Orange Business, Microsoft sign IoT partnership

Orange Business Services and Microsoft have teamed up to deliver large-scale, end-to-end Internet of Things (IoT) solutions for the manufacturing sector.

The Orange modular IoT solution, Datavenue, accompanied by Microsoft Azure IoT Suite, aims to help enterprises transition to Industry 4.0 and optimize the entire manufacturing value chain.

Through this collaboration, companies can take advantage of the combined expertise of Orange and Microsoft regarding data protection, as well as device and data management.

This includes the opportunity to leverage Orange Business Services’ many IoT connectivity options, in particular LoRa. Use cases range from supply chain and smart inventory management to digital operations, such as predictive maintenance, employee safety and facility and equipment management.

For its long-term customer e.l.m. leblanc, Orange delivered a customized IoT platform on Microsoft Azure, which provides a tailored solution for remote monitoring, along with curative and predictive maintenance.

A subsidiary of the Bosch Group, e.l.m. leblanc manufactures gas boilers and water-heaters since 1932. The company is a major player in the French housing and industrial markets for heating and cooling systems and hot water for sanitary use.

“Using the Azure Cloud allows for high-level scalability and efficient machine learning solutions with reasonable costs,” of e.l.m. leblanc CEO Philippe Laforge said.

The remote monitoring solution collects the boiler’s data and alerts technicians of any malfunction. This allows for more efficient maintenance intervention, with fine-tuned predictions on the probable causes of failure based on real-time data analytics.

Preemptive alerts can also be raised by the platform through predictive maintenance algorithms. Benefits include optimization of intervention processes, and increased end-customer satisfaction, thanks to innovative and responsive customer support.

In order to accelerate the roll out of industrial projects, Azure IoT Suite provides pre-packaged solutions and allows companies to swiftly get familiar with the set-up and explore the most common IoT project scenarios, including remote monitoring, predictive maintenance and connected factories.

The software environment provided by Microsoft will allow for the use of advanced solutions such as Cortana Intelligence Suite (advanced analytics and AI), Power BI (data visualization) and Mobile Apps (Xamarin) to ensure a flawless mobile user experience.