Microsoft is reportedly mulling a new "super app" for the iPhone that would take multiple apps and features and put them under one roof. People would then use the app for numerous different reasons, including search.
That search capability is a critical driving force behind the move. Microsoft is hurry to use the app to boost the company's advertising business via the Bing search engine.
The Information (opens in new tab) reports that Microsoft has been considering the launch of the so-called super app to "combine shopping, messaging, web search, news feeds and other services in a one-stop smartphone app." The approach is similar to the one taken by Tencent in China, with WeChat being the go-to app for various things, including payments. Microsoft's desire to follow suit could see Bing, the Office apps, and more all placed under one roof.
However, the report does note that it isn't yet clear if Microsoft will go ahead and launch such an app or if it will fall by the wayside. However, it's said to be something that has already been discussed within Microsoft and is a project led by CEO Satya Nadella. One aim is to make Bing search work better with other Microsoft apps and services, possibly by integrating them into a single app that would be downloaded from the App Store.
The same report notes the potential for a deal that would see Microsoft's Bing take over from Google as the default search engine on iPhones and iPads. Google currently pays Apple for the privilege, with Microsoft considering taking over. However, again, this hasn't been confirmed, and The Information notes that it might not turn into anything.
Tech giant Microsoft Corp. announced the Microsoft Supply Chain Platform, an open-approach platform that combines Microsoft AI, collaboration, low-code, security and SaaS applications in a composable platform.
Microsoft said the new platform will make it easier for customers to realize the value of the Microsoft Cloud for their supply chain. It provides the building blocks across Azure, Dynamics 365, Microsoft Teams and Power Platform for customers to develop or independently adopt capabilities for their supply chain needs. With Dataverse, customers may create thousands of connectors to gain visibility across the supply chain, develop custom workflows with low-code solutions in Power Platform, and securely collaborate internally and externally through Teams.
The company also announced the preview of Microsoft Supply Chain Center, a command center for supply chain visibility and transformation that is part of the Microsoft Supply Chain Platform. Supply Chain Center is designed to work natively with an organization's supply chain data and applications, with built-in collaboration, supply and demand insights, and order management, the company said.
"Businesses are dealing with petabytes of data spread across legacy systems, ERP, supply chain management and point solutions, resulting in a fragmented view of the supply chain," said Charles Lamanna, corporate vice president, Microsoft Business Applications and Platform. "Supply chain agility and resilience are directly tied to how well organizations connect and orchestrate their data across all relevant systems. The Microsoft Supply Chain Platform and Supply Chain Center enable organizations to make the most of their existing investments to gain insights and act quickly."
Microsoft Supply Chain Platform harmonizes the data estate, introduces “command center” for enterprise supply chain
REDMOND, Wash. — Nov. 14, 2022 — On Monday, Microsoft Corp. announced the Microsoft Supply Chain Platform, which helps organizations maximize their supply chain data estate investment with an open approach, bringing the best of Microsoft AI, collaboration, low-code, security and SaaS applications in a composable platform.
The company also announced the preview of Microsoft Supply Chain Center, a ready-made command center for supply chain visibility and transformation and part of the Microsoft Supply Chain Platform. Supply Chain Center is designed to work natively with an organization’s supply chain data and applications, with built-in collaboration, supply and demand insights, and order management.
“Businesses are dealing with petabytes of data spread across legacy systems, ERP, supply chain management and point solutions, resulting in a fragmented view of the supply chain,” said Charles Lamanna, corporate vice president, Microsoft Business Applications and Platform. “Supply chain agility and resilience are directly tied to how well organizations connect and orchestrate their data across all relevant systems. The Microsoft Supply Chain Platform and Supply Chain Center enable organizations to make the most of their existing investments to gain insights and act quickly.”
“Supply chain solutions are more critical than ever. Our early assessment of the Microsoft Supply Chain Platform and Supply Chain Center is that the company has put its technology, applications and resources together in a way that will serve its customer base well in a wide swath of IT and operations environments, offering flexibility for diverse IT environments and continuous agility for transformation into the future,” said Daniel Newman, founding partner and principal analyst of Futurum Research.
The Microsoft Supply Chain Platform: An open, collaborative and composable foundation for data and supply chain orchestration
With today’s announcement, we are making it easier for customers to realize the value of the Microsoft Cloud for their supply chain. The Microsoft Supply Chain Platform provides the building blocks across Azure, Dynamics 365, Microsoft Teams and Power Platform for customers to develop or independently adopt capabilities for their supply chain needs. With Dataverse, customers can create thousands of connectors to gain visibility across supply chain, develop custom workflows with low-code solutions in Power Platform, and securely collaborate internally and externally through the power of Teams. With tools and processes that drive positive impact, the platform can enable organizations to gain deeper insights and minimize the carbon impact of their organization and supply chain.
The Microsoft partner ecosystem will continue to play a critical role in enabling customer supply chain resiliency and agility. With the Microsoft Supply Chain Platform, partners can bring their industry and domain expertise to create integrated solutions leveraging Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Teams and Power Platform. We will continue to support our customers with a rich partner ecosystem including advisors and implementers like Accenture, Avanade, EY, KPMG, PwC and TCS. In addition, to help customers find the best solution for their supply chain needs, we’ll continue working with solution providers such as Blue Yonder, Cosmo Tech, Experlogix, Flintfox, inVia Robotics, K3, O9 Solutions, SAS, Sonata, To-Increase Software and many more.
Accelerating business agility with the Microsoft Supply Chain Center
At the core of the Supply Chain Platform is the Microsoft Supply Chain Center, now available in preview, which provides a command center experience for practitioners to harmonize data from across existing infrastructure supply chain systems, such as data from Dynamics 365, and other ERP providers, including SAP and Oracle, along with standalone supply chain systems. Data Manager in Supply Chain Center enables data ingestion and orchestration to provide visibility across the supply chain and drive action back into systems of execution. During preview, our launch partners C.H. Robinson, FedEx, FourKites and Overhaul will offer native experiences within Supply Chain Center.
Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management customers automatically gain access to Supply Chain Center. Supply Chain Center also includes prebuilt modules to address supply chain disruptions across supply and order fulfillment:
- The supply and demand insights module leverages advanced Azure AI models to predict upstream supply constraints and shortages through supply intelligence. Organizations can perform simulations using data from their supply chain network to predict stock-outs, over-stocking or missed-order lines. Combined with smart news insights, which provide relevant news alerts in the Supply Chain Center on external events, supply chain practitioners can make decisions and plan with real-world event information and historical insights for product demands.
- The order management module in Supply Chain Center enables organizations to intelligently orchestrate fulfillment and automate it with a rules-based system using real-time omnichannel inventory data, AI and machine learning. Organizations can adapt quickly to meet future order volumes and fulfillment complexities by extending their capabilities with prebuilt connectors to the best-of-breed of specialized technology partners for order intake, delivery and third-party logistics services. Existing Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management customers will automatically get access to Supply Chain Center and the order management module at launch.
- With secure, built-in Teams integration, customers can mitigate supply constraints by collaborating with external suppliers in real time, to secure new supply sources, troubleshoot transportation issues, and communicate upstream and downstream impacts based on changes.
- With partner modules built into the Supply Chain Center, customers can unlock specific solutions, such as freight visibility from Overhaul, directly in the experience. Since everything runs off a Dataverse environment, the data is consistent no matter what module is being using. This eliminates pasting information back and forth and reconciling which reports have the most up-to-date information.
With today’s announcements, Microsoft is taking a significant step toward its commitment to reimagine the supply chain, helping drive efficiency and agility for our customers.
To learn more, visit the Official Microsoft Blog.
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
For more information, press only:
Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications, (425) 638-7777, rapidresponse@we-worldwide.com
Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://news.microsoft.com. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at https://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-public-relations-contacts.
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Corporations and Law Firms Can Automate Collections From Microsoft Purview With Rampiva Automate
NEW YORK, Dec. 06, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rampiva, a business process automation software provider focused on the eDiscovery and digital forensics space, is launching an independent platform for collecting data from Microsoft Purview. This new offering makes it easy to support frequent discovery obligations by leveraging the new Microsoft Purview API. Users can monitor a collection dashboard that manages exports from the population of data in the review set, the creation of the export set, the export to an Azure storage account, and, when appropriate, the downloading of data to on-premises infrastructure. Users can also leverage Rampiva's native Legal Hold Notification capability to issue alerts to custodians and collect survey responses.
With upgraded licensing, users can also automatically convert the Purview export data for processing in Nuix Workstation while maintaining family relationships and all Microsoft 365 metadata, ingestion into Relativity Server or ingestion into Relativity One. This allows for a unified workflow from legal hold notification, collection from Microsoft Purview, processing, and ingestion for review.
Rampiva's approach gives teams more options when handling Microsoft 365 for eDiscovery.
"Corporations want the advanced capability provided by Microsoft 365, but manual collections are too burdensome," says Rampiva CEO Daniel Boteanu. "By automating this process, we're clearing a major roadblock for adoption and making eDiscovery itself more efficiency and consistent."
"Rampiva's approach gives teams more options when handling Microsoft 365 for eDiscovery," according to Bill Potter, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Rampiva. "Our goal is to provide a flexible and independent platform that gives our users the most options for their downstream eDiscovery activity."
Rampiva Automate for Microsoft Purview is available free through Q1 2023 with a Community license. Users will be asked to provide monthly feedback on features and functionality, as well as the overall experience. Rampiva Automate for Microsoft Purview can be installed and run on local or cloud-based hardware. To obtain Rampiva Automate for Microsoft Purview, visit the Getting Started page on the Rampiva Community forum: https://community.rampiva.com/t/community-edition-getting-started/78.
About Rampiva Global LLC.
Rampiva is a global software company developing automation, reporting, and business process management software for data processing and review platforms. Through intuitive and powerful products, Rampiva reduces barriers and provides legal teams with the insights they require to help reduce costs and increase efficiency.
Rampiva's solutions are a force multiplier and accelerator for eDiscovery and forensics teams around the world, including government regulatory agencies, top advisory and AmLaw 100 firms, and prominent legal service and digital forensics vendors. Learn more at rampiva.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Contact Information:
Maribel Rivera
Marketing Director, Rampiva
maribel.rivera@rampiva.com
1.347.871.6632
This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com.
In July, Sweden’s payments firm Klarna marked a drop in valuation at $6.7 billion, down from $46 billion in June 2021. The buy-now-pay-later firm — which was once seen as Europe’s most valuable private tech company — recorded its first ever large-scale layoffs in May as it shed 10% of its staff. Similarly, Berlin’s once fast-growing rapid grocery delivery startup Gorillas recently laid off 300 employees.
Between the global economic downturn and poor public market performance, Europe’s world of tech is currently facing a major decline in venture funding, sliding to its lowest point in nearly two years. Investments in EU startups for the third quarter totaled $16 billion, a 44% year over year drop from $28 billion in the third quarter of 2021.
Rising inflation, the war in Ukraine, and Europe’s energy crisis are increasing costs for businesses, while at the same time making it more difficult to attract new customers.
The new TNW Newsletter
Getting to the heart of the European tech and startup scene
With pressure from VC firms mounting, startups are now bracing for potential hardships ahead by cutting expenses. This has led to mass layoffs across the sector and a move towards ‘lean’ spending strategies. But, while founders are reviewing budgets up and down looking to trim as much as possible in order to stay afloat, one major spend has been left largely untouched: cloud services.
While the shift to the cloud was intended to reduce computing costs, many companies that have adopted these services are facing a surge in spending. Contract lock-ins and egress fees are making it impossible to leave. In fact, some argue that the cloud could be costing many businesses more than it’s actually saving.
EU startups’ dependence on ‘big three’ cloud providers
While the shift to the cloud was a novel approach just a few short years ago, it’s quickly become a necessity to stay competitive in our data driven world.
Without the capacity to handle all this incoming data, many businesses have shifted their office software, databases, payroll programs, and customer websites to external cloud providers, with US-based Big Tech firms holding the majority of the market. Data from Synergy Research Group shows that Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Microsoft’s Azure make up 72% of the EU cloud market.
The problem for startups is that a lot of these large cloud providers make it free to transfer data to their cloud architecture, charging nothing in ingress fees. But, as a startup’s cloud needs fluctuate along with the ebb and flow of the business, many later find they have to pay egress fees just to move their data out of the system. Those who can’t afford the fees simply have to keep their data where it is, essentially being locked into the contract.
Currently, AWS charges between $0.08 to $0.12 per GB in egress fees, meanwhile Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure charge $0.08 and $0.05 per GB respectively for inter-continental data transfers from North America to Europe.
According to Yann Lechelle, CEO of EU-based cloud provider Scaleway, startups often accept six-figure cloud credits from AWS, GCP, and Azure and take on products and services that they don’t always need, because they seem free.
You may have credits, but sooner or later you’ll have to pay hefty bills.
Not only does this prevent startups from moving their data as the business needs change, as we covered in the past, it’s also risky to rely on one cloud service provider, in terms of both security and the potential for outages.
Because the infrastructure of the cloud is owned and managed by the service provider, businesses often don’t feel they have enough control. In fact, 65% of French startups feel they’re too dependent on GAFAM services.
European startups need a paradigm shift
EU policymakers were not oblivious to this. Following a long, drawn out discussion between stakeholders and civil society, the European Commission introduced the European Data Act in February 2022 which, among other new data regulations, also looks at improving data service interoperability by addressing costs associated with switching vendors.
Taking aim specifically at Big Tech’s monopoly on the market, the Act specifically mentions:
SMEs will be protected against unfair contractual terms imposed by a party enjoying a significantly stronger market position.
However, the provisions haven’t been adopted yet with discussions at the EU level still ongoing. Some worry that the provisions don’t go far enough to Improve interoperability and market conditions for EU cloud providers. Meanwhile, others are concerned that exceptions will be made for certain providers.
Whatever happens at the regulation level, there are some things startups can do to optimize their cloud spending.
What startups can do
Cloud can be a game changer, but you need a sound strategy and continuous oversight to make it really work for your business.
According to Miguel Angel Borrega, Senior Director Analyst, Gartner:
Through 2024, 80% of companies that are unaware of the mistakes made in their cloud adoption will overspend by 20 to 50%.
Many VC firms are encouraging their portfolio companies to make proactive decisions that can help them navigate the current downturn. One way to stay in line with both budget and operational needs is by evaluating your workload to better understand how cloud costs can match up to business performance targets. This doesn’t mean cutting back on quality and features, but choosing the cloud providers and products best suited to your company’s needs.
Here are a few tips to follow:
Build a smart multi-cloud strategy
Rather than relying on a sole cloud provider, many startups are now adopting multi-cloud strategies across multiple vendors. The cloud space has seen new innovations in exact years, and over 93% of enterprises already use a multi-cloud strategy in some shape or form.
Consider what parts of your business’ data need to be stored on public vs private servers. Decide which cloud vendors are best for your different departments’ needs. For example, you may need more storage and functionality for your logistics operations vs HR.
Check out our guide to building a multi-cloud strategy here.
Take advantage of reserved instances and other discounts
One of the best things about building a multi-cloud strategy is that you can make the most out of the different reserved instances and other cost-saving features on offer. There can also be significant discounts available to companies making large investments with a sole provider, but the downside to this is that the discounts often come with a vendor lock-in. This makes it difficult or more expensive to switch to other cloud providers when they want to.
Startups can avoid this situation by starting off with a small set of applications to find out what works best. This way, you can walk away from what doesn’t address your company’s needs, without being forced to commit to a particular cloud service.
Look into cost-saving cloud technology
Numerous cloud providers today offer products and services that allow startups to make significant cost savings. Serverless technology, for example, only incurs costs when it’s being used, so you don’t pay for an “always-on” service. Kubernetes autoscaling allows for resources to be added when needed — for example during website traffic peaks — and removed when they’re not, meaning once again you only pay for what you need.
Join the “Next 100 Startups” program
European startups can also take advantage of Scaleway’s new program: The Next 100 Startups Shaping Europe’s Future. The program is aimed at identifying Europe’s next 100 unicorns and will partially cover these businesses’ cloud costs over a period of 24 months to help them reduce their burn rate and help them find autonomous success.
According to Lechelle:
As entrepreneurs, we are optimistic, we don’t see barriers. You use that mindset to bring you forwards. But there’s always a reality check at some point, and that’s cost. Cloud credits encourage people to build things like they don’t cost anything. You may have credits, but sooner or later you’ll have to pay the bills. That’s why we’ve created a new downwards discount rate, so you can phase out your spend over two years.
The program is open for applications, so apply now!
Microsoft Supply Chain Platform harmonizes the data estate, introduces "command center" for enterprise supply chain
REDMOND, Wash., Nov. 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On Monday, Microsoft Corp. announced the Microsoft Supply Chain Platform, which helps organizations maximize their supply chain data estate investment with an open approach, bringing the best of Microsoft AI, collaboration, low-code, security and SaaS applications in a composable platform.
The company also announced the preview of Microsoft Supply Chain Center, a ready-made command center for supply chain visibility and transformation and part of the Microsoft Supply Chain Platform. Supply Chain Center is designed to work natively with an organization's supply chain data and applications, with built-in collaboration, supply and demand insights, and order management.
"Businesses are dealing with petabytes of data spread across legacy systems, ERP, supply chain management and point solutions, resulting in a fragmented view of the supply chain," said Charles Lamanna, corporate vice president, Microsoft Business Applications and Platform. "Supply chain agility and resilience are directly tied to how well organizations connect and orchestrate their data across all relevant systems. The Microsoft Supply Chain Platform and Supply Chain Center enable organizations to make the most of their existing investments to gain insights and act quickly."
"Supply chain solutions are more critical than ever. Our early assessment of the Microsoft Supply Chain Platform and Supply Chain Center is that the company has put its technology, applications and resources together in a way that will serve its customer base well in a wide swath of IT and operations environments, offering flexibility for diverse IT environments and continuous agility for transformation into the future," said Daniel Newman, founding partner and principal analyst of Futurum Research.
The Microsoft Supply Chain Platform: An open, collaborative and composable foundation for data and supply chain orchestration
With today's announcement, we are making it easier for customers to realize the value of the Microsoft Cloud for their supply chain. The Microsoft Supply Chain Platform provides the building blocks across Azure, Dynamics 365, Microsoft Teams and Power Platform for customers to develop or independently adopt capabilities for their supply chain needs. With Dataverse, customers can create thousands of connectors to gain visibility across supply chain, develop custom workflows with low-code solutions in Power Platform, and securely collaborate internally and externally through the power of Teams. With tools and processes that drive positive impact, the platform can enable organizations to gain deeper insights and minimize the carbon impact of their organization and supply chain.
The Microsoft partner ecosystem will continue to play a critical role in enabling customer supply chain resiliency and agility. With the Microsoft Supply Chain Platform, partners can bring their industry and domain expertise to create integrated solutions leveraging Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Teams and Power Platform. We will continue to support our customers with a rich partner ecosystem including advisors and implementers like Accenture, Avanade, EY, KPMG, PwC and TCS. In addition, to help customers find the best solution for their supply chain needs, we'll continue working with solution providers such as Blue Yonder, Cosmo Tech, Experlogix, Flintfox, inVia Robotics, K3, O9 Solutions, SAS, Sonata, To-Increase Software and many more.
Accelerating business agility with the Microsoft Supply Chain Center
At the core of the Supply Chain Platform is the Microsoft Supply Chain Center, now available in preview, which provides a command center experience for practitioners to harmonize data from across existing infrastructure supply chain systems, such as data from Dynamics 365, and other ERP providers, including SAP and Oracle, along with standalone supply chain systems. Data Manager in Supply Chain Center enables data ingestion and orchestration to provide visibility across the supply chain and drive action back into systems of execution. During preview, our launch partners C.H. Robinson, FedEx, FourKites and Overhaul will offer native experiences within Supply Chain Center.
Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management customers automatically gain access to Supply Chain Center. Supply Chain Center also includes prebuilt modules to address supply chain disruptions across supply and order fulfillment:
-
The supply and demand insights module leverages advanced Azure AI models to predict upstream supply constraints and shortages through supply intelligence. Organizations can perform simulations using data from their supply chain network to predict stock-outs, over-stocking or missed-order lines. Combined with smart news insights, which provide relevant news alerts in the Supply Chain Center on external events, supply chain practitioners can make decisions and plan with real-world event information and historical insights for product demands.
-
The order management module in Supply Chain Center enables organizations to intelligently orchestrate fulfillment and automate it with a rules-based system using real-time omnichannel inventory data, AI and machine learning. Organizations can adapt quickly to meet future order volumes and fulfillment complexities by extending their capabilities with prebuilt connectors to the best-of-breed of specialized technology partners for order intake, delivery and third-party logistics services. Existing Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management customers will automatically get access to Supply Chain Center and the order management module at launch.
-
With secure, built-in Teams integration, customers can mitigate supply constraints by collaborating with external suppliers in real time, to secure new supply sources, troubleshoot transportation issues, and communicate upstream and downstream impacts based on changes.
-
With partner modules built into the Supply Chain Center, customers can unlock specific solutions, such as freight visibility from Overhaul, directly in the experience. Since everything runs off a Dataverse environment, the data is consistent no matter what module is being using. This eliminates pasting information back and forth and reconciling which reports have the most up-to-date information.
With today's announcements, Microsoft is taking a significant step toward its commitment to reimagine the supply chain, helping drive efficiency and agility for our customers.
To learn more, visit the Official Microsoft Blog.
Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT" @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
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SOURCE Microsoft Corp.
