India’s digital transformation runs on the Microsoft Cloud platform

Nearly 88% of business leaders from India polled in the Microsoft Asia Digital Transformation Study acknowledge that cloud technology is a critical enabler that will fuel their digital transformation. In fact, a whopping 92% of them believe that every organization needs to be a ‘digital organization’ to drive growth and innovation for their business.

“Digital transformation is not just about digitization of processes — it is about business leaders re-envisioning existing business models and embracing a different way of bringing together people, data, and processes to create value for their customers through systems of intelligence,” says Anant Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India. “Today, cloud powered technologies such as IoT, AI and advanced data analytics are creating limitless possibilities in transforming the way people work, live and play. This is ushering in societal and economic changes at an unprecedented pace, and organizations need to embrace this transformation to stay relevant.” 

The public cloud services market in India is projected to grow 38% in 2017 to total $1.81 billion, according to Gartner. The highest growth will continue to be driven by infrastructure as a service (IaaS), which is projected to grow at 49.2% in 2017, followed by 33% in software as a service (SaaS) and 32.1% in platform as a service (PaaS). The increase of SaaS and PaaS are indicators that the migration of application and workloads from on-premises data centers to the cloud, as well as the development of cloud ready and cloud native applications, are fueling the growth in the cloud space.

In fact, 70 of the top 100 BSE companies are already using Microsoft Cloud services.

India banks on Microsoft Cloud

Microsoft is the partner of choice for the financial services industry, be it for transforming into a modern workplace, collaborating securely in real-time with first line workers and field teams, reducing IT costs, improving CRM performance, or technologies like blockchain.

Microsoft Cloud is currently preferred by public sector banks that represent 81.4% of the total market cap of the sector. As many as 10 of the 12 largest banks in India–State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Bank, Yes Bank, Axis Bank, Bank of Baroda, IndusInd Bank and others)–use Microsoft Cloud solutions.

According to the Microsoft Asia Digital Transformation Study, close to 48% of the industries across different sectors in India understand that empowering employees, connecting them, and enabling them to work and collaborate from anywhere drives digital transformation. State Bank of India, a 215-year-old banking institution, is one of them and has implemented Office 365 for 263,000 employees, and has transformed itself into a modern workplace.

“We are excited about our partnership with Microsoft. As India’s economy continues to grow, the BFSI sector needs to be well-equipped to address dynamic market pressures and rapidly evolving industry needs. It has become imperative to transform technologically to sustain a competitive edge. A digital culture shift, designing a modern workplace that harnesses digital intelligence and enabling mobility are key aspects. As the Digital Banker to the Nation, Microsoft’s cutting-edge technology is helping us lead this digital transformation by making it part of our DNA,” says Rajnish Kumar, Chairman, State Bank of India.

BankChain, a blockchain consortium of 30 banks, runs exclusively on Microsoft Azure blockchain platform. They are creating innovative applications on top of Azure for near real-time cross-border remittance at near zero cost, real-time peer-to-peer transfer systems with automated reconciliation, end-to-end loan syndication process management, vendor onboarding, NDA processing, and vendor rating and many more.

Meanwhile, Yes Bank has implemented Kaizala for real-time, secure communication and reporting for its frontline sales staff.

Microsoft Cloud services power Digital India

Microsoft is proud to be a partner of the government’s Digital India program. We are the first global cloud provided to be empaneled by MEITY as a cloud service provided. We work with all the 29 states of India, of which over 10 use Microsoft Cloud services.

We supported the Election Commissions of Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh during polls. In Uttar Pradesh, the entire polling process was streamed live on video via Microsoft Azure cloud from 7,600 critical polling stations in three phases of elections.

Meanwhile in Jaipur, 100,000 smart LED public street lights are monitored, controlled, and managed remotely thanks to the Microsoft IoT platform hosted on Microsoft Azure. The project by Samudra LED has not only improved the safety and security of the citizens but also enabled the city administration to save 77% in electricity consumption.

The Uttar Pradesh Police department has created a centralized, modern emergency management system called UP 100 from the ground up running on Microsoft’s products. The state police are now able to respond to five times higher number of events and have also managed to reduce their response time.

Microsoft Azure powers multiple state government departments across areas such as municipal corporations in Ghaziabad and Kanpur, RERA in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, as well as the Andhra Pradesh Regional Transport Authority. Office 365 is being used by 2,100 employees of Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation.

The state governments of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are using the power of AI and cloud with Cortana Intelligence Suite to drive citizen services and digital inclusion.

Microsoft drives the digital transformation of India’s automotive industry

By 2020, India is expected to become the third largest car market across the world, and Microsoft’s Cloud services power the market leaders across commercial vehicles, passenger vehicles, as well as two and three-wheeler manufacturers. Customers such as Tata Motors and Hero Motocorp, among others have deployed and use Microsoft Azure and Office 365 for increased productivity and faster product development cycles.

Earlier this year, Tata Motors announced it will leverage Microsoft’s connected vehicle technologies that bring together artificial intelligence, advanced machine learning, and the Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities on Microsoft’s Azure cloud, to create a highly personalized, smart and safer driving experience across the digital life of a vehicle owner.

“With the aim to develop innovative and technologically leading products that excite customers, we at Tata Motors, understand the need for a connected ecosystem that can integrate into the digital lives of customers. We are using Microsoft’s connected vehicle technologies on Azure intelligent cloud to bring the digital lives of our customers into the cars they drive. Making the most of fast-paced innovation cycle that Microsoft has to offer, we will create a fully connected and seamless driving experience for our customers,” says Guenter Butschek, CEO & MD, Tata Motors.

It is not just automobile manufacturing companies that are partnering with Microsoft to drive their digital transformation. Ola is building a new connected car platform for car manufacturers worldwide that will transform driver and passenger experiences with vehicle diagnostics, improved in-car productivity, advanced navigation, predictive maintenance of vehicles and more. Ola’s existing connected car platform, Ola Play, will use Microsoft Azure.

Ola Play customers will be able to use productivity tools such as Office 365 and Skype for Business, as well as voice-assisted controls built using Microsoft Cognitive Services and Bot framework, in-car during their rides. The advanced telematics platform will transform the car into a high-performing, intelligent vehicle, capable of assessing fuel efficiency, engine performance, and driver performance. It will also enable smarter navigation and predict breakdowns, enhancing safety and security while creating new business models and opportunities.

“Globally, the auto industry is experiencing a seismic shift as the definition of automobiles is increasingly changing from gas-powered vehicles to technology-packed, connected devices. With Ola Play, we have already set the tone for connected vehicles in India; together with Microsoft, we can make the new platform available to a larger, global audience and unlock futuristic experiences for customers worldwide,” says Bhavish Aggarwal, Co-founder and CEO of Ola.

The Institute of Driving and Traffic Research (IDTR)—a joint venture between the Department of Transport of State Governments and car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. founded in 2000—has piloted “HAMS” to monitor the training of drivers and improve their driving skills. HAMS, which is a Microsoft Research product, works on an intelligent edge device inside the car and Microsoft Azure cloud, uses visual AI to monitor the drivers as well as their driving.

Helping build India’s future

With the successful roll-out of the “Edu-Cloud” program, in which over 400 educational institutes across India have embraced cloud-based productivity and collaborative experiences for the students and educators, Microsoft has now launched “CloudSpark” program to enable research and academic institutions to move their high-end and complex workloads like High Performance Computing and Virtual Labs onto the cloud to provide hyper-scale functionalities to their existing infrastructure.

The Department of Electronic Systems Design at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is powered by Azure as well. The secure Azure environment is also leveraged by IISc for their websites and disaster recovery site for critical business applications. Researchers at IISc Bangalore are also using a network of IoT sensors coupled with Microsoft Azure analytics to find how cloud technologies can help tackle water scarcity in cities.

Manipal Education uses Office 365 to collaborate across 10 university campuses, 30 professional colleges for over 28,000 students from 57 different countries. We are also working with the Telecom Skill Sector Council to skill candidates in the areas of ICTEC (Information, Communication Technology, Electronics & Cyber as related to Telecom) and connect them with jobs. The pilot is based on Project Sangam, a cloud hosted platform that leverages Microsoft Azure and LinkedIn to provide an integrated mobile-first platform for skilling, and employment.

The big digital transformation opportunity

These are just some of the examples of how Microsoft Cloud services are leading India Inc’s digital transformation. The top five Indian IT/ITeS companies are using a diverse portfolio of Microsoft Cloud solutions and advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence, IoT, Cognitive Solutions, Big Data & Analytics, Power BI and other services on Azure to not only transform their own organizations but to also create cutting edge solutions for their customers.

Microsoft is also enabling the thriving start-up community in India. We currently support over 5,000 start-ups in India with programs including Microsoft Accelerator. We also add 100 start-ups to BizSpark every month.

We also work with seven partner accelerators: Gennext with Reliance for telecom, retail and energy; Sandbox with Deshpande Foundation for social enterprise; ISDI Ace with ISDI for design; Brigade Leap with Brigade for real estate and IoT; AP Fintech Valley with the Andhra Pradesh government, KPMG, ICICI Bank and Mahindra Finance for fintech; Smart City Accelerator with Ashoka University and Dalmia Cement for smart cities; and T-HUB Accelerator with the Telengana T-Hub for health tech and clean tech. We also work with 24 other third-party accelerators in India.

Microsoft has over 9,000 cloud partners across more than 250 cities in India to help our customers in their digital transformation journey.