BENGALURU: ‘At Future Unleashed’, its largest ever customer conference in India, Microsoft on Thursday announced a slew of partnerships, products and initiatives that will help Indian organisations and governments to explore unchartered business areas, enrich customer and citizen experiences, and catalyse digital transformation with the newly launched local Microsoft cloud and new devices.
Giving the keynote address at the conference in Mumbai, Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft Corporation, said, “At Microsoft, we strive to empower every Indian citizen and every business and government organisation to achieve more. With the newly-launched Microsoft Cloud and with Surface Pro 4, our customers here in India have the digital technology they need to seize incredible new growth and opportunity on a global scale.”
Nadella also announced partnerships with three e-commerce pioneers in India – Justdial, Paytm and Snapdeal, a special cloud initiative for start-ups aligned to smart cities, and the availability of its flagship devices – Microsoft Lumia 950 and 950 XL, and Microsoft Surface Pro 4 in December and January, respectively. Microsoft also showcased the Microsoft Surface Pro4 at the event.
Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman, Microsoft India, said, “Cloud and mobile technologies are already galvanizing Indian industry. At Future Unleashed, we will share these stories through our customers, solution partners and ISVs.” Independent software vendor (ISV) is an organisation specialising in making or selling software, designed for mass or niche markets.
He added that the company will demonstrate that technology in the hands of brilliant people can create magic. “That innovation is as much what you do with technology as the invention of the technology itself,” he said.
As part of the partnership with three e-commerce players, Microsoft will offer a cloud initiative for start-ups aligned to the smart city concept.
Unveiling its cloud start-up initiative to empower the proposed smart cities, Nadella said that through its one-year cloud offering, Microsoft will work with Justdial, PayTm and Snapdeal to help in the development of solutions for smart cities. This will be in addition to the solutions being developed for farming, healthcare and education.
‘innovate with the cloud’
Microsoft, under e-commerce partnerships with three companies, will help them innovate with the cloud
JustDial and Microsoft will explore using Bing and cloud-based analytics to provide and enhance customer experience
PayTm and Microsoft will work on three core areas of partnership to integrate the PayTm app and PayTm Wallet into Cortana to enable consumers to pay for their utility bills and carry out mobile transactions easily
Snapdeal will work with Microsoft cloud platforms to create a digital automotive dealership and both will use Skype, Bing and Cortana to provide new engagement platforms for Snapdeal customers
Microsoft working on password-free world
With growing concerns over security of emails and mobile phones, Nadella said MS is working on ways to rid tech users of their worries over passwords. "One of the things that we are working on is a world where passwords are not going to be the ones that you know can get hacked but you really have other biometrics that really help us secure our computing interfaces."