From November 2008 till July 2009, S-OIL built an enterprise-wide communications and collaboration platform. S-OIL not only upgraded its existing groupware but also from an integration perspective, chose to a method to link a single platform for portal, collaboration, groupware, mobile, search, messenger and video conferencing as well as IP telephony utilizing Microsoft’s technologies and solution. In addition, it deployed 2007 Microsoft Office System in the business user environment and laid the groundwork for comprehensive enterprise security system with Active Directory and Forefront product families. With this project, S-OIL achieves more about 121% of ROI effects including innovation of conference culture, improvement of payment related work processing speed and real time support of decision making.

COSTEL, which is a company in the built-in electronic devices area, focused on the robust security of Windows Vista as an alternative for providing high levels of security on desktop that can easily remain as a blind spot of management. COSTEL, which was reviewing enterprise-wide deployment perceived some burden in acquiring application compatibility, so it applied Vista in limited parts. In the middle of this, it saw the emergence of 2009 Window 7 Beta and conducted reviews. Results showed that it can guarantee compatibility with various options and confirmed the existence of alternatives, so COSTEL began expanding enterprise-wide distribution. Currently as of October 2009, having completed distribution to about 10% of all PCs, results showed that COSTEL will be able to reduce time spent for managing PCs by two folds if it uses Windows 7.

The Botswana Ministry of Local Government needed to automate its business management systems to reduce a huge backlog of unclosed manual accounts in local authorities. The ministry worked with Microsoft® Certified Partner PSU International in deploying Microsoft Dynamics® GP 8.0 business management software. Today, 60 per cent of local councils are up to date with their returns compared to zero in 2002, when the project started.

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.

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.

United Kingdom–based Aviva wanted to rationalise the number of software management systems in line with the company’s aims of reduced IT costs and greater effectiveness. With Microsoft® Services Premier Support and a designated Technical Account Manager (TAM), Aviva deployed Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 across its network in a timely manner. Today, the company has reduced IT costs and continues to drive efficiencies with the help of its TAM.

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.

The Information Store® helps global petroleum companies access exploration and production data irrespective of where the data resides and presents it in a useful and familiar form. To maintain its competitive advantage, the company was eager to find a cost-effective way to extend its industry-leading PetroTrek® solutions to independent oil producers. The company evaluated two “software as a service” offerings and selected the Windows Azure™ platform—an Internet-scale “cloud services” platform that is hosted in Microsoft® data centers—as the foundation for its online Digital Oilfield solution, along with Microsoft SQL Azure, the Silverlight™ browser plug-in, and Bing™ maps for enterprise. The company expects to increase the operational efficiency of its customers by reducing upfront capital costs, reducing deployment cycles from months to days, and lowering ongoing operating expenses.

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.