To boost business resiliency and growth, Microsoft Corp. and NEC Corporation announced today an expansion of their decades-long collaboration.
Microsoft Corp. and NEC Corporation has announced expansion of their decades-long collaboration.
In this collaboration, both companies will leverage Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, NEC’s network and IT expertise, through a new multi-year strategic partnership, including 5G technologies, and each other’s AI and IoT solutions to help enterprise customers and the public sector across multiple markets and industries further accelerate their cloud adoption and digital transformation initiatives.
The partnership will see NEC adopt Microsoft Azure as its preferred cloud platform to deliver enhanced capabilities to drive sustained digitalization, help customers transform their business models, and build Digital Workplaces for the post-pandemic “new normal.”
The companies will work together to migrate NEC’s on-premises IT environment to Azure and deploy Azure Virtual Desktop and other Azure services among the NEC Group’s 110,000 employees worldwide, to accelerate NEC’s Digital Workplace innovation and workforce transformation.
This modernization builds on NEC’s existing Microsoft 365 platform to create a more secure and robust environment, allowing NEC and its clients in the commercial and public sectors in Japan and throughout the world to migrate to the cloud faster.
Through workplace and workforce transformation, the organisations will collaborate to assist improve digital services for public sector and enterprise customers. For both the public and private sectors, higher-speed and lower-latency data connections will deliver high-performance network experiences to create more efficient workplaces and empower employees to realise more individualised work styles.
The companies will collaborate together to assist clients across industries modernise by leveraging both businesses’ assets, including Microsoft’s Intelligent Edge solutions and NEC’s private 5G networking technology. For example, in retail, the both companies will collaborate to analyse customer transaction data in real time using AI in order to better understand buying patterns, increase operational efficiency, and uncover new market opportunities.
The combination of Azure and both companies’ AI and IoT technologies and expertise will enhance NEC’s customer experience through advanced solutions and enable more secure maintenance and operation of stores. In addition, NEC and Microsoft plan to explore network innovation initiatives built on Microsoft Azure for enterprise domains and specific industries.
NEC’s customer experience will be enhanced through innovative solutions, and store maintenance and operation will be more secure, thanks to the combination of Azure and both businesses’ AI and IoT technologies and expertise. NEC and Microsoft also want to investigate network innovation projects based on Microsoft Azure for enterprise domains and sectors.
The companies will collaborate to expand the number of digital-focused engineers, who are specialized in Microsoft technologies inside the NEC Group, through this partnership. This investment in technical skills and NEC workers’ knowledge will assist clients in achieving digital transformation success, which will benefit the market and society.
Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO, Microsoft. “Our strategic partnership with NEC brings together the power of Azure and Microsoft 365 with NEC’s services and infrastructure expertise to help public and private sector customers build resilience and transform during this era of rapid change.”
“NEC is pleased to enter into this strategic collaboration with Microsoft Corp.,” said Takayuki Morita, president and CEO of NEC Corporation. “With Microsoft’s trusted cloud and services, the experience that NEC has cultivated in its own systems, and both companies’ AI and IoT technologies, we will enable companies globally to use digital services that are safer and more secure than ever before as they progress with digital initiatives.”
This announcement is founded on Microsoft and NEC’s long history of close partnership, which spans more than 40 years.