Digital Difference

Hannover Messe 2018

Industrial customers and partners bet on Microsoft, from cloud to edge devices

This week at the world’s largest industrial fair, Microsoft is once again hosting nearly 30 customers and partners in its booth at the Digital Factory Hall at Hannover Messe.

The progress manufacturers have made this past year is tremendous, writes Çağlayan Arkan, general manager of Worldwide Manufacturing. Smart factories have already seen an average of 17 to 20 percent increased overall productivity. They have created higher-quality products at lower costs. They are building entirely new business models and service offerings. But Microsoft’s customers’ aspirations are bigger and bolder.

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New Bühler machine uses the cloud to find the needle in the haystack – or the poisonous kernel in a truckload of corn

Just one grain infected with a highly carcinogenic mold called aflatoxin can be all it takes to poison a whole harvest of corn and sicken or even kill people and animals, not to mention the waste of having to throw out the lot when contamination isn’t found in time. Aflatoxin often can’t be seen, smelled or tasted, and it’s not destroyed by heat – so cooking contaminated food doesn’t make it safe.

That’s why the stakes are high for the new corn processing system Bühler engineers developed as part of an innovation challenge.

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National Retail Federation 2018

There’s nothing artificial about the real intelligence transforming retail

At the NRF annual show in New York City, Microsoft’s emphasis is on data: what data retailers need, and how best to collect and analyze it. Happily, thanks in part to Microsoft Azure, as well as AI and Internet of Things (IoT) cloud services, wrangling data is becoming increasingly easy and inexpensive for retailers of all sizes.

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The year of intelligent retail

Empowering connected societies

Microsoft builds and integrates Azure Location Based Services directly into the cloud

Enterprise customers who compete in today’s smart, connected world depend on location-based services — including mapping, navigation, asset tracking and geospatial information to transform, disrupt and improve the intelligence of their assets.

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Digital Difference kicks off in 2017

In New York City on April 26, we hosted “Digital Difference.” More than a dozen forward-thinking companies joined us to showcase how they are driving digital transformation – and making a difference – for their businesses.

It was exciting to share how UBS, the world’s largest wealth manager, is driving its digital strategy with us, powering its risk management on Azure. Maersk, the largest shipping company in the world, is reshaping global logistics and supply chains with the Microsoft cloud. The Hershey Company has created the “Internet of Twizzlers” to more efficiently produce some of the most iconic confectionaries in the world.

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Digital Difference event highlights

Digital transformation in the media and entertainment industry

The digitization of content has completely changed how media companies think about the creation, production, marketing, distribution and monetization of content. As their audiences find new ways to consume entertainment, whether it’s through tablets, smartphones, connected TVs, PCs, gaming or mixed reality devices, the competition for attention has never been greater. This evolution has disrupted traditional business models and is driving organizations across the industry to identify new ways in which they can quickly and securely produce and deliver the right content, at the right time to any device – all backed by business insights and projections which can be used to drive future decision making.

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Customer photo gallery

Digital transformation influencers