consumer products and cloud services revenue decreased 2% (up 3% in constant currency) and Microsoft 365 Consumer subscribers grew to 63.2 million
LinkedIn revenue increased 10% (up 14% in constant currency)
Dynamics products and cloud services revenue increased 13% (up 20% in constant currency) driven by Dynamics 365 revenue growth of 21% (up 29% in constant currency)
Revenue in Intelligent Cloud was $21.5 billion and increased 18% (up 24% in constant currency), with the following business highlights:
Server products and cloud services revenue increased 20% (up 26% in constant currency) driven by Azure and other cloud services revenue growth of 31% (up 38% in constant currency)
Revenue in More Personal Computing was $14.2 billion and decreased 19% (down 16% in constant currency), with the following business highlights:
Windows OEM revenue decreased 39%
Windows Commercial products and cloud services revenue decreased 3% (up 3% in constant currency)
Xbox content and services revenue decreased 12% (down 8% in constant currency)
Search and news advertising revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs increased 10% (up 15% in constant currency)
Devices revenue decreased 39% (down 34% in constant currency)
Microsoft returned $9.7 billion to shareholders in the form of share repurchases and dividends in the second quarter of fiscal year 2023, a decrease of 11% compared to the second quarter of fiscal year 2022.
Business Outlook
Microsoft will provide forward-looking guidance in connection with this quarterly earnings announcement on its earnings conference call and webcast.
Quarterly Highlights, Product Releases, and Enhancements
Every quarter Microsoft delivers hundreds of products, either as new releases, services, or enhancements to current products and services. These releases are a result of significant research and development investments, made over multiple years, designed to help customers be more productive and secure and to deliver differentiated value across the cloud and the edge.
Here are the major product releases and other highlights for the quarter, organized by product categories, to help illustrate how we are accelerating innovation across our businesses while expanding our market opportunities.
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)
To better execute on Microsoft’s mission, we focus our Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) efforts where we can have the most positive impact. To learn more about our latest initiatives and priorities, please visit our investor relations ESG website.
Webcast Details
Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive officer, Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer, Alice Jolla, chief accounting officer, Keith Dolliver, deputy general counsel, and Brett Iversen, vice president of investor relations, will host a conference call and webcast at 2:30 p.m. Pacific time (5:30 p.m. Eastern time) today to discuss details of the company’s performance for the quarter and certain forward-looking information. The session may be accessed at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/investor. The webcast will be available for replay through the close of business on January 24, 2024.
Non-GAAP Definition
Q2 charge. In the second quarter of fiscal year 2023, Microsoft recorded costs related to decisions announced on January 18th, including employee severance expenses of $800 million, impairment charges resulting from changes to our hardware portfolio, and costs related to lease consolidation activities.
Microsoft has provided non-GAAP financial measures related to the impact of these strategic reprioritization actions to aid investors in better understanding our performance. Microsoft believes these non-GAAP measures assist investors by providing additional insight into its operational performance and help clarify trends affecting its business. For comparability of reporting, management considers non-GAAP measures in conjunction with GAAP financial results in evaluating business performance. The non-GAAP financial measures presented in this release should not be considered as a substitute for, or superior to, the measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP.
Constant Currency
Microsoft presents constant currency information to provide a framework for assessing how our underlying businesses performed excluding the effect of foreign currency rate fluctuations. To present this information, current and comparative prior period results for entities reporting in currencies other than United States dollars are converted into United States dollars using the average exchange rates from the comparative period rather than the actual exchange rates in effect during the respective periods. All growth comparisons relate to the corresponding period in the last fiscal year. Microsoft has provided this non-GAAP financial information to aid investors in better understanding our performance. The non-GAAP financial measures presented in this release should not be considered as a substitute for, or superior to, the measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP.
We have recast certain prior period amounts to conform to the way we internally manage and monitor our business.
Selected Product and Service Revenue Constant Currency Reconciliation
Three Months Ended December 31, 2022
Percentage Change Y/Y (GAAP)
Constant Currency Impact
Percentage Change Y/Y Constant Currency
Microsoft Cloud revenue
22%
7%
29%
Office Commercial products and cloud services
7%
7%
14%
Office 365 Commercial
11%
7%
18%
Office Consumer products and cloud services
(2)%
5%
3%
LinkedIn
10%
4%
14%
Dynamics products and cloud services
13%
7%
20%
Dynamics 365
21%
8%
29%
Server products and cloud services
20%
6%
26%
Azure and other cloud services
31%
7%
38%
Windows OEM
(39)%
0%
(39)%
Windows Commercial products and cloud services
(3)%
6%
3%
Xbox content and services
(12)%
4%
(8)%
Search and news advertising excluding traffic acquisition costs
10%
5%
15%
Devices
(39)%
5%
(34)%
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this release that are “forward-looking statements” are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially because of factors such as:
intense competition in all of our markets that may lead to lower revenue or operating margins;
increasing focus on cloud-based services presenting execution and competitive risks;
significant investments in products and services that may not achieve expected returns;
acquisitions, joint ventures, and strategic alliances that may have an adverse effect on our business;
impairment of goodwill or amortizable intangible assets causing a significant charge to earnings;
cyberattacks and security vulnerabilities that could lead to reduced revenue, increased costs, liability claims, or harm to our reputation or competitive position;
disclosure and misuse of personal data that could cause liability and harm to our reputation;
the possibility that we may not be able to protect information stored in our products and services from use by others;
abuse of our advertising, professional, marketplace, or gaming platforms that may harm our reputation or user engagement;
the development of the internet of things presenting security, privacy, and execution risks;
issues about the use of artificial intelligence in our offerings that may result in competitive harm, legal liability, or reputational harm;
excessive outages, data losses, and disruptions of our online services if we fail to maintain an adequate operations infrastructure;
quality or supply problems;
government litigation and regulatory activity relating to competition rules that may limit how we design and market our products;
potential consequences under trade, anti-corruption, and other laws resulting from our global operations;
laws and regulations relating to the handling of personal data that may impede the adoption of our services or result in increased costs, legal claims, fines, or reputational damage;
claims against us that may result in adverse outcomes in legal disputes;
uncertainties relating to our business with government customers;
additional tax liabilities;
the possibility that we may fail to protect our source code;
legal changes, our evolving business model, piracy, and other factors may decrease the value of our intellectual property;
claims that Microsoft has infringed the intellectual property rights of others;
damage to our reputation or our brands that may harm our business and operating results;
adverse economic or market conditions that may harm our business;
catastrophic events or geo-political conditions, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, that may disrupt our business;
exposure to increased economic and operational uncertainties from operating a global business, including the effects of foreign currency exchange and
the dependence of our business on our ability to attract and retain talented employees.
For more information about risks and uncertainties associated with Microsoft’s business, please refer to the “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and “Risk Factors” sections of Microsoft’s SEC filings, including, but not limited to, its annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, copies of which may be obtained by contacting Microsoft’s Investor Relations department at (800) 285-7772 or at Microsoft’s Investor Relations website at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/investor.
All information in this release is as of December 31, 2022. The company undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statement to conform the statement to actual results or changes in the company’s expectations.
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For more information, financial analysts and investors only:
Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers, and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. Shareholder and financial information, as well as today’s 2:30 p.m. Pacific time conference call with investors and analysts, is available at http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/investor.
New collaboration through the Microsoft Airband Initiative will increase internet availability for 5 million people across Africa and an additional 5 million people around the world by the end of 2025
REDMOND, Wash. — Dec. 14, 2022 — On Wednesday, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Viasat (NASDAQ: VSAT) announced a new partnership to help deliver internet access to 10 million people around the globe, including 5 million across Africa. Viasat, a global communications company, is the first satellite partner to work with Microsoft’s Airband Initiative, and together they will deepen Airband’s work in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Guatemala, Mexico, and the United States, as well as prioritize expanding the program to Egypt, Senegal and Angola to deliver much-needed internet connection, often for the first time.
This first of its kind global partnership for Airband is an important step in reaching the Initiative’s expanded goal of delivering internet access to a quarter of a billion people across the world, including 100 million people on the continent of Africa, by the end of 2025.
According to the International Telecommunication Union at the UN, roughly one third of the world’s population — or 2.7 billion people — have still never used the internet. Satellite allows internet access to reach remote areas that previously have had few, if any, options for conventional connectivity. Working together, the companies will combine expertise and assets to help enable telehealth, distance learning and education, precision agriculture, clean power, and other services to reach new areas through the transformational provision of power and connectivity. The companies will collaborate to provide and pilot technologies including, but not limited to, satellites (both geostationary orbit and low earth orbit) and fixed wireless.
“We believe access to the internet is a fundamental right and that digital skills create and enable economic prosperity for people, businesses and governments. Through our Airband Initiative we will extend high-speed internet access to 100 million people on the continent of Africa and to a quarter of a billion people living in unserved and underserved areas across the world by 2025,” said Teresa Hutson, Microsoft’s vice president of Technology and Corporate Responsibility. “Working with Viasat, we will use satellite to reach remote areas that previously have had few, if any, options for conventional connectivity. Together, we will be able to rapidly scale and expand Airband’s reach, exploring a wider pipeline of projects and new countries where we haven’t yet worked.”
Nearly one third of the world’s population is lacking online access to education, better medical care, business opportunities, connection with family and more. And most of this population lives in just 20 countries across Africa and the Global South. Universal, affordable internet access is part of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and by focusing a large portion of this new partnership on Africa, Microsoft and Viasat are working to deliver connectivity and digital literacy for better education, healthcare and economic opportunity in critical markets.
“We’re proud to partner with Microsoft as it represents another important step in bringing affordable internet service across Africa, Latin America and the U.S., as both companies continue to break down barriers to bridge the digital divide and make significant progress toward digital equity and inclusion,” said Evan Dixon, President, Global Fixed Broadband of Viasat. “Providing internet access to the world is a challenging and bold goal, and doing so in a sustainable and responsible manner will unlock enduring opportunities for those who need it most.”
Through Airband, Microsoft and its partners have already delivered high-speed internet access to more than 51 million people globally, including over 4 million in unserved U.S. rural communities and an additional 47 million in 16 unserved and underserved countries outside the U.S. Launched in 2017, Microsoft’s Airband Initiative works through partnerships with local and regional internet and energy access providers, telecom equipment makers and nonprofits, as well as governmental and nongovernmental organizations, to advance access to affordable internet and relevant digital skills around the world. Microsoft believes access to the internet is a fundamental right for everyone.
Viasat is a global communications company and an innovator in satellite communications technologies and services, focused on making connectivity accessible, available and secure for all. Today, Viasat is connecting unserved and underserved communities around the world, many for the first time ever.
Viasat is a global communications company that believes everyone and everything in the world can be connected. For more than 35 years, Viasat has helped shape how consumers, businesses, governments and militaries around the world communicate. Today, the Company is developing the ultimate global communications network to power high-quality, secure, affordable, fast connections to impact people’s lives anywhere they are—on the ground, in the air or at sea. To learn more about Viasat, visit: www.viasat.com, go to Viasat’s Corporate Blog, or follow the Company on social media at: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter or YouTube.
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
Viasat, the Viasat logo and the Viasat signal are registered trademarks of Viasat Inc.
For more information, press only:
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Viasat Media Relations, Carlos Mangandy/Deb Green: [email protected]
Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://news.microsoft.com. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at https://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-public-relations-contacts.
Through the partnership, seven industry leaders commit to making their data more open and accessible to help solve the world’s biggest problems
REDMOND, Wash. — Dec. 7, 2022 — On Wednesday, a new Industry Data for Society Partnership (IDSP) was launched by GitHub, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), LinkedIn, Microsoft, Northumbrian Water Group, R2 Factory and UK Power Networks. The IDSP is a first-of-its-kind cross-industry partnership to help advance more open and accessible private-sector data for societal good. The founding members of the IDSP agree to provide greater access to their data, where appropriate, to help tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges in areas such as sustainability and inclusive economic growth.
In the past few years, open data has played a critical role in enabling faster research and collaboration across industries and with the public sector. As we saw during COVID-19, pandemic data that was made more open enabled researchers to make faster progress and gave citizens more information to inform their day-to-day activities. The IDSP’s goal is to continue this model into new areas and help address other complex societal challenges. The IDSP will serve as a forum for the participating companies to foster collaboration, as well as a resource for other entities working on related issues.
IDSP members commit to the following:
To open data or provide greater access to data, where appropriate, to help solve pressing societal problems in a usable, responsible and inclusive manner.
To share knowledge and information for the effective use of open data and data collaboration for social benefit.
To invest in skilling a broad class of professionals to use data effectively and responsibly for social impact.
To protect individuals’ privacy in all these activities.
The IDSP will also bring in other organizations with expertise in societal issues. At launch, The GovLab’s Data Program based at New York University and the Open Data Institute will both be partnership Affiliates to provide guidance and expertise for partnership endeavors.
As part of their work together, participating IDSP companies will launch a Data for Local Environments Challenge with the Open Data Institute. Using publicly available datasets and datasets shared or curated by the private sector, participants will explore how officials in cities, counties and municipalities can use these datasets to generate insights and solutions to improve their local environments, such as reaching their net zero goals. More about the data challenge can be found here. Registration will open in early 2023.
The IDSP will also foster connections between industry and the public sector, researchers and academics to better understand how industry data can improve their work. The partnership’s first engagement is with the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and the United States National Committee for CODATA (USNC/CODATA) to plan a Summit that will convene scholars, government, industry and nonprofit research organizations to surface opportunities to work together across disciplines, leverage the strengths of individuals organizations and move common agendas forward more rapidly. More information about the planning process can be found at Association of Research Libraries (ARL).
IDSP founders supporting statements:
GitHub – “GitHub is the global home for all developers, including data scientists and ML engineers who are increasingly using the platform for data sharing and collaboration. We’re proud to join the Industry Data for Society Partnership to help make private-sector data more broadly available. This will empower developers to work together across industry, academia and the public sector to address some of the world’s most pressing social challenges.” –Shelley McKinley, Chief Legal Officer, GitHub
HPE– “HPE is proud to be a part of this initiative because we support open data and the goals of the Industry Data for Society Partnership. At HPE, we want to democratize the access to data and provide guidance on how to approach this form of data sharing to solve big problems. For example, our work with sustainable agriculture has enabled farmers in developing countries to find the right data, at the right time, to be more productive producers. It is this kind of collaboration and sharing that can help overcome some of society’s most difficult challenges.” –Glyn Bowden, Chief Architect for AI and Data Science, HPE
LinkedIn– “Joining the Industry Data for Society Partnership is perfectly aligned with exactly what LinkedIn is all about — creating economic opportunity for the global workforce. The data we make available to partners for research and development purposes, what we call the Economic Graph, provides a vibrant representation of the global activity of more than 850 million professionals, as they connect, learn new skills, explore jobs, and gain the knowledge and insights needed to successfully pursue economic opportunity. We can’t think of a better time than now, or a more necessary moment, to use data to address the immediate needs of a changing world.” – Sue Duke, Vice President Global Public Policy, LinkedIn
Microsoft– “Making data more open and accessible can aid in the progress of solving today’s most urgent societal challenges, and that’s why we are a founding member of the Industry Data for Society Partnership. Over two years ago, Microsoft launched the Open Data Campaign to help close the data divide and extend the benefits of open data to organizations of all sizes. We know we can accomplish that by working together and make real progress toward addressing today’s most pressing societal challenges.” – Burton Davis, Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Intellectual Property Group, Microsoft
Northumbrian Water Group – “At Northumbrian Water, we firmly believe in the power of data and have a long track record of using data to fuel innovation. Since our first open, annual Innovation festival back in 2017, we have run almost 200 sprints, hackathons and data dashes and most of these have been powered by data from our own company along with that of our peers and partners. We know there is more we can do and so we are incredibly excited to be an active member of this new partnership. We are looking forward to not only increasing the impact we can have together in addressing societal and environmental challenges but also to share our learning to help others do the same.” –Nigel Watson, Group Information Services Director, Northumbrian Water Group
R2 Factory– “Systemwide problems require systemwide collaboration. R2 Factory exists to foster collaboration between industry partners, to unlock the hidden value from data. Taking the lessons we learned from convening the Emergent Alliance — where over 50 corporates, individuals, NGOs and governments collaborated with data to aid pandemic recovery — and continuing to pursue that shared expertise for social good is really important to us. We’re delighted to be founding members of the Industry Data for Society Partnership and are excited to find out what we can achieve together.” –Ian Whitford, CTO, R2 Factory
UK Power Networks– “The power of data for any organization is in looking beyond its own boundaries and combining it with information from other sectors and developing fresh insights that will ultimately lead to action and long-lasting change. At a time when the global energy crisis is impacting us all, especially the most vulnerable, the IDSP has the potential to be a powerful tool for positive change.” – Matt Webb, Head of Enterprise Data Management, UK Power Networks
Affiliate organizations supporting statements:
The GovLab– “One important lesson we’ve learned about using data for good is the importance of collaboration and partnerships. There is an exponential return when organizations align their goals and pool their data resources and expertise. Collaboration also improves trust in how data is handled, as well as the legitimacy of the projects initiated. In other words, data partnerships are critical to unlocking data’s potential for societal benefit while limiting its risks and potential harm.”–Stefaan G. Verhulst, Co-Founder of The GovLab and Director of its Data Program
Open Data Institute– “The ODI is proud and excited to be an affiliate of the Industry Data for Society Partnership. The program represents the ambition and duty of the private sector to be at the forefront of driving positive social change through open data.
It is well known that businesses can create value by using third-party data to develop new products and services. But at the ODI, our research has shown that they can unlock more value for society by opening up the data they have collected. This will help address global issues, such as the climate crisis and the COVID pandemic.
As an affiliate, we will use our expertise to help shape the partnership’s plans and approach, and we look forward to offering guidance and support to its partners as they embark on new data sharing projects.” –Jack Hardinges, Head of Programmes at the Open Data Institute
To learn more about the partnership and keep up to date with our projects and initiatives, visit www.IndustryDataforSociety.com. To contact the partnership, please email us at [email protected].
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
For more information, press only:
Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications for Microsoft, (425) 638-7777, [email protected]
Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://news.microsoft.com. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at https://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-public-relations-contacts.
Secure cloud, AI/ML and 5G.MIL® solutions will unlock next-generation national security solutions
Lockheed Martin and Microsoft on Tuesday announced a landmark expansion of their strategic relationship to help power the next generation of technology for the Department of Defense (DOD).
The game-changing agreement will span four critical areas for the DOD:
Classified Cloud Innovations: Microsoft’s latest secure framework will make Lockheed Martin the first non-government entity to independently operate inside the Microsoft Azure Government Secret cloud ushering in a new era of cloud opportunities for industry.
Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML), Modeling and Simulation Capabilities: Lockheed Martin and Microsoft have entered a two-year collaborative research and development (R&D) program that will advance AI/ML and modeling and simulation capabilities for the DOD.
MIL® Programs: The R&D agreement also expands the companies’ existing collaboration to deliver advanced networking and secure 5G capabilities at the tactical edge.
Digital Transformation: Microsoft Azure will power Lockheed Martin’s digital transformation journey, accelerating enterprise-wide productivity gains to deliver innovation at scale, enhance choice and flexibility, and create the next generation of defense technologies.
Yvonne Hodge, senior vice president, Enterprise Business and Digital Transformation, and chief information officer, Lockheed Martin:
“Through this historic agreement, Lockheed Martin and Microsoft are blazing a new path in classified cloud, artificial intelligence, and 5G.MIL® capabilities for the Department of Defense. We are creating faster, safer, and more affordable 21st Century Security solutions that infuse immersive experiences and other advanced commercial technologies into the most capable defense systems. We are confident this unrivaled combination of capabilities will help keep our customers ahead of new threats and challenges.”
Jason Zander, executive vice president, Strategic Missions and Technologies, Microsoft:
“Our national security leaders need an unassailable information advantage, which is why we’re bringing the power of the hyperscale cloud to accelerate their national security missions. In partnership with Lockheed Martin, we’re demonstrating how the defense industrial base can bring classified data into the cloud securely while bringing advanced 5G connectivity, critical data processing and analysis, and immersive experiences to the edge to support decision- making where it’s needed, when it’s needed. Lockheed Martin is a valued partner in this effort, and we’ll continue to innovate and explore the art of the possible to support national security.”
Classified Cloud Innovations
Lockheed Martin is the first defense industrial base member to use Microsoft’s newest National Industrial Security Program (NISP) framework for air-gapped clouds after a year-long pilot. Work on developing the classified and unclassified cloud environments is already underway, with expectations for the project to be operational in 2023.
Microsoft’s first-of-its-kind technology will allow Lockheed Martin to dynamically scale IT demands under authorized guidance and directly operate mission workloads inside Azure Government Secret, including highly restricted special programs.
This allows Lockheed Martin to:
Modernize its legacy on-premises classified systems to owned-and-operated Azure Government Secret cloud tenants
Bolster cybersecurity reporting and compliance monitoring to near real-time.
Quickly create authorized mission workloads
Improve enterprise IT and research and development capabilities
Expand corporate efficiencies
Autonomously host enterprise cloud management, centralized collaboration, and
Provide governance at scale.
AI/ML, Modeling and Simulation Capabilities
Through this agreement, Lockheed Martin will partner with Microsoft to build on Microsoft’s advanced gaming, exercising, modeling and simulation (GEMS) and emulation solutions to bring military planning and coordination through immersive environments. Using GEMS technology, Lockheed Martin and its customers can test military platforms and technologies that power joint all-domain operations on a digital platform. Such capabilities have the potential to cut costs for the DOD and minimize risk to service members by providing a digital alternative for some military exercises.
5G.MIL Programs
Using Microsoft Azure solutions and Lockheed Martin’s 5G.MIL technologies, the companies will continue to develop secure, resilient communication systems for that are interoperable with and seamlessly link to existing DOD networks. Key developments include a tactical 5G core, management and orchestration of applications and networks at scale and cloud-native security. The companies will also advance space domain connectivity for austere, infrastructure-light environments.
Advancing Lockheed Martin’s Digital Transformation
With Azure as a foundation, Lockheed Martin will advance its business and digital transformation called 1LMX. By transforming its end-to-end business processes and systems, Lockheed Martin is creating a model-based enterprise with a fully integrated digital thread throughout the design, build and sustain product life cycle. 1LMX is enhancing the company’s speed, agility, insights and competitiveness as it delivers the next generation of DOD systems. As part of this transformation, Lockheed Martin will become a multi-cloud environment in the unclassified space using Microsoft Azure as the cloud provider.
Lockheed Martin’s adoption of the Azure cloud will deliver unparalleled protection across all devices, clouds, apps and platforms. Microsoft’s industry-leading cybersecurity leverages massive signal depth and diversity of more than 24 trillion signals per day, combined with cutting-edge AI/ML and a global team of security experts.
Lockheed Martin and Microsoft will continue to develop each of the four critical areas and demonstrate a series of progressively more complex capabilities throughout 2023. The capabilities unlocked by this collaboration will apply to a range of defense applications across all domains: land, sea, air, space and cyber.
Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 114,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.
Please follow @LMNews on Twitter for the latest announcements and news across the corporation.
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
Microsoft Supply Chain Platform harmonizes the data estate, introduces “command center” for enterprise supply chain
REDMOND, Wash. — Nov. 14, 2022— On Monday, Microsoft Corp. announced the Microsoft Supply Chain Platform, which helps organizations maximize their supply chain data estate investment with an open approach, bringing the best of Microsoft AI, collaboration, low-code, security and SaaS applications in a composable platform.
The company also announced the preview of Microsoft Supply Chain Center, a ready-made command center for supply chain visibility and transformation and part of the Microsoft Supply Chain Platform. Supply Chain Center is designed to work natively with an organization’s supply chain data and applications, with built-in collaboration, supply and demand insights, and order management.
“Businesses are dealing with petabytes of data spread across legacy systems, ERP, supply chain management and point solutions, resulting in a fragmented view of the supply chain,” said Charles Lamanna, corporate vice president, Microsoft Business Applications and Platform. “Supply chain agility and resilience are directly tied to how well organizations connect and orchestrate their data across all relevant systems. The Microsoft Supply Chain Platform and Supply Chain Center enable organizations to make the most of their existing investments to gain insights and act quickly.”
“Supply chain solutions are more critical than ever. Our early assessment of the Microsoft Supply Chain Platform and Supply Chain Center is that the company has put its technology, applications and resources together in a way that will serve its customer base well in a wide swath of IT and operations environments, offering flexibility for diverse IT environments and continuous agility for transformation into the future,” said Daniel Newman, founding partner and principal analyst of Futurum Research.
The Microsoft Supply Chain Platform: An open, collaborative and composable foundation for data and supply chain orchestration
With today’s announcement, we are making it easier for customers to realize the value of the Microsoft Cloud for their supply chain. The Microsoft Supply Chain Platform provides the building blocks across Azure, Dynamics 365, Microsoft Teams and Power Platform for customers to develop or independently adopt capabilities for their supply chain needs. With Dataverse, customers can create thousands of connectors to gain visibility across supply chain, develop custom workflows with low-code solutions in Power Platform, and securely collaborate internally and externally through the power of Teams. With tools and processes that drive positive impact, the platform can enable organizations to gain deeper insights and minimize the carbon impact of their organization and supply chain.
The Microsoft partner ecosystem will continue to play a critical role in enabling customer supply chain resiliency and agility. With the Microsoft Supply Chain Platform, partners can bring their industry and domain expertise to create integrated solutions leveraging Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Teams and Power Platform. We will continue to support our customers with a rich partner ecosystem including advisors and implementers like Accenture, Avanade, EY, KPMG, PwC and TCS. In addition, to help customers find the best solution for their supply chain needs, we’ll continue working with solution providers such as Blue Yonder, Cosmo Tech, Experlogix, Flintfox, inVia Robotics, K3, O9 Solutions, SAS, Sonata, To-Increase Software and many more.
Accelerating business agility with the Microsoft Supply Chain Center
At the core of the Supply Chain Platform is the Microsoft Supply Chain Center, now available in preview, which provides a command center experience for practitioners to harmonize data from across existing infrastructure supply chain systems, such as data from Dynamics 365, and other ERP providers, including SAP and Oracle, along with standalone supply chain systems. Data Manager in Supply Chain Center enables data ingestion and orchestration to provide visibility across the supply chain and drive action back into systems of execution. During preview, our launch partners C.H. Robinson, FedEx, FourKites and Overhaul will offer native experiences within Supply Chain Center.
Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management customers automatically gain access to Supply Chain Center. Supply Chain Center also includes prebuilt modules to address supply chain disruptions across supply and order fulfillment:
The supply and demand insights module leverages advanced Azure AI models to predict upstream supply constraints and shortages through supply intelligence. Organizations can perform simulations using data from their supply chain network to predict stock-outs, over-stocking or missed-order lines. Combined with smart news insights, which provide relevant news alerts in the Supply Chain Center on external events, supply chain practitioners can make decisions and plan with real-world event information and historical insights for product demands.
The order management module in Supply Chain Center enables organizations to intelligently orchestrate fulfillment and automate it with a rules-based system using real-time omnichannel inventory data, AI and machine learning. Organizations can adapt quickly to meet future order volumes and fulfillment complexities by extending their capabilities with prebuilt connectors to the best-of-breed of specialized technology partners for order intake, delivery and third-party logistics services. Existing Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management customers will automatically get access to Supply Chain Center and the order management module at launch.
With secure, built-in Teams integration, customers can mitigate supply constraints by collaborating with external suppliers in real time, to secure new supply sources, troubleshoot transportation issues, and communicate upstream and downstream impacts based on changes.
With partner modules built into the Supply Chain Center, customers can unlock specific solutions, such as freight visibility from Overhaul, directly in the experience. Since everything runs off a Dataverse environment, the data is consistent no matter what module is being using. This eliminates pasting information back and forth and reconciling which reports have the most up-to-date information.
With today’s announcements, Microsoft is taking a significant step toward its commitment to reimagine the supply chain, helping drive efficiency and agility for our customers.
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
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Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://news.microsoft.com. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at https://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-public-relations-contacts.
UBS plans to have more than 50% of its applications running in the Microsoft Azure cloud
Initiative will help UBS provide innovative products and services to clients, further empower employees and advance sustainability goals
UBS and Microsoft co-develop products and solutions to meet the digital needs of the bank and financial services industry
ZURICH and REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 20, 2022 — On Thursday, UBS and Microsoft Corp. announced a landmark expansion of their partnership to accelerate UBS’s public cloud footprint over the next five years. Through this transformational initiative, UBS plans to have more than 50% of its applications, including critical workloads, running on Microsoft Azure, now UBS’s primary cloud platform. The partnership furthers UBS’s “cloud-first” strategy and the modernization of its global technology estate.
Through this partnership, UBS will have access to the most comprehensive cloud platform, trusted by more than 95% of Fortune 500 companies, with a rich set of productivity and collaboration tools, enabling the firm to increase the speed at which it can deliver and improve upon its digital experiences for clients and employees. At the same time, Azure will help advance UBS’s sustainability initiatives, drive operational efficiencies, and maintain its standards for compliance and security — providing strong foundations on which to scale UBS’s rate of cloud adoption.
“Our cloud strategy has fundamentally changed the way we operate, allowing us to reinvigorate our technology estate and reimagine how we build applications for our clients,” said Mike Dargan, UBS Group chief digital and information officer. “Closely partnering and collaborating with Microsoft has and will continue to create tremendous value for our clients, our employees, the firm and our shareholders. The developments and learnings that stem from this partnership will benefit the financial services industry and beyond.”
In 2018, when UBS announced its cloud strategy, leveraging its strategic partnership with Microsoft, it planned to move one-third of its applications to public cloud within four years, but accomplished this goal early in February 2021. Now, the partnership goes beyond just consuming cloud services to include the co-development of innovations and greater collaboration in areas like carbon reduction.
“UBS is a forward-thinking leader in the financial services industry, and Microsoft has been fortunate to co-develop innovative applications that meet complex, regulatory requirements with their engineering teams over the past several years,” said Scott Guthrie, executive vice president, Cloud + AI, Microsoft. “Our expanded partnership will continue to accelerate the organization’s ambitious digital transformation plans, applying the power of the Microsoft Cloud to equip UBS with the agility and reliability to deliver for their clients.”
Advancing digital sustainability
In line with the firm’s sustainability goals, UBS continues to move certain technology platform workloads from its on-premises and private cloud servers to Azure. In some use cases, this has resulted in the energy consumption of these workloads to be reduced by up to 30% to date.
Together, UBS and Microsoft also co-developed a Carbon Aware API, an open-source solution that provides recommendations on how to schedule workloads that require heavy compute power during times when clean, renewable or low-carbon sources of electricity are most available. They then provided their solution to the Green Software Foundation so it could be shared with large and small companies around the world.
Enhancing client and employee experiences with artificial intelligence
UBS and Microsoft are implementing and further exploring ways in which artificial intelligence and data can be used to enhance services for clients and employees. For example, in Switzerland, UBS is currently operating two applications that utilize conversational AI capabilities to respond to client e-mail inquiries.
Unleashing innovation and driving greater business insights on a trusted platform
To support UBS’s “cloud-first” strategy and further drive innovation, Microsoft actively brought its Azure confidential computing services to Switzerland. This provided UBS with a new functionality to protect and secure data sharing internally across all of UBS’s business divisions, while maintaining the bank’s compliance and security standards. As a result, UBS can now develop additional business insights and uncover new opportunities for innovation for its clients and employees.
In addition, UBS will leverage Microsoft Power Platform — including Power Apps and Power Automate — which will provide employees with the ability to quickly build professional-grade applications, create automated workflows and connect disparate data sources.
About UBS
UBS convenes the global ecosystem for investing, where people and ideas are connected and opportunities brought to life, and provides financial advice and solutions to wealthy, institutional and corporate clients worldwide, as well as to private clients in Switzerland. UBS offers investment solutions, products and impactful thought leadership, is the leading global wealth manager, provides large-scale and diversified asset management, focused investment banking capabilities, and personal and corporate banking services in Switzerland. The firm focuses on businesses that have a strong competitive position in their target markets, are capital efficient and have an attractive long-term structural growth or profitability outlook.
UBS is present in all major financial centers worldwide. It has offices in more than 50 regions and locations, with about 30% of its employees working in the Americas, 30% in Switzerland, 19% in the rest of Europe, the Middle East and Africa and 21% in Asia Pacific. UBS Group AG employs more than 72,000 people around the world. Its shares are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
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Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://news.microsoft.com. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at https://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-public-relations-contacts.
– On World Sight Day, Haleon and Microsoft are launching a joint effort to make health products more accessible for people who are blind or have low vision, with artificial intelligence (AI) technology that narrates product labels. – New enhancements in the free Microsoft Seeing AI app will help advance inclusivity and improve accessibility. – Across the U.S. and U.K., consumers will hear important label information for over 1,500 everyday consumer health products such as Sensodyne, Centrum, Emergen-C, ChapStick and Aquafresh.
Microsoft Seeing AI app scans Sensodyne barcode for health information.
REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 12, 2022 — On Wednesday, Haleon, a global leader in consumer health, and Microsoft Corp. announced a new collaboration to make everyday health more accessible for people who are blind, have low vision or have difficulty reading product labels due to low literacy. Together, the companies are expanding functionality in the Microsoft Seeing AI app to provide consumers with more detailed labelling information for over 1,500 Haleon products across the U.S. and U.K. Seeing AI is a free mobile app designed to help people who have trouble seeing by narrating the world around them.
With today’s launch on World Sight Day, people will hear packaging information through Seeing AI by scanning the barcode of Haleon products. This will provide an audio read-out of important information, such as product name, ingredients and usage instructions. Through Seeing AI’s enhanced functionality, Haleon will help empower people to care for their own health independently by listening to label information narrated through the Seeing AI application.
Haleon’s inaugural Health Inclusivity Index, which sets a new global standard for measuring health inclusivity, makes clear that to improve health inclusivity, individuals and communities need to be provided with the power and the tools to truly take their health into their own hands. Haleon, driven by its purpose to deliver better everyday health with humanity, is committed to helping make healthcare more achievable, inclusive and sustainable. The Seeing AI collaboration with Microsoft is one of Haleon’s first new initiatives to champion health inclusivity. The Microsoft Seeing AI app can be a benefit to:
The 1 million Americans who live with blindness (CDC, “Fast Facts of Common Eye Disorders, https://www.cdc.gov/visionhealth/basics/ced/fastfacts.htm)
The 12 million U.S. adults over the age of 40 who are blind or have low vision (CDC, “Fast Facts of Common Eye Disorders, https://www.cdc.gov/visionhealth/basics/ced/fastfacts.htm)
The Seeing AI app was developed by a team of Microsoft engineers spearheaded by project lead and engineering manager Saqib Shaikh, who lost his sight at the age of seven and was driven to develop the app by his passion for using technology to improve people’s lives.
Saqib Shaikh, engineering manager at Microsoft, said: “I’m really excited to see the launch of this enhanced product recognition functionality, developed in collaboration with Haleon. Seeing AI’s intelligent barcode scanner plays audio cues to help you find the barcode, and now the information displayed for Haleon products is coming straight from the manufacturer, providing richer information including usage instructions and ingredients. This can be invaluable for someone who cannot read the label, leading to greater independence.”
Katie Williams, U.S. chief marketing officer at Haleon said, “We believe everyone should have access to self-care products, services and the information needed to make informed, proactive choices about their health needs. Haleon initiated this collaboration with Microsoft via its Seeing AI app to make consumer health more accessible, achievable and inclusive. We are proud to help make better everyday health more in reach for the blind and those with low vision.”
The Seeing AI app is free to download from the Apple App Store and will be available on Android in the future. To use Seeing AI on Haleon’s products, users should hold their phone camera over the packaging barcode. The app will read out the product name and all text on the package. Users can skip ahead or move back to the relevant section they want to listen to, for example, which flavor or how to use the product. The Haleon barcode functionality will launch today in the U.S. and U.K. first, with plans to expand globally and add additional languages in the future.
About Haleon U.S.
Haleon (NYSE: HLN) is a leading global consumer health company with a portfolio of brands trusted daily by millions of people. In the United States, the organization employs more than 4,700 people who are united by Haleon’s powerful purpose to deliver better everyday health with humanity. Haleon’s products span five categories: Oral Health, Pain Relief, Respiratory Health, Digestive Health, and Wellness. Built on scientific expertise, innovation, and deep human understanding, Haleon’s brands include Abreva, Advil, Benefiber, Centrum, ChapStick®, Emergen-C, Excedrin, Flonase, Gas-X, Natean, Nexium, Nicorette, Parodontax, Polident, Preparation H, Pronamel, Sensodyne, Robitussin, Theraflu, TUMS, Voltaren, and more. For more information on Haleon and its brands, please visit www.haleon.com or contact [email protected].
About the Haleon Health Inclusivity Index
Today’s announcement closely follows the launch of the Health Inclusivity Index, developed by Economist Impact and supported by Haleon. The world-first global study of 40 countries measures how successful countries are in using policy to remove the personal, social, cultural, and political barriers which could otherwise prevent people and communities from achieving good physical and mental health. The number of countries assessed in the study will grow to over 80 over the next two years as part of a new three-year partnership between Haleon and Economist Impact. The report has been commissioned by Haleon as part of its commitment to making better everyday health more achievable, inclusive and sustainable, with the company aiming to create more opportunities for people to be included in everyday health, reaching 50 million people a year by 2025.
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
For more information, press only:
Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications for Microsoft, (425) 638-7777, [email protected]
Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://news.microsoft.com. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at https://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-public-relations-contacts.
Mercedes-Benz introduces MO360 Data Platform, connecting passenger car plants to Microsoft Cloud
Vehicle production efficiency expected to improve by 20% by 2025
Logistic teams to solve supply chain bottlenecks much faster
Dynamic allocation of resources to prioritize low-emission and Top-End Luxury vehicles
Production teams can access self-service portal with Microsoft Power BI dashboard from any device
Data analytics tool to monitor and forecast carbon emissions, energy and water usage, waste management
Mercedes-Benz and Microsoft: New MO360 Data Platform makes car production more efficient, resilient and sustainable – (f.l.t.r.) Judson Althoff, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer of Microsoft, Jan Brecht, Chief Information Officer of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, Jörg Burzer, Member of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, responsible for Production & Supply Chain Management
STUTTGART, Germany, and REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 12, 2022 — Mercedes-Benz and Microsoft Corp. collaborate to make vehicle production more efficient, resilient and sustainable. With the new MO360 Data Platform, Mercedes-Benz is connecting its around 30 passenger car plants worldwide to the Microsoft Cloud, enhancing transparency and predictability across its digital production and supply chain. The MO360 Data Platform is the evolution of Mercedes-Benz’ digital production ecosystem MO360 and allows teams to identify potential supply chain bottlenecks faster and enable a dynamic prioritization of production resources toward electric and Top-End vehicles. This unified data platform is standardized on Microsoft Azure, providing Mercedes-Benz with flexibility and cloud computing power to run artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics at global scale while addressing cybersecurity and compliance standards across regions. The platform is already available to teams in EMEA and will be deployed in the United States and China.
“This new partnership between Microsoft and Mercedes-Benz will make our global production network more intelligent, sustainable and resilient in an era of increased geopolitical and macroeconomic challenges. The ability to predict and prevent problems in production and logistics will become a key competitive advantage as we go all electric,” said Joerg Burzer, Member of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, Production & Supply Chain Management.
“Mercedes-Benz’ partnership with Microsoft is a testament to the power of the industrial metaverse,” said Judson Althoff, executive vice president and chief commercial officer at Microsoft. “Together, we are merging the physical and digital worlds to accelerate value creation. Mercedes-Benz can simulate and refine manufacturing processes infinitely in the Microsoft Cloud before bringing them to the shop floor to enhance efficiency and minimize its environmental impact amid constant change and uncertainty.”
“With the MO360 data platform, we democratize technology and data in manufacturing. As we are moving toward a 100% digital enterprise, data is becoming everyone’s business at Mercedes-Benz. Our colleagues on the shop floor have access to production and management-related real-time data. They are able to work with drill-down dashboards and make data-based decisions,” said Jan Brecht, Chief Information Officer, Mercedes-Benz Group AG.
Redefine production excellence with a unified data platform
With the MO360 Data Platform, the Stuttgart-based carmaker can create a virtual replica of its vehicle manufacturing process, combining insights from assembly, production planning, shop floor logistics, supply chain and quality management. The virtual simulation and optimization of processes before running them on the shop floor helps accelerate operational efficiency and unlock energy savings. For example, managers can optimize operational patterns to reduce CO2 emissions in production.
Mercedes-Benz is also exploring the integration of the MO360 Data Platform with data sources from other departments to enable a digital feedback loop that will spur continuous learning and innovation across the Group.
The recently opened Mercedes-Benz Digital Factory Campus Berlin is the home base for the MO360 Data Platform engineering teams and will become the MO360 training and qualification center for implementing digital approaches globally.
Increase supply chain resilience and efficiency
With the new centralized data platform, teams can instantly analyze and visualize production data, to faster optimize production processes and identify potential supply chain bottlenecks. This enables a dynamic allocation of operational resources within and across plants to prioritize the manufacturing of low-emission and Top-End Luxury vehicles.
The Mercedes-Benz Operations Logistics team will be able to solve supply chain bottlenecks much faster. They can compare the availability of components, including semiconductors, with production orders and position this data against production parameters including operational running plans. As a result, plant managers can keep the production running and prioritize relevant vehicles even if supply chain challenges occur.
Move at full speed toward an all-electric future
The MO360 Data Platform will make it easier to maintain production of both electric and combustion-engine vehicles on a single production line as the market demand gradually shifts toward an all-electric future.
To tackle shortages in components and prevent delivery delays, the MO360 Data Platform will enable teams to explore a variety of production scenarios depending on the availability of components like semiconductors, based on real-time data about the quality of parts and equipment. This is expected to result in productivity gains of 20% in passenger car production by 2025 and help avoid unplanned downtimes and schedule maintenance work in a timely and CO2-friendly fashion.
Reduce ecological footprint from water and energy use to waste management
As part of the MO360 Data Platform, Mercedes-Benz has implemented an analytics tool to monitor and reduce its ecological footprint during vehicle production, a crucial milestone toward the company’s Ambition 2039 initiative to become carbon neutral by 2039. With the data analytics tool, teams can track and forecast carbon emissions, energy and water usage as well as waste management and roll out best practices across the production network. Mercedes-Benz plans to cover more than 70% of its energy needs through renewable sources by 2030 by expanding solar and wind power at its own sites and through Power Purchase Agreements and plans to cut its use of water by 35%1 through the reuse of water in production.
Democratize data to enhance workforce productivity and distributed teamwork
Mercedes-Benz production staff gets access to the MO360 Data Platform via a self-service portal available on any company device including tablets, smartphones and laptops. Its visualization with Microsoft Power BI provides a what-you-see-is-what-you-get experience, allowing employees to become data workers with the ability to model and correlate data. The Teams Walkie Talkie app provides workers with an instant push-to-talk (PTT) communication on their business phones — no extra device needed.
With the MO360 Data Platform, teams at Factory 56 have shortened their daily shop floor meeting by 30%. In addition, they identify priority tasks to optimize production workflows within two minutes, which took up to four hours prior to the introduction of the platform. From team leads and process engineers to shop and plant managers, employees are encouraged to contribute new use cases to drive process innovation with Microsoft Power Platform.
Working with a global community of internal and external developers, Mercedes-Benz’ process software engineers are committed to open collaboration. They use Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) including GitHub to improve the quality of the software and the speed of delivery. They benefit from Azure Data Lake, Azure Databricks and Azure Purview to process and govern huge amounts of data and run AI and analytics using their preferred development frameworks. For software deployment and operations, they work with Azure DevOps.
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
Mercedes-Benz Group at a glance
Mercedes-Benz Group AG is one of the world’s most successful automotive companies. With Mercedes-Benz AG, the Group is one of the leading global suppliers of premium and luxury cars and vans. Mercedes-Benz Mobility AG offers financing, leasing, car subscription and car rental, fleet management, digital services for charging and payment, insurance brokerage, as well as innovative mobility services. The company founders, Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz, made history by inventing the automobile in 1886. As a pioneer of automotive engineering, Mercedes-Benz sees shaping the future of mobility in a safe and sustainable way as both a motivation and obligation. The company’s focus therefore remains on innovative and green technologies as well as on safe and superior vehicles that both captivate and inspire. Mercedes-Benz continues to invest systematically in the development of efficient powertrains and sets the course for an all-electric future: The brand with the three-pointed star pursues the goal to go all-electric, where market conditions allow. Shifting from electric-first to electric-only, the world’s pre-eminent luxury car company is accelerating toward an emissions-free and software-driven future. The company’s efforts are also focused on the intelligent connectivity of its vehicles, autonomous driving and new mobility concepts as Mercedes-Benz regards it as its aspiration and obligation to live up to its responsibility to society and the environment. Mercedes-Benz sells its vehicles and services in nearly every country of the world and has production facilities in Europe, North and Latin America, Asia and Africa. In addition to Mercedes-Benz, the world’s most valuable luxury automotive brand (source: Interbrand study, 20 Oct. 2021), Mercedes-AMG, Mercedes-Maybach, Mercedes-EQ and Mercedes me as well as the brands of Mercedes-Benz Mobility: Mercedes-Benz Bank, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services and Athlon. The company is listed on the Frankfurt and Stuttgart stock exchanges (ticker symbol MBG). In 2021, the Group had a workforce of around 172,000 and sold 2.3 million vehicles. Group revenues amounted to €168.0 billion and Group EBIT to €29.1 billion.
Further information on Mercedes-Benz Group is available at group-media.mercedes-benz.com and group.mercedes-benz.com.
1 In production compared to average 2013/14
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Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications for Microsoft, (425) 638-7777, [email protected]
Edward Taylor for Mercedes-Benz, +49 176 30 94 1776, [email protected]
Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://news.microsoft.com. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at https://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-public-relations-contacts.
Forward-looking statements:
This document contains forward-looking statements that reflect our current views about future events. The words “anticipate,” “assume,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” ”can,” “could,” “plan,” “project,” “should” and similar expressions are used to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to many risks and uncertainties, including an adverse development of global economic conditions, in particular a decline of demand in our most important markets; a deterioration of our refinancing possibilities on the credit and financial markets; events of force majeure including natural disasters, pandemics, acts of terrorism, political unrest, armed conflicts, industrial accidents and their effects on our sales, purchasing, production or financial services activities; changes in currency exchange rates, customs and foreign trade provisions; a shift in consumer preferences towards smaller, lower-margin vehicles; a possible lack of acceptance of our products or services which limits our ability to achieve prices and adequately utilize our production capacities; price increases for fuel, raw materials or energy; disruption of production due to shortages of materials or energy, labour strikes or supplier insolvencies; a decline in resale prices of used vehicles; the effective implementation of cost-reduction and efficiency-optimization measures; the business outlook for companies in which we hold a significant equity interest; the successful implementation of strategic cooperations and joint ventures; changes in laws, regulations and government policies, particularly those relating to vehicle emissions, fuel economy and safety; the resolution of pending governmental investigations or of investigations requested by governments and the outcome of pending or threatened future legal proceedings; and other risks and uncertainties, some of which are described under the heading “Risk and Opportunity Report” in the current Annual Report or in the current Interim Report. If any of these risks and uncertainties materializes or if the assumptions underlying any of our forward-looking statements prove to be incorrect, the actual results may be materially different from those we express or imply by such statements. We do not intend or assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements since they are based solely on the circumstances at the date of publication.
Using AI and satellite imagery, the Global Renewables Watch maps renewable energy installations from space
NEW YORK — Sept. 22, 2022 — Microsoft Corp., Planet Labs PBC and The Nature Conservancy on Thursday announced its plans to launch the Global Renewables Watch (GRW), a first-of-its-kind living atlas intended to map and measure all utility-scale solar and wind installations on Earth using artificial intelligence (AI) and satellite imagery, allowing users to evaluate clean energy transition progress and track trends over time.
With initial mapping of solar and wind energy installations in Germany and India, as well as solar installations in Brazil and Egypt completed, the GRW is being built to serve as a publicly available renewable energy atlas with country-by-country insights into production progress and development trends. With access to satellite data dating back to 2018, and plans to update the atlas twice annually, the GRW aims to show countries’ renewable energy capacity, assist in understanding that capacity, and recognize patterns about the potential impact of the renewable energy siting on the landscape over time rather than as a moment in time.
The first full global inventory is expected to be completed by early 2023, at which point the results will undergo both scientific and technical validation. For this joint program, Microsoft is providing the AI and platform technology, Planet is contributing the underlying satellite imagery, and The Nature Conservancy is overlaying the subject-matter expertise to analyze the output.
The announcement comes as New York City hosts international public- and private-sector leaders for the opening of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly and the 14th annual Climate Week NYC.
“The theme for Climate Week NYC this year is ‘getting it done,’ and to do that, we need to move from pledges to progress,” said The Nature Conservancy’s CEO Jennifer Morris. “Global Renewables Watch, which is a result of collaboration between Microsoft, The Nature Conservancy and Planet, is exactly the kind of action we need to see. This will be a publicly accessible resource to help researchers and policymakers understand current capacities and gaps so that decision-makers can scale much-needed renewable energy resources in a responsible, nature-friendly way.”
Current methods for tracking solar and wind energy projects globally are an immensely complex undertaking, cutting across countless jurisdictions and with much of the data held by private organizations. The GRW aims to provide this data by coupling AI with high-resolution satellite imagery and presenting it in a dynamically updated time series.
“Each of the partners brings unique knowledge and value-add to this initiative,” said Planet’s Co-Founder and CEO Will Marshall. “You can’t manage what you can’t measure, so by combining Microsoft’s AI and cloud computing capabilities, Planet’s comprehensive and high-resolution satellite imagery, and The Nature Conservancy’s deep subject-matter expertise, we hope to build a powerful platform for surfacing — and democratizing access to — renewable energy data.”
The partners will continue to map additional countries and are aiming to build awareness of the tool among those tasked with managing the world’s clean energy transition in the weeks leading up to and during the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP27, taking place in Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt, Nov. 6-18, 2022.
“The world needs access to data in order to make responsible environmental decisions, and the Global Renewables Watch will serve as a critical tool for understanding humanity’s progress toward fulfilling the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement and meeting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all,” said Microsoft VP and Chief Data Scientist Juan Lavista Ferres.
The GRW will make its data and findings available at GlobalRenewablesWatch.org for integration into wider analyses.
About Planet
Planet Labs PBC (NYSE: PL) is a leading provider of global, daily satellite imagery and geospatial solutions. Planet is driven by a mission to image the world every day, and make change visible, accessible and actionable. Founded in 2010 by three NASA scientists, Planet designs, builds, and operates the largest Earth observation fleet of imaging satellites, capturing over 30 TB of data per day. Planet provides mission-critical data, advanced insights, and software solutions to over 800 customers, comprising the world’s leading agriculture, forestry, intelligence, education and finance companies and government agencies, enabling users to simply and effectively derive unique value from satellite imagery. Planet is a public benefit corporation trading on the New York Stock Exchange as PL. To learn more visit www.planet.com and follow us on Twitter.
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
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