Suncor partners with Microsoft for digital transformation

Suncor is embarking on a multi-year strategic alliance with Microsoft Canada as a part of the company’s effort to further accelerate what it calls its "digital transformation journey."

Suncor has selected Microsoft as its cloud provider and will tap into the company's full range cloud solutions to empower a connected and collaborative workforce, upgrade data centres, and increase analytics capabilities. Suncor will also collaborate with Microsoft on innovation projects, drawing on expertise and opportunities from both organizations.

“We’re excited to be partnering with Microsoft because they’re a global leader in the digital technology space, and they will bring value and insights into global innovation best practices,” Mark Little, Suncor president and CEO, said in a release. “This is an example of how we are driving to improve our business in ways that were not possible before – to make our people safer, increase reliability and productivity, reduce costs and improve sustainability.”

Suncor will move towards cloud-based computing with Microsoft Azure, which is expected to enable the rapid deployment of new technologies to improve safety and productivity through artificial intelligence, machine learning, enhanced automation, and Industrial IoT (IIoT) and visualization.

“Although we are an industry leader in many respects, we still have much to learn in the digital space, which is why we’re working with a number of organizations including Microsoft to challenge us,” said Little. “Similar to how we partner with and learn from innovators across our physical value chain, we’re choosing to partner with the experts in digital innovation.”

“Suncor is embarking on a journey to transform the energy industry. They are creating new business value for their customers, empowering and upskilling their workforce, and innovating for a sustainable future,” said Kevin Peesker, president, Microsoft Canada. “The world’s leading companies run on our cloud, and we look forward to helping Suncor accelerate their digital transformation with Azure, Dynamics 365, Surface and Microsoft 365.”

Through this alliance, Suncor expects to improve the employee and customer experiences across their business, from front-line workers in industrial settings, to gas station attendants at Petro-Canada, to office workers. The company plans to draw insights from data that will open new ways to drive improved economic, social and environmental performance.