Microsoft New Zealand has announced the signing of a new strategic partnership with Fonterra that will see the dairy co-operative migrate many mission-critical operations to Microsoft Azure to support its global growth plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once Microsoft\u2019s New Zealand data center region is launched, Fonterra will also benefit from real-time business intelligence and exponentially greater capacity to innovate with cutting-edge technologies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fonterra is a New Zealand dairy co-operative, which exports products to over 140 countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTo meet our strategic goals, which are enabled by efficiency, innovation and sustainability, we look to build strong partnerships with great companies to drive enhanced productivity and efficiency across the business. Microsoft is one of our key partners in helping us deliver our Digital Transformation,\u201d said Piers Shore, Fonterra\u2019s Chief Information Officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Microsoft Partnership forms part of a wider set of strategic partnerships between Fonterra, Microsoft, EY, SAP, and HCL focused on fundamentally reshaping how Fonterra delivers IT. The cost savings and investment in Fonterra from our strategic partners are a major benefit to Fonterra, but the deep relationships between our organizations are the real win here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Transferring data from on-site data centers to Microsoft\u2019s Azure cloud platform will vastly increase the amount of data Fonterra can gather and analyze in real time, using everything from IoT sensors on farm milk vats to smart machines in its factories to help optimize its operations. Already, Fonterra is trialling Machine Learning to detect improperly sealed or faulty bags of powdered milk in its factories, so all products arrive at stores in perfect condition without wastage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe new platform aims to bring together all parts of Fonterra and build a culture around data. By capturing and integrating data across the organization, this will create a foundation for actionable insight and enable Fonterra to deepen our relationships with farmers and customers, optimize our supply chain and manufacturing operations and deliver better products and services,\u201d Shore said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fonterra\u2019s Chief Operating Officer, Fraser Whineray, said Fonterra\u2019s strong sustainability focus was an important part of the move to Microsoft\u2019s cloud platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBy shifting to a technology platform that will enable Fonterra to maximize its efficiency while using renewable resources, we\u2019re also building on our sustainability commitments. Microsoft\u2019s pledge to use only renewable energy in its data centers aligns with our own long-term goals and provided another benefit to the partnership.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vanessa Sorenson, Managing Director of Microsoft New Zealand, said the faster pace of innovation, greater sustainability and cost savings enabled by cloud technologies are just a fraction of the significant benefits the country\u2019s agrifood sector is poised to gain from digital investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWatch this space. This is the first customer signing of many,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen we disclosed the launch of the New Zealand data center region, we knew there would be an appetite for the scope and solutions that it would provide to unlock innovation across so many industries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnd it\u2019s such a privilege to have Fonterra as our first major anchor tenant customer. By helping Fonterra connect better with customers and partners globally, this partnership is not just a tremendous step forward for Fonterra and Microsoft, it also helps build and cement our country\u2019s on-going success on the world stage. We\u2019re not only excited at the opportunity to support Fonterra to grow and achieve more as a business, but at how this will demonstrate how we can achieve greater efficiency, innovation and sustainability across New Zealand\u2019s entire agrifood network.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fonterra\u2019s employee experience and business resilience are also set to benefit from the five-year partnership. Even before the recent COVID-19 disruption, organizations have recognized the need to become modern workplaces, enabling mobile, flexible working and remote service delivery. Under the agreement, Microsoft Surface devices will be provided to key Fonterra staff across Australia and New Zealand to support Business Continuity and collaboration across its diverse network of 19,000 staff and 10,000 farmers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Microsoft New Zealand has announced the signing of a new strategic partnership with Fonterra that will see the dairy co-operative migrate many mission-critical operations to Microsoft Azure to support its global growth plans. Once Microsoft\u2019s New Zealand data center region is launched, Fonterra will also benefit from real-time business intelligence and exponentially greater capacity to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":886,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,50,11,14,55,44,54],"tags":[655,217,98,657,656],"class_list":["post-884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis-case-studies","category-case-study-newsletter","category-cats","category-data-centres","category-oceania","category-top-stories","category-used","tag-azure","tag-data","tag-data-center","tag-fonterra","tag-microsoft-azure"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=884"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":929,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884\/revisions\/929"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/apac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}