C.H. Robinson and Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday announced they are joining forces to "digitally transform supply chains of the future".

They plan to combine C.H. Robinson’s Navisphere with Microsoft Azure and Azure IoT to meet the changing demands of evolving global supply chains.

Through this alliance, the companies aim to enable real-time visibility for C.H. Robinson customers. 

“The pace of change we’re seeing in the supply-chain industry today is unparalleled. Being able to quickly scale and adapt our technology is what helps give our customers a competitive advantage,” said Chris O’Brien, chief commercial officer, C.H. Robinson.

“As we continue to invest and enhance our technology built by and for supply-chain experts, we look to partner with other best-in-class companies that bring the most value to our customers. Through Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, we gain more scalability, premier data security and increased application speed, which benefit our customers and carriers around the world.”

Through this collaboration, Navisphere — C.H. Robinson’s global multimodal transportation management platform — will now leverage Azure IoT Central to integrate IoT device monitoring that measures factors such as temperature, shock, tilt, humidity, light and pressure in shipments to give customers an even more detailed level of intelligence about goods as they move through the supply chain. 

Together, C.H. Robinson and Microsoft work with many of the Fortune 250 companies, which means this alliance makes it even easier to scale and develop new solutions to provide shippers with greater supply-chain efficiency, real-time insights and visibility.

“We are committed to providing customers with a trusted, easy-to-use platform so they can build seamless, smart and secure solutions regardless of where they are on their IoT journey,” said Sam George, corporate vice president, Azure IoT, Microsoft.

Navisphere is currently used across Microsoft’s global supply chain, giving the company real-time visibility into inventory, at rest or in motion anywhere in the world. 

In addition, in collaboration with Microsoft, C.H. Robinson built Navisphere Vision, a global real-time visibility product that leverages Azure IoT solutions, machine learning and predictive analytics to assess potential disruptions across supply chains.

Through C.H. Robinson’s TMC division and Navisphere Vision, Microsoft is driving innovations in its own supply chain to provide more predictability and proactive decision-making to its various business groups.

“The supply chain of the future is smarter, less volatile and can be navigated with a new level of visibility thanks to the power of this relationship. Through this collaboration, our customers receive a greater competitive edge, as well as industry-leading insights and expertise,” said Jordan Kass, president of Managed Services at C.H. Robinson.

In addition to C.H. Robinson’s innovation on Azure, the company is also leveraging Dynamics 365 and Power BI to streamline its customer relationship management (CRM) platform, supporting C.H. Robinson’s commitment to customer centricity from small business to the world’s largest shippers.