Alestra, Microsoft Join Forces to Drive Digital Transformation

Alestra and Microsoft announced an alliance to boost digitization of Mexican organizations during the “Alestra Nights” event. Held on June 21, the event addressed technology trends such as cloud, cybersecurity and mobility. 

“For Alestra, it is essential to continue being a leader in innovative services and specialize in global technology trends to accompany our customers comprehensively in their digital evolution. We find it essential to invite our business partners, such as Microsoft, to share the experiences and solutions that drive technological development for companies and the country,” says Eliseo Acosta, IT Product Manager, Alestra.

The main challenges businesses face today are related to sales volumes (35%), technology adoption/acquisition (33%), business productivity/efficiency (31%), customer connection/acquisition (31%), cybersecurity (27%) and adaptation to remote/hybrid work (27%), said both companies during the event. 

Hybrid work continues to poses problems to many companies despite its increasing acceptance. According to KPMG, 63% of organizations in Mexico plan to maintain remote or at least hybrid work and according to Gartner, 74% of CFOs claim to save significantly with remote work. However, 40% of employees feel that they do not have the necessary tools for remote work and 33% consider collaboration the main challenge they face when working remotely. 

Despite these challenges, remote work has been shown to have broad financial and operational benefits. Furthermore, using the cloud has allowed companies to save costs, accelerate innovation and transform thanks to its larger data capacity, access, reliability, scalability, flexibility, agility, high performance and security. Alestra and Microsoft said that the digital transformation must find paths designed for each user, as adopting tech for the wrong reasons can lead to negative results. 

“To maintain or achieve desirable levels of productivity, agility and teamwork, companies need secure technology tools that encourage collaboration, communication and mobility, so the infrastructure becomes a basis for the agility and willingness of employees,” says Gaston Oliver, Director of Business Partners Corporate Accounts Small and Medium Enterprise, Microsoft Mexico. Microsoft’s initiatives to improve remote work environments include the “Microsoft 365 Copilot,” which combines the power of large language models (LLMs) with Microsoft Graph and Microsoft 365 apps data to turn words into the most powerful productivity tools on the planet. 

Microsoft 365 Copilot works alongside users through a Business Chat that allows the user to give natural language prompts like: “Tell my team how we updated the product strategy.” It will generate a status update based on the morning’s meetings, emails and chat threads.

While artificial intelligence has existed since 1956, Generative AI is leading companies to wonder what this technology can do for them. Alestra and Microsoft seek to boost small and medium enterprises so they can thrive in the digital world.