Tag: Transform

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Shell, Microsoft find common ground in drive to reduce CO2 emissions

Microsoft and Shell have enjoyed a long and productive relationship, built on deep connections that stretch back decades. Shell was one of the first global businesses to adopt the Windows operating system across its entire enterprise. More recently, Shell has been a pioneer in digital transformation, embracing technologies that improve efficiency and safety, and accelerate development of cleaner energy sources. This includes major deployments of Azure, Microsoft 365 and the Power platform.

That relationship is growing even deeper to help meet the difficult and complex challenges of energy transition. Under a newly announced strategic alliance, the two companies aim to jointly develop technologies that will help them accelerate achieving their carbon reduction ambitions, while helping customers and other organizations reduce their own emissions. Microsoft will help build new artificial intelligence (AI) solutions that accelerate Shell’s digital transformation and Shell will supply products and services that help Microsoft in its drive to net zero carbon emissions.

“These complex challenges can’t be solved in isolation, or by doing business as usual,” says Judson Althoff, executive vice president of Microsoft’s Worldwide Commercial Business. “We are proud to play our role in a sustainable future, and we know that a successful energy transition depends on strong technology partnerships anchored in co-innovation and development with leaders in the energy sector.”

Advancing Shell’s digital transformation

Under the alliance, the two companies will continue advancing Shell’s digital transformation, building on an extensive technology portfolio. With technology flowing both ways, the companies can learn from each other and implement solutions together, which will also create new opportunities for their customers and suppliers to reduce their carbon footprints.

The alliance is expected help Shell suppliers decarbonize. Shell is already using Azure to develop a digital tool to track supplier emissions, show baselines, set targets and develop plans for its own operations to achieve these targets. Going forward, Shell and Microsoft aim to develop additional digital tools to help Shell’s suppliers reduce their carbon footprints.

Shell and Microsoft will also work together to provide tools and solutions that help customers manage their carbon footprint. They will collaborate on a digital platform to help small to medium sized companies calculate their carbon footprints, while exploring new ways for customers to find and access low-carbon solutions and products.

“Together we already develop, test and deliver technologies that push the boundaries of what can be achieved,” says Huibert Vigeveno, downstream director at Shell. “We are proud of our relationship. And today we are going further.”

Where digital transformation and energy transformation meet

As Shell supplies energy and products to Microsoft, the alliance will begin to merge digital transformation into energy transformation. Shell is innovating in large-scale renewable energy and advanced technologies that drive efficiency into industrial processes.

Microsoft’s plan is to become carbon negative by reducing its emissions and then removing more carbon from the earth’s atmosphere than it emits. Similarly, Shell’s ambition is to be a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050 or sooner in step with society and customers. Shell recognizes that becoming a net-zero emissions energy business is a huge task. The business plans Shell has today will not get it there, so its plans must change over time, as society and its customers also change.

Microsoft and Shell are not alone in these efforts. Under this new alliance, the two companies aim to offer practical solutions to those seeking to lower their carbon emissions. Shell and Microsoft also are exploring opportunities to advance the use of sustainable aviation fuels.

“We are seeing a cultural shift, not just internally, but everywhere. We have to change the way we do business,” says Dan Jeavons, Shell’s general manager of data science. “Microsoft and Shell each have customers across many industries and their needs are changing. Together, we are working to understand those needs and to find ways to address them. That will unlock tremendous value for Shell, Microsoft, our customers and beyond.”

Data helps drive decarbonization

Digital technology will play a key role in the energy transition, which is where the expertise of Shell and Microsoft align. Shell processes billions of data points each week from its global asset base. The company uses Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform alongside digital twin technologies from Kongsberg and AI platform technology from C3.ai to quickly aggregate and analyze that data to generate a virtual picture of what’s happening across its businesses.

Shell has built a data and analytics platform called Shell.ai which provides machine learning and software engineering capabilities to scale AI solutions across the company. That helps Shell to automate processes like robotic inspection of facilities that can improve maintenance, safety and efficiency. Shell and Microsoft are working together to build out those technologies and share them with customers and suppliers. Both Shell and Microsoft are working to accelerate innovation across the energy industry through the development of open data standards. This is demonstrated through membership in OSDU and Open Footprint Forum.

“The cloud creates a common fabric, but it only works if you have a common data exchange. That makes it much easier to innovate on top of that,” Jeavons says.

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Vroom with a view: HoloLens 2 powers faster fixes for Mercedes-Benz USA

The tools enable diagnostic technicians at the dealerships to troubleshoot a problem in real time by tapping into Mercedes-Benz’ vast ecosystem of remote technical specialists with particular expertise across its various car lines. That network ranges from Mercedes-Benz field specialists in the U.S. who are schooled on the intricacies of each model to engineers at company headquarters in Germany who helped design those vehicles.

Now, a service technician like Edgar Campana, who works at Mercedes-Benz of Coral Gables, can wear a HoloLens 2 and share his view of the car part or car system in question while talking with one of the company’s remote technical specialists, via Dynamics 365 Remote Assist.

Edgar Campana smiles while standing in a repair ship with cars behind him in the distance.
Edgar Campana.

If he needs to peer deep inside the layers of machinery, Campana can gesture with his fingers at, say, the engine and immediately see a 3D hologram that appears next to the car.

Watching from a laptop or desktop computer, the remote specialist can ask Campana to turn his head toward a specific part or sensor, then share wiring diagrams, notes or other visual information directly into the view of the HoloLens 2.

What’s more, the remote specialist can draw on the hologram a picture of that engine (or other component) to show the technician where, for example, to adjust a specific cable. Multiple Mercedes-Benz specialists can join the same call.

“It’s like they are there. It’s like I am them,” Campana says. “The expert is looking through my eyes and seeing what I’m seeing so they can guide me.”

Mike Munoz sits at his corner desk with his hands on the surface as he smiles, looking away from his compute screen. hands
Mike Munoz.

During his virtual conversations, Campana can keep his hands free to use his tools. He also can use the HoloLens 2 to drag the specialist-shared diagrams and documents behind him, away from his field of view. If he needs to view them again, he can just turn backward to reference them or drag them back in front.

“It makes everything easier,” Campana says. “We’re able to diagnose and address issues right there, get the car out of the garage and back to the customer much quicker.”

Mercedes-Benz USA has supplied HoloLens 2 devices to its authorized U.S. dealership partners, including Mercedes-Benz of Coral Gables.

Before the rollout, Campana and his fellow diagnostic technicians typically communicated via email with the remote technical specialists, who often are working to troubleshoot multiple queries across U.S. dealerships. Those back-and-forth email exchanges took time.

“We can now resolve issues often in minutes and hours as compared to days, allowing us to serve our customers more quickly with faster turnaround times,” Munoz says.

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From hackathons to new products, Northwest neighbors T-Mobile and Microsoft team up to innovate

The collaboration is part of a broader partnership between T-Mobile and Microsoft that has grown over the past few years as T-Mobile, which merged with Sprint in April, has sought to disrupt the wireless industry and establish itself as a product-focused innovator.

Those efforts culminated most visibly at Microsoft’s global Hackathon last July, when an eight-person T-Mobile team spent several days working alongside Microsoft employees on a remote-controlled car called T-Racer that uses machine learning and edge computing.

The project provided insights on both sides: T-Mobile learned about network latency and performance across different types of edge computing, and Microsoft was able to assess how its machine learning models were impacted by network connectivity.

Perhaps as importantly, the Hackathon enabled T-Mobile to present itself as a technology company at a high-profile event that draws more than 27,000 participants to Microsoft locations worldwide.

“So many people were surprised to see T-Mobile there because we’ve traditionally been seen as just a telco. We’re now a technology company,” says Rainya Mosher, “cultural architect” for T-Mobile.

“It was a great opportunity for us to say, ‘Hey, we are a tech player. We’re out there on the edge of the frontier with our great partners like Microsoft.’ It was a wonderful opportunity to get to say that and have fun while doing it.”

The event was also a chance to connect with developers who could be future employees, Mosher says.

“We have such a strong brand in the consumer market, but it’s not as strong in the developer community,” she says. “They don’t realize we’re looking for people who want to come in and do something differently in a cutting-edge environment. So it became an employer brand opportunity as well.”

The T-Mobile team included employees from across the company who had worked together remotely, but some hadn’t met in person before. Mosher says the Hackathon fostered connections and a spirit of collaboration that lasted beyond the event.

T-Mobile's remote-controlled T-Racer
T-Mobile’s remote-controlled T-Racer. (Photo by Scott Eklund)

“We were able to leave our normal responsibilities behind and just come together,” she says. “It created this place where you have these great relationships and get to work collaboratively on a common problem. That’s a lot harder to create in a normal work week.

“It increased the sense of community within T-Mobile once we got back to our day jobs.”

***

T-Mobile has long used Microsoft technologies in its products and services, but the relationship between the two companies has recently evolved into a true partnership, says Gina Kirby, a senior Azure specialist who works closely with T-Mobile.

“There has always been a synergy between the two companies, but we hadn’t necessarily dug in so deep as to build things together,” she says.

That changed about three years ago, when T-Mobile sought to use blockchain technology, which allows digital information to be distributed but not copied, to improve security for internal identity management. T-Mobile reached out to Microsoft about its Azure platform capabilities — and specifically its enterprise blockchain service, which was created to help businesses build applications on top of blockchain technology.

T-Mobile had been working alongside Intel, another Microsoft partner, on the Next Identity Platform, an open source blockchain-based identity governance platform. The T-Mobile team wanted to ensure the integration with Microsoft’s technologies was both technically advanced and operationally mature. To further those goals, Microsoft hosted a “code with” event at its campus, where teams from the two companies worked together for a week to develop solutions.

“Bringing the team into Microsoft’s innovation space and sitting side by side with their experts allowed us to rapidly accelerate developing system designs, data flows and ultimately production-quality code,” says Chris Spanton, principal architect of emerging technology strategy for T-Mobile. “We were able to solve complex technical challenges and in the process, develop lasting relationships and a deep sense of co-ownership over the outcomes.”

The exterior of the T-Mobile store in Times Square
T-Mobile thanks customers with free gifts on Tuesdays. (Photo by Diane Bondareff/AP Images for T‑Mobile)

Microsoft also worked with T-Mobile around the 2016 launch of T-Mobile Tuesdays, a customer appreciation app that offers weekly promotions, freebies and a chance to win prizes. The offers are limited to certain hours of the day, which led to traffic spikes that threatened to overload T-Mobile’s platform.

“Sometimes we had challenges when we couldn’t handle the traffic loads that we get on Tuesdays,” says Abigail Franco, director of Product & Technology at T-Mobile, who previously oversaw the T-Mobile Tuesdays team.

“For the first few weeks, we had the Microsoft team at T-Mobile 24/7. Microsoft was there with us and helped us get back on our feet. That was huge.”

More recently, Franco says, Microsoft is partnering with T-Mobile to upgrade its Azure-based platform to handle an anticipated uptick in T-Mobile Tuesdays participation following the Sprint merger.

“We have been trying to build knowledge in-house to make sure we can support our Azure solution, but it’s not the same as having the expertise from Microsoft to guide us through the process, provide best practices, tell us specific areas we should look out for and give us recommendations on how to test various scenarios and proof-of-concepts before we start building a solution,” Franco says.

“It’s been immensely helpful to have the Microsoft team support and help us with that effort.”

***

In 2018, T-Mobile launched a new event aimed at raising awareness about data science and identifying budding data scientists within the company. Datapalooza brings together about 150 data scientists, software engineers, and data and business analysts who work together in teams to solve specific problems with generic data sets over two days.

T-Mobile’s data-analytics platform is built on Azure, and Microsoft provides training to Datapalooza participants on using the platform in the weeks leading up to the event. Microsoft engineers are also on-site during Datapalooza to assist teams and serve as judges.

Microsoft’s experience with large hackathons helped shape T-Mobile’s event, leading to the addition of mentors and other details, says BK Vasan, T-Mobile’s director of data engineering and advanced data analytics.

“We were thinking about something small, but Microsoft partnering with us helped us shape this into something bigger,” he says. “That partnership is very fundamental for T-Mobile. We were able to show the entire division that we have a scalable platform we can run advanced analytics on. At the same time, we were able to rapidly provision the platform for multiple users in less than a day.”

“I think that’s a powerful statement that we were able to make in partnership with Microsoft,” Vasan says. “That gave us confidence, not only for my team, but also the senior leadership in terms of yes, we do have a viable platform for advanced analytics.”

That platform, he says, eventually became T-Mobile’s advanced analytics platform, T-Insights, used by more than 10 of the company’s teams.

Beyond Datapalooza, Microsoft has provided input on using Azure for advanced data analytics, IoT and marketing initiatives, Vasan says. “We do a lot of visioning with Microsoft in terms of tech strategy for the future.”

T-Mobile's 2019 Hackathon team
T-Mobile’s T-Racer was a highlight of the 2019 Microsoft global Hackathon. (Photo courtesy of T-Mobile)

Like much of life in the U.S. at the moment, both companies’ work has shifted during the coronavirus pandemic. An Azure-focused hackathon that T-Mobile and Microsoft were planning is now on hold, and Microsoft’s global Hackathon is going fully virtual this year.

Still, Kirby says Microsoft envisions its partnership with T-Mobile as a long-term effort, and T-Mobile plans to put together a team to participate virtually in this year’s global Hackathon. This time around, T-Mobile will be exploring how Microsoft technology can help the company create even more inclusive user experiences for employees and customers with physical disabilities.

For Garg, who worked for Microsoft from 2006 to 2011, the pet tracker collaboration gave him a new perspective on his former employer. Microsoft’s evolution into a “customer-first company” was evident in its team’s approach of focusing first on what the product needed to do for T-Mobile’s customers, then determining what technologies met those priorities, he says. And it underscored Microsoft’s cultural shift under CEO Satya Nadella to a new era of collaboration.

“When I think about my relationship with Microsoft, it’s not a customer-vendor relationship. It really does feel like a partnership,” Garg says. “It feels like a relationship of friends that are trying to solve shared objectives.

“With Microsoft, it’s never about, ‘I’m trying to sell you something.’ It’s like, ‘How am I going to help use the set of things I have to solve your customer problem?’”

Top photo: A very good dog shows off a T-Mobile SyncUP PETS tracker. (Photo courtesy of T-Mobile)

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Land O’Lakes cultivates tech to help farmers harvest healthier profits

Teddy Bekele is shown sitting on steps and smiling.
Teddy Bekele.

That vision meshes with the 99-year mission at Land O’Lakes.

The company, based in Minnesota, is a farmer-owned cooperative with a network spanning more than 300,000 producers and touching about half of America’s harvested areas. In other words, Land O’Lakes is way bigger than butter.

Through the alliance, digital solutions built on Microsoft Azure and its artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities will help farmers better react to current and future challenges that impact their bottom lines. The timing is urgent.

In recent years, U.S. farmers have been squeezed by international trade issues and changing consumer appetites. This year, COVID-19 has affected the food and ag supply chain, leaving farmers with millions of pounds in produce they can’t sell. Increasingly, each year climate change affects their operations and their bottom line.

Transform recently spoke with Bekele to hear more about his work to fortify American farmers – and honor his father’s legacy.

TRANSFORM: What is it like for you to blend your family’s agricultural history with your own tech expertise to help today’s farmers thrive?

BEKELE: That’s why I wake up. It gets me going every day. At Land O’Lakes, I started to see the impact tech could have on farming, how it could revolutionize this business and bring more stability during uncertain times.

Weather dictates 70 percent of what’s going to happen on a farm. Weather is still something we can’t predict accurately at the hyper-local level. But what if farmers could prepare themselves for these risks and react to them with data and insights?

I looked at what technology could do to protect the decisions farmers were making. I fell in love with that.

TRANSFORM: Your dad was an agronomist, yet he relied on his intuition to raise crops – as generations of farmers have done. How eager are modern farmers to use data, the cloud and AI to make crucial decisions on planting, feeding and harvesting?

BEKELE: Farmers in general like taking risks. If you didn’t like taking risks, I don’t think you’d be a farmer. That’s because every year is different and unpredictable. What you did last year won’t work out the same way this year. The challenges you face are going to be different, down to the individual field level.

So more of them would love to rely on the technology to make decisions and use data to be able to improve themselves from one year to the next.

TRANSFORM: By harnessing Azure, how will Land O’Lakes help farmers – and their fields – become more productive?

BELEKE: For almost 20 years, we’ve done research plots across the farming areas we serve. We planted different seed varieties and crop-protection applications, put in different farming practices then collected data on those plots to provide insights to farmers – like the right crop variety for the type of soil. But that research was all brute force, planting and collecting the data by hand.

Azure brings machine learning and artificial intelligence to the brute force that we applied in the fields. We use computer modeling, algorithms and replicated trials to derive the insights. The plots can then be used to validate our models and findings.

TRANSFORM: How do you envision farmers in the Land O’Lakes cooperative using AI recommendations to specifically react to what their fields are telling them?

BEKELE: It starts when you create the plan for the fields you will manage this year. What’s the best prescription for each field, given the topography, soil type and climate?

After planting, can you get early detection of where diseases might be occurring? If you give the fields nutrients like nitrogen or potassium, which field needs the most help today? What’s the right balance between what you put into the ground versus how many bushels per acre you will harvest?

Today, those calculations happen in a farmer’s head. But instead of manual thinking, an optimized algorithm says: This is how much money you should spend today for the outcome you are seeking.

TRANSFORM: Can you describe one way that the alliance with Microsoft will help improve sustainability on American farms?

BEKELE: For years, farmers put nutrients down in the fall to prep the fields they’ll plant in the spring. That was the old-school way. But what if you know – throughout the growing season – exactly what and how to feed the crop? That makes that field perform better now and in the future.

That can improve productivity. And you can do it in an environmentally sound way, for example by avoiding nutrients leaching out of the field into waterways when it rains. Any nutrient you put into the ground should stay in the ground – and then in the plant to make it healthier and more productive.

TRANSFORM: Land O’Lakes and Microsoft are working together to deliver AI solutions that will help farmers’ profit potential. What would that mean for one farm now on the financial edge?

BEKELE: If you’re at break-even today, the technology gets you to a spot where farming is exciting – you become a profitable farm. And you would not have to add more acres or put yourself at greater risk to get there. It just means you’re making better-optimized decisions with the technology.

For the smaller farmer who is facing a drop in commodity prices, they may be operating in the red. An improvement of 10 to 30 percent means they are no longer losing money. A life-altering change.

TRANSFORM: Could such an increase in profitability lead farmers to experiment with new techniques or new crops that improve the overall food supply?

BEKELE: If you’re questioning whether you will make it financially, you’re less willing to try different farming practices or change your nutrient recipe or try another crop. Maybe a farmer who has been growing corn and soybeans for years should be looking at lentils or peas. But when you’re at break-even, you’re not going to try something that might lose you money.

That reduces innovation and the diversity of crops. But if we can get folks into a position where they can try things, now you also have diversity of crops, which betters their business and betters everybody else.

TRANSFORM: How would these innovations have changed your dad’s life as a farmer – and maybe your own life?

BEKELE: If my dad had access to this technology, he would have tried it, for sure. He was on the bleeding edge when it came to emerging technologies. I would have then been exposed to them. If I had seen the transformation they were bringing, I might have stuck to a career in agriculture.

Or maybe I would have pursued computer science with a focus on agriculture. That would have been an interesting path – although I guess I still landed in basically the same spot 25 years later.

Top photo: A farm in Wisconsin that is part of the Land O’Lakes cooperative. (All photos courtesy of Land O’Lakes.)

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How T-Mobile used Power Apps to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic — and define a new path forward

Business analysis managers Greg Soto and Matt McDermott – both of whom sit in T-Mobile’s Northeast Regional Business Planning organization – quickly produced a solution using Power Apps, a “low-code” method for building professional-grade applications using simple, drag-and-drop functionality and pre-built templates.

The result was the COVID-19 Employee Roster Mobile App, an easily updateable app that uses Power BI to unify detailed information from numerous sources, yielding dashboards and reports that provided T-Mobile team members with constant staffing insights via their handheld devices.

“From the first piece of code to a rough draft, it all took about 24 hours,” explains Soto. “From there, it took one more day to iron out requests and notes, and then we took it live.”

T-Mobile announced early on it would take steps to maintain income for hourly employees, and their paychecks were dependent on constant, accurate updates regarding who was working in a store, who was “on the bench” (aka willing to work, but without a physical location) and who had been assigned to a virtual retail location.

“The first screen you see asks what region you’re in,” explains McDermott. “If I were a district manager, I’d select my district and then hit the ‘new district details’ button. The next page takes you to a snapshot of every single store in your district, with all that detailed information summarized for you. So on one page, you can see how your entire market is laid out, and you can pull employees that are on the bench to stores that need them. Then you can click on a store, and edit that store specifically using detailed, automated, live, real-time information in a simple, easy-to-use interface.”

T-mobile retail employees wearing masks and gloves
Each day, retail employees can opt into or out of the opportunity to work, giving store managers a real-time view into their availability.

According to Douglas Allbright, a T-Mobile retail store manager in Syracuse, New York, the app’s arrival was a godsend. “Right around March 15, T-Mobile made the call to close my location in a mall,” he recalls. “We began operating out of a corporate store in Syracuse, combining three teams into one store — it was a very chaotic time. Suddenly, the challenge was to manage scheduling while simultaneously prioritizing everyone’s health and safety. To do that, people needed to opt in or opt out, often on a daily basis.”

The app protected employees’ privacy because it asked only whether they were available and able to work, not details about their health. And only managers like Allbright could see how many employees were available for each store and virtual retail center.

“We could suddenly see where everyone was at a glance, and share a single resource tool — I can’t say enough about how useful that was,” Allbright explains, adding that T-Mobile’s deployment of similar low-code apps in past months had laid the groundwork for its adoption. “Since we had used Power Apps previously, overnight we were able to go to the app.”

Another important benefit of the app was that when the public needed T-Mobile, they were there.

A T-Mobile employee maintains a distance of 6 feet while helping a customer
Retail customers are required to wear masks or face coverings and maintain physical distance.

“The first week, keeping that first wave of stores open, customers were coming in saying, ‘Thank you so much, thank you for being here,” Dave Holt, a district manager overseeing the Jersey Shore, recalls with pride. “We were assisting nurses, doctors, people who needed phones to connect to loved ones.”

One customer story touched him the most, Holt says.

“We had been open for two days when a nurse came in,” he remembers. “She had pre-paid service with another provider, but her phone wasn’t functioning, and she could not find one of their open stores. We did some troubleshooting on her existing phone and made sure she had communication at such an important time. We didn’t sell her anything, didn’t activate anything — she was just thankful we were there and able to help her in a safe, healthy way.”

As March rolled into April and then May, the app continued to keep track of the self-reported availability of each employee and their assigned hours. Holt also noticed, as the weeks of public isolation passed by, that keeping stores open had become important to some employees’ well-being.

“I have somebody on my team who suffers from depression,” he explains. “They came to me and said, ‘Dave, I’m really thankful that I’m able to get into a store and get working. Because if I had spent this time sitting at home, it would have made my situation much worse.’ It’s good to hear that not only did we help customers, but staying open also helped people get through a very difficult situation.”

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For the love of dog: Dogtopia unleashes swift growth by treating every pup like family

Harper entered the lobby in silence while her body language screamed: “Get me outta here!”

The owner of the Colorado daycare center had seen that kind of shyness before. She gently coaxed Harper toward a room filled with brightly colored climbing toys and a pack of eager friends.

But Harper refused to surrender. Nearly 2 years old, she jammed her feet into the floor, squirmed to escape then cowered in the playroom. Finally, 15 long minutes later, she started to relax among her new pals. Her posture softened. All it took was a welcoming sniff from Bongo Billy.

A playroom at Dogtopia of Fort Collins where 16 dogs mill in a pack.
One of the three interior playrooms at Dogtopia of Fort Collins, Colorado.

At Dogtopia, where more than 130 franchises embody the tender themes of child daycare – from naptimes to report cards – that recent moment marked Harper’s first day of school. The puppy, a red heeler mix, had spent her life at two animal shelters before being adopted in December.

These days, Harper – along with Bongo Billy (a basset hound) and 120 other furry clients – are regulars at the Dogtopia of Fort Collins, Colorado which offers the national franchise’s standard fare: daycare, spa and boarding services.

That location, not long ago a bike shop, built its pooch population only a few months after opening in May 2019. And the rapid expansion there only underscores the company’s growth-minded blood lines.

Since 2017, Dogtopia has opened  90 franchises across the U.S. and Canada, with at least 60 more coming online in 2020. It’s the grand vision of Neil Gill, CEO and president of Dogtopia, a canine-loving Aussie with previous franchise-building stints at KFC, Pizza Hut and Gloria Jean’s Coffees.

https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/industry-blog/telecommunications/2020/02/21/three-ways-to-achieve-more-with-microsoft-intelligent-telecommunications/small girl looks through a window into a playroom at Dogtopia of Fort Collins as a basset hound looks out at the girl.
Koda Logan, 7, checks out basset hound Bongo Billy through a playroom window.

“What pleases me most is it’s not insane, unsustainable growth; it’s strong growth. It is growth fueled by the expertise of our management team and by the talent within our franchise network,” says Gill, who in 2015 took over what was then 28 fragmented locations.

“We’ll deliver 3 million daycare experiences this year. When you start thinking about that in sheer numbers of dogs, we needed something to help us make the right decisions,” Gill says. “Technology has helped us scale.”

Dogtopia, headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, now collects and analyzes business data from all 130-plus franchises – warehousing that data in Microsoft Azure, visualizing trends in that data through Power BI then delivering timely data analyses back to the franchise owners in easily digestible morsels via SharePoint.  The franchises are Office 365 customers.

“We’re continuously looking for ways to integrate Microsoft products,” says Jim McBrayer, Dogtopia’s IT manager. “We can go straight from OneNote to Outlook and the daycares can all do the same thing. They can talk in (Microsoft) Teams, and we can have it together in one area.”

For example, Power BI dashboards show every Dogtopia franchise their unique, daily ratio of daycare dogs versus boarding dogs. That’s important because when the share of daycare regulars is high, staff trainers (called “canine coaches”) can provide more education to their pooches, like basic commands and bark control. Boarding dogs are new to those ongoing lessons, changing the daily teaching plan.

Two hands typing on a keyboard in front of two screens showing Dogtopia business operations displays.
Ashley Todd uses SharePoint to read Dogtopia marketing and appointment info.

“That allows the canine coach to go into the playroom quite prepared,” Gill says.

“It’s no different than school where you have kids returning to their own classroom every day,” he adds. “They synergize and learn from each other. It’s the same with dogs. If you’ve got a room with a lot of new daycare dogs or a lot of boarding dogs, the coach will focus more on socialization.”

Echoing the benefits of child daycare is an intentional (and adorable) theme at Dogtopia.

On a recent Friday afternoon at the Fort Collins franchise, folded report cards sat in a neat line on the lobby’s front desk, awaiting the return of dog owners (known as “pet parents”). Summit, a pink-nosed pup with a white and orange coat, enjoyed “being on the play equipment,” ate all his meals, romped with his “best friend” Bongo and was “so sweet and kind,” according to his report card.

Near the lobby, rows of plastic cubbies held the coiled leashes of Beezer, Olly, Layla, Chico, Charlie, Daphne and the rest. And everyone was celebrating Letty’s birthday, preparing a special card (using Microsoft Publisher) with hand-written messages from every employee (“Hope you get all the treats!”), all surrounding a photo of Letty wearing a pointy yellow hat.

Two dogs stand together on a climbing toy.
Pooches on climbing toys in a playroom.

Each play area was a separate scene of joyous chaos. Dogs were grouped based on their size, age, temperament and play style. That afternoon, some curled up on soft, corner napping benches, eyes closed. Some chased each other over and under climbing toys. Some stood on their back legs to peer through observation windows or doors. Many flashed smiles.

The staff all wore the same orange T-shirts that read, “canine coach.” In one room, an employee blew bacon-scented bubbles into the air as five dogs gleefully surrounded her and jumped to bite the bubbles. One of those dogs was Harper, the previously shy heeler mix. Her tail fluttered and she barked repeatedly.

The cornerstones of the company’s mission, Gill says, are to “enhance the joy of dog parenthood” and to ensure that each pooch returns home at night “a better canine citizen than it was in the morning.”

“If we can do that, we know we create a better relationship between the dog and pet parent. Once you create that stronger relationship, that pet parent will never, ever give up that dog,” Gill says.

Harper, a red heeler mix, nibbles a treat from the hand of franchise owner Ashley Todd.
Ashley Todd feeds Harper a treat on the pup’s first day.

The CEO has had four dogs in his life.

As a boy in Australia, there was a long-legged Corgi mix, a rescue, with big energy tempered only by nonstop action. There was a black Lab, Marty, that was not allowed in the house, so Gill sometimes hid Marty in his bedroom then built him a carpeted kennel. Later, there was a super-smart German shepherd that taught Gill loyalty. And today, there’s a golden retriever – “just a loving beast,” he says.

All four dogs gave him bits of wisdom that now make up pieces of Dogtopia’s culture, including a celebration of play and the understanding that the animals are hungry to learn and ready to give.

Those are some of the, (yes), dogmas that attracted Ashley Todd, 26, to purchase and open the Fort Collins Dogtopia franchise last year.

A 2016 graduate of Colorado State University, where she majored in business, Todd was drawn to the company’s tenets, including safety, cleanliness, transparency and special attention paid to the “two-client aspect – you have the pet parent and you have the dog,” she says. “We nurture both.”

What her clients may not know: Todd is now living her lifelong dream.

Ashley Todd and her father Greg Todd check their laptops and speak to customers at the front desk.
Franchise owner Ashley Todd and her dad, Greg, work the front desk at Dogtopia of Fort Collins.

At age 5, she sketched business diagrams and pictures of the dog daycare she planned to build and run as an adult. Her inspiration was Duckie, her German shepherd-husky mix.

“She was amazing, she was a friend,” Todd says. “I loved how my family made my dog feel like family. I wanted to do something someday with dogs. I really liked the concept of having a doggie hotel. It seemed like I was born to do it.”

Todd has 30 employees. One of those is a formerly retired man working the front desk, greeting pet parents and pooches alike. It’s Ashley’s father, Greg Todd.

“This is a daughter-father business, as we say, not a father-daughter business. She is the boss. She runs the show. I help in any way I can,” Greg Todd says. “But what father could have a better dream than working with his daughter as she follows her dream?”

Bongo Billy, a basset hound, jumps with his front paws onto his 'pet parent' during evening pickup in the franchise lobby.
Basset hound Bongo Billy is excited to see his ‘pet parent,’ Tim Nissen, during evening pickup at the daycare.

Late on a recent afternoon, as dog parents filed in to fetch their pooches for the evening, Greg Todd picked up his walkie-talkie to alert his daughter and the rest of the staff working in one of the three playrooms and in the outside play area.

“Can I have Miss Dottie, please?” he said into his walkie. “Miss Dottie is going home.”

Soon, it was time for Harper to leave, too.

Two 'pet parents' walk out of the franchise front door with their dog on a leash at sunset.
Pet parents exit with their pooch at Dogtopia of Fort Collins.

“Can I have Harper, please?” Greg Todd requested into his walkie.

In the lobby, David Thiel, a building maintenance technician, waited for his girl. He’d adopted her in December because he liked her high energy level and friendly personality.

Wearing her leash, Harper bounded into the lobby. Her eyes were wide, her tail was bushy, and she greeted Thiel with wags and licks, a 180-degree difference from her outward fright earlier in the day.

They walked together to Thiel’s car. Harper hopped in and quickly curled up on a seat. Then she closed her eyes and slept all the way home.

All photos by Helen H. Richardson. Top photo: Ashley Todd blows bacon-scented, edible bubbles for dogs in the outside play area at Dogtopia of Fort Collins. 

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Facing ransomware demands, one company had an unusual response

“What would you get from paying a ransom in such an attack?” Gimnes Are asks. “You will potentially get back your encrypted data – if the attacker gives you the key. Paying the ransom would not help you to rebuild the company infrastructure, all the servers, all the PCs, all the networks.

“Paying the ransom will not help you out of the situation. You will need to rebuild your infrastructure to be safe and be sure that the attacker is not still part of it,” he adds.

At Microsoft, Eric Doerr serves as general manager of the Microsoft Security Response Center, which protects customers from being harmed by security vulnerabilities in Microsoft’s products and services. The center also rapidly repulses attacks against the Microsoft Cloud. Doerr strongly promotes transparency among organizations that suffer cyberattacks.

“Norsk Hydro set the example for the industry in this incident,” Doerr says.

“Choosing not to pay the ransom and digging in with DART to evict the attacker is great. Sharing those learnings with the world is priceless. When companies do this, it makes us all better and makes the attackers work harder,” he adds.

Of course, some companies facing a ransomware attack may be highly tempted to pay bad actors to regain their hijacked data. But paying hackers doesn’t guarantee that a company will ever recover the goods, says Ann Johnson, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of cybersecurity solutions.

There’s a smarter way – following the plan executed by Norsk Hydro, says Johnson, whose team oversees DART.

“Your data is a strategic asset for you, and for cybercriminals. That’s why they want it. It is also why your data must be protected, and it should be backed up,” Johnson says.

At the same time, companies must invest in cybersecurity, she adds.

At Norsk Hydro, for example, the IT department works to increase security awareness among its employees, says Molland, the media relations SVP. That includes sending workers test emails to help train them to look for common phishing tactics like fake login pages and malicious attachments.

If companies fail to commit to cybersecurity, Johnson warns, bad actors will become repeat customers.

“You’ve likely seen signs that read, ‘Don’t feed the birds,’ when dining at an outdoor café. That’s because the birds will keep returning to the same places where they know it’s easy to be fed. It’s the same concept for cybercriminals,” Johnson says. “They know if you have weak cyber-defenses, and they will want to exploit those weaknesses over-and-over.

“The best defense is to ensure you have the right combination of people, processes and technology. We recommend you implement multifactor authentication, have a mature update process, and back up your data,” she adds.

Two Norsk Hydro workers work their way through the cyberattack using paper data.
At a Norsk Hydro extrusion plant in Norway, sales project manager Rune Johansen and extrusion anodizing fabrication manager Sten Stolpe dig through paper documentation to manually complete customer orders during the cyberattack.

In Hungary and Norway last March, DART members helped Norsk Hydro develop safe processes to restore their servers with an improved security posture. They also educated the company about the current threat landscape and known attacker behaviors to help reduce the risk of future attacks, Moeller says.

Inside Norsk Hydro, the internal response focused on multiple fronts. They launched old-school methods to resume full production and repair business operations. And they worked to protect the safety of employees and the environment.

“We operate heavy machinery. If the power is lost in an uncontrolled manner, it could risk severe safety incidents for people,” says Molland, the media relations SVP.

“Safety is always first priority with us. Secondly, it’s the concern for the environment and ensuring we don’t have any uncontrolled emissions (due to sudden machine stoppages) out to the air, land or water.”

Executives handwrote signs warning of the cyberattack, photographed them with their smart phones and texted the images to managers at Norsk Hydro plants and offices around the world. At those facilities, the staff used local printing shops to create paper signs, posting them on entryways, stairwells and elevators for employees to read as they arrived for the workday.

“Please do not connect any devices to the Hydro network. Do not turn on any devices connected to the Hydro network. Please disconnect devices from the Hydro network,” read some written alerts that also carried a simple signature: “Security.”

Two Norsk Hydro workers use pen and paper to restore production amid the cyberattack.
Two workers at a Norsk Hydro plant in Portland, Oregon manually operate machines to produce specific customer orders during the initial phase of the cyberattack.

The entire workforce did their jobs with pen and paper during the attack’s first days. Some plants switched to manual procedures to meet manufacturing orders. Retired employees – familiar with the old paper system – volunteered to return to their plants to keep production rolling.

“The way we pulled together to make the company come through the situation in one piece and get back into production has been an extreme team-building session,” Molland says.

“We have an organized emergency preparedness methodology within the company – in the corporate level, in the business area and at the plant level,” he adds. “That worked to our benefit. When this hit us, we were able to handle the situation in a constructive, organized manner.”

In other words, prevention is important but locking out all cyberattackers should not be a company’s sole security focus, says Jo De Vliegher, Norsk Hydro’s chief information officer.

“If hackers want to get in, they will get in,” De Vliegher says. “We now have an improved incident response to make sure that – should something similar happen – we are much better equipped to limit the damage in time and geography.”

Norsk Hydro reported the incident to Norway’s National Criminal Investigation Service (Kripos). The case remains under investigation, Molland says.

Video and photos courtesy of Norsk Hydro. 

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KPMG’s digital shift fuels AI-empowered audits and more, reducing risk across every industry

Envision this: It’s another frenetic morning in the stock market as an army of traders at one company chat with their clients by phone – counseling and cautioning, buying and selling.

The outcomes of those calls and transactions carry no guarantees, of course. There will be some winners, some losers. But before the closing bell rings, the traders’ company – an advisory client of KPMG – is sure of one outcome: the engagements were analyzed and potential risks surfaced.

How can the company be so certain? It deployed KPMG’s trader-risk-analytics platform, a solution that applies Azure Cognitive Services to help reduce risk and meet rising regulatory requirements within the financial services industry.

The platform is just one example of a solution jointly developed in the KPMG and Microsoft Digital Solution Hub, and a testament to KPMG’s drive to digitize its customer offerings across advisory, tax and audit by implementing Microsoft’s intelligent cloud.

En employee walks through a hallway at KPMG.
An employee at KPMG.

To accelerate KPMG’s move to the cloud, KPMG and Microsoft have signed a five-year agreement that will allow KPMG and its clients to benefit from Microsoft innovations, including a strong focus on AI, risk and cyber security.

As one of the “Big Four” organizations, KPMG’s services and solutions encompass all industries – from government to banking to health care. That wide-ranging impact means KPMG also provides a potent business case for the potential of Microsoft technology to enhance and revitalize customers’ businesses across every sector, says Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

“Together with KPMG, we’re accelerating digital transformation across industries by bringing the latest advances in cloud, AI and security to highly regulated workloads in audit, tax and advisory,” Nadella says.

To grasp the scope and reach of KPMG’s digital evolution, take a closer look at one of the platforms it has launched for a core business line – audit. Better yet, just meet KPMG Clara.

KPMG is bolstering audit quality by infusing the process with data analytics, AI and Azure Cognitive Services, allowing audit professionals to use company data to bring more relevance to their audit findings and continue to meet increasing regulatory requirements and standards. KPMG uses Azure Cognitive Services to provide more continuous, holistic and deeper insights and value on audit-relevant data.

The company’s smart audit platform, KPMG Clara, is automated, agile, intelligent and scalable – ushering in what KPMG calls a new era for the audit. KPMG is deploying KPMG Clara globally, allowing clients access to real-time information arising from the audit process and communication with the audit team.

A KPMG building is shown from outside with grass in the foreground.
A KPMG building.

In addition, KPMG Clara will integrate with Microsoft Teams, providing a platform for audit professionals to work together on a project, centrally managing and securely sharing audit files, tracking audit-related activities and communicating using chat, voice and video meetings. This will simplify the auditors’ workflow, enabling them to stay in sync throughout the entire process and drive continuous communication with the client.

“Technology is disrupting organizations across the globe,” says Bill Thomas, global chairman of KPMG International. “Clients are turning to us like never before to help them implement, manage and optimize the digital transformation of their organizations.”

In fact, 65% of CEOs believe that AI will create more jobs than it eliminates, according to a survey of 1,300 CEOs conducted by KPMG for its 2019 “Global CEO Outlook” report.

The survey also found that 50% of CEOs expect to see significant a return on their AI investments in three to five years, while 100% have piloted or implemented AI to automate processes.

Through its tech expansion, KPMG’s clients will benefit from “consistent global service delivery, greater speed of deployment and industry-leading security standards to safeguard their data,” the company says.

At the same time, KPMG professionals will gain access to an arsenal of cloud-based tools to build business solutions and managed services that are embedded with AI and machine learning capabilities.

And with robotic process automation (RPA), they can utilize AI-infused software that completes the types of high-volume, repeatable tasks that once drained hours from their work weeks.

Two people inside a KPMG building enter a stairwell.
Two people entering a KPMG member firm.

“Technology and data-driven business models are disrupting the business landscape,” says KPMG global chairman Thomas. “Our multi-year investment in digital leadership will help us remain at the forefront of this shift and further strengthen our position as the digital transformation partner of choice for our clients.”

KPMG also is modernizing its workplace for 207,000 employees across 153 member firms, using the Microsoft 365 suite of cloud-based collaboration and productivity tools, including Microsoft Teams.

KPMG deployed Dynamics 365 for more than 30,000 of their professionals across 17 member firms. This equips them with modern customer-relationship applications to quickly and efficiently manage both client requests and client demand.

Says Nadella: “KPMG’s deep industry and process expertise, combined with the power of our trusted cloud – spanning Azure, Dynamics 365 and Microsoft 365 – will bring the best of both organizations together to help customers around the world become more agile in an increasingly complex business environment.”

Top photo: Two people sitting in a KPMG lobby. (All photos courtesy of KPMG)

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New Industry Experience Center brings digital transformation to life

We read every day about how companies are transforming their businesses through technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics and the Internet of Things. But are these gains achievable across industries? Can a hospital, for instance, really see the same benefits from these technologies as, say, an automotive manufacturer?

Microsoft’s new Industry Experience Center (IEC), which opened last month in Redmond, Washington, aims to answer that question – with a resounding yes. The 23,000-square-foot center showcases 60 fascinating, real-world examples of customers and partners that are innovating their businesses and disrupting markets with Microsoft technologies.

An optical sorter shows how Bühler, one of the world’s largest providers of food processing solutions, is using visual AI to sort out poisonous corn, protecting consumers and increasing production efficiency.

Microsoft's new 23,000-square-foot Industry Experience Center in Redmond, Washington.
Microsoft’s new 23,000-square-foot Industry Experience Center in Redmond, Washington.

A short distance away, a drone from eSmart Systems buzzes above, dramatically illustrating how machine learning is allowing public utilities to spot problems with power poles without sending a technician out, helping them reduce costs and ensure the safety of their workers.

In the grocery aisle, IoT-enabled displays from Kroger illuminate dynamic pricing and product information based on what the customer touches and looks at on the shelf. Visual analytics automatically alert store staff when an item is out of stock or running low.

“We often talk about technology and services that drive digital transformation, but the IEC is a chance for customers to interact with them firsthand,” says Deb Cupp, CVP of Worldwide Enterprise and Commercial Industries at Microsoft. “These are immersive experiences that demonstrate how companies are digitally transforming, and how our customers and partners are using these solutions to drive disruption in their industries.”

An optical sorter from Bühler and a compact industrial robot from ABB in the manufacturing area of Microsoft's new Industry Experience Center.
The manufacturing area of the IEC features a compact industrial robot from ABB and an optical sorter from Bühler.

Technology at work in the real world

Each interactive exhibit allows visitors to get hands-on with the technologies and explore how they are being used across industries to drive innovation. Experiences are focused on nine key industries: Retail and Consumer Goods, Financial Services, Education, Government, Health Care, Automotive, Manufacturing, Energy and Media and Communications.

That doesn’t mean a health care company, for instance, will only be guided through health care experiences in the IEC. Instead, Microsoft’s team of full-time “envisioning specialists” take each customer on a customized journey through the most relevant technology solutions for their unique business – no matter what the industry.

RFID wristbands from partner Thuzi – which every visitor gets upon starting their engagement – add to the personalized experience. As customers walk through the center, if they see an exhibit they want to learn more about, they simply tap their wristband against a “puck” on the exhibit wall. They then receive an email with a link to a customized microsite with more information, designed just for them.

A portrait of Deb Cupp, CVP of Worldwide Enterprise and Commercial Industries at Microsoft.
Deb Cupp, CVP of Worldwide Enterprise and Commercial Industries.

Cupp says, “Engagements are tailored to each individual customer and designed to spark creative ideation, inspired conversations and new opportunities. With the IEC, customers can get up close and personal with innovative technologies applied across industries so they can envision what’s possible by partnering with Microsoft.”

A showcase for industry innovation

The IEC sits in the same building in what has been, for the last 10 years, the Retail Experience Center. But late last year, the company decided to expand the center to a cross-industry offering to demonstrate the application and breadth of its technology across verticals.

Today, the IEC features everything from first-party Microsoft technologies to solutions created by startups, large global companies and everything in between. Microsoft’s Mixed Reality Capture Studios has installed a state-of-the-art volumetric stage at the IEC where visitors can get a souvenir hologram.

“We’re lighting up innovation by industry across a wide variety of customers and partners all over the globe,” says Cupp.

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Mastercard and Microsoft team up to make online shopping easier and more secure

Mastercard and Microsoft walked a mile in each other’s shoes – or in an update on the old adage, spent three days hacking together – and came up with a new service to make shopping online easier and more secure around the world, not only for shoppers, but also retailers and banks.

The collaborative experience also kicked off a new way of thinking about innovation that promises to lead to even more developments to help e-commerce thrive.

New York-based Mastercard is a leading technology company in the payments space, processing about $20 billion in transactions a day across more than 210 countries or territories. And Microsoft is one of the top e-commerce merchants in the world, with online sales from the Microsoft Store, Xbox, Azure, Office 365 and more.

Both companies have felt an urgency in shifting toward online payments – especially with the increasing popularity of mobile apps and devices – that has made security more difficult even as consumers expect greater ease of use. So they brought together teams of engineers to tackle the issue at the recent Microsoft global Hackathon at Microsoft’s Redmond, Washington, headquarters.

man at table holding credit card and looking at computer screen“Both our infrastructures are used in creating online transactions, so we owe it to our customers to make them safe, secure and simple,” says Raj Dhamodharan, Mastercard’s executive vice president of channel propositions and partnerships. “Through co-innovation our customers benefit, because we’re solving a pain point that otherwise might take years to solve.”

The collaboration comes amid changing cultures at Microsoft and Mastercard that are being fostered from the top down.

“Both companies have shifted their mentality that by partnering and bringing in diverse thoughts, we build better products and work better together,” says Will White, Microsoft’s director of payments. “The benefit is you get true innovation from two companies that have radically different missions, in different industries, with different constituents.”

Mastercard provides payment services to Microsoft’s online stores, and Microsoft sells technology services back. So the Hackathon teams built on that symbiotic relationship and experimented with ways to securely store payment info, exchange credentials and authenticate identity with biometrics – using a PC to make a theoretical purchase of a game on the Microsoft Store as a trial.

Microsoft’s double role as merchant and tech company gave Mastercard engineers a better understanding of the challenges both stakeholders face, says Mohamed Abouelenin, Mastercard’s director of product development and innovation.

“That helped us push the bar in developing new services to help provide the best experience for consumers,” Abouelenin says.

It was the first time Mastercard had participated in another company’s Hackathon. The experience energized both groups and left them wanting more.

“I saw a big difference in my team when they got back, in how they approach their jobs and have a more customer-oriented perception of things now,” says Anand Mallepally, Mastercard’s vice president of cyber and intelligence solutions, whose group is based in St. Louis. Physically being together in Redmond was “a gamechanger” for the engineers as far as seeing situations from each other’s perspectives, he says. “I can foresee more and more innovative ideas now.”

A hand holding a credit card with a chip over a payment machineThat’s crucial at a time when chips on credit cards are stopping more fraud, leading criminals increasingly to focus on online forums instead, says Mallepally, who’s been working on fraud prevention and digital platforms with Mastercard for more than 12 years.

His team has to tread carefully, however, acknowledging that security protocols can bring friction to the shopping experience. Shoppers are turned off when they have to remember passwords or go through extra verification steps; retailers sell less when transactions take extra time; and the banks that issue credit cards incur extra expenses when they have to develop and implement new safety measures. So it’s critical to consider enhancements to improve the consumer’s experience, along with additional protections.

The situation is complicated by a new regulation Europe implemented in September that requires banks to communicate with the customer for two-factor authentication before online purchases – even for recurring charges such as monthly bills for utilities or streaming services.

The bank might send a code to a credit card customer’s mobile phone or email address, for example, and the customer has to type that in on the checkout screen before a purchase can proceed. That’s expected to reduce fraud but increase friction. It’s also expected to be adopted by other markets around the world, including the U.S., in coming years.

index finger resting on phone screenBut biometric authentication on mobile devices – such as a fingerprint scanner – has been approved to allow consumers to skip that step.

That got Microsoft’s White to thinking.

“How do we level the playing field between the mobile checkout experience and the PC checkout experience?” he wondered. “And why can’t we make e-commerce payments as fast and simple as we have in the physical world, where you tap or insert a card and you’re done?”

The Hackathon teams found an answer to both, with an extra measure of innovation thrown in.

They decided to leverage the infrastructure Microsoft already has with its Windows Hello technology, which allows 900 million Windows 10 users to access their devices with a fingerprint or facial recognition, instead of a password. Through their combined efforts, they came up with a new feature that screens the user’s biometrics again and then, as long as they match the Windows Hello identification, automatically authenticates the buyer and approves purchases. The new service will give banks and merchants the assurance they’re dealing with actual customers, and shoppers won’t have to go through additional steps to prove themselves.

And the solution can be used across many types of computers, laptops and tablets, without requiring people to own or use a specific device, as the mobile-phone offerings do.

woman on couch holding credit card and looking at computer screen“It’s a solution that neither Mastercard nor Microsoft could have done on our own,” says Matt Rossmeissl, Microsoft’s general manager for commerce engineering operations. “We each had to bring our own expertise to the table to get this done. They’ve got the relationships with the banks, and we’ve got hundreds of millions of Windows devices out there.”

Biometric authentication is built to make online shopping easier for everyone, but it will be especially helpful for those with disabilities, says Priyanka Banerjee, a senior program manager under Rossmeissl. Entering a code for two-factor authentication is a difficult process for anyone who’s blind, for example, or can’t use their fingers to type, especially since those codes are time-limited and expire quickly. But biometric authentication removes that friction.

“Microsoft is very focused on inclusiveness and accessibility, and that’s something that hadn’t yet been thought of in this scenario” by financial services companies, Banerjee says. “What we have built can be extended to those with disabilities, with no extra setup required, and we can make the experience of everybody better.”

The collaborative process is also helping to bring the concept to market faster. The Hackathon engineers were able to accomplish in a few days together what would have taken a month or more apart, says Mallepally.

“We created a prototype in only a week’s time, and I think that will change the relationship between us and Mastercard going forward, because we’ll be more willing to try new things and go do growth hacking,” Microsoft’s Rossmeissl says. “We have at least 10 conversations in parallel going on with Mastercard now.

“If you approach a challenge with an open mind and go into it thinking that what we produce will be better if we work together and leverage our unique independent strengths, we’ll find solutions to problems that could be far better than what we could have done if we’d tried to solve them ourselves.”

All photos provided by Mastercard.