For 25 years Epicor has been creating creative enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions for small and mid-sized businesses and Global 1000 companies. Epicor has 20,000 customers in more than 150 countries, and generated 2008 revenue of U.S.$487.8 million. The company recently released Epicor 9, an innovative service-oriented architecture (SOA) offering that converges all of its products into a single, flexible solution using what Epicor refers to as its True SOA™ approach to delivering ERP solutions. To meet customer requests for a powerful and cost efficient reporting environment, the company migrated Epicor 9 reporting to Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 Reporting Services. The report migration went smoothly and users benefit from easier report tracking, automated report distribution, and a better user experience from working with a more interoperable solution stack.

Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council in the United Kingdom wanted to reduce costs and improve public service delivery by offering more services electronically and by streamlining business processes. As a national leader in local government information and communications technology (ICT), the council entered a joint venture partnership with BT—called RBT—to drive forward its modernisation agenda. As part of the programme to improve the collection of revenues and administration of benefits, the council decided to deploy an enterprise service bus (ESB) offering. It also used the Microsoft® Application Platform with Microsoft BizTalk® Server 2006 as the orchestration layer. As a result, the council is handling citizens’ requests for service—such as changes in payment methods for council tax—in seconds rather than days.

The Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) provides a range of health services to the citizens of Arizona. When the federal government required that all state health departments facilitate interoperable information exchange between public health partners, ADHS adopted the Partner Healthcare Electronic Data EXchange (PHEDEX), a data integration solution powered by Microsoft® BizTalk® Server 2006 R2, from The Simi Group. With its new solution, ADHS was able to quickly comply with federal regulations, eliminate paper from its lab reporting process, increase the quality of data reported, and increase public safety. By eliminating manual data entry, ADHS staff members are more productive and efficient, and can focus on quality data analysis. The department saved an estimated U.S.$2 million and years of development time by acquiring a commercial solution instead of building its own.

OSIsoft markets the PI System, a comprehensive enterprise software infrastructure that heavy industries use for real-time performance management of their distributed physical assets. OSIsoft began integrating its products with the Microsoft® Office system in the 1990s, and over the years its products have evolved into true Office Business Applications (OBAs). The PI System takes advantage of many of the components of the 2007 Microsoft Office release, including client programs and server software. Adopting an OBA strategy has allowed OSIsoft to deliver more value to its customers and increase its sales revenues as a result. The company’s current OBA offerings reduce deployment costs for customers while providing customers with valuable visibility into their mission-critical data. Company management believes that their OBA strategy is the key to prospering in difficult economic times.

Ranked among the 2009 Global Services 100 “Top 10 Best Performers,” EPAM Systems provides IT and software development services based on Microsoft® technologies to customers around the world. To reduce costs while maximizing flexibility and simplifying license management, EPAM signed a Microsoft Volume Licensing Enterprise Subscription Agreement. Under this agreement, the firm leases Professional Desktop Platform licenses for three years and reports and pays for those licenses annually. It also takes advantage of Software Assurance benefits such as Training Vouchers, the Home Use Program, 24x7 Problem Resolution Support, and New Version Rights. As a result, EPAM is optimizing its infrastructure, saving up to 40 percent on software licenses, and streamlining management and compliance. It also has immediate access to the software necessary to better serve its customers’ changing needs.

With 193 member nations, and programs worldwide, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is a broad and diverse organization with a complex and disparate IT environment. Solutions are deployed locally, without regard to ease of use, security rules, or access management at the international level. Implementing an enterprise resource planning solution revealed this lack of global management planning and led the organization to homogenize its IT system using Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007, Microsoft BizTalk® Server 2006, and other Microsoft technologies. Now UNESCO is developing a solution that will unify its global IT environment while integrating with its SAP management system and allowing the implementation of new applications as necessary.

Turkey-based DenizBank realised the evolution of Web technologies presented both challenges and opportunities. The key challenge was to develop a robust infrastructure that could support all banking services reliably. The organisation required a fully integrated environment delivering customer relationship management, business process management, and a business intelligence layer to maximise efficiency and service quality. DenizBank worked with solution provider Intertech to build the inter-Next infrastructure, which uses Microsoft® technologies such as Microsoft SQL Server® 2005 data management software and Microsoft BizTalk® Server 2006. Today, customer satisfaction rates are high and the system can process a year’s worth of transactions in eight hours. After logging on once, personnel can access all applications on the network.

A-dec, a leading manufacturer of dental equipment and furniture, wanted to automate its cabinetry-sales quoting process. For each order, employees made technical drawings so that customers could see what they were buying. This process took up to three days and impeded quality control. Also, the company’s ordering system didn’t provide employees with usable sales and business-process data. With help from EMC Consulting, a Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner, A-dec deployed a service-oriented architecture solution based on Microsoft BizTalk® Server 2006 R2, part of the Microsoft application platform. Now, sales quotes complete with three-dimensional drawings are generated automatically, usually in less than two hours; quality control is automated; and business users have tools for monitoring and managing the system. As a result, A-dec has increased sales and gained a competitive advantage.

A large holding company in the enter-tainment industry—with 14 separate branded properties—wanted to find a way to improve the management and control of its brand identities. Each of its branded properties had been developing collateral independently, with the net effect of compromised brand integrity cross the board. The direct marketing agency’s technology solutions group developed a Web-based solution that not only auto-mates and streamlines collateral develop-ment, but also produces attractive, compelling collateral that is, most importantly, brand compliant across all the properties. The properties were so enthusiastic about this solution that all 14 brand subsidiaries adopted it faster than mandated. What drives this agency’s winning solution? Microsoft® Windows Server® 2003, Microsoft SQL Server® 2005, and Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007.

Dillon Gage trades precious metals using a new trading portal that provides reliability, ease of use and speed for their customers. The portal is developed in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 using a Lawson ERP backend for processing. The SharePoint portal and Lawson communicate through a flexible services layer developed using Microsoft WCF.