Originally published on LinkedIn by Sandeep Dadlani, Chief Digital Officer for Mars. 

Here at Mars, we often rely on unique relationships to help us transform our business. We know that the world we want tomorrow starts with today’s collaboration. That’s why I’m thrilled to announce our newest collaboration with our friends at Microsoft. 

We’ve had a long-standing relationship with the tech giant, but recently took the time to reimagine our collective futures. To accelerate our digital transformation, we wanted to create a unified cloud and data foundation that would help us to focus on growth and operational speed, while simultaneously integrating additional intelligence into our supply chains. It’s about putting the power of data and digital technologies at the center of our business, enabling the future of work for our Associates and bringing to life the idea of personalized engagement for our customers. 

We took the necessary time to evaluate all platforms on the market, ultimately choosing Microsoft as our primary platform because of their rich portfolio of features, engineering partner ecosystem, talent availability, focus on data privacy and security, and similar culture values and principles. 

Not to mention, this new agreement builds on an established relationship that spans years…and has produced some outstanding work. For example, by utilizing technology from Microsoft partner Transparency-One, which runs on Azure, we’ve successfully monitored our rice production, giving customers insights on where and how their rice was grown — from farm to fork! And in our Petcare factories, we’ve been able to enhance productivity for frontline workers by using innovative hands-free technology. 

But what does future innovation look like? Well, with a dedicated Innovation Lab, we plan to continue our digital evolution by incorporating additional technologies that will only further evolve and transform our workplaces and increase the digital skills of Associates worldwide. By driving greater efficiency and effectiveness, we’re giving our Associates the gift of time to focus on what they do best. And we’ll do so faster than ever — reducing time to market to weeks, rather than months or even years. 

We’ll also accelerate intelligent supply chain efforts, including scaling digital manufacturing and expanding the use of AI and data solutions to create smarter factories. This includes everything from a 1% savings on confectionery products to improved quality control. 

Finally, the relationship emphasizes sustainable growth by reducing our carbon impact in the transition to a cloud-first strategy. We’ll also work to reduce waste during the manufacturing process by driving technological efficiencies. 

These efforts truly allow us to integrate the transformative power of transparent and responsible data, AI and digital technologies into our global portfolio and across all Mars segments — Mars Wrigley; Petcare; Food; and Edge. 

By advancing our work with Microsoft and their partner companies, we aim to further expand a unified cloud and data foundation across the business. Today’s digital transformation will help us create the world of tomorrow by accelerating growth, profitability, speed, resiliency, sustainability — and most importantly — improving the overall experience for our Associates and customers alike. 

To learn more about our join efforts, click here.