Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday announced that it is to cooperate with Microsoft Corp in various domains as the company looks to implement a digital transformation.
“We are currently using Microsoft’s hybrid cloud platform, Azure, to predict and monitor our different business segments,” Delta Electronics information technology division chief information officer Cally Ko (柯淑芬) told a news conference in Taipei.
Under the partnership, Microsoft would also handle data that Delta Electronics has gathered throughout its daily operations, Ko said.
Microsoft Taiwan Corp general manager Ken Sun (孫基康) said that his company would provide Azure real-time execution data box edge services to Delta Electronics at all the firm’s manufacturing plants.
“Data is the future fossil fuel, which needs to be managed and protected … and we have a lot of it from our production sites, and logistics and client information,” Delta Electronics chairman Yancey Hai (海英俊) said.
Delta Electronics is looking to complete a digital makeover as it looks to reposition itself as a software firm, he said.
“We have set up two AI [artificial intelligence] projects with Microsoft’s headquarters in the US... One is aimed at improving the efficiency and noise cancelation of our ultra-thin fans, the other is focused on developing a product quality management system,” Hai said.
Delta Electronics would be hosting members of Microsoft’s engineering team at its Taipei headquarters in the next six months, he said.
The company is also planning future collaborations with Microsoft in areas such as machine deep learning at its robotics arm with the aim of improving the industrial automation business, he added.
Operating profit at Delta Electronics’ automation business declined 36.45 percent last quarter.
Despite that, the company posted revenue of NT$24.31 billion (US$783.31 million) last month, a 13.32 percent year-on-year increase and the company’s fifth consecutive double-digit percentage growth in revenue.
Cumulative revenue in the first eight months rose 17.08 percent year-on-year to NT$176.52 billion, company data showed.
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