Case Studies: Government

According to officials at the Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS), having a clear window into the services and resources available to constituents and having access to a complete picture of an individual’s requirements is the difference between addressing a constituent’s needs and failing them. To that end, Iowa’s Department of Human Services has worked with Microsoft to deploy a data warehouse based on Microsoft® SQL Server™ database software to break down silos of automation that have historically been an obstacle to case workers doing their jobs. DHS is posting measurable improvements in matching the needs of its constituents with the full array of resources Iowa provides to help individuals, families and entire communities.

The Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games Corporation (M2006) needed a Web site to deliver schedules, venue and transport information, team and athlete profiles, photos, and up-to-the-minute news and results during the 12 days of the Games. Microsoft, the Official Technology Partner for the Games, built and operated the Web site between April 2005 and March 2006. Microsoft® Services consultants at the Microsoft Solutions Development Centre and local partners built the site on a wide range of Microsoft server software. During the Games, the Web site processed up to 10,000 page requests per second and reached a global audience of nearly 12 million. Research and past experience allowed M2006 and Microsoft to forecast the amount of content that would be generated and the number of people who would visit the site. However, as there was no definite way of predicting peak demand levels, the Web site needed to be built for scalability.

Australian Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) System Program Offices must retain and access maintenance and engineering records to help ensure the safety and airworthiness of hundreds of aircraft. Obtaining reports from the database took several days—potentially jeopardizing the Air Force’s responsiveness. Aging systems became costly and difficult to maintain, and DMO sought a solution. DMO contracted Apt Business Solutions to develop NetMAARS, an enterprise maintenance intelligence solution based on Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2005 Enterprise (64-bit) Edition and SQL Server Reporting Services. Four Apt Business Solutions programmers completed the solution in only 15 months. They experienced smoother development and debugging by using Microsoft Visual Studio® 2005 Professional Edition and the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0. Users now report faster reporting and increased productivity.

Israel Police needed to unite data from more than 20 intelligence applications to give its officers a faster and more efficient tool for solving crime. They needed an enterprise grade extract, transform, and load (ETL) tool for performing complex transformations on feeds before adding information to its new online analytical processing (OLAP) intelligence system. After testing Informatica PowerCenter against Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2005 Integration Services, Israeli Police decided to use Integration Services for the ETL component of its OLAP solution. The 2-terabyte intelligence system, running on a single instance of SQL Server, helps Israeli Police intelligence officers complete data searches in seconds that once took days to assemble from disparate systems. Integration Services has also proven easy to incorporate into custom applications created using Microsoft Visual Studio® .NET.