The employees of Microsoft Luxembourg have moved to a new, “intelligent” office. IoT partner vyzVoice implemented Chorus, their Azure based platform, which gathers data such as air quality from existing industrial installations and additional sensors. This way Microsoft aims to create the best place to work for its employees and guarantee their well-being. This is the first phase in the company’s campaign to improve its working environment through the Internet of Things (IoT). Ultimately Microsoft wants to inspire others with this project to initiate their digital transformation.
Thanks to the Internet of Things, it feels like our offices are talking to us. It is a new way of using a building more consciously. Our employees think it is really cool. – Candi Carrera, Country Manager at Microsoft Luxembourg.
Data analysis for the employee’s well-being
Becoming a connected company offers tremendous opportunities, not only from a business perspective but also with regards to sustainability. “At Microsoft, we believe that this starts with what matters most to us: people,” says Candi Carrera, Country Manager at Microsoft Luxembourg. “We wanted a solution that provides us with the best possible working space for our employees.”
The vyzVoice system monitors numerous processes in the building and gets its data from different sources. “First of all, there are industrial IoT devices such as the electricity, the heating system and the air conditioning”, explains vyzVoice’s CEO Robert Spicer. “Next, there are smaller IoT devices and smart sensors that capture and generate information about the office environment, such as CO2, light, sound and temperature.” These sensors have been installed all over the Microsoft building in order to monitor and improve the quality of the environment. The data is available to the employees in real-time, so they can instantly see the impact of their behavior on the environment, stimulating them to take on sustainable habits.
Mutual cloud partners
The collaboration between Microsoft and vyzVoice is a successful mutual partnership: not only is Microsoft Luxembourg using vyzVoice as their IoT platform but vyzVoice also delivers its services via Azure, Microsoft’s very own cloud platform. Robert Spicer: “We were looking for a technology that would guard our customers’ privacy and security, also allowing to gather real-time data from non-standard protocols and technologies. After a high level analysis, Azure came out on top because of its fast technological advancements and reliable support. It enables us to continuously elaborate the platform with new and distinguishing features for all of our markets. With EU regulations in mind, we built our platform with the correct approach to privacy and security right from the start, and we used Microsoft services to create extra levels of security for safe data transfers over the internet.”
Off-the-shelf and flexible technology
Flexibility is equally important for a cloud service. “Our technology is an off-the-shelf solution that is easy to adapt to any kind of system”, says Noémie Riefolo, Marketing Manager at vyzVoice. “Thanks to this flexibility there is no need to adapt a building to vyzVoice. Via Chorus, our cloud-based application infrastructure, we enable our customers to create their own application to manager their digital transformation. Our customers can then take the lead on their Industry 4.0 revolution. As for Microsoft, they will remain a strategic partner as we are intending to develop more joint capabilities.”
“This is only phase one of our connected building” says Candi Carrera. “We will continue to develop new IoT solutions that further improve our working environment.”
