EY and Microsoft alliance

The EY and Microsoft alliance combines EY’s insights and experience in disruptive industry trends, new business models and evolving processes with Microsoft’s scalable, enterprise cloud platform and digital technologies.

The team

Jim Little

Jim Little

EY Global Microsoft Alliance Lead and EY Americas Technology Strategy Lead

Sibjyoti Basu

Sibjyoti Basu

EMEIA Microsoft Alliance Leader and EY India Alliance and Ecosystem Leader

Erwin Chan

Erwin Chan

EY Asia-Pacific Alliance Business Development Leader

Our solutions

The digital technologies that are impacting your business today — social, mobile, analytics and cloud — are rapidly expanding to create new employee and customer experiences, fundamentally changing how your organization works, interacts and competes.

EY and Microsoft: Your digital world. Realized.

The EY and Microsoft alliance combines EY’s insights and experience in disruptive industry trends, new business models and evolving processes with Microsoft’s scalable, enterprise cloud platform and digital technologies. Together, we can help accelerate your digital strategy and amplify your business performance to thrive in a digital world.

  • Enterprise Strategy Enablement

    EY Enterprise Strategy Management solutions, powered by Microsoft, help enable disruptive business models, drive innovation and competitive advantage, and accelerate strategy execution and benefit realization. Our solutions include:

    • ePlaybook
    • Intelligent Financial Forecasting
    • Project Portfolio Management
    • Program Performance Center
       

  • Customer Experience Transformation

    EY Customer Experience Transformation solutions, powered by Microsoft, help enable engaging cross-channel experiences, foster closer customer relationships, and provide deep insights that fuel innovation and inform sales and marketing. Our solutions include:

    • Digital Selling
    • Commercial Analytics and Services Hub
    • Citizen Intelligence Platform

  • Workforce Experience Transformation

    EY Workforce Experience Transformation solutions, powered by Microsoft, help unlock workforce productivity, accelerate organizational change, empower seamless virtual team collaboration, and make the most efficient use of talent. Our solutions include:

    • Digital Program Activation
    • Organization Capability Excellence

  • Digital Operations Transformation

    EY Digital Supply Chain and Operations solutions, powered by Microsoft, help automate and accelerate operational processes, leverage machine learning to increase quality and productivity, and provide insights that fuel process improvement and cost savings. Our solutions include:

    • Document Intelligence
    • SAP on Azure
    • EY Digital Energy Enablement Platform (DEEP)
    • Utility Wave
    • Intelligent Automation
    • Smart Factory
    • Insurance Nexus
    • Financial Crime Compliance Platform
    • Digital Tax

  • Digital Trust

    EY Digital Trust solutions, powered by Microsoft, help clients proactively respond to emerging threats, secure the fast growing number of Internet of Things and mobile endpoints, and realize the benefits of the cloud with the peace of mind that systems and data are compliant and secure. Our solutions include:

    • Active Detection and Response
    • Secure Digital Enterprise
    • Trusted Cloud Diagnostic
    • Trusted Cloud Migration

Contact us

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The better the question. The better the answer. The better the world works.

How blockchain helped a gaming platform become a game changer

EY and Microsoft Xbox implemented a transparent blockchain network so creators could focus on developing the future of gaming.

The better the question. The better the answer. The better the world works.

How can technology help the gaming industry play fair?

Our blockchain solution gives Microsoft Xbox an infrastructure that helps them manage and reward game creators.

The video game industry (which has a 2019 revenue forecast of $152b)1 employs some of the brightest creative and technological minds. And while this marriage of creativity and technology was bringing enjoyment to the masses, Microsoft Xbox’s processes meant that game creators faced some unique challenges.

Global gaming industry

$152b

of forecasted revenue, serving over 1.7 billion consumers worldwide.

Microsoft Xbox’s legacy system for securing and managing royalty payouts was cumbersome, sometimes taking over 45 days to issue payments. This complexity wasn’t just causing mounds of paperwork; it was also creating anxiety for creators with small businesses and limited resources. Microsoft Xbox knew there had to be a smarter way to manage the process, so it engaged EY to implement a suite of smart digital solutions to address the problem.

How EY can help

Blockchain platforms

The future of doing business will be through tokens and smart contracts, enabled by blockchain. EY has a clear vision and strategy for how blockchain is digitalizing and integrating supply chains by knitting together business operations and finance at the ecosystem level.

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The better the question. The better the answer. The better the world works.

A blockchain solution that integrates closely with game creators

Together, EY and Microsoft Xbox are implementing smart digital solutions to help game creators do their best work.

The $152b gaming industry serves over 1.7 billion consumers worldwide. This is enabled through partnerships between gaming platforms such as Xbox and thousands of developers, publishers, authors, designers, production houses and distributors. These relationships are all key in maintaining a high-quality product and attracting the best talent and creators to the platform. Microsoft Xbox and EY implemented a blockchain solution that seamlessly connected these parties and enhanced their experience by enabling fast, frictionless payment for their work.

Smart contracts encode game creators’ IP rights

The first step in refreshing the legacy systems was to introduce a new digital contract. By opting in, industry participants agreed to new terms with a simple e-signature. The legal terms were then encoded in the blockchain network in the form of smart contracts.

An automated solution that brings down operational costs

Building on the foundation of contractual transparency, EY focused on the royalty calculation system — a major pain point for Microsoft Xbox. The legacy system of calculating and distributing benefits was plagued by loads of unnecessary reviews and tedious manual processes. Delays in calculation and high operational costs were eating into the overall profits of the industry. By automating the entire system, EY helped Microsoft Xbox reduce the manual effort and significantly reduce the operational costs associated with processing payments for creators.

Near real-time purchase records show game creators what they have earned

While smart contracts were used to accurately calculate the royalty payouts for Microsoft Xbox’s partners, the next step was to securely and transparently share the information with them in near real-time.

How EY can help

Artificial intelligence consulting services

Our Advisory approach to the adoption of AI and intelligent automation is human-centered, pragmatic, outcomes-focused and ethical.

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Providing near real-time access to data greatly improves the process’s effectiveness, and insights that lead to a more enriching experience for the partners.
Tim Stuart
Xbox Chief Financial Officer at Microsoft

As consumers purchase digital content, the smart contracts apply the encoded contractual logic and instantly calculate the royalty. This information is then sent to each participant’s node, creating an immutable record of transactions and royalty obligations. Not only does this provide creators peace of mind, it allows them to record financial transactions daily, vastly improving their forecasting and reporting capabilities.

Student using digital tablet vr classoom
The better the question. The better the answer. The better the world works.

A transparent blockchain ecosystem that empowers creators

Microsoft Xbox’s new blockchain network is better for business and better for game creators.

The technology solutions implemented in this project led to profound benefits – both for the Microsoft Xbox business and for its partners. By implementing a blockchain-based network and streamlined forecasting, creators, producers and Xbox all benefit from a more transparent and connected system. Microsoft Xbox now issues transactional details instantly, keeping creators satisfied. Because there is more trust in the process, game creators are once again empowered to spend money where it really counts — creating innovative new games. 

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