Kraft Heinz and Microsoft join forces

The Kraft Heinz Company and Microsoft are joining forces to develop solutions designed to accelerate the consumer goods giant’s transformation and enable a more resilient supply chain. The initiative is one of Kraft Heinz’s largest technology investments to date and a key driver of the company’s AGILE@SCALE approach.

With Microsoft Azure as its preferred cloud platform, Kraft Heinz says it will migrate the majority of its global data center assets to Azure and its enterprise resource planning (ERP) software to SAP on Azure. Through this transformation, Kraft Heinz expects to reimagine its day-to-day operations, create a more collaborative supply chain, and enhance consumer experiences by using real-time predictive analytics to improve inventory transparency and anticipate consumer and channel demand. At the same time, the efficiencies created through the adoption of digital tools from Microsoft are expected to allow the food and beverage leader to continually reinvest into its business.

“Our collaboration with Microsoft is a critical piece of our transformation strategy, providing us with the machine learning and advanced analytics to drive innovation and efficiencies across the supply chain so we can get products into the market faster, better serve our customers and, ultimately, deliver on the sustained and growing consumer demand our iconic brands continue to experience.”

According to the companies, extreme pressures on end-to-end supply chains during the past 2 years have exposed the need for more connected and collaborative networks between suppliers, buyers, retailers and other parties along the value chain. To better address supply chain disruptions, Kraft Heinz is moving to a digitized approach to shift the company to a more predictive strategy and rapid response model.

“As part of our AGILE@SCALE transformation, we are building a leading tech ecosystem to benefit the entire value chain,” said Carlos Abrams-Rivera, executive vice president and president, North America, Kraft Heinz. “Our collaboration with Microsoft is a critical piece of our transformation strategy, providing us with the machine learning and advanced analytics to drive innovation and efficiencies across the supply chain so we can get products into the market faster, better serve our customers and, ultimately, deliver on the sustained and growing consumer demand our iconic brands continue to experience.”

As part of the collaboration, Kraft Heinz and Microsoft will create a joint Digital Innovation Office to co-engineer new solutions that will help the company reimagine digital manufacturing and drive efficiencies with the help of hybrid experiences powered by Microsoft AI, machine learning, and IoT.

For more information, go to www.kraftheinzcompany.com and http://news.microsoft.com.

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