Orascom Development relies on email to connect employees with each other and with customers at numerous locations around the world. When business continuity was threatened by unrest in Egypt, Orascom decided to move to a location-independent cloud-based email system. With the help of Microsoft Services Consulting, Orascom made a seamless migration to Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Exchange Online, and it now plans to move more IT resources to the cloud.

Headquartered in Paris, France, Steria applies its keen insight and expertise to help organizations drive their business transformation through working more efficiently and profitably with the right IT-enabled business solutions. With 20,000 employees dispersed across Europe, India, North Africa, and Southeast Asia, Steria supports a diverse range of clients, including the BBC, Deutsche Telekom, and several prominent European governments. Its prowess and support have earned the company accolades, and Steria is currently recognized as one of the top 10 IT services companies in Europe.

Net Balance depends on email for communications and niggling outages on the firm’s Melbourne server were disrupting business. With IT managers also concerned about device security, it was time to investigate a more stable solution. Working with Microsoft partner HubOne, Net Balance deployed Microsoft Office 365 as its company communication and collaboration platform. The firm is up and running with Microsoft Lync, Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SharePoint for collaboration plus Windows Intune to manage 54 devices centrally. Net Balance Executive Director Terence Jeyaretnam says, “Office 365 makes a lot of sense from a business perspective. It’s easy to budget, easy to deploy and it has all the features we need.” MAIN QUOTE “Office 365 makes our IT more reliable and our business easier to manage. We’ve now got the tools to make a greater impact in business.” Terence Jeyaretnam

Calibre Real Estate is a fast growing company, requiring even faster technology upgrades. Founder and Principal Alice Hagen realised that continually investing in and maintaining her own ICT was a poor business model. Each new server cost around A$30,000 and would need to be upgraded again in just a few years. Instead of buying another expensive server, Hagen decided to move the company to cloud computing. Impressed by its reliability, stability, back-up services and excellent reputation with other larger firms, Hagen made the switch to Microsoft Office 365 through their partner Telstra. The company now has on the go access to Exchange, Lync and SharePoint enabling seamless communication, collaboration and document sharing.

With its unwavering focus on staffing Australia’s hospitals, Healthcare Australia had let its IT systems fall a little by the wayside. With a legacy infrastructure that included a ten-year-old email system, newly appointed CIO Mark Botros felt the company was overdue for an upgrade. Healthcare Australia CIO Mark Botros considered all the available options and decided a Microsoft solution represented the most mature and cost-efficient investment. He also wanted to keep his team using world-standard Office software, rather than spend more capital on re-training. He deployed Microsoft Office 365 integrated with Lync and SharePoint as a total office collaboration platform, supported by Windows Intune.

To ensure victims of domestic violence receive legal and medical support quickly, the Domestic Violence Advocacy Service (DVAS) in Perth, Australia, wanted the ability to store client information in electronic files and selectively share them with other support providers. In 2012, DVAS teamed with a highly agile Microsoft Services Consulting team to deploy a cost-effective solution in just three months. Working with world-class product experts on the Microsoft Services Global Delivery team, a solution architect crafted a customized design with unique application file security features, while an engagement manager ensured the system could be used by associated service providers. Because the new system mirrors established work patterns, employees find it easy to understand. With rapid referrals to legal and medical aid, domestic violence victims find refuge in hours, rather than days.

IT services firm Steria needed to trim costs and better connect its global workforce. In selecting Microsoft Office 365, executives stressed the importance of access to expertise from Microsoft Cloud Vantage Services for Microsoft Office 365. By teaming with Microsoft to improve its readiness for adopting a cloud solution, Steria benefits from a shorter deployment, simplified IT management, and an estimated 20 percent IT cost reduction.

Backed by the Microsoft Partner Technical Services’ Technical Pre-Sales Support, CSC became a trusted advisor to their client, a global financial company headquartered in the UK. Partner Services support helped CSC reduce time in investigating new Business Intelligence (“BI”) capabilities in Microsoft SQL Server® 2012, offer high quality and quick responses to their client’s technical questions, and present themselves as a responsive and reliable Partner. Their client was able to make an informed business decision and selected a BI solution based on SQL Server 2012. For 50+ years CSC has delivered IT, consulting, and business process outsourcing services to more than 2,500 enterprise clients worldwide. CSC has expertise across all Microsoft® enterprise products and views Microsoft as a strategic alliance partner.

For over 30 years, Karmak, Inc. has been a leading provider of business management solutions designed for the commercial transportation industry in the United States. In 2001, the company migrated from legacy mainframe systems to Microsoft® Visual Studio® .NET and built applications that run on Microsoft Windows®-based mobile and desktop clients. By leveraging Microsoft Partner Technical Services Technical Pre-Sales and Advisory Services Support, Karmak was able to cut down on time invested in searching for answers to internal project design and development issues and customer questions. The company was able to increase team efficiency, allowing developer teams to allocate more than 40 hours of their time each year in more strategic initiatives. Karmak improved its issue resolution time by more than 75% and improved quality of response in its goal to achieve high customer satisfaction.

Telstra, a leading telecommunications company in Australia, wanted to create a new cloud-based business productivity offering that would provide key customers with more customization and flexibility than the standard Microsoft Office 365 service. It engaged Microsoft Services in an Enterprise Strategy Program contract to get the new offering to market as quickly as possible. By working with Microsoft Services, Telstra was able to get the first phase of its offering to market in just three months. Telstra plans to accelerate the delivery of the full solution by nine months with the help of Microsoft Services Consulting. Microsoft Services gave Telstra single-point access to a vast array of Microsoft expertise that contributed to rapid project delivery with minimal costs and rework.