PEAB is a leading Swedish construction and civil engineering firm serving the Nordic region. To keep up with rapid business growth, PEAB needed to accelerate server deployment and keep critical applications running at all times. The firm deployed the Windows Server® 2008 Datacenter operating system with the Hyper-V™ technology to take advantage of server virtualization. PEAB uses Microsoft® System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 to create and manage virtual machines. By augmenting physical servers with virtual machines, PEAB has reduced server deployment time by 87 percent and can respond more nimbly to business needs. Because failover clustering is easy and cost-effective with Hyper-V, PEAB can ensure high availability for more applications. Using the Microsoft software, PEAB expects to trim hardware purchases by 40 servers annually and staff management time by 280 hours annually.

Deployment of Exchange Server 2007 with server roles separation allows enhance e-mail protection, lower number of undesirable messages, and decrease viruses’ attacks probability.

Software Asset Management (SAM) technology provides total control under corporate software, eliminates legal and reputational risks, and lowers software costs.

BSH Insaat wanted to centralize its data storage and improve the efficiency of its workflow. To meet these needs, the company deployed Windows Server® 2008 Foundation. Employees can now locate important documents more easily from inside and outside the office, which increases productivity and results in additional business for the company. Also, BSH Insaat has reduced IT support costs by 80 percent.

Construction projects portal, based on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, allows Yekaterinburg-City company streamline a process of creating of design documentation in collaboration with partners from different countries.

Norfolk Electrical & Communications (E&C) is a division of Norfolk Group Limited, a building and engineering services provider based in Australia and New Zealand. The division acts as an electrical contractor for on major construction sites, including commercial property, mine site and railway infrastructure projects. With a widely distributed workforce of 1,700, E&C had a number of business units that were using a range of different systems to track their sales opportunities. In August 2008, E&C sought the assistance of DWS Advanced Business Solutions Ltd and implemented a customised system based on Microsoft Dynamics® CRM 4.0. The new system provided better oversight of the division’s sales processes and control over its outcomes. It also gave E&C better insight into revenue forecasts and how the division was tracking in relation to its competitors.

Leighton International is a subsidiary of the Australian Leighton Group, managing over 30 infrastructure and mining projects across Asia. Reliance on low-bandwidth satellite links at highly remote and inhospitable sites meant that mail and file servers had to be located onsite. This decentralised architecture exposed Leighton International to several liabilities. If a server became inoperable, technical staff could take days to reach the project site, during which time user access, mail and documentation could be unavailable. In addition, the high-latency network link inhibited effective offsite replication. In 2009, Leighton International centralised IT infrastructure at a data centre in Singapore using Windows Server 2008 Distributed File System (DFS). As a result, staff in remote sites have improved server availability, network security and back up performance.

Sewer and water infrastructure replacement is the main focus of F.C.M. Construction Limited, a family-owned business in the Toronto, Canada area since mid-1970. Because of the nature of the construction business, productivity is of the utmost concern on each project—both for workers in the field and those in the office providing support. Tapping the expertise of Excell IT, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, F.C.M. is digging around in the new Windows 7 Professional operating system to access the potential impact on its business. The results are indeed improving productivity. Features like Federated Search, Aero Interface and Taskbar Customization are helping get work done more efficiently.

Sublime Industries ltd, St. Albert, Alberta, Canada, is a petroleum contractor in gas station and light oil field industry construction. While the team has extensive industry knowledge and individual specialties, most only have a basic knowledge of computers. The challenge is to expose and educated team members giving them more and better tools that will increase office productivity. With the IT expertise of MPECS, the firm’s Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner, the contractor is discovering many new Windows® 7 operating system features that are speeding up workflow and safeguarding its business.

The Atlas Corporation, Ontario, Canada, has a 60-year history of excellence. With a staff of approximately 50 employees, it has been delivering quality commercial projects on time and under budget as a matter of course. However, like its counterparts in the industry, Atlas is gradually going digital as it manages large development projects with volumes of plans and instructions. As a result, managing associated paperwork is labor-intensive and not as efficient as it could be. Though Atlas has over 40 computers, their role has been primarily email and document storage. Atlas sees a new role for technology. Using the expertise of its IT partner, Excell IT, the firm is discovering new Windows 7 operating system tools that build a better, more productive operation.