1-800-GOT-JUNK? is a Vancouver-based, full-service junk removal company. With strategic plans to grow its number of franchises across North America, 1-800-GOT-JUNK? needed to ensure that its IT and server infrastructure could scale to handle growth. Upon review of several IT options, the company determined that Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 Hyper-V was the most cost-effective way to improve its IT environment. The company is using the Windows-based solution to consolidate its hardware servers and operate within a virtualized technology environment. The new infrastructure is helping to reduce costs, improve server management and maintain greater IT uptime – helping ensure that the company can scale to meet current and future business needs. Through virtualization, 1-800-GOT-JUNK? estimates it is saving $35,000 in server hardware costs alone.

London Drugs is a retail organization with more than 69 locations across Western Canada. To meet growing customer demand for its Web-based photofinishing service, London Drugs sought to boost the performance and scalability of its database server environment. London Drugs upgraded to Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 Enterprise to take advantage of new features including data compression and enhanced storage capabilities. The company worked with Microsoft Services to help simplify the upgrade and deployment process. Today, the updated Windows®-based environment at London Drugs is helping to boost sales and deliver more satisfied customers of its popular digital photofinishing services.

Based in Montreal, Future Electronics is a leader and innovator in the distribution and marketing of semiconductors, passives components, interconnect, solid state lighting and electromechanical products. To meet is business growth plans, Future Electronics wanted to update the technology that powers its intranet and e-commerce Web site and attract new customers, increase the size and frequency of orders, and boost the number of unique products in its inventory and raise awareness of its offerings. Working with Microsoft Gold Certified technology partner Orckestra, Future Electronics implemented Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007 and Microsoft Commerce Server 2007. As a result, staff can post new products and product information in a matter of minutes, and the company is well-positioned for new business opportunities.

With over 5,500 employees at its corporate head office and 475 retail outlets nationwide, Canadian Tire was looking to refresh its Intranet site known as inTIREnet. The pre-existing site, hosted on a Lotus platform, was visually cluttered and staff complained of poor search functions. Canadian Tire teamed up with Microsoft® technology partner Envision IT to move its entire Intranet to a SharePoint® collaboration and document-management platform. Now, employees using the SharePoint-supported Intranet can easily search documents and share information across the network and receive daily corporate news updates. The solution helps Canadian Tire extend communication between employees in the corporate office, also known as the Home Office, while offering greater security measures and access to internal documents.

Growing by as many as eight retail stores a year, JYSK Canada wanted to further increase its presence and sales by making its merchandise available over the Internet. To do so, the company needed to ensure that it could take advantage of its existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, Microsoft Dynamics® NAV, without adding unnecessary cost and complexity to its streamlined IT environment. In 2007, the company deployed Nav-to-Net, a Certified for Microsoft Dynamics product that enables online e-commerce and makes inventory levels and other product information in Microsoft Dynamics NAV easily available on the Internet. With Nav-to-Net, the company gained a Web site that can be easily updated in real time through its ERP system and managed by an IT staff of only four and one full-time webmaster.

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory was filling stores with customers, selling new franchises, and constantly renovating stores. But customers might see three systems in one visit thanks to a patchwork of old electronic cash registers (ECRs) in every shop. Collecting information from them was sporadic and required tinkering. Data was inadequate for reports, and prospective franchisees saw ECRs as a weak spot. The RSC Group had tailored the company’s Microsoft Dynamics® GP ERP system, so its recommendation of Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System opened doors. All sales functions now occur on one register and transactions are four times as fast. Daily polling delivers accurate data from every store, and information slides into Microsoft Dynamics GP. Store owners and executives have data on sales, stock levels, a customer loyalty program, and reports to manage growth.

Canucks Sports & Entertainment is a Vancouver-based entertainment company that owns and operates the Vancouver Canucks National Hockey League franchise and the team's home arena, General Motors Place. Generating additional revenue through retail sales is important to sports franchises around the world. But in 2005, this team was using an aging retail system that dragged down transaction speed during its scant 90 minutes per game sales window. Sales and inventory reports were exasperating to define and delivered contradictory or disappearing data. With the help of Microsoft® Gold Certified technology partner The RSC Group, Canucks management implemented Microsoft Dynamics® Retail Management System. The franchise accelerated transaction times, sped up customer lines, cut maintenance costs, reduced administrative steps and hours, and now has excellent inventory visibility.

Purolator Courier Ltd. is Canada’s largest courier company, delivering services and solutions to Canadian businesses and more than 220 countries. From timely, dependable package delivery to integrated distribution solutions across the globe, Purolator is committed to meeting the high-volume daily demands of its more than 2,900 enterprise-level clients. To address its distribution needs and drive business growth, Purolator sought to enhance the end-to-end integration between its back-office enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and customer-facing electronic data interchange (EDI) applications. Working with Innovapost Inc., Purolator deployed Microsoft® BizTalk® Server 2006 R2, part of the Microsoft-based application platform. The technology is helping Purolator revitalize its shipping channels, boost client service and increase its competitiveness within the North American market.

When LUSH Fresh Handmade Cosmetics tallied the pain from two disparate POS systems and five databases covering a hundred stores in the United States and Canada, the mandate for system-wide conversion was clear. Corporate staff spent hours manually polling, normalizing, collating, and verifying store data. Month-end closings took weeks. Store managers had to know their system’s quirks and update stock changes by hand. Microsoft Dynamics™ Retail Management System offered a solution that could expand with the chain, yet flex as business demands evolved. Tri-City Retail Systems’ experience installing and integrating this Microsoft® solution into chain stores helped ensure fast, systematic rollout. Today, a central database and strong reporting tools help complete once-tedious chores, monthly closings take a day, and store managers see automated daily updates on their screens each morning.

Petro-Canada is one of Canada’s largest oil and gas companies, with refining and supply operations, retail and wholesale marketing networks, and a specialty lubricants business. It is "Canada’s Gas Station." Petro-Canada needed to replace a legacy inventory and financial system for its chain of 700 retail franchise locations that was difficult to use and expensive to maintain. Petro-Canada turned to Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner Ideaca Knowledge Services to develop an easy-to-use, integrated system that could be centrally maintained. The new system, based on Microsoft Dynamics™ AX, has reduced the time needed to complete monthly reporting processes and allows upgrades to be deployed in hours instead of months. Petro-Canada’s associates now realize more value as they now spend less time on administrative work, allowing them to focus on store operations and customer service.