X

Nexway, a leading global vendor of e-commerce solutions, faced the challenge of gaining rapid intelligence on sales performance and the cost of payments. With over 700 clients and activities in more than 140 countries, Nexway specializes in enabling software publishers and software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers to build and manage online stores. As the company grew from a Europe-centric business to a global player, the variety of payment methods and providers it supported also increased significantly. This growth amplified the importance of analyzing payment routes and costs. Reporting to clients on sales performance was a crucial part of Nexway's services, requiring the company to consolidate and analyze data from several underlying systems. As Nexway's appetite for analytics grew, it continued to rely on Data Integration and Analytics to deliver rapid insight to decision-makers within its own organization and its clients.

Peking University Third Hospital, a comprehensive tertiary hospital established in 1958, was facing challenges with its legacy IT infrastructure. The hospital, which integrates healthcare, education, scientific research, preventative healthcare, rehabilitation, and health management, was struggling to meet the increasing demand for services due to its growth, new scientific research, and the global pandemic. The ageing IT assets led to performance degradation and reliability issues, increasing the workload for the IT teams. The hospital's disaster recovery capabilities were also insufficient to support business continuity. The hospital needed a better data infrastructure to respond quickly to patients and consistently deliver a good experience.

Portfolio+ is a leading player in the open banking movement in Canada, offering advanced technology, a secure API, and a proven core banking platform. As the company continues to evolve alongside the largest financial institutions in Canada, it must continually innovate to stay ahead of customer expectations. With open banking rapidly increasing in popularity, Portfolio+ needed to provide scalable, fully managed cloud services to meet customer demand. Initially, Portfolio+ planned to migrate to the cloud over three to five years, gradually upskilling its teams and experimenting. However, in 2019, it recognized the need to accelerate its plans to stay competitive.

PÖTTINGER Landtechnik GmbH, an Austria-based leading international manufacturer of grassland and arable farming machines, as well as digital agricultural technology, was facing a challenge. The company, which generates annual revenues of approximately €400 million and employs almost 2,000 people worldwide, was looking to strengthen its data security and resiliency to support increasing sales of its smart farming solutions. With a growing global population, sustainability and efficiency in the agricultural sector were becoming increasingly important. PÖTTINGER had been focusing on digitalization and delivering intelligent precision farming with smart tools, which allowed farmers to monitor their fields and tailor their activities to individual soil conditions. However, with increasing food prices and demand for local produce, PÖTTINGER was growing in many markets around the world and needed to streamline its manufacturing processes with industrial internet of things (IIoT) solutions and data-driven automation. This required additional data storage resources.

The NHS National Breast Screening Programme, managed by Public Health England (PHE), screens 2.5 million women annually, saving approximately 1,300 lives each year. The programme relies heavily on the National Breast Screening System (NBSS), a critical IT system that supports all administrative activities, from appointment handling to patient evaluation. With 78 instances on local hospital networks and a user base of around 4,000 NHS staff, the NBSS must be highly available, secure, and regularly updated. However, the NBSS was built in the early 2000s on a legacy platform, which posed challenges in supporting the evolution of the programme and new technologies. Furthermore, the existing support contract was no longer adequate, and PHE needed a new partner to manage the system without losing the knowledge and skills held by team members.

Sestra Systems, a company that developed TapWise, a dispensing-as-a-service solution, faced a significant challenge in providing seamless service to customers in disconnected environments. The company's solution turns beverage taps into IoT-connected devices, improving customer service, preventing loss through spillage, and ensuring compliance with ABC regulations. The taps also collect a vast quantity of data and store it in the cloud, providing customers with visibility of who poured which drinks, when, and why. However, with a diverse customer base ranging from small hotels to large stadiums, distributors, and even cruise ships, Sestra Systems needed to ensure TapWise was highly available, even with limited access to the cloud. As the company scaled, it also needed to maintain connected control for an increasing number of diverse environments.

The not-for-profit healthcare system aimed to build an in-room concierge system to reduce the burden of logistical questions on medical staff, improve patient satisfaction and survey response rates, and test the effectiveness of a voice user interface (VUI) in enhancing patient and caregiver interaction. The system was required to handle requests for care, provide general hospital information, and initiate a brief satisfaction survey to alert the medical center to any negative experiences in real time. It also needed to facilitate state-sponsored surveys at the end of the stay, crucial for maintaining reputation and operating certificates. The challenge was to balance technical proficiency with the integrity of protected health information (PHI), ensuring the system complied with HIPAA and applicable state regulations.

The Southern Apennine region in Italy, which is responsible for the country's central and southern water resources, is increasingly susceptible to the impacts of climate change. Unpredictable and violent thunderstorms are affecting the hydrogeological structure of the soil, while prolonged droughts are escalating the risk of potential desertification. The intensive use of the land for agriculture and other purposes has also heightened exposure to natural disasters. The District Basin Authority, which governs the physical environment and protects its water resources, is tasked with monitoring the appropriate use of these resources, forecasting the region’s water supply, and preventing natural and human-made hazards. The Authority initiated a project to continuously monitor water quality and availability throughout the territory, aiming to build a network of remote sensors that could surveil the water system and analyze the data using various technologies, including big data analytics and data science modeling.

USU, one of Europe’s largest vendors of IT and knowledge management software, was looking to enhance its software solutions by improving their built-in analytics capabilities. The company aimed to provide more flexible reports and visualizations that would support on-demand ad hoc analysis and forecasting of process performance. They wanted to empower their customers’ business users by enabling them to build these reports and visualizations without needing the help of technical experts. The key challenge was to find a comprehensive data integration, data analysis, and front-end data visualization solution from a single vendor that would be easy to integrate into its software portfolio.

Regional banks play a crucial role in the economic health of communities by offering greater access to funding and personalized services. However, over the last two decades, these institutions have found it increasingly difficult to compete with larger national banks due to customer demand for more convenience and digital touchpoints in banking, and their lack of IT expertise to deliver them. Large national banks have hundreds of people dedicated to software development and can make up for their lack of personal client relationships by offering sleek, easy-to-use applications. This has become particularly important in a post-COVID era, where digital convenience often overshadows the personal touch of in-person banking. Regional banks are at a crossroads – their lean IT budgets are hardly enough to develop enterprise-grade software with traditional code, and commercial-off-the-shelf solutions are typically restrictive.

Bongards Creameries, a leading provider of cheeses and powdered whey, was looking to improve its operations and increase efficiency. Despite being a well-established business with over a century of experience, the company was not content with the status quo. It sought to leverage technology to streamline processes and boost profitability. The company had already begun its digital transformation journey 25 years ago with the implementation of Aptean’s process manufacturing enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. However, it was looking for further improvements and enhancements to its operations. The challenge was to find a solution that could provide a unified database, prevent duplication of data, automate data collection, and provide better visibility of financial data. Additionally, the company wanted to automate warehouse processes for better inventory control and efficiency.

Bedford Specialty Sales, Inc., a specialty chemical distributor based in Shirley, MA, was facing significant challenges in managing its sales data. The company was relying on manual processes, using basic accounting software for inventory management and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and Word documents to capture and control sales data. This method was not user-friendly and became increasingly difficult to manage as the business grew. The company needed to carefully track its customers and monitor every product by lot, but the existing system was cumbersome and limited their ability to manage costs effectively. The lack of a dedicated software solution was hindering the company's growth and its ability to make quick and accurate business decisions.

Haviland Enterprises, a large chemical distribution company, was facing significant inefficiencies in its vendor payment process. The company was relying heavily on manual, paper-based processes for their payment runs, which were conducted multiple times a week across multiple locations in three states. This resulted in an ever-growing workload for the AP team. Additionally, despite many vendors expressing a preference for electronic payments, Haviland lacked the resources to securely store sensitive data. The company was in need of a solution that could automate the payment process, reduce workload, and securely handle sensitive vendor data.

888 Holdings, a leading online betting and gaming company, faced the challenge of maintaining high customer satisfaction levels in gaming while meeting stringent data protection regulations. The company hosts more than 40,000 concurrent users, each expecting high standards of service in terms of performance and availability. This necessitated a high-performance infrastructure. Additionally, the gaming industry is heavily regulated, with increasing data protection requirements. 888 Holdings was required to keep a third copy of all data, leading to rapid data growth. The challenge was to manage this data growth while ensuring low latency and high availability in data centers.

Allergan, a global pharmaceutical company, was facing challenges in managing its complex IT infrastructure. The company was struggling with the management of multiple applications and systems, which were not only costly but also inefficient. The lack of a unified platform was leading to operational inefficiencies and was hindering the company's ability to innovate and respond to market changes quickly. The company was also grappling with the challenge of modernizing its applications and transitioning to a cloud-based infrastructure. The transition was critical for Allergan to stay competitive in the rapidly evolving healthcare industry. However, the company lacked the necessary expertise and resources to manage the transition effectively.

Animex Foods, one of the largest meat producers in Poland, faced a significant challenge in maintaining its processing plants' reliability to maximize productivity. The company, with over 11,000 employees and twelve plants, had a robust digital process and advanced data analytics supporting its business operations. However, as the company grew, it reached a point where it needed to add storage capacity. Its existing storage infrastructure could not be expanded, and the storage arrays had become too slow to support the fast-paced business effectively. The company needed a solution that could ensure continuous business operations, increase plant reliability, and maximize production output.

Armedia, a veteran-owned systems integrator specializing in digital transformation, IT modernization, and enterprise content management (ECM) solutions, was seeking to optimize its clients' complex digital transformation initiatives and case management workflows. The company, which serves both public and private-sector organizations, including U.S. government agencies, education, transportation and logistics, manufacturing, retail, finance, healthcare, and technology sectors, needed to provide real-time, actionable insight on demand. Armedia frequently recommends its own case management solution, ArkCase, which integrates ECM, business process management (BPM), and customer relationship management (CRM) functionality into a single platform. However, to take its solution to the next level, Armedia looked to embed reporting and analytics capabilities into the ArkCase platform.

Badan POM, the Indonesian Food and Drug Authority, was facing significant challenges with its legacy system. The authority, which regulates the country's registration and distribution of drugs, food, cosmetics, and health supplements, had large data storage requirements. The legacy system was causing slow system performance, leading to longer lead times needed to process license applications. This inefficiency was not only affecting the authority's operations but also its customer service. Additionally, the lack of adequate data protection was putting the authority's data and business at risk. The challenge was to improve the slow application performance and increase data protection.

Bartle Frere Bananas, a mid-sized, multi-generational farm in Far North Queensland, Australia, was on a mission to improve environmental outcomes and productivity for Australia’s horticulture sector. The farm, which supplies small markets and major grocery chains alike, was facing challenges related to extreme weather systems, flooding, and rising operational costs. The owner, Gavin Devaney, was committed to farming responsibly and sustainably, which meant balancing fertilization, irrigation, and productivity while being good stewards of the land. The farm wanted to gather data from across its operation and generate insights to inform best management practices, productivity, regulatory compliance, and sustainability. Devaney wanted to prove that his operations adhered to the farming industry’s best management practices and demonstrate that the bananas at Bartle Frere Bananas are carefully grown in a more innovative and sustainable way.

Bing Lee, a consumer electronics retail chain in Australia, was facing a significant challenge in integrating business data during a complex digital transformation project. The company's legacy ERP had become a highly customized system, dependent on a single point of failure. Its data was unstructured, and problematic processes were making the data generated by the system unreliable. Bing Lee invested in a new cloud-based ERP and developed their own Point of Sale (POS) system. A new reporting tool was also selected to improve user experience for employees. However, the transition to the new ERP was slowed down by the Covid-19 pandemic, and the company's sales and number of transactions substantially grew, increasing the volume of data through its systems.

Blechwarenfabrik Limburg GmbH, a leading manufacturer of tinplate packaging, was faced with the challenge of improving environmental sustainability and accelerating its manufacturing processes. The company, with 500 employees and locations in Germany, Denmark, and Poland, uses 22,000 tons of tinplate annually to produce 100 million canisters, cans, and bottles for chemical-technical liquids. Beyond sustainability, the company also aimed to streamline the processes and management of its subsidiaries by gaining new insights. The challenge was to enable standardized, integrated, real-time data analytics across all systems and departments to achieve these goals.

Hitachi Vantara had been providing on-demand storage services to automobile manufacturer BMW Group since 2012. The service was delivered by a 20-member operations and migrations team based in Munich, Germany, and supported all BMW Group production sites worldwide, including locations in Germany, China, and the U.S. However, the existing Hitachi storage platform was nearing its end of life, necessitating an upgrade to new hardware. The challenge was to carry out this upgrade without disrupting production continuity. The project was massive, impacting 12 sites in eight countries across four continents and involving 1,700 physical servers.

CBTS, an innovative IT managed service provider, was facing the challenge of meeting the increasing customer demand for cloud-based services. As a company that helps its customers achieve their business and IT goals with solutions that align to their cloud-first strategies, CBTS needed a flexible and reliable IT infrastructure. However, like its customers, CBTS wanted to avoid capital investment in infrastructure that might become redundant if customers scale-down. The company, which started as a division of a local telephony company, has evolved over the last 20 years and now works with more than 3,000 organizations across multiple industries. With 1,500 employees at locations in the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, and India, the need for a cost-effective and agile cloud service solution was paramount.

Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Luxembourgeois (CFL), Luxembourg’s national rail company, was faced with the challenge of improving customer experience and increasing efficiency by leveraging the vast amount of data generated by their trains and infrastructure. As one of the country's largest employers, with over 3,000 employees, CFL served 14.5 million passengers and transported 2.3 million tonne-kilometers of freight in 2020. The company needed to balance the management of track, rolling stock, station buildings, and other infrastructure with the needs of its passengers and freight customers. To explore emerging technologies like robotics, multimedia, unified communications, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things, CFL established a new department within its IT organization, known as Operational Technology. The challenge was to turn the large quantities of data generated by high-tech sensors and control systems into actionable insights with real business value.

Coop Group, a leading retail, wholesale, and food production company based in Basel, Switzerland, faced a significant challenge in managing its complex, fast-paced supply chain. The company, which operates almost 2,500 retail stores and generates annual revenues of CHF 30.2 billion (US$32.7 billion), needed to ensure high-quality fresh food was always available on store shelves and online. Efficiently handling the logistics around its 14 distribution centers was central to the retailer’s success. To ensure that customers could get essentials such as fruit, vegetables, and bread fresh every day, Coop relied heavily on data analytics and sophisticated forecasting. However, with growing data volumes, the company recognized the need to expand its data storage infrastructure to ensure timely logistics processes and smooth food deliveries.

DenizBank, a leading financial institution, was facing challenges in maintaining the customer experience and application performance as the bank expanded. The bank's customers demanded a fast, flawless, and customized experience, which required insightful data and scalable technology platforms. With the volume of customer data growing constantly, the bank needed a storage solution that was reliable, high-performing, and easy to manage. Additionally, DenizBank wanted to simplify their backup process. The bank was using over 1200 tapes per year for data retention, which was not only costly but also complex and time-consuming when it came to restoring data.

Disney Parks & Resorts are renowned for their fun, dynamic, and state-of-the-art experiences. However, delivering these seamless operations is a significant challenge, especially considering the complexity of Disney’s attractions. For instance, the Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance ride system requires real-time analysis and management of between 30,000 and 40,000 data points generated by Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) sensors. Disney devotes extraordinary care to ensuring the availability and operating capacity of its attractions when guests are on site. This means maintenance must be planned and executed with precision to keep ride systems running flawlessly. The challenge lies in turning the massive amount of data generated into actionable insights for predictive maintenance.

Fannie Mae, a leading financial services company, was facing a challenge in managing its vast amount of business data. The company, which enabled the acquisition of more than 2 million home purchases and refinancings, and financing of approximately 598,000 rental units across the United States in 2022, was becoming increasingly digital and data-centric. To leverage all its business data across new and legacy applications, and to break down existing data silos, the company wanted to create an agile and dynamic enterprise data lake. However, the process of managing this data lake was complex and time-consuming. Every single one of its 15,000 datasets went through an initial registration process to assign a unique identifier, and every field had to be documented manually. This approach increased compliance and transparency but made the process slow due to the need to add an elaborate set of metadata to every dataset.

Gijima, one of South Africa’s leading ICT companies, faced a challenge with its inherited server and storage infrastructure. Much of the storage was reaching end-of-life, and Gijima recognized that upgrading could significantly improve performance and manageability. However, the company needed to migrate its data to new storage arrays without causing any disruption to its clients’ systems. Additionally, Gijima required a partner that could offer on-demand scalability at an attractive price-point, to cater to its wide range of clients, from enterprise clients to small to medium businesses. The company's state-of-the-art Tier-3 data center hosts business-critical systems for many of its biggest clients, making the need for a seamless transition to new storage arrays even more crucial.

Karolinska Institutet, a leading medical university, was tasked with accelerating research into chronic diseases and the impact of the human microbiome on reproductive health. This research was compute- and memory-intensive, requiring flexible compute capacity to process large batches of samples that arrive unpredictably. In 2020, the Centre for Translational Microbiome Research (CTMR) at the university was also tasked by the Swedish government to set up a new National Pandemic Centre (NPC) to strengthen Sweden’s COVID-19 response. The NPC was responsible for analyzing approximately 45,000 PCR-based COVID-19 tests per week, making it one of the largest lab facilities in Sweden for SARS-CoV-2 analyses. However, the CTMR was running IT services and analytics jobs on two physical servers, in a static configuration with no virtualization or capacity to scale, which posed a significant challenge.