Case Studies: Manufacturing

Time means everything to pharmaceutical companies—speeding the drug development cycle enables fast time-to-market and a more competitive business. Creating a more efficient, effective development cycle is a priority for Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR). But the disconnected infrastructure used to manage research projects slowed decision making, such as which projects to prioritize, because of the time required to aggregate project data. NIBR teamed with Microsoft to build the Decision Support Environment—a solution that consolidates project data and associated documentation to a single system. The solution, which was built initially on Microsoft® Windows® SharePoint® Services 3.0 and soon will run on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, supports fast information access and better business insight, and the solution will help NIBR speed the drug discovery life cycle.

Brocade Communications Systems, a company specializing in data center networking solutions, needed to deliver corporate information to employees in a centralized manner. Content was difficult to locate because it was spread across disparate storage systems and locations. With help from EMC Corporation, Brocade implemented a new intranet based on Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007 to give employees better access to corporate data and enhanced collaboration tools. Employees now have the tools they need to contribute to the company more effectively. They have better access to information resources, and intranet use has more than doubled. Brocade employees also improve efficiency by using automated workflow processes and templates to manage projects. Finally, calls to the company’s help desk have decreased by 30 percent because employees can find and use information more easily.

To comply with a U.S. federal directive to prove that its pricing for lumber was fair, Weyerhaeuser Company needed a way to quickly gather and analyze information from various technology systems. The company’s Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000–based solution worked well, but its processing speed left little time for the company to comply with the government’s tight timelines. Weyerhaeuser upgraded to SQL Server 2005, tuned existing processes, and now is able to complete data processing 50 percent faster. The performance improvements allow more time for analyzing the data, which is important to Weyerhaeuser because delivering accurate, defendable data is critical for compliance. The upgraded solution also takes advantage of integration between SQL Server 2005 and Microsoft Visual Studio® 2005 for streamlined development, which saves steps every time Weyerhaeuser wants to change or add to its solution.

With 83,000 full time employees as of Q2 FY08 and annual revenue of U.S.$57 billion for FY07, Dell is a global leader in building and selling computer systems. The company’s Global Accounts Payable Organization is responsible for ensuring that its network of suppliers is paid in a timely manner. The Procurement Finance group at Dell is responsible for providing the Global Accounts Payable Group and management with the tools to track key performance indicators to ensure business objectives are being achieved according to plan. To gain better visibility into invoice discrepancies, Dell created a data mart hosted on Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2005 Enterprise Edition (64-bit), and accessed through a portal created using Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007. SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services and Reporting Services give Dell near real time visibility into its complex procure to pay processes.