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C.H. Robinson and Microsoft are mutual customers of each other, with the technology company using the 3PL's managed transportation services for global visibility. Photo credit: Shutterstock.com.

C.H. Robinson has enlisted Microsoft to provide the cloud infrastructure for its technology platform Navisphere, and the third-party logistics provider (3PL) will also use Microsofts associated internet of things (IoT) services to target improved supply chain visibility for customers, the companies said Tuesday.

Moving to cloud server arrangements with the likes of Azure and its main competitor, Amazon Web Services (AWS), allows enterprises to lighten their load on system maintenance and scale up and down as usage dictates. Its also an opportunity to integrate associated solutions offered by Microsoft and Amazon that could benefit an enterprise directly or enable it to offer a capability to its customers.

As an example of the latter use, Minneapolis-based C.H. Robinson said it would use Azure IoT Central to provide its transportation management system (TMS) Navisphere to better track temperature, shock, tilt, humidity, light, and pressure in shipments across modes.

The pace of change were seeing in the supply chain industry today is unparalleled, Chris OBrien, chief commercial officer for C.H. Robinson, said in a statement. Being able to quickly scale and adapt our technology is what helps give our customers a competitive advantage. We gain more scalability, premier data security, and increased application speed, which benefit our customers and carriers around the world.

Landing North Americas largest freight brokerage is another feather in the supply chain cap for Microsofts Azure web services division, which supports a number of widely used logistics software providers such as Blue Yonder and Descartes and global logistics providers such as Maersk Line, Mediterranean Shipping Co., Hapag-Lloyd, DB Schenker, and Yusen Logistics.

Azure is also used by C.H. Robinson competitor J.B. Hunt, primarily to power its J.B. Hunt 360 digital freight marketplace.

C.H. Robinson and Microsoft have a long, symbiotic history, the two companies said in the statement. Microsoft assisted in the development of Navisphere, a technology at the core of C.H. Robinsons internal operations and the managed transportation services it offers to shippers through its TMS division. Meanwhile, Microsoft is also a customer of C.H. Robinson, using the 3PL for freight and inventory visibility and management globally.

Aside from C.H. Robinsons use of Microsoft Azure, it will also leverage Microsofts customer relationship management (CRM) platform Dynamics 365, while Microsoft will integrate C.H. Robinsons pricing, execution, and transportation management tools and make them available to other Dynamics 365 customers.

Microsoft Azure competes primarily with AWS to provide server and data storage infrastructure to enterprises, and both have distinct units focused on the transportation and logistics industry. It has been speculated that many software and logistics services providers catering to global shippers choose Azure in part to avoid AWS; providers operate under the presumption that working with AWS is problematic because of its affiliation with Amazon the e-commerce leviathan. In other words, a retailer or manufacturer that views Amazon as a competitor or threat won't want to entrust its systems to a company that uses AWS.

AWS representatives acknowledged to JOC.com the stigma of being associated with Amazon seen as a competitive threat to swathes of shippers and logistics providers remains, but said the firm is making progress in the transportation and logistics space, where it estimates a large proportion of companies have yet to migrate fully to cloud-based services.

Contact Eric Johnson at eric.johnson@ihsmarkit.com and follow him on Twitter: @LogTechEric.

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CHR, Microsoft partner on cloud and visibility - JOC.com