EY and Microsoft partner to help more businesses move to the cloud

What do a multinational professional service as well as one of the world largest audit firms have in common with Microsoft? As of today, they will be working together to deliver new and innovative services to companies around the world. In a press release today from Earnest & Young (EY), Microsoft and EY have formed a ‘strategic business relationship’. With the companies combined ‘digital-age’ strengths, the two are set to provide new businesses services for the future. Ultimately, the partnership is about helping expedite companies’ adoption rates and transitions to the cloud while also offering the most cost effective measures when doing so.

According to chief operating Officer at Microsoft, Kevin Turner, “Bringing together EY’s advisory services with Microsoft’s trusted cloud capabilities will help customers turn data insights into action, deliver measurable business outcomes and accelerate their transformations. Together we will help customers realize the full benefits of their investments more quickly and utilize technology for strategic advantage.”

The joint venture will focus on:

• Jointly delivering business services using Microsoft technologies and EY’s business and technology skills, including advanced program management and purpose led transformation
• Combining Microsoft technologies and EY expertise to advance cyber security across industries
• Deploying a variety of enterprise products on Microsoft Azure, with EY collaborating closely with Microsoft Consulting Services
• Using Azure based applications to harvest near-term value out of software and data that reside currently within customers’ existing operations
• Establishing co-innovation capabilities on a host of advanced management science applications and driving customers’ business advantage from the “internet of things.”

EY is already among one of the largest customers and business service providers for Microsoft. EY’s current Microsoft-based offerings include:

• Program Performance Center, a scalable service to enable insightful portfolio and program optimization across the enterprise, combining Microsoft Azure, SQL Server, and productivity tools such as Project Server and Power BI with EY’s integrated suite of program management processes, data capture, and analysis protocols
• Trusted Cloud, a risk-based cyber security approach that combines Microsoft cloud technologies, including Azure and Office 365, with real-time visibility for improved security across the cloud environment
• 3D Spend Analytics, a predictive, platform-based analytics service that uses Microsoft technologies such as SQL Server, SharePoint, HPC, HD Insight Hadoop, Azure, and Azure Machine Learning to help companies assess spend composition and integrity, identify risks and opportunities, predict patterns, and plan for optimized future spend
• Digital Program Activation based on EY’s Future of Work methods, which combines digital strategy, user-centered design, analytics, and consumer marketing with Microsoft technologies to help improve employee experience, address barriers to digital adoption, and generate improved ROI of digital technologies in the workplace.

Wit this new partnership, EY will be able to offer Microsoft unique insights into the impact that Microsoft technologies and services have with businesses. This level of understanding could be critical in how Microsoft markets its Azure services or develops more cloud-connected products in the future.