Eduify was founded to provide students with educational technology that can assist them in researching topics faster and writing better. To create its solution, Eduify received assistance as well, from Microsoft® technologies and services such as the Azure™ Services Platform, the Microsoft BizSpark™ ecosystem, and Windows Mobile® 6. Eduify took advantage of these technological and business resources to create a software-plus-services solution that delivers online writing help to students anywhere, anytime, with functionality and a user experience not possible from the Web alone. At the same time, Eduify gained a 40 percent faster time-to-market, U.S.$500,000 in development and other savings, and easier access to the largest market of mobile device users.

Superbuild succeeded in creating an online estimator service to produce bills-of-material for contractors, but it needed a new business model if it was going to succeed in marketing that service. The company decided to offer its solution to major retailers and manufacturers that have direct contact with contractors-customers, and to adopt a software-plus-services approach that enables each organization to deliver the solution as its own branded service through its own Web site. Meanwhile, by using Microsoft® technologies instead of Linux technologies, Superbuild reduced its development and maintenance costs and sped time-to-market. The software-plus-services approach also makes it possible for Superbuild to offer its service for new uses, such as actionable business intelligence, and to offer it in new ways, such as on phones and in-store kiosks.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software from SAP has won a foundational place in the IT infrastructure of organizations around the world. REALTECH, based in Walldorf, Germany, is an international consulting firm with more than 700 SAP-certified specialists that have developed a specialized practice in helping organizations migrate SAP from UNIX/Oracle and other operating system/database stacks to the Microsoft® Application Platform. REALTECH, which is platform-neutral, reports that its customers are migrating SAP deployments to the Microsoft Application Platform, including Microsoft SQL Server®, to enjoy a lower total cost of ownership and ease of use. Customers migrating to SQL Server 2008 can take advantage of new compression technology which will be especially appreciated by organizations performing Unicode conversions which can double the size of existing databases.

Nick Rosa and Bob Shapiro, retired executives from NutraSweet and Monsanto, needed a way to store, protect, and access their vital personal documents—from insurance forms, medical records, and tax documents, to sentimental letters and photos. When they realized that many of their peers shared their need, they discovered a software opportunity. They created Morgan Street Document Systems and prototyped a highly customized Web site—then realized they needed more scalability, ease of use, and reliability than the original product could provide. Their answer was to move to Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007 and related Microsoft technologies. The new solution can scale 100-fold as the company grows, provides better than 99.5 percent uptime, and cuts the total cost of ownership by 90 percent over the cost of the prior site.

CMR Institute had a business designed around the delivery of educational content via books and CDs. In 2006, the company realized that it had to bring that business online to meet customer demand, deliver new offerings faster, and reduce costs. With assistance from Ironworks, CMR Institute implemented a new e-learning solution based on Microsoft® software. The company’s move online enables customers to easily interact with learning materials, request new courses, track progress, and more. For CMR Institute, the move to an online solution is enhancing the company’s bottom line by enabling it to offer more courses, deliver new content faster, and reduce costs—all through a solution that is reliable and easy to manage.

For ten years, JM Web Designs has relied on Microsoft® solutions to help it mature from a two-person operation founded by 14-year-old entrepreneurs into a robust business with 17 employees and 250 customers. To keep growing as a company, JM Web Designs upgraded to Windows Vista®, Windows Mobile® 6, and the 2007 Microsoft Office system. Within ten months, business increased by 100 percent, laying the foundation for international expansion.

The United Arab Emirates federal government wanted to deliver an improvement plan for public services aimed at reaching strategic targets by the end of 2010. The key to delivery of the transformation strategy is an automated performance management system, called ADAA (performance in Arabic), based on Microsoft® Office PerformancePoint® Server 2007 business intelligence software. Every quarter, federal government entities submit their progress reports to the Prime Minister’s Office, which then uses automated tools to measure their performance based on more than 3,000 key performance indicators. Four analysts can easily review the large amounts of data, whereas it would take tens of people to do the same job manually. The government can now manage ministries and authorities like a private company by analysing reports and providing timely recommendations to enhance their performance.

Business Needs Datatune started life as a technical consulting firm and developed a suite of software applications to manage its business, including customers, invoicing, quotes, and trouble tickets. Over time, it became an application service provider offering these applications over the Web to other consultants. As its business grew, so did its need to scale its home-grown solution. The company considered but rejected development solutions based on Cold Fusion, PHP/MySQL, and Java as being too complex, costly, and time-consuming to develop and maintain. Solution Datatune found its solution in the technology it was already using for Web serving and data management—the Microsoft® application platform.

TriSys Business Software has been at the forefront of technology innovation in the recruitment industry since the early 1990s. The company designs and implements advanced recruitment software systems to help agencies perform IT-related tasks—from front to back office; in Windows®-based and Web-based environments; and for recruitment consultants, customers, and candidates. With the advent of software-plus-services, TriSys saw an opportunity to create new delivery options for its recruitment software. Based on the software-plus-services model and built using Microsoft® technologies, TriSys ASP offers a fully managed, completely integrated desktop and server experience that dramatically reduces IT, hardware, and software licensing costs for customers. Agencies, such as Additional Resources, can save 60 percent on IT expenses, while easily scaling to meet business demand.

When two partners built a chain of four pharmacies near Kansas City, Missouri, time demands rose as fast as square footage. The largest store offered 10,000 SKUs to 900 customers a day. But every pharmacy’s albatross—accurately invoicing insurance companies and reconciling piecemeal payments—took up to 20 hours of staff time per store each month. Then nursing homes and customers had to be invoiced for the remainders. To tame the paperwork, partners selected Microsoft Dynamics® Retail Management System, Nova Libra Pharmacy POS, and Speed Script’s Pharmacy Management System. Task times shrunk, billing accuracy hit nearly 100 percent, and customers praised faster lines. But an unexpected bonus appeared. When partners agreed to divide the chain, accounts receivable were clear to the penny, customer lists showed preferred buying habits, and stock levels reported by store were impeccable.