Smart working, cloud and sustainability: the future of work according to Microsoft

Smart working, cloud and sustainability

Microsoft is convinced that smart working, cloud and sustainability are the three key guidelines for Italian companies engaged in the digital transformation of the country and to seize the opportunities of the NRP. On April 12, during Ambizione Italia: Digital Innovation Summit, the company recalled its five-year plan of 1.5 billion dollars of investment in technology and training to support our country and made room for entrepreneurs, managers and professionals. In short, the best experiences were shared, including those of Ima, UniCredit, Crif, Gruppo Prada, Salvagnini, Chiomenti and Snam.

One of the truly transversal answers is represented by cloud computing, a market that in Italy in 2021 reached 3.84 billion euros (+ 16% - Politecnico di Milano) and which can generate extra-GDP equal to 20 billion by 2025 (The European House Ambrosetti). In this sense, Microsoft reiterated that its platform is the result of 20 billion dollars in research and development, one billion investments per year in cybersecurity and solid partnerships with companies such as Poste Italiane, PwC, Reale Mutua, Unicredit and Vodafone.

The objective is however to help Italian companies also through Ambizione Italia Cloud Region Partner Alliance, the new project involving the Microsoft ecosystem for the implementation of the Italian data center region. The company estimates that it can create 10,000 jobs and approximately 9 billion dollars of direct and indirect induced activities by the end of 2024.

At the same time, Microsoft has developed the vademecum The opportunities of the PNRR: Microsoft for Italy digital to help Italian organizations to orient themselves between the areas of the national plan.

"This is an incredible opportunity for the competitiveness of businesses and of our country, just think that the NRP makes 191.5 billion euros of funds available, over half of which potentially linked to solutions cloud and digital. The concrete experiences of some companies that have already embraced change demonstrate the potential of technology to contribute to the transformation of entire industries ", commented Silvia Candiani, CEO of Microsoft Italy.

Priority hybrid work The recent Microsoft Work Trend Index 2022 has confirmed that during the last two years the world of work has undergone profound transformations and companies are looking for new models to guarantee productivity and a compatible activity balance with the needs of employees. 54% of Italians are now more inclined to prioritize health and well-being and 37% are willing to consider a new job in the next year. The real challenge in this new era of hybrid work, according to 49% of business executives, will be the ability to hire employees.

For example Ima (Automatic machine industry), leader in the design and production of automatic machines for the processing and packaging of pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, food, tea and coffee, has inaugurated a remote assistance service based on cloud and mixed reality. In practice, thanks to Microsoft it was possible to combine the Dynamics Remote Assist application with the HoloLens holographic viewer and the Teams collaboration platform. In this way, technicians at a plant, wearing the viewer, can receive remote assistance, view mechanical and manual components via hologram and collaborate with more experts at the same time to manage more difficult problems. The Dynamics 365 cloud platform through the customer relationship management (Crm) module then allows technicians to keep track of all interventions digitally. The result of this approach manifested itself in the optimization of processes, reduction of time and costs associated with travel and an increase in the problem solving rate. Finally, assistance has been transformed from a cost center to a profit center.

Unicredit, which now serves over seven million customers in Italy and is a leader in thirteen European countries, thanks to the Microsoft 365 cloud has made easier collaboration and information sharing while maintaining a high level of security. Among all the tools, Teams stands out as it has improved messaging, information sharing, alignment and organization of meetings. "The future prospect is to also exploit bots to enable assistance and feedback dynamics in a simpler and more effective way", underlined Unicredit. And for training, there is now a real Digital Academy which aims to support employees in the development of digital skills.

microsoft The cloud that also revolutionizes industrial processes Microsoft recalled that the cloud it is a technology capable of redesigning the structure of all sectors, especially where there is a data-driven approach. 65% of Italian companies use cloud platforms (Eurostat) and it has been calculated that those that make strategic use of data can have 15% to 25% (McKinsey) higher earnings growth than their competitors.

Crif, a company specializing in credit and business information systems and digital solutions for credit and open banking services, in collaboration with Microsoft, has developed an instant financing application in the cloud. Crif Lending Journey verifies the identity of the customer and makes a creditworthiness assessment with record timing. In practice, thanks to the Azure platform, it easily integrates with the back-end of banks and is enabled by the Crif data ecosystem, which has over 40 information sources and more than 100 analytics based on artificial intelligence. According to Microsoft, the acquisition of new customers should increase by about 15%, while the abandonment rate for a loan will be reduced by 10% and the acquisition costs will fall by 50%.

Even the Prada Group, which boasts over 13 thousand employees, 635 stores, 23 production plants, is focusing on the cloud. Among the development priorities at the moment: interaction with the customer, the digitization of the production and logistics chain, and the enhancement of human capital. In particular, the commitment to the so-called data lake on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform has increased. It is a space intended for the storage, analysis and correlation of structured and unstructured data. The intent is to have a single database that can be used by all applications to feed the information assets and simplify the processing of internal observations (insights) essential to improve productivity, service and customer experience.

Salvagnini, leader in the design, production and sale of flexible systems for sheet metal working, is an example of industry 4.0. With its five production plants, 23 operational offices, 1992 employees around the world, it exploits data not for operational efficiency, but also for the creation of value. In this case, cloud and artificial intelligence have allowed the integration of intelligent monitoring services directly on the machinery - also key to improving research and development.

The operating parameters are constantly monitored and in this way the intervention times are optimized and the risks of breakdowns and machine downtime are reduced. "Salvagnini can check the health of the systems installed all over the world and is able to assist the customer in optimizing the use of the machinery", emphasizes the company. The Close2You Report service also transfers to the customer an analysis of the state of the machinery and the potential for improving performance, "inaugurating a new form of collaboration to help customers reduce TCO (total cost of ownership) and increase productivity".

Sustainability because there is awareness Sustainability has become a priority for companies, especially in relation to the awareness of the need to act responsibly, guiding the growth of the area in which they operate and generating a positive impact, not just economic on their business, but also on social and environmental issues. In this sense, Microsoft has developed the Alliance for Sustainability, a strategic collaboration with companies, academia and startups for the open co-development of initiatives capable of facing the most urgent climate and environmental challenges and spreading a new green culture. The current 17 partners of the alliance were recently joined by illimity and Mesa.

"Digital is a strategic lever to achieve concrete results: a research by Microsoft and The European House of Ambrosetti has quantified a reduction in emissions from part of digital by 2030 up to 10% compared to 2019 levels, about 37 million tons of CO 2 per year ", Microsoft recalled.

Snam, one of the leading energy infrastructure companies in the world with over 41 thousand km of transport network, which aims to reach carbon neutrality by 2040, has chosen the Azure cloud platform for its Hybrid Cloud Journey. Thanks to the Big Data Analysis from Microsoft can quickly and securely perform large-scale queries and to simplify the sharing of information. The Intelligent Dispatching solution, on the other hand, aims to increase the safety and quality of the shipping service, aimed at ensuring the supply of gas to the country's essential activities.