Tradeslot specializes in designing and building large scale business-to-business and government-to-business (G2B) auctions platforms; its partner company, Adslot, uses the same auction platform to auction online advertising space. The companies use computation-heavy combinatorial auction algorithms to manage their complex conditional bid processes. However, with a lack of compute power with its existing infrastructure, the companies found it necessary to manually add constraints to auctions. Tradeslot and Adslot implemented Windows Azure™ and, as a result, reduced capital costs for customers—from U.S.$60,000 to only $1,000 for each customer, improved their ability to scale up and improve services for customers, saved critical IT resources, and delivered a solution their customers can trust.

Melbourne Business School needed to improve information management regarding its prospective and current students, alumni, donors, guest lecturers, and other constituents with whom the school interacts. Working with Oakton, a Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner, the school turned to Microsoft Dynamics® CRM and its underlying development platform, xRM, to accelerate the creation of integrated solutions that track communications and automate workflow processes. Consolidating data sources and automating processes frees school staff to cultivate closer relationships with constituents, which ultimately contributes to increased revenue, overall business agility, and the school’s reputation for progressive, global leadership.

NSW Health wanted to obtain holistic patient data across the continuum of care and provide hospital and area health managers with relevant views of data. They also wanted to improve patient care and flow by providing up-to-date information at the point of care. New South Wales Health wanted to transform the way it looks at patient information – from a system-centric view to one that is patient centric. They wanted to analyse information in terms of individual patient journeys across the spectrum of care and in relation to the business needs of health organisations, rather than in terms of the systems the data came from. At the hospital level, they also wanted to provide staff and clinicians with accurate and timely patient information at the point of care.

Lion Nathan is a major producer, marketer, and distributor of premium alcoholic beverages in Australia and New Zealand. E-mail is critical to Lion Nathan’s operations, including the processing of orders received from many retail stores and pubs. To help ensure high availability of e-mail messaging, Lion Nathan has deployed a pilot of Microsoft® Exchange Server 2010, as a part of the Microsoft Rapid Deployment Program. Lion Nathan expects that messaging enhancements will reduce storage requirements, resulting in a savings of AU$90,000 (U.S.$75,000). With the new messaging environment, Lion Nathan will be able to provide better site resiliency with higher availability, along with capabilities for employees to better manage and prioritize their communications.

The New South Wales Department of Education and Training decided to give high school students and teachers a computer as part of the Australian government’s Digital Education Revolution initiative. To give students access to the latest technology, the department has begun upgrading its computers to the Windows® 7 operating system. As a result, the department has improved the educational experience, reduced costs for new devices, and enhanced IT security.

A manufacturer and distributer of plumbing systems in Australia and New Zealand needed help upgrading its network and communications infrastructure. With more than 3,000 employees and disparate Microsoft Exchange Server deployments spread across 22 locations, the company wanted to simplify systems maintenance while improving the experience of employees. The group tapped a Dedicated Support Engineer (DSE) through its Microsoft Services Premier Support plan to help with the migration and upgrade to Exchange Server 2007 and centralized global address list in Active Directory services. Now, with expertise from its DSE and resources available through Premier Support, the company enjoys increased reliability and fewer interruptions to business operations.

South Australia–based Westminster School is one of Adelaide’s leading independent schools, providing coeducation to some 1,200 students, from Early Learning through to Year 12. To keep pace with growing expectations, Westminster wanted to introduce new online portals and services to the wider school community. To do this, the school needed to replace its existing IT environment with a single robust platform. By migrating to a Microsoft® Windows–based server environment, Westminster laid a foundation on which it can add Microsoft SharePoint® to provide a richer online experience. This includes delivering new content and information, more flexible learning opportunities and streamlined business processes. The school also has an operating system that can accommodate future IT projects, such as lifecycle data management.

CargoWise edi is an innovative logistics software company based in Australia. In 2007, it redeveloped its flagship product called ediEnterprise to incorporate a range of Web services and technologies. The software-plus-services approach was the catalyst for a 55 per cent growth in business during the height of the global recession. CargoWise edi Chief Executive Officer Richard White says that customers are attracted to the company’s flexible purchasing model and the ability to pick and choose a range of services on a per transaction basis.

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.

The Queensland Government’s Department of Public Works (the department) delivers a wide range of services to the state government and its agencies, including communication technology. In late 2008, the Government asked the department to develop an online register of war memorials in time for the following Anzac Day commemorations. This required soliciting detailed information about memorials from 75 councils, including photographs and the precise location, then validating the information, and publishing it on a new web site. Using the Microsoft® collaboration tool, Office SharePoint® Server 2007, the department successfully launched the online register on time, integrating Microsoft Virtual Earth to pinpoint the locations of 400 memorials. Four months later, the site had 1,000 memorials, and now attracts far more visitors than forecast.