Nexans to electrify the future through digital technology using Microsoft Azure, AI and analytics

Nexans taps Microsoft Azure to develop enhanced artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud solutions as the foundation for digital services and solutions that will drive the global energy transition.

Paris, February 24, 2021 – Nexans announced a collaboration with Microsoft to electrify the future by accelerating the development of digital solutions crucial for the global energy transition. Leveraging Microsoft technologies Nexans will receive crucial support in terms of data management, artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud solutions that will accelerate its growth as a leader in sustainable electrification. It will also help deliver an unparalleled experience for Nexans’s customers and installers with an emphasis on enhanced operational services and digital solutions to streamline supply chains and ensure just-in-time delivery.

Nexans will now be able to bring both speed and scale to the digital development process. The speed comes from the implementation of Microsoft Azure platform for services such as AI, analytics, cloud computing, storage and networking. This will put Nexans on the fast-track to design, test and prototype new digital services such as the creation of a full internet-of-things (IoT) ecosystem of connected drums, cables, cabinets, accessories and systems.

Scale will enable Nexans to quickly industrialize new offers and business models such as a suite of asset management and monitoring solutions for power utilities. By utilizing digital twin technology and AI and analytics, utilities will be able to ensure that their networks operate with maximum safety and reliability to derive the energy transition forward. Furthermore, a new end-to-end (E2E) digital supply chain platform will provide customers with seamless and total visibility of the status of their products from manufacturing through delivery to installation.

Christopher Guérin, CEO of Nexans, said: “We are delighted to be a partner with Microsoft in a collaboration that bring us together as leading players. Our aim is to create innovative solutions for unparalleled customer experience as well as paving the way for global electrification.”

Carlo Purassanta, Area Vice President of Microsoft France, said: “This collaboration is fully in line with our commitment to bring to life innovations that meet today's major challenges, such as energy transition and sustainable electrification. Our collaboration with Nexans, a leader in the cable industry, underlines our role as a technological enabler for the digital transformation of the energy sector towards a desirable world. We are committed to helping Nexans bring more value to their customers through their digital offerings.”

Microsoft’s IT and Development teams will assist Nexans in the vital upskilling and enhancement of its IT infrastructure to enable rapid digital innovation and industrialization at scale. This will be founded on the optimum use of advanced data science and broader adoption of AI.

Nexans will build on Microsoft’s technology expertise to further develop the group’s innovation roadmap to provide value-added services as well as leveraging Microsoft’s reach across enterprises through a co-marketing approach. Nexans will also work closely with Microsoft to drive the pace of change in the cable industry through co-innovation forums. The implementation of AI, analytics and IoT technologies combined with Nexans’s unrivaled domain expertise will herald a new era in which cables become an increasingly active component of the network. This will provide operators with deeper insights that enable fully informed decisions to ultimately make their grid smart.

This collaboration is driven by achieving clear metrics based on improving the number and percentage of connected assets, revenue and penetration from digital offers and core business growth with customers through connected products. The process kicked off with an intensive 100-days program designed to achieve early success which includes the introduction of two to three minimum viable products (MVP) that will attract early-adopter customers and validate the concept early in the product development cycle.