Learn how Microsoft’s interoperability solutions have helped a variety of industries and partners solve business challenges, increase productivity, reduce costs, and improve collaboration and communication.

State of Hesse

German State Government Increases Productivity 66 Percent with Unified Interface
Published: 8/17/2010
State of Hesse implemented Office Business Gateway (OBG) to create interoperability using Open XML Formats. From any Microsoft® Office application, workers can view common data in the OBG task pane. “The OBG solution improves Microsoft Office functionality with a document-driven gateway that integrates with any type of application,” Dr. Karl-Heinz Sternemann, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technical Officer at Combionic.

Indiana Office of Technology

State Government Upgrades Browser for Extra Layer of Security, Better Manageability
Published: 8/6/2010
The Indiana Office of Technology upgraded to Windows 7 operating system as well as IE8. They used the Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit, the Internet Explorer Compatibility Test Tool, and the Internet Explorer Administration Kit 8 to aid the deployment and experience interoperability with the PeopleSoft application. “...we were able to adjust Internet Explorer 8 settings to get...commercial applications to work fine on the new browser, such as the PeopleSoft web application.” Dewand Neely, Manager of Tier 3 Support, Indiana Office of Technology.

Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin Merges Cloud Agility with Premises Control to Meet Customer Needs
Published: 7/19/2010
Lockheed Martin used the Windows Azure™ platform to develop the Thundercloud™ design pattern, which integrates on-premises infrastructures with computing services in the cloud. “By integrating an application with both the cloud and a customer’s on-premises infrastructure, and extending the capability via a mobile device, we can make sure that personal and private information never leaves the secure environment where it’s stored.” Melvin Greer, Chief Strategist-Cloud Computing, Lockheed Martin.

London Borough of Lewisham LoveCleanStreets

Council Web Portal Cuts Graffiti and Illegal Dumping of Waste in London Boroughs
Published: 5/13/2010
LoveCleanStreets is an award winning free online portal that helps people who live or work in London to upload photographs of community problems that require action by the local authority. The system—pioneered by the London Borough of Lewisham—gives citizens the power to improve their immediate environment. An interactive map using the latest Microsoft Silverlight browser plug-in and Bing Maps for Enterprise shows reports in real time. Microsoft Certified Partner bbits can also integrate the solution with local authority citizen relationship management systems using the Microsoft .NET Framework. A free application programming interface also allows developers to create their own applications and retrieve reports. In Lewisham, complaints about graffiti fell by 30 per cent in just two years from the portal going live. Clean-up times have been cut drastically and resident satisfaction with the street cleaning service and local authority responsiveness has increased.

KnowledgeTree

Content Management Provider Supports PHP on Windows to Broaden Customer Base
Published: 5/13/2010
KnowledgeTree, the highly successful provider of open source document management software, needed to offer that software on the native technology of Windows-centric organizations, so it enabled the PHP code of its application to run on Windows Server. KnowledgeTree accomplished the move in just three months, largely on its own, and with help from Microsoft. The company has maintained its open source/commercial business model but, by broadening the environments that it supports, KnowledgeTree expects to significantly increase revenues. The move also opens the door for a range of comarketing and other partnership opportunities both with Microsoft and with the ecosystem of Microsoft channel companies. Best of all, KnowledgeTree believes this decision will help fuel customer satisfaction and lay the foundation for continued growth.

Fleishman-Hillard

Communications Firm Boosts Service with Social Networking, Collaboration
Published: 5/12/2010
Fleishman-Hillard uses Business Connectivity Services in SharePoint Server 2010 to connect to enterprise information stored in the company’s PeopleSoft system. “PeopleSoft is our database of record for all of our clients and employees. We are using SharePoint Server 2010 to draw on this valuable content, gather relevant material into a centralized location, and present it in a useful manner.”

DreamFactory

Web application publisher combines data across clouds
Published: 4/27/2010
“Windows Azure was built from the ground up with interoperability in mind" Appleton says. "Developers can use just about any language or development tool to build their application, run it on Windows Azure, and consume data from any other cloud or on-premises platform. Using DreamFactory tools, users can then drag, drop, and connect applications and data between clouds," Appleton says. "We bring a new level of interoperability to cloud computing.”

China Life Pension Company

Pension provider integrates business data and improves collaboration between teams
Published: 4/20/2010
China Life Pension Company implemented Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 data management software and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. The company now has integrated data from disparate sources, so employees use updated information for decision making. Employees from different teams collaborate more easily through a unified reporting and analysis process. Users are also boosting efficiency by creating statistical analysis reports more quickly and sharing business process information through an enterprise portal.

City of Birmingham

311 Call Center Boosts Operational Efficiency, Avoids Higher Costs with CRM Solution
Published: 4/20/2010
The City of Birmingham, Alabama, needed a new 311 call center solution to help route and track service requests from citizens. The call center's previous system was expensive to maintain, difficult to use, and did not support how city departments worked. Their solution was to integrate the 311 solution with the city's existing geographic information system to help employees more efficiently plan their daily itinerary and speed call-handling times.

Steinkjer Kommune

Municipality Transforms Document Handling with Collaboration Software
Published: 3/25/2010
Steinkjer Kommune ntegrated its internal document management solution with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, creating a user-friendly interface that staff could personalise. ErgoGroup built an integration bus-an electronic pathway that connects multiple devices-between ePhorte and Office SharePoint Server 2007, and created a common workspace. The organisation also aims to integrate solutions such as Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, and its finance and human resources applications.

Rocky Mountain Supercomputing Centers

On-Demand Model Broadens Reach of Supercomputing with Familiar Environment
Published: 3/23/2010
RMSC offers not only Windows HPC Server 2008, but also the Red Hat Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server from Novell, with whom Microsoft has developed a flexible HPC dual-licensing program through the companies' interoperability partnership. RMSC also uses Active Directory on the Linux side of its cluster to perform authentication and authorization. “The ease of mapping Windows credentials and authentication rights to Linux gives us a single point from which to deal with user and administrator account management.”

Pfizer

Pfizer Improves Productivity and Collaboration with Scientific Data Integration Solution
Published: 3/18/2010
“Pfizer employees can use Office SharePoint Server 2007 to run Pipeline Pilot data processing protocols and return results back to the SharePoint team site. Users can set up their own Web parts within SharePoint Server 2007 to display the information that they need most often.” “Because Office SharePoint Server 2007 was already being used throughout the company, Pfizer deployed the Pipeline Pilot Bridge to a central SharePoint library, enabling any employee to set up Pipeline Pilot and SAS Web parts within SharePoint Server 2007 to customize team sites.”

Leading Automotive Company

Leading Automotive Company Utilizes Microsoft and Novell Technology
Published: 2/19/2010
By replacing Red Hat and standardizing its HPC Linux platform on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, a leading automotive company has realized significant cost savings, and also benefits from the higher quality of Novell support.

Home Group

Nonprofit Improves Services, Expects to Save Up to $1 Million with Monitoring Software
Published: 2/4/2010
“With System Center, we have one interoperable platform that enables us to holistically link problems to devices anywhere in our organization so that we can solve problems faster and serve our customers better.”

Thomson Reuters

Company to Save Months of Development Time with New Programming Framework
Published: 1/15/2010
“The support for standards will facilitate SSO identity federation for Treasura‘s customers—and among other Thomson Reuters products—even if they do not use Microsoft technologies. “We have huge projected future needs to interoperate with a wide variety of identity infrastructures, and being able to provide a standards-based solution opens up a lot of options for us,” comments Shantz.”

Cast Iron Systems

Leading Integration Company Speeds to Market with Cloud-to-Cloud Interoperation
Published: 11/17/2009
“To create this anything-to-anything interoperability, Cast Iron used the Service Bus and the Access Control Service features of Windows Azure. Using these services simplifies the task of building applications and services that bridge cloud and on-premises deployments.” “Using the Cast Iron cloud integration solution, customers can go live on the Windows Azure platform faster than they could wrestling with interoperability issues themselves.”

SugarCRM

CRM Vendor Quickly Adapts to New Platform, Adds Global, Scalable Delivery Channel
Published: 11/17/2009
“SugarCRM provides open-source customer relationship management (CRM) software and focuses on its “Sugar Open Cloud” strategy, meaning that the company makes its applications available for a variety of on-premises and hosted service platforms. The independent software vendor recently ported its application to the Windows Azure™ platform to enable its customers and value-added resellers to take advantage of real-time scalability, geographically dispersed Microsoft® data centers, and maximum data availability to gain high end performance without investing in additional infrastructure. The ease of deployment and pay-as-you-go pricing will also help customers control IT costs. Thanks to strong support for programming language interoperability within the Windows Azure platform, SugarCRM was able to complete the porting process with two engineers in about two weeks.”

Research Director Inc.

Radio-Research Firm Reduces Production Time and Costs with Presentation Solution
Published: 11/9/2009
“Because PSC developers can access and modify specific parts of files in Open XML, RDI will experience development savings as the project moves forward.” “By using Open XML to develop the document generation solution, PSC created benefits for itself as well as its customer. First, it will be able to market similar solutions to existing and new customers. And because it can develop the system directly in Open XML without having to automate Office PowerPoint 2007, it will be much easier to maintain the system based on an open standard.”

AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca Optimises Research Collaboration Solution with Interoperable Technology
Published: 11/5/2009
“The new version of GEL Explorer will be delivered as a set of services based on interoperable Microsoft® technologies, including the Microsoft .NET 3.0 Framework and Windows® Communication Foundation. AstraZeneca believes that when this business-critical application is deployed, it will deliver multiple benefits—including reducing costs, enhancing drug research, increasing collaboration with external partners, and making it easier to comply with complex regulatory requirements.” “One example of interoperability is in the creation of commercial stability reports required for drug submissions. Samantha Morris, Associate Director, GEL Projects, says: “Data on the shelf-life of drugs is recorded in a stability management Web application. The information is pulled automatically from this application into GEL to create Commercial Stability Reports in XML format. These reports can be incorporated in regulatory submissions to health authorities, and don‘t require a contributor to manually enter in data from another AstraZeneca application.”

DAISY Consortium

Consortium Develops New Accessible Multimedia Tool for the Print Disabled
Published: 11/4/2009
“Because Open XML files are compatible with many different formats, the Save as DAISY authoring tool will interoperate with any of the many DAISY reading systems, whether they were created by the DAISY Consortium or one of the many proprietary reading systems that conform to the DAISY standard.” “Documents that users convert with the Save as DAISY add-in will interoperate with any conforming DAISY reading system, including portable reading devices, desktop applications, and plug-ins for Internet browsers. And because Open XML can be converted to other formats so easily, documents created with future versions of Save as DAISY will continue to be compatible with the continually evolving DAISY publishing standard.”

PoundHost

Hosting Company Gains Platform Flexibility, Management Efficiency, with New Software
Published: 7/8/2009
“Many PoundHost customers run some Web applications written in Microsoft® ASP.NET and others in PHP, a popular Web application framework commonly run on Linux-based servers.” “PoundHost Internet made the decision to replace VMware with Windows Server® 2008 Hyper-V technology. The company deployed Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter, which includes improvements to Windows Server 2008 in virtualization, the Web application platform, power management, and reliability.”

Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles

Enhances Decisions and Boosts Safety through Integration with Other Agencies
Published: 5/21/2009
The Virginia DMV used the Microsoft® Connected Government Framework to create an integrated solution that so far includes the state Department of Transportation and Virginia State Police. The case study is now available for reference.

Johns Hopkins Institutions

University-Hospital Doubles IT Management Efficiency with New Software
Published: 5/2/2009
Johns Hopkins Institutions, wanted to trim the cost of managing its IT infrastructure, which spanned 1,500 Windows®, Linux, and UNIX operating system–based servers and 15,000 desktop computers. The organization deployed Microsoft® System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 to manage all systems through one console, doubling monitoring efficiency, increasing application service levels, and improving auditing. Read the case study.

GoDaddy.com

Web Hosting Firm Empowers Customers, Realizes Operational Benefits
Published: 4/10/2009
GoDaddy.com, the world’s largest Web site domain name registrar and one of the world’s leading hosting companies, offers more than 40 Web site products and services for its customers. With its focus on empowering its customers to achieve success on the Web, Go Daddy deployed Windows Server® 2008 and Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS 7.0) to address its own expanding IT infrastructure requirements as it supported the growing needs of its customers. By offering new features, including individual application pools, and both Microsoft®-based and alternative development options, Go Daddy is providing an improved customer experience based on more individual choice and flexibility, while delivering reliability, improved manageability, and increased data security. View the case study and video.

Aqua Connect

Aqua Connect: Microsoft Open Protocols Decrease Solution Deployment Time (.pdf)
Published: 1/2/2009
Aqua Connect is a leading provider of Macintosh® terminal server software. As part of its development of a Mac terminal server, Aqua Connect obtained a license from Microsoft for the Remote Desktop Protocol and, by accessing Microsoft’s protocols specifications, reduced their compatibility issues with RDP devices currently available. The collaboration with Microsoft and the inclusion of RDP helped Aqua Connect keep pace with customer demand and establish their product as a leader in the market.

Accenture and Siemens

Portugal Creates Interoperability Framework to Simplify Citizen/Government Interaction (.wmv)
Published: 11/2005
The Portuguese government is working to make Portugal one of the world’s leading information societies. The Agency for the Modernization of the Public Administration (AMA) is chartered with leading digital initiatives across Portuguese society and introducing e-government services. The agency worked with Microsoft, Accenture, and Siemens IT Solutions and Services to create an interoperability framework that allows multiple, incompatible government information systems to communicate with one another and share citizen-submitted data.

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