Vodafone Business and Microsoft outlined a joint ambition to target small and medium sized enterprises in Europe with a suite of products aimed at aiding transition to digital technologies.

In a statement the pair announced a five-year agreement to partner on deployments, building on an existing deal between the two.

The latest agreement will see them collaborate to provide end-to-end services in the cloud using 5G, edge and IoT platforms in attempt to meet a need for hybrid working and support growth for their clients.

Alongside supplying current products the two will work on new offerings in areas including multi-access edge computing and supporting IoT within 5G and private enterprise networks.

Vodafone noted the first area of collaboration would be in mixed reality (MR), with plans to combine edge computing services with Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 headset to provide businesses with remote working and training facilities for employees.

Among the MR use cases cited is the acceleration of maintenance in manufacturing settings.

The deal is the latest signed between Microsoft and a major operator with the aim of combining cloud and 5G to enhance enterprise offerings.