Microsoft announces cloud offerings for three more industries

Microsoft just expanded its cloud offerings to three more industries.

What you need to know

• Microsoft announced three new cloud offerings today.
• The offerings are for financial services, manufacturing, and nonprofits.
• Microsoft also announced the first update for Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare.

Microsoft announced three new industry-focused cloud offerings today; Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services, Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing, and Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit. The new offerings are built to work with Microsoft services, including Azure, Microsoft 365, Dynamic 365, and Power Platform. The goal of the services is to connect front-end productivity tasks to backend data management, according to an official that spoke with ZDNet.

Microsoft also announced the first update to Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare as well as the timing for the public preview for Microsoft Cloud for Retail.

Microsoft discusses what each offering provides in a blog post:

Microsoft Cloud for Financial Services brings together Microsoft solutions, unique templates, API's and additional industry-specific standards, along with multi-layered security and compliance coverage to deliver differentiated customer experiences, improve employee collaboration and productivity, manage risk and modernize core systems. Using these capabilities, retail banks can create a 360-degree view of the customer with greater insight and suggested next best action, embed digital collaboration into their process workflows to create real-time visibility to status and streamline hand-offs, enhance insights to help reduce fraud — all with the scalable and hybrid deployment options financial services organizations require to modernize their systems.

The public preview for this offering is planned for March 2021.

Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing is designed to deliver capabilities that support the core processes and requirements of the industry. These end-to-end manufacturing solutions bring together new and existing capabilities across the Microsoft portfolio as well as partner solutions that together can seamlessly connect people, assets, workflows and business processes, helping organizations become more resilient.

Microsoft Cloud for Manufacturing should be in public preview by the end of June 2021.

Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit creates a connected, intelligent platform to empower staff and volunteers to focus on the work that matters most — their mission.

Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit should also be in public preview by the end of June this year.

Microsoft Cloud for Retail will be in public preview in March 2021. It's currently in private preview.

As reported by ZDNet, Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare will receive its first update in April of this year. It will include support for eight additional languages, features for virtual health, remote patient monitoring, care coordination, and patient self-service.