Mumbai, Feb 21 (IANS): IT solutions firm NIIT Technologies Ltd. on Thursday announced a global collaboration with Microsoft to accelerate the comprehensive cloud needs of enterprises -- from infrastructure to business applications.

The collaboration will offer innovative solutions, enabling enterprises to become more agile, improve reliability and reduce operating costs while transforming customer experiences.

"We believe our collaboration with Microsoft can yield substantial and material benefits to our clients," Sudhir Singh, CEO at NIIT Technologies said in a statement.

"This symbiotic relationship brings together our deep domain vertical expertise along with our differentiated intellectual property built on emerging Microsoft technologies such as AI (artificial intelligence), predictive analytics to accelerate the digital ambition of our clients," Singh added.

NIIT Technologies and Microsoft have also agreed on a strategic Cloud Solution Provider agreement that enables NIIT Technologies to directly manage the entire lifecycle for its enterprise customers including commercials and support and deliver integrated end-to-end solutions as a managed service on Azure.

The agreement will enable both the companies to develop and deliver a spectrum of technology solutions for customers globally across banking and financial services, travel and transportation, and insurance segments and also help them migrate to Azure.

"Microsoft's focus is to not only integrate AI capabilities into its products and cloud services but also enable its partners leverage these AI capabilities to build AI powered solutions, which empower employees, engage customers, optimize operations and transform products," said Gavriella Schuster, Corporate Vice President, One Commercial Partner at Microsoft Corp.