NEC Corporation of America (NEC), a technology integrator of advanced IT, networking, communications, and multimodal biometric solutions, announced Tuesday that it will show two cloud-based Internet of Things (IoT) solutions at the ongoing Microsoft Ignite Conference. Both solutions make optimal use of Microsoft Azure services to deliver value to business customers.
Both solutions use cloud-based Azure services, such as Azure IoT Suite and Power BI. In addition, Intelligent Transportation Cloud uses Linux virtual machines running on Azure Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Utilizing Azure services provides a cost effective infrastructure and enables customers to scale the solutions quickly to meet demand. The ability to run both Microsoft and open source technologies on Azure further eases implementation concerns and speeds deployment.
Video Analytics for Retail provides retail establishments with actionable insights in real time. The solution uses NEC’s award-winning biometric technology to identify customer age and gender. This valuable information on shopper demographics allows retailers to customize digital signage, provide special offers, refine store layout, and understand shopper in-store behavior. Deeper understanding of retail customers leads to enhanced operations and an improved bottom line.
Intelligent Transportation Cloud helps cities’ transportation agencies provide better transit services for passengers by utilizing the power of big data and modern transit management tools. The solution can be deployed as an overlay to existing Fleet Management Infrastructure and amalgamates existing data (e.g. GTFS: General Transit Feed Specification) to provide agencies with performance management KPIs and drive service improvement.
For passengers, information feeds such as Expected Time of Arrival (ETA) improve satisfaction and enable better scheduling. Transport operators in Asia Pacific are leveraging NEC’s Transport Engines to improve operational efficiency and commuter experience for their bus services.
“NEC has always looked to expand our collaboration with Microsoft to encompass new solutions such as the Intelligent Transportation Cloud. We are excited to be working with Microsoft on innovative solutions available to global customers through the broad reach of Azure services,” said Hiroyumi Inoue, Vice President Global Platform Solution Center, NEC Corporation of America. “We value the ability to easily expand the scope of our solutions by adding additional Microsoft cloud services, such as Office 365 and Dynamics 365, as demanded by customer requirements. While we are focused on retail and transportation solutions at Ignite, our offerings are applicable across many industries including public safety, hospitality, and manufacturing.”
“NEC continues to demonstrate innovative solutions built on Microsoft Azure. Following success at Hannover Messe and the Microsoft Global Account Summit, Microsoft is pleased that NEC is showing the value of Microsoft Azure at Ignite with industry solutions for retail and transportation,” said Çağlayan Arkan, general manager, Worldwide Manufacturing and Resources, Microsoft. “Ignite provides an excellent opportunity for our large enterprise customers to leverage leading technologies from both companies.”
