The Record - Issue 19: Winter 2020

39 analysts extract insights from both structured and unstructured data.” Power BI offers a comprehensive set of AI capabilities which help customers analyse text and images, build automated machine learning models, interact with data by asking questions, and automatically detect patterns in data, all through interactive visual experiences. Over 80,000 customers currently use these tools to understand the trends in their business. Medical device manufacturer Medtronic uses Power BI to understand what drives products to be on back order. When products are out of stock with the supplier, customers are often unhappy and sales are deferred or lost. By using Power BI, Medtronic can understand the key drivers behind this and make systematic improvements to prevent the same situation from occurring in the future. Veolia is another Microsoft customer leverag- ing the capabilities of Power BI to make business improvements. The water, energy and waste management company has been using the solu- tion’s NLP features to simplify how employees and customers make queries. As a result, Power BI is used from the board level to the front office. Recent advances in hyperautomation have driven organisations to re-evaluate how they look at and process the data they create. By developing the right blend of robotic process automation, intelligent business process man- agement, ML and AI, business leaders can gain insights, identify mission critical actions that are required to incite change and then automate processes to enable greater competitive advan- tage. For Microsoft, the most telling changes are seen in how these hyperautomation tools are being used to focus on business outcomes and creating visual experiences. “In today’s world, customers have had to adapt at a pace like never before,” says Ulagaratchagan. “It is not just critical to their competitive advan- tage but, more often than not, it is critical to their survival. Covid-19 has made this transformation “In today’s world, customers have had to adapt at a pace like never before”