Microsoft's cloud-based alliances in the recent past include a collaboration with Allscripts that was extended yesterday, and a five-year deal with Johns Hopkins Medicine which was unveiled last month. Today, the tech giant has announced yet another Azure-centric alliance, this time with transportation services provider C.H. Robinson.
The partnership focuses on meeting the demands of supply chains in today's world, and aims to make this possible through leveraging the power of Azure, Azure IoT, and C.H. Robinson's Navisphere platform. Other services that will be utilized as a part of this collaboration include Dynamics 365 and Power BI, with the former integrating transportation management and execution tools that will be provided by C.H. Robinson.
Chris O'Brien, Chief Commercial Officer of the aforementioned firm, commented on this newly formed alliance in the following manner:
"The pace of change we’re seeing in the supply-chain industry today is unparalleled. Being able to quickly scale and adapt our technology is what helps give our customers a competitive advantage. As we continue to invest and enhance our technology built by and for supply-chain experts, we look to partner with other best-in-class companies that bring the most value to our customers. Through Microsoft's Azure cloud platform, we gain more scalability, premier data security and increased application speed, which benefit our customers and carriers around the world."
The Navisphere platform will be utilizing capabilities offered by the Azure IoT Central, in particular, in order to make real-time data visible to customers. This data ranges across factors such as shock, tilt, temperature, light, humidity, and more. Notably, Microsoft has worked with C.H. Robinson in the past as well, with the tech giant having helped built Navisphere Vision - a real-time visibility product that identifies and details potential disruptions across supply chains.
