In the recent past, a fair few firms have signed agreements with Microsoft which see them leveraging the Redmond giant's Azure services. These include bp and Standard Chartered, among others. Today, this portfolio of collaborations is increasing, with U.S. manufacturer Honeywell entering the fold as well.
The team-up will aim to "reshape the industrial workplace", with Honeywell bringing domain-specific applications for industrial clients to the market. To assist in this process, the firm is leveraging Microsoft's cloud platform, as well as connecting Dynamics 365 Field Service to its analytics software solution - Honeywell Forge. Solutions that Honeywell is already delivering in collaboration with Microsoft include Digitized Maintenance, Energy Optimization, and OT Cybersecurity.
Que Dallara, President and CEO of Honeywell Connected Enterprise, commented on this development in the follwing way:
"Honeywell's partnership with Microsoft will deliver new value to our customers as we help them solve business challenges by digitizing their operations. Working with Microsoft, Honeywell will bring solutions at scale – powered by AI-driven insights and immediate access to data – that will help our customers work more efficiently than ever before."
Through the offered services, customers will be able to access essential operating data with workflow management. Automating maintenance for building owners and operators will be the initial area of focus in this regard.
Moving on, Honeywell will be looking to integrate Forge with even further Azure services. Digital Twins could be utilized to create digital representations of physical environments with lesser operational costs. Meanwhile, edge capabilities could be leveraged to run AI and ML processes directly across plants and warehouses without needing access to internet constantly.
