C.H. Robinson and Microsoft have joined forces to digitally transform supply chains by combining C.H. Robinson’s Navisphere®, Microsoft Azure and Azure IoT, a press release stated. Working with many of the Fortune 250 companies, this alliance will make it even easier to scale and develop new solutions to provide C.H. Robinson customers with greater supply-chain efficiency, real-time insights and visibility.

“The pace of change we’re seeing in the supply-chain industry today is unparalleled. Being able to quickly scale and adapt our technology is what helps give our customers a competitive advantage,” said Chris O’Brien, chief commercial officer at C.H. Robinson. “Through Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, we gain more scalability, premier data security and increased application speed, which benefit our customers and carriers around the world,” he added. 

Through this collaboration, Navisphere—C.H. Robinson’s global multimodal transportation management platform—will now leverage Azure IoT Central to integrate IoT device monitoring that measures temperature, shock, tilt, humidity, light and pressure in shipments to give customers an even more detailed level of intelligence about goods as they move through the supply chain. 

Navisphere is currently used across Microsoft’s global supply chain, giving the company real-time visibility into inventory, anywhere in the world. In line with this, Microsoft and C.H. Robinson also collaborated to build Navisphere Vision, a global real-time visibility product that leverages Azure IoT solutions, machine learning and predictive analytics to assess potential disruptions across supply chains. 

Through C.H. Robinson’s TMC division and Navisphere Vision, Microsoft is driving innovations in its own supply chain to provide more predictability and proactive decision-making to its various business groups. 

“The supply chain of the future is smarter, less volatile and can be navigated with a new level of visibility thanks to the power of this relationship. Through this collaboration, our customers receive a greater competitive edge, as well as industry-leading insights and expertise,” said Jordan Kass, president of Managed Services at C.H. Robinson. 

Adding to C.H. Robinson’s innovation on Azure, the company is leveraging Dynamics 365 and Power BI to streamline its customer relationship management (CRM) platform for small businesses and the world’s largest shippers. As part of its relationship with Microsoft, C.H. Robinson will integrate its real-time pricing, execution and transportation management tools into Dynamics 365, making these digitally driven logistics capabilities available to Microsoft customers.