Microsoft and Accenture Collaborate to Help Entrepreneurs Amplify Social Impact
March 04 2020 - 12:29AM
Business Wire
Companies aim to benefit a million people by
democratizing access to impactful technology
Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Accenture (NYSE: ACN) are
teaming to help deepen the reach of entrepreneurs and start-ups
that are focused on social impact and sustainability. The joint
initiative will provide hands-on support and technologies to social
enterprises, helping them to build scalable solutions and business
models that can lead to more tangible and lasting benefits for a
greater number of people around the world.
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Microsoft and Accenture’s collaboration is part of their shared
vision to amplify the societal impact of emerging technology with
the long-term goal of reaching a million lives globally. Through
the program, Microsoft Research India and Accenture Labs will help
social enterprise startups test and validate proof-of-concepts;
conduct design thinking sessions to help them re-envision the
impact of their solutions; and provide support in exploring and
using Microsoft technologies.
“Startups in the social impact and sustainability space are
among the world’s most inspiring organizations,” said Jean-Philippe
Courtois, executive vice president and president, Microsoft Global
Sales, Marketing and Operations. “It’s important that their passion
for meaningful innovation and creating positive change is
supported. Microsoft’s collaboration with Accenture offers us an
opportunity to empower these startups so they can use technology to
make an even greater impact in addressing many of the world’s most
pressing challenges. By empowering them, our goal is to help change
the lives of a million people.”
With a particular focus on the areas of agriculture, education
and healthcare, the program will initially engage with startups in
Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, leveraging the MSR India
Center for Societal impact through Cloud and Artificial
Intelligence (SCAI).
Paul Daugherty, group chief executive-Technology and chief
technology officer at Accenture, added, “Our experience shows that
by applying emerging technologies to critical challenges facing
society, we can accelerate social transformation. This
collaboration is a great illustration of delivering on ‘value’ and
‘values’ — creating tangible business and social value while
aligning with people’s values. By providing social impact
entrepreneurs with direct access to the combined power of Accenture
and Microsoft’s technology expertise, we can help significantly
improve access, equality, inclusion, education, health,
sustainability, and the environment.”
Microsoft’s involvement in this initiative is part of
Microsoft’s Global Social Entrepreneurship program designed to
empower an ecosystem of tech-enabled startups globally, focused on
addressing important social or environmental challenges. The Global
Social Entrepreneurship program supports startups with access to
breakthrough technology in Microsoft AI, cloud expertise,
go-to-market services, grants (in sustainability, accessibility,
and skills & employability) and access to customers that
facilitate connections on local and global levels.
The involvement of Accenture Labs is part of its ongoing
Tech4Good program, which is focused on applying emerging
technologies in powerful ways to help solve complex social
challenges.
About Microsoft India
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) is the
leading platform and productivity company for the mobile-first,
cloud-first world, and its mission is to empower every person and
every organization on the planet to achieve more. Microsoft set up
its India operations in 1990. Today, Microsoft entities in India
have over 10,000 employees, engaged in sales and marketing,
research, development and customer services and support, across 11
Indian cities — Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, New Delhi, Gurugram,
Noida, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune. Microsoft offers
its global cloud services from local data centers to accelerate
digital transformation across Indian start-ups, businesses, and
government organizations.
About Accenture
Accenture is a leading global professional services company,
providing a broad range of services in strategy and consulting,
interactive, technology and operations, with digital capabilities
across all of these services. We combine unmatched experience and
specialized capabilities across more than 40 industries — powered
by the world’s largest network of Advanced Technology and
Intelligent Operations centers. With 505,000 people serving clients
in more than 120 countries, Accenture brings continuous innovation
to help clients improve their performance and create lasting value
across their enterprises. Visit us at www.accenture.com.
Copyright © 2020 Accenture. All rights reserved. Accenture and
its logo are trademarks of Accenture.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200303006130/en/
Maitreyee Goswami Microsoft +91 858786 9828
maitreyee.goswami@microsoft.com
Subhashini Pattabhiraman Accenture
p.subhashini@accenture.com
Hannah Unkefer Accenture +1 206 839 2172
hannah.m.unkefer@accenture.com
Accenture (NYSE:ACN)
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