Glympse provides a Web-based location-sharing solution for use with GPS-enabled phones. The company constantly evaluates available hosting services to ensure that it is taking advantage of all that technology has to offer. Glympse turned to the Windows Azure™ platform because it offered integrated development tools and less of a management burden than the hosting service from Amazon that Glympse was using. Glympse found that the performance and developer effectiveness possible with the Windows Azure platform surpasses those offered by the Amazon service. Glympse also gains credibility by offering a Microsoft-hosted solution, particularly with regard to stability and scalability. Perhaps most importantly, working with Windows Azure means that Glympse can be more responsive to customer needs because it can focus on improving its solution features rather than on infrastructure maintenance.

Food manufacturer and distributor Halwani Brothers (Egypt) wanted to improve the company’s productivity, efficiency, and profitability by replacing its existing business management system. Working with Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner RIGHT, the company deployed Microsoft Dynamics® AX 2009 at its head office and six branches. The software has cut operating costs by 50 per cent and given managers a single view of financial data across the group.

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.

Delta Sport Group upgraded its business management software to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009. Since deploying the solution, which integrates with its in house retail solution, the company has improved data accuracy by 30 per cent, increased sales by up to 10 per cent, and boosted productivity by 20 per cent.

AutoTrader.com sought a more dynamic intranet portal and wanted to know more about Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007 to see if the product could meet its technical and business requirements. The company attended several Microsoft Technology Center engagements and left with an informed technology decision, an implementation strategy, and the necessary information to develop a portal with the comprehensive functionality that users needed.

Bianco Footwear designs, manufactures, and distributes a complex product line of shoes and fashion accessories through franchise boutiques located throughout Northern Europe. To make distribution more reliable and to gain better control over its business, the company replaced an older, no-longer-adequate software system with Microsoft Dynamics® NAV. With the solution, Bianco Footwear helps ensure that all the stores can always meet customer demand and centralize and automate many cumbersome manual processes. In addition, the company decided to maintain the value of its technology investment by signing up for the Business Ready Enhancement Plan for Microsoft Dynamics. Through the plan, Bianco Footwear can upgrade to newer versions of Microsoft Dynamics NAV without incurring additional licensing fees and has access to all solution updates and fixes as soon as Microsoft releases them.

Celebrating its fiftieth anniversary in 2009, Family Dollar required a more robust merchandising solution to accom-modate its continuing growth. In 2007, Family Dollar began the transformation of its merchandising tool set to a planned implementation of the SAS Integrated Merchandise Planning solution. Family Dollar faced a significant investment in new hardware, software, personnel, and maintenance because SAS recommended an AIX operating system; an infrastructure with which Family Dollar has limited experience. In a creative effort to reduce costs, Family Dollar partnered with SAS to explore the option of implementing a large scale solution on the Windows Server® 2003 Datacenter Edition. This would provide substantial savings, flexibility to scale with commodity hardware, greater interoperability with other systems, and cost-effective future growth.

With employee groups spread across multiple buildings, Seaside Buick struggled with internal communications. After joining the Microsoft® Technology Adoption Program for Windows® Small Business Server 2008, Seaside Buick launched a new company intranet to improve communication and collaboration, and reduce paper waste. The company was able to reduce IT support time and associated cost by 70 percent.

The IRITO group of companies uses the BrightAuto system to manage its dealer centers. BrightAuto, based on Microsoft Dynamics NAV, is a trade solution for the automotive business.

Leading Book Retailer "Biblio Globus" implements ERP system Microsoft Dynamics NAV to manage its warehouse and sales orders.