Toyota Motor Corporation is deploying Microsoft software across the globe through a mix of cloud and on-premise software for its 200,000 staff.

The two-year project sees the car manufacturer's North American operation use cloud-based Microsoft Office 365 exclusively, while operations in the rest of the world will harness a combination of cloud-based and on-premise versions of Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Lync and Windows Server.

The firm aims to improve collaboration with social networking, conferencing, messaging and information-sharing tools. It has also targeted cost savings and will use the software to support mobile devices.

“We continually strive to make our business stronger by improving Toyota’s organisational health, and today’s announcement to upgrade our communications is another step toward that goal,” said Shigeki Tomoyama, managing officer at Toyota.