Rolls-Royce innovates with Power Platform to drive efficiencies

A partnership that grows from strength to strength

Rolls-Royce has embraced the digital tools that Microsoft provides, including Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams. “That’s why,” says Elena Walker, Digital Manufacturing Leader at Rolls-Royce, “We identified a need to leverage the deep benefits already embedded in our Microsoft stack.”

To get the most from its existing investment, the team at Rolls-Royce has explored a variety of use cases which use Microsoft Power Platform to deliver greater efficiencies and power further improvements to its operations. 

Sunny Badwal, Senior Software Engineer at Rolls-Royce, explains, “It is essential that our staff become highly skilled and highly literate in Power Platform and its features. It’s low-code / no-code ease of use and speed of deployment mean that a process that would have taken us months can now be delivered in just a few days.”

Driving greater efficiencies through Rolls-Royce

Staff have embraced the potential of the tools that make up Microsoft Power Platform, including Power Automate, Power BI and Power Apps. Power Platform is now the most popular solution area for upskilling at Rolls-Royce,” reports Elena Walker. “Power Platform now amounts to around 30 percent of all the training consumed here.”
 

With such fantastic uptake, the rewards have been impressive.

Rashitha Jayasekara says, “We are seeing significant benefits. In a matter of months, we measure about £8m financial benefit across the organisation. And it’s only going to grow as more people and teams develop.”
 

Digitalisation drives innovation at Rolls-Royce

The security that the Microsoft ecosystem offers frees the teams at Rolls-Royce to develop and innovate freely. Stuart Hughes, CIO at Rolls-Royce, explains, “Knowing that our apps are being built within a platform recognised as having the highest security protocols is the biggest advantage our Microsoft partnership brings us.” 

This is helping to drive a cultural change within the business, explains Lauren Orszt, Head of Digital Operations at Rolls-Royce. “What Power Apps does so well is it opens us up to the beauty of employee-led innovation. That not only has an impact on the business’ bottom line, it fundamentally upgrades our culture: every employee is encouraged to develop their skills and solve their own problems so they can make a measurable financial savings to the company – all without the support of IT.”

Stuart Hughes adds, “To be a truly digital-native organisation, you have to be ready to embrace innovation… and, with Microsoft as our partner, we will realise our vision of being the leading industrial technology company.”