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Working Paper: Case Study

Microsoft Turns to Data to Drive Business Success

This paper describes Microsoft’s journey to becoming a data-driven organization and the key activities that facilitated the company’s progress.
CASE STUDY

An in-depth description of a firm’s approach to an IT management issue (intended for MBA and executive education)

Abstract

Headquartered in Redmond, Washington, in 2017 Microsoft was an $85 billion technology company that employed 114,000 people and operated around the globe. In 2014, Satya Nadella became CEO and accelerated the company’s transformation to a cloud services business model. The transformation inspired new attention to and capabilities around data, particularly in the areas of metrics and dashboards, analytics-powered work processes, and data science services. By 2017, 61 percent of Microsoft’s workforce was using business intelligence monthly. This working paper describes Microsoft’s journey to becoming a data-driven organization and the key activities that facilitated the company’s progress.

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About the Authors

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Ida A. Someh, MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research (CISR)

MIT CENTER FOR INFORMATION SYSTEMS RESEARCH (CISR)

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