Digital Transformation: The Beginning
Hi, Habr! Today we will talk with you about digital transformation (digital transformation), the very buzzword that everyone is talking about, but no one knows how to do it. This is the first article in the cycle in which there will be more theory. Under the cut, you will learn about how the transformation differs from automation in the example of the grandmother's business, find the top 10 cases from Microsoft, and also tell you a little about the new Tech Acceleration program.
Most often there is confusion in terms of automation and digital transformation, and, consequently, in understanding the essence. Therefore, we propose to start with this.
As you can see, the example above is a typical example of a business based on manual labor. Let's try to automate it.
Automation - processes that previously required the involvement of "manual" labor, were differently automated, depending on the type and type of process.
So, we go further.
Digital transformation - changing the business process with the help of modern digital technologies, data-driven hikes, occurring under the influence of competition.
Of course, in the real world, the transition from automation to transformation is much more complicated and involves much more detail, but nevertheless, we hope that you understand the general essence of the process. Go ahead.
It seems that we have never told on Habré about the mission of Microsoft: to help each person and every company on the planet achieve more).
It sounds great and we are really imbued with this idea. We can say that it forms the basis of the digital transformation and describes the desire to help various companies transform with the help of the latest technologies. We will not dwell in detail on the values ​​of the company, since if you wish, you can find a lot of materials on this topic. For example, a month ago there was a wonderful interview on Forbes with Satya Nadella in which he talks about three technologies that will change the world and a little about how the corporation has changed in a few years (by the way, this is all absolutely true).
It will be much more interesting to talk about cases about which you could already hear:
The solution that allowed fashion brands to open virtual 3D boutiques of customized shoes. The uniqueness of the project lies in the fact that buyers can independently create for themselves the perfect match for their needs: taste, foot features and other preferences. You can read more about the ELSE Corp solution and its implementation using Azure technologies here and here .
In this project, created with the world famous golf course designer, Gilbert Hans, Microsoft shows a new perspective on working with data in the sports industry. Information is collected from various sources of sources (ranging from analysis of the landscape and wind speed, to weather data at different times of the year), including using drones and aerial photography, and processed using Azure machine learning tools (for more than 13 thousand golf courses). This allows designers to effectively evaluate the chosen landscape for future fields, and golfers to evaluate the best positions for playing on existing fields. By the way, this project was the bronze medalist of the Cannes Lions Festival 2017. For more details, see the WSJ article.
If you are watching the broadcasts of key Microsoft conferences, surely you should have had a demonstration of Satya Nadella on the keynote report Ignite, which took place a year ago. On it we saw how using the technology of mixed reality and HoloLens you can create custom design for your kitchen. The pilot project was launched in two stores: while in the showroom, customers can select their own kitchen design from all available products in Lowe stores using simple gestures. More details can be read here .
Not all projects that can be attributed to digital transformation are commercial. Last year, we already told you about a non-commercial project in which, using Xamarin and Azure, a solution was created to quickly collect information about a missing child and automatically send data to law enforcement agencies. Read more here .
This service analyzes the quality of service and customer satisfaction in real time using a neural network in the field of machine vision and speech recognition using only information from the employee’s front-line webcam. It is based on Microsoft Cognitive Services and is already working in the Moscow Region MFC and at the Post Office of Russia. Also, an interesting technical detail, the guys left from the monolithic architecture and now their system is built on microservices. Read more about this here .
An excellent example of the transformation of agri-business, in which with the help of IoT was developed a platform that allows you to save water and electricity. But that's not all, SE has developed a service based on Azure cloud technologies, which combines sensor management, data collection and analysis systems, as well as digital interfaces. It has a built-in monitoring system that helps optimize the operation of solar power plants and another monitoring system that monitors the temperature in individual rooms in real-time operation of the power supply systems. More about this solution can be found here .
This is an international network of pizzerias, the main product of which is ... franchise, with the core in the form of its own information system Dodo IS based on Azure cloud technologies. It is implemented as a website. Franchisee partners work with it as a SaaS service. In 2015, their revenues exceeded 1 billion rubles . You can find more technical details in our article on Habré .
In addition to the recent Ford case study about car demonstrations in the museum using mixed reality technology and HoloLens, it will be interesting to read about several joint cases with museums in Seattle, New York and London . In them you will see examples of how by digitizing existing works of art and data processing using artificial intelligence algorithms, museums get new ways to interact with visitors.
This is a system for analyzing the actions of hockey players, working with unique algorithms based on neural networks and machine learning in real time, using Microsoft Azure analytical services. It helps to optimize the expenditure of the budget, improve the efficiency of training and the probability of winning a team in each individual game and in the championship. Read more about this project here .
Digital transformation affects various areas of our lives, including the creative industry. At Microsoft, this happens as part of Music x Technology, a collaboration program between musicians and technicians, in which solutions are created with the help of new technologies that allow musicians to communicate in a new way with the audience. M83, Phantogram, Childish Gambino, Broods, Grimes and others have already taken part in it. You can read more about these cases here .
Today we share with you the theory. This material will become the basis for a series of articles, in which we will share our experience and technical cases, in order to understand through examples how the digital transformation takes place in various industries.
The key focus in this series will be on 5 priority areas: ML and Big Data, IoT, AI and bots, containers and microservices, and Serverless.
Minute advertising . If you want to try new technologies in your projects, but do not reach the hands, leave the application in the program Tech Acceleration from Microsoft. Its main feature is that together with you we will select the required stack, we will help to realize the pilot and, if successful, we will spend maximum efforts so that the whole market will know about you.
Thanks to Stas Pavlov and Kosta Kichinsky for inspiration and help. :)
PS And, of course, Quantum Quintum , for an illustration of this article.
Series of Digital Transformation articles
Technological articles:
1. Start .
2. Blockchain in the bank .
3. We learn the car to understand human genes .
4. Machine learning and chocolates .
5. Loading ...
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A series of interviews with Dmitry Zavalishin on DZ Online :
1. Alexander Lozhechkin from Microsoft: Do we need developers in the future?
2. Alexey Kostarev from “Robot Vera”: How to replace HR with a robot?
3. Fedor Ovchinnikov from Dodo Pizza: How to replace the restaurant director with a robot?
4. Andrei Golub from ELSE Corp Srl: How to stop spending a lot of time on shopping trips?
Digital transformation on the example of the grandmother's business
Most often there is confusion in terms of automation and digital transformation, and, consequently, in understanding the essence. Therefore, we propose to start with this.
For ease of understanding, we will draw an analogy with the business of the grandmother, which knits socks. Imagine that her name is Lydia Petrovna, she is 73 years old, she is from Russia and weaves 1 pair of wool socks a week, and then sells them on the market, not far from home.
As you can see, the example above is a typical example of a business based on manual labor. Let's try to automate it.
Lydia Petrovna has a wonderful grandson, Vasily. He worries that his grandmother has too much work, she gets tired, and you don’t earn much from 4 pairs of socks a month. Therefore, he proposes to digitize the design of grandmother's socks, to buy a robot “Super Knitter 2000”, which can knit 100 pairs of wool socks a week. And why go to the market when you can create a website through which you can sell socks. Grandma will only need to control the production process and fill the site with new products.
Automation - processes that previously required the involvement of "manual" labor, were differently automated, depending on the type and type of process.
So, we go further.
As time went on, Grandma's knitting business grew and flourished. With the onset of spring, Lidia Petrovna realized that she needed to look for new markets, agreed with ski resorts around the world and added thinner socks to the range especially for Australian buyers. Innovations Basil greatly facilitated her work and she began to earn much more. Lydia Petrovna began to look younger and was thinking of moving to a warm country for the coming winter.
But, as always, not everyone was happy about her success. The neighbor, Maria Ivanovna, realized that our grandmother was doing well and asked her grandson to buy her the same robot and digitize her ideas for socks. At the same time, Grandmother Fernanda from Brazil, already dumping prices for Lydia Petrovna’s socks in some ski resorts. And on the forums they talked about the mysterious grandmother Ataro from Port Elizabeth, who was going to offer an innovative design.
It would seem that my grandmother's business began to lose ground literally. But, Vasily did not become discouraged and offered to change the business model: create a global resource with delivery by drones, in which grandmothers from all over the world could upload their sock designs and sell them in all corners of the planet. Lidia Petrovna was not sure that anyone would agree to this. But Vasily explained that due to data collection and the use of machine learning algorithms, other grandmothers will be able to get more accurate analytics, which means they will improve their sock models using a data-driven approach. And, of course, it is quite obvious that this will allow them to sell socks in much larger volumes. Not to mention that they will no longer be concerned about the issues of logistics, wool purchases and purchases of the new model "Super Knitter X".
This is how the resource super-knit-socks.lp came into being, which became the world's largest service for selling socks.
Digital transformation - changing the business process with the help of modern digital technologies, data-driven hikes, occurring under the influence of competition.
Of course, in the real world, the transition from automation to transformation is much more complicated and involves much more detail, but nevertheless, we hope that you understand the general essence of the process. Go ahead.
10 cases of digital transformation from Microsoft
It seems that we have never told on Habré about the mission of Microsoft: to help each person and every company on the planet achieve more).
It sounds great and we are really imbued with this idea. We can say that it forms the basis of the digital transformation and describes the desire to help various companies transform with the help of the latest technologies. We will not dwell in detail on the values ​​of the company, since if you wish, you can find a lot of materials on this topic. For example, a month ago there was a wonderful interview on Forbes with Satya Nadella in which he talks about three technologies that will change the world and a little about how the corporation has changed in a few years (by the way, this is all absolutely true).
It will be much more interesting to talk about cases about which you could already hear:
1. ELSE.shoes
The solution that allowed fashion brands to open virtual 3D boutiques of customized shoes. The uniqueness of the project lies in the fact that buyers can independently create for themselves the perfect match for their needs: taste, foot features and other preferences. You can read more about the ELSE Corp solution and its implementation using Azure technologies here and here .
2. Microsoft Course IQ
In this project, created with the world famous golf course designer, Gilbert Hans, Microsoft shows a new perspective on working with data in the sports industry. Information is collected from various sources of sources (ranging from analysis of the landscape and wind speed, to weather data at different times of the year), including using drones and aerial photography, and processed using Azure machine learning tools (for more than 13 thousand golf courses). This allows designers to effectively evaluate the chosen landscape for future fields, and golfers to evaluate the best positions for playing on existing fields. By the way, this project was the bronze medalist of the Cannes Lions Festival 2017. For more details, see the WSJ article.
3. Lowe
If you are watching the broadcasts of key Microsoft conferences, surely you should have had a demonstration of Satya Nadella on the keynote report Ignite, which took place a year ago. On it we saw how using the technology of mixed reality and HoloLens you can create custom design for your kitchen. The pilot project was launched in two stores: while in the showroom, customers can select their own kitchen design from all available products in Lowe stores using simple gestures. More details can be read here .
4. MCSC (Canadian Missing Children Search Society)
Not all projects that can be attributed to digital transformation are commercial. Last year, we already told you about a non-commercial project in which, using Xamarin and Azure, a solution was created to quickly collect information about a missing child and automatically send data to law enforcement agencies. Read more here .
5. HeedBook
This service analyzes the quality of service and customer satisfaction in real time using a neural network in the field of machine vision and speech recognition using only information from the employee’s front-line webcam. It is based on Microsoft Cognitive Services and is already working in the Moscow Region MFC and at the Post Office of Russia. Also, an interesting technical detail, the guys left from the monolithic architecture and now their system is built on microservices. Read more about this here .
6. Schneider Electric
An excellent example of the transformation of agri-business, in which with the help of IoT was developed a platform that allows you to save water and electricity. But that's not all, SE has developed a service based on Azure cloud technologies, which combines sensor management, data collection and analysis systems, as well as digital interfaces. It has a built-in monitoring system that helps optimize the operation of solar power plants and another monitoring system that monitors the temperature in individual rooms in real-time operation of the power supply systems. More about this solution can be found here .
7. DodoPizza
This is an international network of pizzerias, the main product of which is ... franchise, with the core in the form of its own information system Dodo IS based on Azure cloud technologies. It is implemented as a website. Franchisee partners work with it as a SaaS service. In 2015, their revenues exceeded 1 billion rubles . You can find more technical details in our article on Habré .
8. Transformation of the museum space
In addition to the recent Ford case study about car demonstrations in the museum using mixed reality technology and HoloLens, it will be interesting to read about several joint cases with museums in Seattle, New York and London . In them you will see examples of how by digitizing existing works of art and data processing using artificial intelligence algorithms, museums get new ways to interact with visitors.
9. ICEBERG
This is a system for analyzing the actions of hockey players, working with unique algorithms based on neural networks and machine learning in real time, using Microsoft Azure analytical services. It helps to optimize the expenditure of the budget, improve the efficiency of training and the probability of winning a team in each individual game and in the championship. Read more about this project here .
10. Music x Technology
Digital transformation affects various areas of our lives, including the creative industry. At Microsoft, this happens as part of Music x Technology, a collaboration program between musicians and technicians, in which solutions are created with the help of new technologies that allow musicians to communicate in a new way with the audience. M83, Phantogram, Childish Gambino, Broods, Grimes and others have already taken part in it. You can read more about these cases here .
Next steps
Today we share with you the theory. This material will become the basis for a series of articles, in which we will share our experience and technical cases, in order to understand through examples how the digital transformation takes place in various industries.
The key focus in this series will be on 5 priority areas: ML and Big Data, IoT, AI and bots, containers and microservices, and Serverless.
Minute advertising . If you want to try new technologies in your projects, but do not reach the hands, leave the application in the program Tech Acceleration from Microsoft. Its main feature is that together with you we will select the required stack, we will help to realize the pilot and, if successful, we will spend maximum efforts so that the whole market will know about you.
Thanks to Stas Pavlov and Kosta Kichinsky for inspiration and help. :)
PS And, of course, Quantum Quintum , for an illustration of this article.Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/341854/
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