Beca, a large Asia-Pacific engineering and consultancy services company, has a far-flung network of 2,500 employees operating across the region. An effective communications system, offering the most up-to-date efficiencies and capabilities, is a ‘must’ for this business. It upgraded to Lync, Microsoft's unified communications platform, with Windows 7, leading to increased flexibility and mobility, lowered costs and improved customer liaison.

Sales performance consultancy solutions provider Silent Edge needed an enterprise project management solution to support growing demand for its services. Working with Microsoft Gold Partner Program Framework, it invested in Microsoft Project Server 2010, having conducted preliminary work with an earlier version. Customer satisfaction is now increasing, with key reports available in seconds that previously took up to four hours. The firm has also seen a significant boost in employee productivity.

Leading retailer Harrods needed a collaboration platform for its 8,000 staff in the United Kingdom (U.K.) to improve processes. It worked with Microsoft Partner ICS Solutions, which deployed the solution in just four months using Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010. The system offers robust security for regulatory compliance, enhances communication, and is saving £75,000 (U.S.$120,000) a year in print costs.

Thomas Cook Online needed a new enterprise project management system to accommodate the rapid growth in its European online travel business. It chose Microsoft Project Server 2010 following a positive experience with a previous version, and worked with Program Framework, a Microsoft Gold Partner in project and portfolio management. Thomas Cook Online key account holders are more productive and make better use of the company’s existing Microsoft assets.

TalentSoft is a Paris-based independent software vendor (ISV) that provides human resource management software as a hosted, modular solution. To reduce the time needed to bring new customers online and to reach new global markets, TalentSoft moved its software from a traditional hosting model to the Windows Azure platform. The result is much faster time-to-market, a 50 percent reduction in hosting costs, and more ability to focus on innovating the company’s product suite.

American Woodmark Corporation is a cabinet manufacturer with nearly 3,500 employees in 20 facilities across the country. The company used a mix of stand-alone manual and automated workforce management solutions that created inconsistencies in work and pay rules, overtime rules, accrual granting, and attendance point assessment. Furthermore, the solutions didn’t give the corporate office real-time visibility into critical labor measurements at individual locations. As the company grew, the inconsistencies and lack of visibility became increasingly problematic. The company wanted a flexible, scalable solution that also offered significant value and implementation support. It chose the Kronos® Workforce Central® suite with Microsoft SQL Server. This combined solution gives American Woodmark companywide consistency in pay practices and a dramatic increase in workforce efficiency.

Governing the largest county government in the United States, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors ran constituent issue–tracking applications for the five board offices on a legacy application platform. A couple of years ago, the Los Angeles County CIO’s office recommended that county departments move legacy applications to Microsoft Dynamics CRM because of its integration with Microsoft Office applications and technical flexibility. The Board of Supervisors Information Resource Management department began working with the solution and, in a little over two years, has implemented unique constituent issue–tracking applications for four of five board offices. In addition, the team has built at least four other business applications for divisions within the Board of Supervisor’s Executive Office, streamlining operations and better securing sensitive data.

Set up in 1966, the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) is an apex body of the gem and jewellery industry that plays a significant role in the evolution of the Indian gem and jewellery industry. With customised software programs along with distributed data, the Council found it difficult to manage multiple offices, keep track of updated information of all members and take astute business decisions. The Council was looking for an IT solution that would integrate all operations and offices on a common technology platform. To achieve this, GJEPC partnered with Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner PricewaterhouseCoopers to deploy Microsoft® Dynamics™ NAV 4.0. The solution has standardized the entire operations and procedures and also integrated the same. As a result, the Council is benefitting from real-time reporting, improved resource utilization and enhanced efficiency.

Indoco Remedies, a midsize pharmaceutical company has a strong presence in India and internationally. With approval of its Finished Dosage facilities by the US-FDA, Darmstadt–Germany, TGA-Australia, MCC-South Africa and UK-MHRA, Indoco has emerged as the most suitable partner and provider of Contract Research and Manufacturing Services. It manufactures and markets various pharmaceutical products including bulk drugs and formulations. Indoco owns seven state-of-art manufacturing facilities. There was a clear need to upgrade and enhance its applications to manage all business processes. Microsoft® Gold Certified partner, Blue Star Infotech helped deploy Microsoft® Dynamics™ NAV 5.0 to have an integrated and orderly process flow, meet compliance regulations and ensure faster deliveries at lower cost. The solution has enhanced the operational efficiency and supports all the business units.

Founded in 1983, Jindal Drilling and Industries Ltd. (JDIL) is a drilling contractor and a service provider of onshore and offshore drilling related services to national and international Exploration and Production (E&P) companies. The challenge lies in accurately monitoring human resources and machinery to optimize the usage, efficiency, and billing. Consolidated and centralised access to information would enable the management to avoid business losses. A technology driven company, JDIL decided to implement Microsoft® Dynamics™ NAV 4.0 with the skilled assistance of Blue Star Infotech, a Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner. Later Blue Star facilitated the efficient migration to NAV 2009. JDIL can proficiently differentiate various types of contracts and later complete projects within planned budgets with the help of numerous tracking and monitoring tools.