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Naval Postgraduate School and Microsoft accelerate research and development capabilities

Advanced education and research enables discovery and innovation. The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) recently announced a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Microsoft to help bring the latest in commercial innovations to its campus and from there to the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps. As the nation’s premier defense graduate university, NPS is focused on empowering its operationally experienced students and expert faculty to research and solve operational challenges faced by the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Department of Defense.

NPS developed this strategic collaboration to bring some of the brightest military students and researchers together with technology leaders to accelerate applied research into capability solutions to address several highly complex issues affecting national security.

The CRADA enables a new Cooperative Research Initiative (CRI), where Microsoft experts will collaborate side-by-side with NPS students, faculty and staff to address four major areas:

  • Implementing cloud-enhanced network and intelligent edge capabilities – exploring software-defined connections via terrestrial, submarine fiber and satellites, and demonstrating advanced computing capabilities at the tactical edge.
  • Developing a campus of the future – integrating the latest technology from our collaboration and productivity tools to help transition NPS into a state-of-the-art learning institution – a campus of the future – to enable virtual classrooms so service members can access real-time education and training resources anywhere in the world.
  • Accelerating 21st century Gaming, Exercising, Modeling, & Simulation (GEMS) – collaborating to research and innovate with the latest modeling and simulation capabilities to support enhanced strategic gaming capabilities and mission planning needs.
  • Enhancing digital enterprise and field experimentation – testing and integrating the latest developments from a joint innovation lab to the field, accelerating the pace of innovation to deliver emerging capabilities for our war fighters.

One of the first of these priority areas to be delivered and have a strategic impact is an effort known as Project Athena – a key component of the campus of the future initiative. Athena is a collaborative research tool that will significantly improve research and collaboration not just at NPS — but across the entire Department of Defense (DOD). The quick development of Athena showcases the promise of this critical collaboration between Microsoft and a key DOD research and innovation partner like NPS.

YouTube Video

Roadblocks to research

NPS is home to many of the nation’s brightest minds working to solve our country’s most complex security and defense challenges. The school has decades’ worth of data stored in its archives, and NPS students and faculty are essentially human databases themselves. To graduate, students are required to complete a thesis or capstone research project, which requires choosing a relevant topic/problem and then conducting research by digging through digital databases and working alongside faculty.

Determining a thesis topic is not something NPS students take lightly. “While research at NPS is technically focused, our students are committed to service. So, when they’re asked to choose areas of research, they all want to work on projects that would have a huge impact for the Navy,” says Marine Corps Col. Randy Pugh, NPS senior Marine and program lead.

But NPS data infrastructure was not conducive to timely research or collaboration. Their databases were siloed and disconnected, making it challenging to discover ongoing or future research initiatives. Just finding what to research — let alone how to research — was equal parts guesswork, crowdsourcing and luck. Todd Lyons, vice president of the NPS Foundation, explains: “You could access the database of record to find research that had already been completed — assuming it was uploaded to NPS Calhoun archive — but there was no way of knowing what was happening today. To know that, you’d have to go out of your way asking faculty and other students what they were working on, hoping it’d be similar to your idea. It really was word of mouth, to be honest.”

Even if you did find a relevant problem to cover, finding relevant answers presented its own set of challenges. “Typically, a sponsor would enter their question into the Naval Research Program portal and it basically disappeared for a year or two,” says Lyons. “There was also no guarantee that the answer — if you received one — was actually what you were looking for.”

NPS needed a better, more organized way of storing information, encouraging collaboration, and connecting students with subject matter experts (SMEs) – and they needed a technology partner to make it happen.

Modernizing and accelerating national security research

Project Athena is a collaborative research tool built on the Azure stack and deployed through Microsoft Teams. Over the last year, the NPS Foundation has supported the development of Project Athena to provide a scalable platform that empowers the NPS community’s innovative academic ecosystem. It provides a comprehensive and inclusive intelligent data store that will support access to all existing DOD research projects, research resources and all current requests for new research.

Integrated into Teams for ease of use and centralization, Athena’s user interface for data discovery and user collaboration is built around six basic features:

  • A consistent “workspace” application model for all research endeavors
  • The ability to use keyword-prompted searches and full-text searching to find relevant information and resources quickly and efficiently
  • A table-defined and easily modified hierarchical subject taxonomy that organizes resource query results into familiar and logical research areas
  • Standardized subject-based keywords that are used to tag all Athena resources
  • A set of customizable filter menus that disclose the resources available through Athena and the most common properties
  • A set of context-specific popup menus that allow users to discover, collect, connect, share and collaborate over Athena’s research resources

Athena allows NPS to standardize data in a way that keeps it orderly and easily searchable. This helps SMEs to easily and securely clean up and merge keywords, customize and tag the taxonomy, modify and extend the filter menus, and clean up the use of standardized search terms within resource records. SMEs can work with source repository owners to prepare their data for Athena ingestion and adapt the taxonomy to best meet the needs of their research area.

Through collaboration with Microsoft, NPS will have the ability to use Azure Cognitive Search translation capabilities in Athena to translate documents written in other languages into English, drastically reducing the time and cost of seeking manual translation.

The future of research

For NPS students and researchers, Athena will be game-changing. With Athena, all they need to do is log into Teams to get the latest information about completed, ongoing and proposed research projects.

Athena will not only improve research, but also collaboration. Through a single tool, students are now able to find advisors, collaborators, sponsors and partners with specific interests and skills to help develop their research. This creates a research environment that encourages experimentation and socialization between like-minded researchers and communities.  Most importantly, Athena also allows those who are experiencing problems in the Navy, Marine Corps, or joint force to know their problems are being worked on by these teams, to participate in the development of solutions, and to quickly implement the results of the research when the projects are completed.

It also creates pathways for students to test their research findings out in the real world. “We created Athena to help people identify problems, develop ideas and connect students to the field people actually working on these problems, whether they’re in an IT environment, on an aircraft carrier or on a forward-operating base.” says Rick Hargrove, NPS Foundation member and lead architect of Athena. “If the research could help them with their job, then we want to foster that collaboration.”

A lasting partnership

Microsoft has supported our national security community for more than 40 years, delivering the latest technologies to ensure our women and men have the tools to meet their missions.

Athena serves as an example of the type of the capabilities this collaboration with NPS can enable through the Cooperative Research Initiative. Through continued collaboration, the CRI’s four focus areas will integrate and complement one another to help NPS build a robust campus and institution that will leverage the latest in commercial innovation to advance its mission impact and address current and future challenges.

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Enter for a chance to win a custom Xbox Series S console and wireless controller inspired by ‘Ms. Marvel’

Xbox has called upon cosmic forces to create a custom Xbox Series S console and wireless controller inspired by “Ms. Marvel,” an original series from Marvel Studios, streaming June 8 on Disney+.

From June 2 through June 23, 2022, fans can enter for a chance to win the exclusive Xbox Series S and matching Xbox Wireless Controller by retweeting the official Xbox Sweepstakes tweet.

The console features Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) as Ms. Marvel, a Muslim American teenager who unexpectedly develops superpowers, with designs influenced by the murals and street art of Kamala’s own hometown of Jersey City. Marvel Studios’ “Ms. Marvel” follows Kamala as she struggles to feel like she totally fits in at home or at school. That is, until she gets superpowers like the heroes she’s always looked up to. A megafan at heart, Kamala’s unique outlook on life can be seen in her creative doodling. Though her parents would insist that she should be studying, Kamala can’t help but let her mind wander, brainstorming ideas for her next fun-filled super hero fan-fiction story.

In addition to the console, Xbox has paired it with a custom Xbox Wireless Controller, detailed with the “Ms. Marvel” logo and other distinctive features and color schemes inspired by the teenage super hero.

Don’t forget to visit the official sweepstakes terms and conditions for more information and check out “Ms. Marvel,” an original series from Marvel Studios, streaming June 8 on Disney+.

About Marvel Studios’ “Ms. Marvel”

Marvel Studios’ “Ms. Marvel” is a new, original series premiering exclusively June 8 on Disney+. “Ms. Marvel” introduces Kamala Khan, a Muslim American teenager growing up in Jersey City. An avid gamer and a voracious fan-fiction scribe, Kamala is a super hero megafan with an oversized imagination — particularly when it comes to Captain Marvel. Yet Kamala feels like she doesn’t fit in at school and sometimes even at home — that is, until she gets superpowers like the heroes she’s always looked up to. Life gets better with superpowers, right? 

The series stars Iman Vellani, Matt Lintz, Yasmeen Fletcher, Zenobia Shroff, Mohan Kapur, Saagar Shaikh, Rish Shah, Fawad Khan, Laurel Marsden, Arian Moayed, Adaku Ononogbo, Alysia Reiner, Azhar Usman, Laith Nakli, Nimra Bucha and Travina Springer, with Aramis Knight. 

Directors for the series are Adil & Bilall (Adil El Arbi & Bilall Fallah) [Episodes 101 and 106], Meera Menon [Episodes 102 and 103] and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy [Episodes 104 and 105]. Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Brad Winderbaum, Adil & Bilall, .Bisha K. Ali and Sana Amanat are the executive producers. Bisha K. Ali is also the head writer.

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Microsoft Flight Simulator releases Italian Savoia-Marchetti S.55 as Local Legend #4

One of the most distinctive and memorable aircraft in history comes to Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Today we are pleased to introduce the fourth plane in the Microsoft Flight Simulator “Local Legends” series, the S.55. The “Local Legends” series celebrates the history of aviation and this plane, a twin-engine flying boat produced by Italian aviation manufacturer Savoia-Marchetti of Milan, is linked to our most recent World Update IX: Italy and Malta. It features a catamaran hull design, twin tail booms, triple vertical stabilizers, and a tractor-pusher engine-propulsion system mounted above its main wing. Constructed primarily of wood, the hydroplane’s cockpit is located in the forward mid-section of the main wing and its hulls can be configured to carry a number of combinations of fuel, passengers, and cargo.

Microsoft Flight Simulator - Local Legends 4 - S.55 Savoia-Marchetti

Savoia-Marchetti conceived the unique craft during the inter-war period to serve military roles, primarily that of a torpedo bomber, with its payload (which could also include bombs) slung under the centerline of the main wing between its two hulls. The premise was that the S.55 could wait at sea and surveil an area for approaching ships, then launch and attack. The hydroplane roared into the sky for the first time in August of 1924. While the Italian military initially disapproved of the concept, they adopted the flying boat into service in 1926. The plane engaged briefly in combat (during the Spanish Civil War), but its enduring legacy is its operations as aircraft of choice for a number of long-range flights, notably trans-Atlantic journeys.

Microsoft Flight Simulator - Local Legends 4 - S.55 Savoia-Marchetti

This prototype version of the S.55, Jahú, was flown by Brazilian aviator João Ribeiro de Barros, from Genoa, Italy, to Sao Paulo, Brazil, completing the incredible voyage in 1927. The inspiring journey marked the first time that aviators hailing from the Western Hemisphere completed a trans-Atlantic flight. The Jahú is the last surviving Savoia-Marchetti S.55 and is on display at the TAM Museum in the Brazilian city of São Carlos.

Microsoft Flight Simulator - Local Legends 4 - S.55 Savoia-Marchetti

This version of the S.55 features twin V-12 510-horsepower Isotta Fraschini water-cooled engines, in a tractor-pusher configuration, each turning two-blade wooden propellers, providing a cruise speed of approximately 110 miles per hour.

S.55X

This model, the S.55X, from 1933, represents the final and most advanced iteration of the airframe produced. Only 25 were constructed. With an 800-horsepower Isotta Fraschini W-18 engines driving three-blade metal propellers and improved instrumentation, the S.55X boasts the highest performance and greatest range of all S.55 variants.

Microsoft Flight Simulator - Local Legends 4 - S.55 Savoia-Marchetti

Shortly after their completion, all 25 ‘X’ models participated in a mass trans-Atlantic formation flight, known as the “Decennial Air Cruise,” led by General Italo Balbo of the Regia Aeronautica (Italian Royal Air Force). This flight, from Rome to Chicago’s 1933 Century of Progress world’s fair, is one of aviation history’s greatest success stories. It proved the quality of design and craftsmanship of the S.55X, the intrepidness and skill of the Italian aviators, and demonstrated that trans-Atlantic passenger service by airplane was feasible.

Microsoft Flight Simulator - Local Legends 4 - S.55 Savoia-Marchetti

The Savoia-Marchetti S.55 and S.55X are available as a package in the Microsoft Flight Simulator in-sim marketplace today for $14.99. We will continue to introduce aircraft to the “Local Legends” series in the coming months. The sky is calling!

Microsoft Flight Simulator - Local Legends 4 - S.55 Savoia-Marchetti

Microsoft Flight Simulator is now available for Xbox Series X|S and PC with Xbox Game Pass, PC Game Pass, Windows, and Steam, and on Xbox One and supported mobile phones, tablets, and lower-spec PCs via Xbox Cloud Gaming. For the latest information on Microsoft Flight Simulator, stay tuned to @MSFSOfficial on Twitter. 

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White paper: Higher education faculty are the new knowledge workers

“Knowledge workers,” as defined in 1959 by Peter Drucker, are “those who generate value through their minds rather than through their muscles, and their labour would be both dynamic and autonomous.” In knowledge work industries, workers need to have a range of technological, social, emotional, and higher cognitive skills, and often require training on a regular basis to keep their skills updated. 

In the last of a series of four whitepapers created by The Economist and sponsored by Microsoft, the authors note the correlation between knowledge work and higher education. In the whitepaper, called “Leveraging technology to humanise the learning experience: Key lessons higher education can learn from ‘knowledge worker’ companies,” the authors also suggest best practices that education institutions can implement from knowledge work to better engage and connect with students.

Although educators and students aren’t typically referred to as “knowledge workers,” there are many parallels between the way information is created, stored, and shared in higher education organizations and in traditional knowledge-focused industries. Therefore, the way these knowledge-focused industries have technologically adapted to increasingly hybrid work is highly applicable to higher education, where more hybrid courses are being offered to accommodate ongoing pandemic-related safety concerns and provide greater flexibility for students to be remote.

Workers in many industries have leveraged innovations in technology to complete their tasks effectively away from traditional office settings, and a high percentage of them expect that some of the flexibility regarding where and when they do their work will continue. Of course, the experience of connecting and collaborating with one another is important as well, so managers and executives are trying to find the “sweet spot” between allowing remote work and creating opportunities for in-person interaction.

In higher education, a similar phenomenon is taking place: students crave the experience of campus life but also enjoy and expect the flexibility provided by a hybrid combination of synchronous and asynchronous classes. In recent years, faculty and staff have become proficient in strategies and digital tools used to create remote learning environments, but they also see the need for additional training and guidance to maximize the tools and techniques used for hybrid instruction.

“The data over the last 40 years—and what we can see into the next 20 and 40 years—shows [that] the number-one way to be successful in this economy will be to be an agile learner.” – Rachel Romer Carlson, CEO of Guild

According to Julian Birkinshaw, professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at London Business School, some of the best learning is interwoven and embedded with workplace experience. Managers often embed training into regular workplace tasks, and to be successful, workers need to be agile and open to ongoing learning. Therefore, a valuable skill that will help students be successful in the present and future is being a lifelong learner. To prepare their students for the future, universities must help build students’ durable and non-durable skillsets and cultivate a learner’s mindset.

Technology has an immense ability to personalize and humanize learning, but to realize this potential, it’s key to upskill instructors and faculty. When institutions invest in both technology and training for their faculty, instructors often feel more confident using and innovating with digital tools, which can create opportunities for more connection with students.

Among the most promising and exciting innovations that can be applied both in industry and education are AI powered chatbots. The power of artificial intelligence can automate mundane tasks like answering questions while still providing a human feel. In education, AI and analytics can also create personalized learning options for individual students.

“Tools from big tech companies, such as enterprise collaboration and productivity platforms, should be used to scaffold increasingly digital campuses in much more innovative and comprehensive ways.” – Dr. David Conrad Kellermann, Senior Lecturer, School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, University of New South Wales

Along with advanced applications that use AI and machine learning, successful hybrid learning requires a tech stack of common software. “Tools from big tech companies, such as enterprise collaboration and productivity platforms, should be used to scaffold increasingly digital campuses in much more innovative and comprehensive ways,” says Dr. David Conrad Kellermann, Senior Lecturer at the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at the University of New South Wales. Despite the availability of these tools, many higher education institutions aren’t yet making use of them. This is limiting the schools’ ability to modernize collaboration, gather useful data, and engage students in a personal way.

Hiring and onboarding workers virtually has been one of the biggest challenges for businesses. Colleges and universities have struggled with the similar challenge of attempting to demonstrate school culture and create a sense of belonging in online student orientations. In both cases, a mix of technology and in-person meetings can help. Initial introductions and group events can be held via virtual meeting applications, while campus tours can be recreated through video, virtual reality, or in-person gatherings for those who want and are able to attend.

Burnout is another challenge faced by both knowledge workers and students who work and learn remotely. There is truly no substitute for in-person connection, and living life behind a screen can take a toll. Experts note that a primary reason for this is that when we work, learn, and live in the same place, it’s harder to unplug.

Experts recommend that business and education leaders recognize that mental health is as important as physical health, and that they implement strategies to promote well-being. This can mean breaking work into “sprints”, limiting or automating administrative or repetitive tasks, and ensuring opportunities for conversation and feedback. These approaches are effective for business leaders and educators too, especially when assisted by technology.

Hybrid working and learning may present challenges for knowledge worker companies and higher education institutions, but it can also provide opportunities to create balance and flexibility. When workers and learners can complete tasks and accomplish their goals on their own terms, productivity and well-being are likely to increase. Of course, establishing community and empowering creative collaboration is as important in education as it is in industry, so technology that humanizes interaction and personalizes experiences provides the greatest benefit.

Want to read more from the whitepaper? “Leveraging technology to humanise the learning experience: Key lessons higher education can learn from ’knowledge worker’ companies,” is available now.

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Pride has no borders: Visit Microsoft Unlocked – the Pride edition

Every month at Microsoft Unlocked, we celebrate stories from the heart and soul of innovation. Our inaugural edition is all about Pride. Brought together by LGBTQIA+ employees and allies, it’s an open invitation for everyone to join in.

This fight is our collective fight.
It knows no boundaries and no borders.

Atif

Cloud marketing team

Our employees’ stories prove there’s no town too small or village too remote for Pride. Though some may try to confine or legislate against LGBTQIA+ communities, Microsoft employees invite everyone to join in the actions and calls for justice and equity across all borders – be they geographical, societal or ideological.

Read

Last June fans asked us to release an Xbox controller for Pride. Here’s what happened next…

Explore

Queer representation matters,
visibility matters

SG

Team Xbox

Our Pride collection is celebrating the nuance, intersectionality and strength of LGBTQIA+ communities by bringing together over 30 community flags in fine, interwoven and energetic designs. To honor this release, we’re donating a total of $170,000 to nonprofits that advocate for LGBTQIA+ rights around the world.

“So many borders are imposed to separate us. To divide us from where we come from, who we are and how we see ourselves…to be accepted there is not only one way to be.”

Read

Create a welcoming space by choosing from 36 evocative 3D backgrounds for your video calls inspired by the flags of LGBTQIA+ communities.

Download

Hear from activists, gamers and advocates about intersectionality, representation and how we can bridge borders and bring about collective change in an immersive “Pride has no borders” Microsoft Pride event on 10AM-12PM Pacific time, June 17th – hosted in AltSpaceVR and streaming live on YouTube.

RSVP

“Around the globe, women are still seen and treated as less – and we often bear the brunt of society’s expectations. Women are powerful – and when we thrive, everyone thrives.”

Read

Pride in Hindu with flags

Inequality doesn’t respect borders. So we drive to LGBTQIA+ inclusion and equity around the world, both through our own internal policies as well as external advocacy efforts

John Galligan

Global Public Affairs, Microsoft

This Pride, LGBTQIA+ communities at Microsoft are illuminating the interconnected nature of the challenges we face – and calling for a unified global response across all borders, both real and perceived.

Developed with the global LGBTQIA+ employees and allies across Microsoft, our campaign celebrates the nuance, vibrancy and strength of the many LGBTQIA+ communities – and how closely they’re connected. Thirty-three flags representing different LGBTQIA+ identities, one Ally flag and one Polyamory flag make up this year’s designs. We hope they remind you that by coming together across groups and bridging borders, we can create change for LGBTQIA+ communities and beyond.

Our work doesn’t start or stop with Pride. Microsoft introduced sexual orientation into our non-discrimination policies in 1989 – and we’ve been driving LGBTQIA+ inclusion ever since.

In 1993, we began offering employee benefits for same-sex domestic partnerships, making us one of the first companies in the world to do so. We stood as a public supporter for marriage equality even before it became legal in the United States – and we continue to advocate for every type of family.

Today, we operate in over 120 countries, many of which still don’t provide legal protections for LGBTQIA+ individuals. By supporting our employees through global advocacy, charitable giving and better workplace practices, we’re hoping to make a difference for LGBTQIA+ communities and beyond, as our drive for positive global impact continues.

Stories from the heart & soul of innovation coming soon on Microsoft Unlocked.

  • July 2022

    From accessibility to sustainability, culture to science and radical tech to trending topics—there will be more to explore. Bookmark this page and visit us again in July for more Unlocked content.

  • Access For All

    A new alphabet for an ancient people promises to preserve their culture and connect their community.

  • It’s Happening

    Technology echoes human expression

  • It’s Happening

    Explore the maximal collections behind the founder of minimalism.

  • Access For All

    With assistive technology, injured veterans reconnect with the music war took away.

  • Changing the Game

    Minecraft changed video games forever. Can it democratize how we design urban spaces?

  • For Life On Earth

    Their world is a mirror of our world. What happens to them happens to us.

  • For Life on Earth

    California’s water is disappearing. How can smarter design help turn the tide?

July 2022

From accessibility to sustainability, culture to science and radical tech to trending topics—there will be more to explore. Bookmark this page and visit us again in July for more Unlocked content.

Access For All

A new alphabet for an ancient people promises to preserve their culture and connect their community.

It’s Happening

Technology echoes human expression

It’s Happening

Explore the maximal collections behind the founder of minimalism.

Access For All

With assistive technology, injured veterans reconnect with the music war took away.

Changing the Game

Minecraft changed video games forever. Can it democratize how we design urban spaces?

For Life On Earth

Their world is a mirror of our world. What happens to them happens to us.

For Life on Earth

California’s water is disappearing. How can smarter design help turn the tide?

“Show your Pride” is available in the following apps.

iOS: Outlook, Teams, OneNote, Office, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Android: Outlook and Teams Mac: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. In Outlook, you can find the Pride themes in Settings > Appearance. In all other apps, you can find Pride theme in Settings.

Progress Pride Flag ©quasar.digital LLC 2022. Polyamory Pride Flag by Molly Colleen Bennett Wilvich, CC BY-SA 4.0.

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As we make Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability generally available today, see how Grupo Bimbo, the world’s largest baking company, is already using the platform…

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We’re honoring #Pride this month with inclusive product releases, new donations, and by sharing powerful stories of colleagues who are making…

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Streamlining employee onboarding: Microsoft’s response to the Great Reshuffle

In 2021, workers everywhere reevaluated their professional and personal choices, leading to what became known as the Great Resignation. In 2022, a new trend that many are calling the Great Reshuffle has emerged, with 43 percent of the workforce saying they’re very likely to consider changing jobs or exiting their industry altogether in the coming year.1

As our 2022 Work Trend Index, Great Expectations: Making Hybrid Work Work, revealed, employees have a new “worth it” equation and are voting with their feet.2 As a result, employees are onboarding and offboarding more frequently. The constant flow of tasks, starting with applying for a job and navigating the first few days of employment, leaves much room for error, thus increasing stress for HR, IT, and each new employee.

Given that 73 percent of employees want to keep their work options flexible, more than three-quarters of Chief Human Resource Officers (CHROs) plan to preserve the newer hybrid work options available today and accommodate the flexibility that existing and prospective employees desire.3 Unfortunately, the complexity and cost of both onboarding and offboarding employees have increased in our new hybrid reality.

The 2022 Work Trend Index surveyed more than 31,000 people in 31 countries and found that 53 percent of people are likely to consider transitioning to hybrid work in the year ahead.

Workforce feedback and statistical studies reveal two challenges specific to credentialing:

  1. The rising cost and frustration of employee onboarding.
  2. Increased security risks of employee offboarding.

The rising costs and frustration of employee onboarding

The typical multistep process of the new hire onboarding journey became even more convoluted during the pandemic with the rise of both hybrid and fully remote work. As a result, managing the details of recruiting, interviewing, and hiring has become increasingly challenging, leading to a sharp rise in costs.

Organizations struggle with navigating the start of the employee journey for both in-person and remote workers in the most efficient and secure way possible. For example, the chart in Figure 1 summarizes the findings of a private study Microsoft conducted in 2021 to understand who’s involved in tasks associated with identity verification for new employees. Responses from 3,000 organizations show that HR and IT split these tasks almost evenly and that across the 14 industries surveyed, onboarding accounts for an astounding 14 to 31 percent of all ID verification spending.

Graph showing ID verification spend across multiple industries with finance spending leading all other industries. The K-12 education industry spends the least.

In fact, 69 percent of employees are more likely to stay with a company if they experience great onboarding.4

Traditionally, HR teams have relied on physical documents—such as a driver’s license, birth certificate, or passport—and in-person communications to verify a new employee’s identity and credentials, a semi-manual process that can cause frustrating onboarding delays, flagging a potential concern given more remote, in-person, and hybrid options available in a competitive labor market. The modern workforce expects a more automated experience that’s also more secure. In fact, 82 percent of study participants wish there was a better way to perform verification.

Fortunately, recent advances in technology are making it possible to digitize identity information in a way that’s portable and privacy-respecting for the user, while helping businesses streamline their verification processes. This new technology, called verifiable credentials, is based on a decentralized identity approach and allows organizations to verify an individual’s credentials, such as employment or education. For the background check process, employers can confirm a new hire’s identity information digitally and within seconds from an authoritative source. The business can then issue an employee ID as a verifiable credential, which the employee can store in their digital wallet and use to access other resources that require employment confirmation, such as benefits enrollment or equipment purchases.

Although these modernization efforts must still align with government regulations that require physical inspection of original documents, they have the potential to significantly transform the employee’s onboarding experience and their first days on the job, making it easier for them to access the resources they need to be immediately productive in their new role.

Microsoft Entra Verified ID will help streamline the process of credential attestation, reducing frustration and delays that HR, IT, and new employees currently experience. The chart in Figure 2 illustrates a transformed onboarding journey, and how HR and IT manage both pre-onboarding (blue) and onboarding (green) to ensure the process runs smoothly for the employee.

Verifiable credentials help streamline the onboarding process. This chart shows how easy it can be to securely onboard a new employee using Microsoft Verified ID.

As we all know, first impressions matter. By simplifying and expediting the onboarding experience, using verifiable credentials can help create a positive first impression that helps make employees feel good about joining an organization, rather than second-guessing their decision.

Increased risks of employee offboarding

When an employee leaves an organization, their access credentials—along with their access permissions—should be wiped clean to prevent valuable company information from walking out the door with them. Using modern identity governance tools such as verifiable credentials, IT can select one box to decommission a departing employee’s access to the organization’s digital assets. If HR tools are integrated with identity systems, then any changes HR makes in their systems automatically perpetuate to other IT systems, and vice versa.

The offboarding governance process may include revoking any employer-issued verifiable credentials used to grant access to organizational programs, such as employee discounts, or employee-only resources. Verifiable credentials also give employees a new level of control over their personal information. They can revoke permissions they’ve given their former employer to access verifiable credentials that share educational history, government-issued identity numbers, and other sensitive data. And with the introduction of Microsoft Entra Verified ID, it’s now possible to allow individuals, organizations, and devices to decide what information they share with whom, and to take it back if necessary.

The benefits of using verifiable credentials

According to the 2021 Employee Experience Survey Highlights, organizations that provide digitally transformed experiences are nearly three times more likely to report higher productivity than their industry peers, and 90 percent more likely to report lower annual turnover.5

Using verifiable credentials creates tangible benefits for HR and IT departments and the employees they support:

  • Faster, easier, and less expensive processes. HR can start replacing some paper-based or in-person identity or credential verification processes to reduce onboarding time and get new hires productive sooner. IT can easily integrate verifiable credentials into existing systems without writing any custom code. 
  • Compliance with ever-changing global privacy regulations. IT can implement decentralized identity solutions based on open standards that allow HR to verify an employee’s skills, certifications, education, and career history in a privacy-respecting manner.
  • A better employee experience that strengthens recruiting and retention. Today’s employees expect easy, convenient, and contactless digital experiences that protect their privacy. Verifiable credentials provide a secure way for individuals to share their personal information with their employers and revoke access when they leave.

Avanade, a leading professional services and technology provider, is using Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) verified ID to streamline credentialing processes and facilitate collaboration among employees, vendors, and clients.

Navigating the path ahead

The Great Reshuffle is the living, evolving proof that organizations need to pay closer attention to the employee experience. HR and IT business leaders must therefore respond to employee expectations for flexibility, safety, security, and support for their overall wellbeing. This response must start with a smoother onboarding process, in which verifiable credentials can significantly simplify and streamline.

Learn more about how Microsoft and verified ID can help your organization navigate the Great Reshuffle.

Read more information on the solution and open standards initiative with decentralized identities.

To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us at @MSFTSecurity for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.

12022 Work Trend Index: Annual Report, Microsoft. March 16, 2022.

2Great Expectations: Making Hybrid Work Work, Work Trend Index 2022, Microsoft.

3The Next Great Disruption Is Hybrid Work – Are We Ready?, Work Trend Index 2021, Microsoft. March 22, 2021.

4Don’t Underestimate the importance of good onboarding, SHRM. 2017.

52021 Employee Experience Survey, WTW. July 20, 2021.

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How Microsoft is equipping manufacturing workers with the tools of the future

Across the manufacturing industry, pressure continues to rise as organizations and their workforces balance unpredictable supply chains, complex regulatory and compliance requirements, advanced security threats, and heightened competition. These forces are driving the need for rapid technological advancement—especially among the nearly 430 million frontline manufacturing workers at the center of this digital transformation.1

However, over one-third of all frontline workers in manufacturing report that they do not have the right technological tools to do their job effectively—representing a significant opportunity for companies looking to develop their frontline talent and future-proof operations.2

At Microsoft, we are working to empower all manufacturing workers, from the factory floor to the customer’s door, with the solutions they need for sustainable growth and increased productivity. We know that 63 percent of frontline workers in manufacturing are excited about the job opportunities tech creates and we are working hard to create purpose-built solutions to support their success.1

Today, I am excited to announce several new cross-cloud product features and capabilities designed to optimize, connect, and upskill the manufacturing workforce—helping frontline workers perform at their best today and harness the opportunities of tomorrow.

Optimize workflow integration to empower your frontline

This week at Hannover Messe 2022, we are announcing the general availability of Updates in Microsoft Teams, enhancements to Approvals in Teams, and customizations to optimize key manufacturing workflows through Microsoft Power Apps.

Easily create, review, and submit employee updates with Updates in Microsoft Teams  

Many of today’s manufacturing workers still rely on outdated tools and manual updates to stay in sync and get work done. Updates in Microsoft Teams is an out-of-box app that saves people time and energy by helping them create, submit, and review all their check-ins, reports, and updates right in the flow of work. Whether those are recurring processes that happen on a regular basis, like inspections and maintenance updates, or real-time updates that might be needed at any time, like incident reporting, Updates makes it easy for you to manage these all in one place.

Integrate Approvals across line of business applications and Microsoft 365

Extend and integrate Approvals in Microsoft Teams into your factory operations apps through Graph APIs in Microsoft 365 and Power Apps Control Framework controls in Power Apps. These include new integrations with Microsoft 365 to create approval requests for an entire document or a section of a document directly in Microsoft Word. Additionally, you will be able to create and manage approval requests directly within Microsoft Lists. All of these enhancements will be in preview this summer, and stay tuned for new features in our pipeline, like group approvals, sequential approvers, and more.

Tablet device showing a cleaning log document with approval settings in Microsoft Word.

“These kinds of workflow capabilities bring operational processes into the flow of work and make Teams and Microsoft 365 a critical platform for manufacturers,” shares Richard Gregory, Global Value Realization Lead, Avanade. “They enable factory teams to be streamlined and efficient—tying organizational productivity and communication tools seamlessly into the day-to-day work of frontline manufacturing workers.”

Bring frontline collaboration into your custom apps with Collaboration controls

With Collaboration controls, you can leverage the best of Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams collaboration capabilities (chat, meetings, Tasks, files, and Approvals) in Power Apps to enable contextual collaboration around business processes. In preview later in 2022, this integration allows for the building of custom collaborative experiences for manufacturing with easy access for your frontline workers directly in Teams.

Smart building solutions provider Johnson Controls leveraged Microsoft Teams and Power Platform to build and deploy a set of applications called Power Smart Factory to help streamline frontline operations and improve factory operations. Learn how their solution helped optimize workloads, reduce machine downtime, improve product and service quality, and save money in this customer story video.

Learn more about how Microsoft Teams and Power Platform can work together to simplify critical manufacturing workflows.

Streamline the manufacturing frontline with Microsoft Teams Shifts connector for Blue Yonder Workforce Management

The Microsoft Teams Shifts connector for Blue Yonder Workforce Management (WFM), now generally available, extends the value of Blue Yonder WFM for manufacturers that rely on it for precise labor scheduling, accurate time and attendance tracking, reduced associate turnover, and simplified compliance with labor laws and corporate policies. The Shifts connector allows for two-way replication of schedule and shift-related data between Teams and Blue Yonder WFM and empowers frontline workers to view and manage schedules while on the go. With greater optimization of workers, managers are free to spend less time on administrative tasks, leaving more time for the high-value work of coaching and mentoring employees and working directly with customers. Learn more about this year’s Nucleus Research Value Matrix Leader.

Tablet device next to a mobile device, both showing workers' shift schedule in a horizontal and vertical layout.

Connect your workforce with communication and engagement solutions

The generational shift in worker age, the unlocking and digitization of manufacturing-floor data, and most recently, the global COVID-19 pandemic are all driving forces in the acceleration of digital transformation in the manufacturing industry. Together, these factors have led to a manufacturing workforce that is less experienced and more spread out physically. In addition, 62 percent of all frontline workers say leadership does not prioritize building culture2—creating a greater need to access institutional knowledge and build workplace community.

Manufacturers need tools that help their frontline teams collaborate and stay connected across geographies and functions—while helping them tap into key resources and insights across teams. With purpose-built frontline capabilities in Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Viva Connections, we are creating solutions that better connect manufacturing workers with each other and their organizations to enable improved real-time decision-making.

Mobile device showing Viva Connections Dashboard with multiple digital tiles for different resources.

Access Walkie Talkie in Microsoft Teams on more devices

The Walkie Talkie app helps streamline the way frontline workers securely communicate with each other by offering a familiar push-to-talk experience built directly within Teams. Frontline teams can instantly communicate with each other, anywhere in the world, without having to worry about frequency static or cross talk. I’m excited to announce the addition of Crosscall ruggedized handheld devices to our growing list of Walkie Talkie integration partnerships with Samsung Electronics, Zebra Technologies, Sonim Technologies, and Kyocera. Manufacturing frontline workers will now be able to use Teams Walkie Talkie on select Crosscall Core-X, Core-T, and Action-X series devices. Read the Tech Community blog, Walkie Talkie in Teams is now supported on Crosscall rugged devices, to learn more.

Side view of a mobile device showing the built-in push-to-talk Walkie Talkie button, next to the front view of the same device showing Walkie Talkie screen with a digital microphone button in center.

Support multiple home sites and multilingual Dashboards in Microsoft Viva Connections

Customers will soon have the option to enable multiple home sites within a single Microsoft Viva Connections tenant allowing a tailored experience for different roles and teams within an organization. This new feature provides a better Dashboard layout and Resources tab for frontline workers who may be in different locations, roles, or subsidiaries within a single organization—providing a home base that is more relevant and personalized.

Viva Connections Dashboards now support multiple language views in public preview. Customers with a multilingual frontline workforce can optimize their Dashboards for an employee’s preferred language—supporting inclusivity and engagement while advancing workforce transformation.

Manufacturers like Blum are leveraging tools like Microsoft Viva Connections and Microsoft Teams to promote employee culture while optimizing for the factory of the future. Learn how Blum created a customized employee experience app for their frontline workforce with Viva Connections in this customer story video.

Video still of happy employees walking outside of Blum manufacturing building with company logo.

To learn more about how Microsoft Viva Connections is enhancing the employee experience, check out the latest Tech Community blog post, What’s new and next in Viva Connections.  

Upskilling for a future-proof frontline

With 55 percent of frontline workers saying they’ve had to adapt to using digital tools on the fly, with no formal training or practice, workforce transformation has never been more important.2 Within our Microsoft Viva custom-built solutions to facilitate upskilling, reskilling, and ongoing learning, we are announcing several new capabilities to help companies equip their frontline with the tools and training to stay up to date, improve safety and compliance, and prepare for the future.

In-line playback for Viva Learning is now generally available in Teams and allows manufacturing workers to watch content from LinkedIn Learning directly in the mobile app. Previously only available on desktop, frontline workers can now access learning and development courses in a way that better suits their needs through on-the-go learning on their mobile devices. And, in preview in June 2022, customers can discover, view, and share Shareable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) content alongside formal learning courses through Viva Learning. Generally available in June 2022, manufacturing workers will be able to search and filter for company content—like safety trainings and onboarding resources—by description, duration, skill tags, and more.

A mobile device with LinkedIn learning course description.
A mobile device with course diagram.

See how Microsoft Viva Learning supports frontline manufacturing workers’ ongoing career growth and development.

To learn more about the latest updates and announcements from the Microsoft Viva Learning team, read the Tech Community blog.

Join us at Hannover Messe and learn more

Come see our latest innovations for the frontline workforce and meet members of the Microsoft team this week at Hannover Messe, the world’s leading trade show for industrial technology. Visit our showcases at the Microsoft exhibition in the Digital Ecosystems area in hall 4.

Prepare your frontline workers to accelerate into the future of manufacturing

1The Rise of the Deskless Workforce, Emergence. 2018.

2Technology Can Help Unlock a New Future for Frontline Workers, Work Trend Index: Special Report, Microsoft. January 12, 2022.

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Studying whether AI can drive innovation in personal assistant devices and sign language

Advancing tech innovation and combating the data dessert that exists related to sign language have been areas of focus for the AI for Accessibility program. Towards those goals, in 2019 the team hosted a sign language workshop, soliciting applications from top researchers in the field. Abraham Glasser, a Ph.D. student in Computing and Information Sciences and a native American Sign Language (ASL) signer, supervised by Professor Matt Huenerfauth, was awarded a three-year grant. His work would focus on a very pragmatic need and opportunity: driving inclusion by concentrating on and improving common interactions with home-based smart assistants for people who use sign language as a primary form of communication. 

Since then, faculty and students in the Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) conducted the work at the Center for Accessibility and Inclusion Research (CAIR). CAIR publishes research on computing accessibility and it includes many Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) students operating bilingually in English and American Sign Language. 

To begin this research, the team investigated how DHH users would optimally prefer to interact with their personal assistant devices, be it a smart speaker other type of devices in the household that respond to spoken command. Traditionally, these devices have used voice-based interaction, and as technology evolved, newer models now incorporate cameras and display screens. Currently, none of the available devices on the market understand commands in ASL or other sign languages, so introducing that capability is an important future tech development to address an untapped customer base and drive inclusion. Abraham explored simulated scenarios in which, through the camera on the device, the tech would be able to watch the signing of a user, process their request, and display the output result on the screen of the device.  

Some prior research had focused on the phases of interacting with a personal assistant device, but little included DHH users. Some examples of available research included studying device activation, including the concerns of waking up a device, as well as device output modalities in the form for videos, ASL avatars and English captions. The call to action from a research perspective included collecting more data, the key bottleneck, for sign language technologies.  

To pave the way forward for technological advancements it was critical to understand what DHH users would like the interaction with the devices to look like and what type of commands they would like to issue. Abraham and the team set up a Wizard-of-Oz videoconferencing setup. A “wizard” ASL interpreter had a home personal assistant device in the room with them, joining the call without being seen on camera. The device’s screen and output would be viewable in the call’s video window and each participant was guided by a research moderator. As the Deaf participants signed to the personal home device, they did not know that the ASL interpreter was voicing the commands in spoken English. A team of annotators watched the recording, identifying key segments of the videos, and transcribing each command into English and ASL gloss. 

Abraham was able to identify new ways that users would interact with the device, such as “wake-up” commands which were not captured in previous research. 

Six photographs of video screenshots of ASL signers who are looking into the video camera while they are in various home settings. The individuals shown in the video are young adults of a variety of demographic backgrounds, and each person is producing an ASL sign.
Screenshots of various “wake up” signs produced by participants during the study conducted remotely by researchers from the Rochester Institute of Technology.  Participants were interacting with a personal assistant device, using American Sign Language (ASL) commands which were translated by an unseen ASL interpreter, and they spontaneously used a variety of ASL signs to activate the personal assistant device before giving each command.  The signs here include examples labeled as: (a) HELLO, (b) HEY, (c) HI, (d) CURIOUS, (e) DO-DO, and (f) A-L-E-X-A.