Outsourcing business Steria wanted to standardise processes and provide clients with a transparent view of performance improvements. It selected business process content management software Control from Nimbus, which initially delivered the software as a service for the pilot client account. After successful testing, it was migrated to systems hosted by Steria where it is helping the company deliver the standardisation and transparency required within a collaborative environment.

E-learning specialist Aula Salud wanted a highly available, robust, and cost-effective solution to deliver education programs with video streaming for healthcare professionals in Spain. Aula Salud chose Atnova, which offered this kind of solution based entirely on Microsoft® technologies, rather than open-source development tools. With these solutions, Aula Salud achieved increased student numbers and a return on investment in the first year.

TWP Projects in South Africa needed a single integrated system for project management and accounting, including a tool to integrate employee timesheets with invoices. The company replaced its Softline Pastel and open-source systems with Microsoft Dynamics® SL business management software. Now, it has an integrated view of operations and revenue streams, which is boosting its ability to maximise profits and eliminating the risk of billing time incorrectly.

To drive continued growth, Plante Moran, a leading U.S.–based financial services firm, needed to automate business development efforts. The company sought to replace its IBM Lotus Notes contact management system with an easy-to-use customer relationship management system built on a flexible, scalable platform. After evaluating a number of packaged solutions, Plante Moran chose Microsoft Dynamics® CRM based on its intuitive interface, powerful built-in toolset, and integration with line-of-business systems and productivity applications. Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner Ascentium helped Plante Moran tailor the solution to automate key business functions, such as its client acceptance process. Since deploying the solution to 1,600 consultants, Plante Moran has strengthened its business development efforts and gained the agility to pursue strategic growth initiatives.

Genea provides energy management solutions to commercial property owners. Its Building Optimization Platform provides visibility into and control over energy consumption from the point of demand through billing for property managers and tenants. When it decided to create a Web-enabled, hosted version of its solution, Genea chose to use the Windows® 7 operating system for its performance, security features, scalability, and built-in Microsoft® .NET Framework 3.5 technology, along with Windows Server® 2008 R2 Enterprise for high availability. Genea noted that key software components of its solution run 35 percent faster on Windows 7 than on previous operating systems. The company is streamlining management of the Building Optimization Platform through enhanced remote access capabilities, while delivering a highly reliable solution that can handle large transaction volumes.

Mobile capabilities like booking a hotel, restaurant, or taxi while on the go are essential for travel and entertainment (T&E) management solutions. Concur’s T&E solutions are available to its millions of business travelers through its mobile application powered by Windows® Mobile®. To diminish complexity for Concur and its customers’ IT departments, Concur Mobile was developed, and is managed with a rapid mobile application platform available from Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner Pyxis Mobile.

To improve its own development process, Dot Net Solutions created a virtual project-collaboration application. When the software, called ScrumWall, drew great interest from customers, the company used Windows Azure™ to offer it as a hosted service. The solution made it possible for Dot Net Solutions to bring its new product to market quickly, with minimal investment costs, while offering superior performance to users.

Client Profiles saw an opportunity to develop legal practice management software that was easier to use than established solutions from Lexis-Nexis and Thomson Reuters. The company built a solution that takes advantage of the integration between Microsoft Dynamics® CRM and Microsoft® Office Outlook® to automate common tasks, such as retrieving new contacts for archival in a shared marketing database. To meet project goals, including rapid time-to-market, Client Profiles capitalized on the flexibility of xRM, the business application framework that underpins Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Developers accessed prebuilt workflow components and reporting services available through xRM to quickly infuse CRM4Legal with features that benefit multiple roles within any law firm. With xRM, Client Profiles dramatically reduced development time and achieved an estimated cost savings of U.S.$2 million.

CCH, which provides software for business professionals, adapted its sales tax–calculation application to run on the Windows Azure™ platform. CCH expects its use of Windows Azure to result in greater choice for customers, the ability to scale on demand, and lower costs. The company found the learning curve for the migration experience to be smooth and easy for developers because of the familiar tool set and operating environment of the Windows Azure platform.

Sitemasher, developer of an innovative platform for building and managing Web sites, wanted to help Web professionals create scalable, data-driven Web sites faster, and at lower cost. The company also needed to lower its own systems infrastructure costs. Sitemasher used the Windows Azure™ platform to offer its application as a hosted service, delivering an efficient, highly available, and highly scalable Web site development and hosting environment to its customers. By hosting its application on Windows Azure through Microsoft® data centers, the company has minimized infrastructure costs and reduced ongoing maintenance. Finally, with no data centers of its own to manage, Sitemasher will refocus the time its development staff spent maintaining servers to improving and expanding the Sitemasher application, representing a time savings of approximately 20 percent.