GSTAT provides business intelligence and data mining solutions, including real-time next best offers (NBO) to customers across a range of industries. GSTAT developed its GSTAT Xeligence data mining solutions using the Microsoft® Application Platform, including Microsoft SQL Server® 2005 database software. Customers using GSTAT’s Xeligence NBO solution from finance, telecom and retail, have enjoyed up to 10 times better response rates by making offers that have greater relevance to customers. The solution automates development and deployment of data mining models that used to take months of manual statistical work. Within healthcare, GSTAT Xeligence solutions have helped physicians use data mining of patient records to identify those that should be contacted proactively to prevent health deterioration that could lead to a medical crisis.

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) represents the interests of more than 900 rural electric cooperative utilities in the United States. NRECA has 800 employees who provide trade association member services in addition to insurance and financial services for approximately 300,000 plan participants and beneficiaries. To keep data about those members-employees-participants confidential, the NRECA Information Security staff has to closely monitor and control NRECA employee identity credentials, which used to be a largely manual process. With the help of Logic Trends, a Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner, NRECA deployed Microsoft Identity Lifecycle Manager 2007 to automate credential management. With new identity management tools, NRECA has been able to strengthen the protection of business systems, streamline credential management, and boost employee productivity.

Coating Excellence International (CEI) manufactures high-quality, flexible-packaging products using environmentally friendly practices. To continue to enhance its quality and efficiency, CEI needed to provide its shop-floor operators and business decision makers with real-time production metrics and analysis tools in a solution that was quick to deploy and easy to manage with limited resources. It upgraded to Microsoft Dynamics® AX 4.0, Microsoft® SQL Server® 2005, and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services, deployed Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, and integrated those with its shop-floor application. As a result CEI enhanced its decision making and customer management tools. And by signing a Microsoft Volume Licensing Enterprise Agreement, it cut software license acquisition and management costs, set a predictable licensing cost per desktop, and gained Software Assurance benefits.

Effective collaboration and efficient document management are essential to the success of any project, especially during times of economic uncertainty. 4Projects—a leader in the field of project collaboration solutions—saw an increasing need for a new kind of collaboration and content management strategy. The company developed 4Projects, a Web-based solution built using the Microsoft® SQL Server® 2005 Enterprise Edition data management software and the Windows Server® 2003 operating system. Customers, such as Waitrose supermarkets, use the solution to share documents, expedite review and approval processes, and archive completed projects for future reference. Using the software-plus-services approach, 4Projects generates consistent monthly revenue for itself, while helping its customers reduce costs, save time, and mitigate risk.

FSA Group serves Australians who need help controlling their debt. In mid-2007, the company redesigned its outdated IT environment to offer enterprise-class capabilities, standardizing on Windows Server® 2003, Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003, and other core Microsoft software. These improvements led to rapid growth in the data the company had to manage. To address this challenge, FSA Group worked with CommVault—a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner—to deploy CommVault Simpana software for data management, archiving, replication, and resource management. Using technology from FAST—a Microsoft subsidiary—Simpana also offers rapid content-based indexing and searching. Now, FSA Group retrieves archived documents in seconds instead of hours, saves about 40 hours a month on user requests, has achieved 99.999 percent uptime, and has simplified the path for upgrading its core Microsoft software.

Apptix is one of the world’s leading hosting providers of Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007 mail systems. It serves 200,000 users with 1–5 gigabyte (GB) mailboxes. To maintain competitiveness and cut costs, Apptix needed a more efficient storage solution. With such large mailboxes to support, the company considered a direct-attached storage (DAS) solution and two storage area network (SAN) solutions. It chose the EMC CLARiiON CX4 SAN hardware from Microsoft Global Alliance Partner EMC. With this scalable solution, Apptix can offer customers high availability with fast recovery in the event of an outage. The solution saves space through thin provisioning, which makes it possible to move seldom-accessed data to inactive drives. Through its EMC and Microsoft solution, Apptix has reduced rack space, power, and IT costs, and has cut its total cost of ownership (TOC) by nearly 40 percent.

EquaSiis, an EquaTerra company and a leading outsourcing consultant, wanted to give its clients a way to streamline and automate the implementation of its outsourcing best practices and recommendations—but existing tools weren’t comprehensive enough. EquaSiis Enterprise is an Office Business Application that streamlines processes by automating governance activities with easily referenced, built-in calculations tied to the business case and budget.

Leading outsourcing consultant EquaTerra wanted an automated, scalable tool to enable clients to better implement best practices and other recommendations, but existing systems didn’t support EquaTerra’s comprehensive approach. So, the company launched EquaSiis, partnering with Microsoft and RCM, a Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner. The result, EquaSiis Enterprise, can save a client millions of dollars a year in reduced governance costs and recovered fees. And thanks to the partnership with Microsoft and RCM, EquaSiis developed the solution for less cost, and is seeing strong sales in the company’s target market of Global 2000 companies.

Qalhat LNG, a producer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the Sultanate of Oman, experienced frequent downtime and high rental fees for its leased IT services. It worked with Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner KalSoft to deploy its own solution using Microsoft technologies. Now, Qalhat LNG no longer experiences delays—increasing employee productivity by up to two days a month—and has reduced IT operating expenses by nearly 30 per cent.

Wrightwood Capital, a real-estate finance and investment company, was using manual data-handling processes to close deals. It could take employees days to find documents, and the company incurred rising payroll, hardware, and service costs to cope with the growing volume of information. The company decided to automate its document-handling processes with help from RightPoint Consulting and a solution based on Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007. As a result, the company has improved workflow efficiency and expects to cut annual costs by more than U.S.$100,000. The solution is easy to use and support. And because employees are spending less time managing information, they can conduct business faster and close more deals.