Microsoft and Adobe in surprise cloud partnership

Microsoft and Adobe on Monday announced a strategic partnership, focusing on enhancing customer experience and relationship, mainly using both firms' cloud computing service.

The surprise announcement, made at the Microsoft Ignite conference in Atlanta, brings two of the world's biggest technology companies uniting their resources; aside from the customer end, the move is expected to significantly boost the duo's brands.

The deal, which will focus on using Microsoft's Azure and Dynamics 365 and Adobe's Marketing Cloud, would help firms "embrace digital transformation and deliver compelling, personalised relationships through every phase of their customer relationships", a e-mailed statement from Microsoft said.

"Business leaders in every industry are focused on how to better engage their digital customers, wherever they are," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in the same Press release.

He touted the potential of the move, uniting the firms on both the marketing and cloud fronts.

"Together, Adobe and Microsoft are bringing the most advanced marketing capabilities on the most powerful and intelligent cloud to help companies digitally transform and engage customers in new ways."

With the deal, Adobe will make Microsoft Azure its preferred cloud platform for its own offerings - Adobe Marketing Cloud, Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Document Cloud.

"Customers today expect a well-designed, personalised and consistent experience every time they engage with a brand," said Shantanu Narayen, president and CEO of Adobe. "Adobe and Microsoft will bring together the cloud horsepower and end-to-end capabilities brands need to design and deliver great digital experiences."

Microsoft will make Adobe Marketing Cloud its preferred marketing service for Dynamics 365 Enterprise edition, which will give customers a powerful, comprehensive marketing service for Microsoft's next generation of intelligent business applications.

The two companies are collaborating on data integrations to ensure customers can easily work across Adobe Marketing Cloud and Dynamics 365 business applications, leveraging artificial intelligence, machine learning and advance analytics. Customers will be able to use these integrations across Adobe and Microsoft solutions to create new data-driven sales and marketing capabilities. The underlying data models will be extensible to enterprise customers, as well as third-party developers and partners, which will foster innovation and development across a shared ecosystem.

Adobe and Microsoft will jointly work with leading companies to help them envision and implement the integrated solutions. As a result, the companies' mutual customers will be able to harness their data for critical insights and predictions, connect customer touchpoints across their business, bolster relationships and drive brand loyalty and growth.

Source: Khaleej Times