Accenture Collaborated with Microsoft to Transform Its Azure Supply Chain

Accenture helped Microsoft transform its Azure supply chain with a control tower solution that better manages network-wide inventory, generates additional cloud revenue and enhances employee efficiency.

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“The operational and inventory control towers we developed have already driven substantial effectiveness gains and are expected to provide increased resilience and significant financial benefits. The project is an example of how cloud and digital twin solutions contribute to a total enterprise reinvention.”

With more than 4 million servers across 200 data centers—and as many as 100 new data centers expected every year—Microsoft needed a solution to enable it to better track and manage its supply chain as cloud demand continues to grow dramatically. Accenture was selected to help develop a data-led transformation strategy and build a digital supply chain solution that would enable Microsoft to track and manage inventory and racks across the end-to-end ecosystem of partners, suppliers and hubs to its datacenters across more than 30 countries.

Accenture and Microsoft’s Cloud Supply Chain developed two control towers: one to track and record the location of cloud inventory—such as server rack and other data center components—both in transit and at rest; and another to help the operations teams coordinate the deployment of that inventory to the datacenters with the most pressing capacity needs. The control tower solution, built on Microsoft Azure, creates a digital twin of Microsoft’s fast-growing supply chain for cloud inventory shipments, deliveries and logistics operations.

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“Microsoft can now manage the Azure supply chain for its cloud infrastructure purposefully and address disruptions far faster,” said Teran Andes, managing director, Supply Chain & Operations at Accenture. “The operational and inventory control towers we developed have already driven substantial effectiveness gains and are expected to provide increased resilience and significant financial benefits. The project is an example of how cloud and digital twin solutions contribute to a total enterprise reinvention.”

Jodi Larson, general manager of Microsoft Azure Supply Chain Strategy and Transformation, added: “The control tower solution is a core pillar of our Azure Supply Chain, that’s enabling us to achieve better and faster data-driven decisions. With the power of Microsoft Azure, and Accenture’s innovative delivery, this solution can serve as a blueprint for data-led transformation across industries.”

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