PostLinx was aiming to attain ISO 9001 Quality Management System certification in a timely manner and sustain the certification thereafter. The company wanted to effectively track and report nonconformances and ensure all nonconformances/corrective actions were adequately managed. They also needed to centrally maintain all relevant documentation to facilitate the consolidation of information, ease of sharing information, and make the most up-to-date information available for each user, all within a single system.

The biotechnology firm was looking to become ISO 9001 compliant to facilitate potential certification in the future. They needed to implement a Quality Management system for approximately 150 users to stabilize the company’s business processes. The firm was also looking to replace paper-based processes and eliminate inefficiencies when creating and distributing relevant documentation. They required a system that would ensure criteria is met regarding acceptable documentation by the FDA (CFR part 11). The firm also wanted a system that could support the reorganization of the company and its evolving needs.

The Provincial Ministry of Environment was seeking to attain ISO 14001 Certification. They required an Environmental Management System (EMS) solution that could manage the provincial Forestry Program, including tracking, monitoring, and evaluation to minimize any environmental impacts. The Ministry also needed a tool to efficiently manage and consolidate all compliance-related documentation, ensuring that the necessary employees from across the province could access the most up-to-date information. They wanted a system that would help each user manage their tasks, ensuring all time-sensitive activities were completed on schedule.

Community Memorial Health System, a not-for-profit healthcare provider, was struggling with managing a large amount of files and documents across its two hospitals and twelve family-practice health centers. The document control policies were hard to manage due to outdated policies and forms that needed archiving. The incident reporting system was also outdated, leading to low reporting rates as it was not user-friendly and was not available across their 12 clinics. The healthcare provider needed a modern system to manage policies and documents, streamline incident reporting across the business, and improve visibility across their multiple offices. They also required a solution that included training management to improve efficiencies and replace the paper-based process they were using.

Cermaq was looking for a Quality Management Software System to help ensure the quality of their products. The company felt it could improve the handling of customer claims more efficiently and effectively. Handling multiple currency rates was slowing down response times, and an inability to customize parameters when logging incidents was preventing staff from analyzing crucial details and root causes as robustly as they would have liked. It was important that whichever system the firm chose would work as seamlessly as possible across its global footprint. This approach aligned with a company vision of a smoothly operating global entity that drives efficiencies and savings. Cermaq was also looking to improve on certain aspects of their Quality workflow that leaders realized were less than optimal. It included lessening the amount of manual work involved in getting data into their systems.

HelloFresh, a leading global provider of fresh food at home, was facing challenges in optimizing customer experience and improving supplier relationships. The company works with hundreds of suppliers and its product—meal kits— is perishable. This unique business model required a reliable supply chain to ensure the delivery of meal kits to millions of Americans. The company also aimed to become an industry leader by going above and beyond industry standards and anticipating future needs and requirements. However, the process of growth and transition from a small startup to an industry leader was not without pain points. The company needed to enhance its approach to processes, standard operating procedures (SOPs) and corrective actions for nonconformances.

Rubio’s Restaurants, a company with over 3,250 employees, was facing a challenge in understanding the risks that the company faced. The director of internal audit, Dennis Kreta, wanted to improve the way employees communicate their concerns to management. The company needed a compliance system that would keep employees safe and happy. Kreta knew that he needed greater insight into any possible risk issues the restaurant faced – from employment concerns to possible financial misconduct.

The city of Black Hawk, Colorado, despite having only 80 official residents, hosts 21 casinos and can accommodate up to 15,000 people during a busy weekend. This unique situation makes the city's government structure similar to that of a larger city, with multiple departments each assigned to different responsibilities. The city manager struggled to establish conformity in many of the human resources practices and training material pertaining to employees’ duties, procedures, and policies. The city also looked to protect itself from litigation stemming from a terminated employee. An additional obstacle was the lack of computer literacy among all city employees due to departments not regularly utilizing computers.

San Juan Regional Medical Center (SJRMC) was struggling with a slow and inefficient policy management process. Policies were taking up to six months to a year to pass through various levels of document owners, reviewers, approvers, and committees before becoming official. The hospital lacked a centralized system for managing policies across its seven healthcare facilities located outside of the main hospital. Additionally, many of their policies existed in a solely typewritten format, and their document management system for electronic policies did not provide reminders to update documents or possess the capability for a structured review and approval cycle.

Operating in a heavily-regulated industry can bring all kinds of challenges, especially when dealing with complex policies that regularly require updates to stay in regulatory compliance. For Don Braspenninckx, Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer at Mortgage Center, this was a challenge he was all too familiar with. Managing policies in different Word, Excel and PDF documents was creating major headaches. One regulation could touch nine separate, distinct areas of the company, so trying to disseminate information and keep it organized for all employees was a challenge.

Claims Recovery Service was struggling with managing compliance and audits due to inadequate processes. They were using manual processes such as spreadsheets, stored documents, email, and other office tools. The company had to comply with numerous financial rules and regulations, which was a time-consuming process with a high risk of missing something. They relied on documents in hundreds of file folders in multiple network drives, each with its own security permission. The company maintained a list of policies on spreadsheets and Sharepoint sites, but none of the information was linked, making it nearly impossible to update policies or even know they existed. As regulations grew more complex, customer compliance demands multiplied, and the cost of noncompliance grew steeper, it quickly became clear spreadsheets weren’t enough. The company was spending more than $500,000 a year managing compliance.

Before the YMCA of Greater Rochester implemented an employee hotline system, the organization relied on a whistleblower policy to help them encourage employees to report their concerns. But on the heels of high-profile corporate scandals in the early 2000s, the organization realized it needed to formalize its reporting process and demonstrate its commitment to transparency. With more than 3,000 employees in 17 branches, across five counties in western New York, Fernán Cepero, Chief Human Resources Officer and Chief Diversity Officer wanted to ensure that all employees had a voice and felt like they were being heard.

Kamehameha Schools, one of the world's largest charitable organizations, faced a significant challenge in ensuring the safety of its students. With a large number of staff and students, the school needed a system to promptly discover and address any issues of misconduct or potential misconduct. The school's CEO, Jack Wong, emphasized the importance of providing safe and healthy learning environments for students to flourish. To foster safety and transparency, Kamehameha decided to expand its compliance helpline to make it easy for all members of the school community, including students, parents, and staff, to report concerning behavior.

Security Health Plan was struggling with a fragmented policy management process that lacked consistency and accountability. The web-based system they were using did not fit into a workflow and did not officially collect who the writer, reviewer, or approver were or exactly when they had accomplished their step or easily see what edits were made to the policy over time. The organization also had concerns about centralization and consistency. Their processes weren’t standardized. Practices and workflows differed across business functions, creating confusion about access and ownership. There was also considerable fragmentation. Multiple departments would have procedures for dealing with a given situation housed in different places. There was a real need to combine these into a single, shared process.

Guthrie, a non-profit, multi-specialty integrated health system serving Pennsylvania and New York states, needed a way to effectively collect, assess, and act on feedback from its stakeholders. The organization wanted to ensure it was providing an environment where stakeholders, both internal and external, felt comfortable expressing their concerns. The challenge was to maintain the legacy of the organization in the pursuit of patient care while also ensuring that stakeholders felt heard and that their feedback was being acted upon.

University Health (UH) had hundreds of policies and procedures that needed to be distributed and attested to across the organization. Prior to implementing PolicyTech, UH was faced with managing hundreds of policies and procedures and tracking various documents without a centralized system to support their needed order of operations. UH is required to have standardized policies and procedures in place for the staff to follow, and continuous control over that process must start at the beginning.

ECHO Health, a company operating in highly regulated sectors, had to ensure its third-party vendors satisfy any related requirements. This involved sending a periodic compliance survey to around 10 vendors who handled a variety of work for ECHO, such as printing or call center services, which involved the handling of regulated information. Those involved in assessing third-party risk at ECHO would rely on tools like spreadsheets, calendar reminders and emailed forms to track vendor compliance. However, to support a recent opportunity for rapid growth, ECHO saw a major increase in the number of third-party vendors necessary for its operations. Each new vendor represented a new need to evaluate risk. The 130-person firm was on the precipice of a major business opportunity. It recognized the growth potential could only be realized with an efficient, scalable strategy to vet and monitor third-party partnerships.

San Diego County, spanning 4,260 square miles with a population of approximately three million, provides a significant number of regional services to local taxpayers. The County's fleet management division supports over 3,800 vehicles and provides similar services for other government agencies. However, in the '90s, the County faced the challenge of merging two separate fleet operations and migrating from a mainframe application to a client-server. They were also challenged to be competitive when compared to the private sector. These unique challenges led the County to seek bids for a new fleet management information system that could address all issues. The County also faced the threat of privatization and was selected to participate in the County of San Diego’s first managed competition program.

The City of Portland’s CityFleet department is comprised of six shops and six fuel stations with a budget of $35.8 million. CityFleet is operated by 76 employees that manage the acquisition, repair, maintenance, parts, and fueling of a diverse fleet comprised of 2,850 vehicles and pieces of equipment valued at over $110 million. The fleet serves all of the bureaus in Portland and in order to keep up with demand, CityFleet estimates that nearly $300K worth of maintenance parts sits on the shelves at any given moment. CityFleet processes over 23,000 work orders a year and the process of filling in missing data and closing them was labor intensive.

The City of Chesapeake’s Central Fleet Management (CFM) division, led by Fleet Manager George Hrichak, oversees some 1800 vehicles with an annual operating budget of $9.5 million. The CFM is guided in their work by the division’s mission statement: To provide efficient and cost-effective fleet management services for a safe, economical, and environmentally sound fleet that meets the needs of our customers and which protects the investment of our citizens. In 2002 the City of Chesapeake sought to modernize the technology used by the CFM and seek greater efficiency by moving from an outdated mainframe system to AssetWork’s fully web-enabled fleet management solution; FleetFocus. The transition to FleetFocus provided the City with the robust maintenance and reporting capabilities needed to maintain the fleet’s light and heavy duty vehicles, stationary assets, tools and even the city’s boats.

The state IT organization was struggling with centralizing a large number of virtualization resources that were spread across separately managed vCenter and XenServer clusters. VM sprawl was costing the state thousands of dollars a month in infrastructure and licensing charges, and delays in resource provisioning resulted in a sharp increase of public cloud-based shadow IT environments that put sensitive agency data and security at risk.

Intesa Sanpaolo, a leading banking group in Italy, launched a strategic digital transformation initiative in 2018. The strategy was to embrace a microservices and container architecture, and migrate from monolithic to multi-tier applications. The goal was to accelerate development cycles, shrink application footprints for more flexibility, and improve scalability and reliability. The bank’s IT group was transforming itself into a software company with a bimodal IT model based on modern CI/CD practices. At the center of the initiative was the challenge of running containers managed by Kubernetes. The bank first tested pilot container projects by running them on its legacy virtualization infrastructure. Those pilots have been successful and have been brought into production, but the desire to look for the best solution to manage cloud-native technologies, both on-premises and in the cloud, has pushed research into understanding which technologies to adopt, and how they compare with each other and which are the best uses for each of them.

Over the last few years, the Naturalis Biodiversity Center has expanded to meet the growing needs of the scientific community. To better serve the community, the Center combined previously separate organizations, including a thriving natural history museum, and quickly became a 700-person entity, with 100 resident scientists, 200 guest researchers, and an IT staff of 35 to support these professionals. Additionally, a 30 million Euro grant from the Dutch Economic Structure Enhancement Fund allowed expansion of state-of-the-art laboratories and research collaboration, and the initiation of one of the world’s largest projects for natural history digitization to date. Concurrently, DNA sequencing, 3D, and GIS technologies led to the proliferation of scientists’ data sets. Combined with the trend to analyze relationships between species, the Center required more scalable and powerful compute resources. By the end of 2013, the Center’s IT department had consolidated resources and was ready to address its systems’ constraints to support the next phase of organizational growth.

Voices.com, an online marketplace connecting businesses with professional voice talent, has a rapidly growing user base worldwide. The company prides itself on its fast customer service, with most projects completed within 24 to 48 hours. As such, application performance is critical. However, as the user base continued to expand globally, the Voices.com team needed increasingly robust tools to monitor performance. Their existing solutions, including high-level server monitoring from Rackspace and insight into mobile and desktop performance from Google Website Optimizer, often failed to pinpoint the exact source of performance issues. A PHP-based solution from Zend required a proprietary server solution but in a semi-rigid configuration.

Mural.ly, a collaboration suite that helps creative teams work better together, was facing challenges in monitoring its rapidly growing user base. The company launched in September 2012 and, in just nine months, grew to serve 125,000 users in 161 countries. High performance was critical to its continued success. The company was getting a lot of exposure in tech media outlets, so its traffic came in unpredictable bursts. If the platform was not up and running, first-time visitors probably wouldn’t give it a second chance. In its first few months, Mural.ly experimented with different platform configurations to determine the right environment for accommodating its rapid growth. The company finally settled on Windows Azure Web Sites, a rapid development offering that lets companies create and deploy web apps in seconds using ASP.NET, PHP or Node.js.

Ticketfly is a rapidly growing company that provides a data-driven ticketing and marketing platform for professional event promoters and venues in the United States and Canada. The company's growth has brought its own set of challenges. As the company gears up for another summer concert season, it is aware that its system will undergo an immense amount of stress. To prepare for that, the company needs to achieve a 10x increase in site performance. For Ticketfly, site performance is far from a vague ideal — it’s a business imperative. Event attendees are looking to spend their discretionary time on a first-rate experience and they have zero tolerance for slow or unresponsive systems in any part of the process. If Ticketfly messes up, it's bad for them, but it's even worse for the venues. They provide key support to those venues. Their success is linked to Ticketfly's. And the more popular Ticketfly gets, the more insight it needs to maintain the highest levels of performance.

Zapier, a company that enables non-technical users to push data between hundreds of web applications, was facing a challenge in automating and provisioning servers for optimal performance. The company's environment consisted of 50 Linux servers on the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), a Django application split across several servers, and a backend consisting of a dynamic number of celery task workers fed by messages published to a RabbitMQ cluster. They also maintained a number of internal web services on nginx in front of Gunicorn and Node.js processes. Redis handled simple key and value stores, with logging handled by Graylog2 and ElasticSearch. However, they realized that no level of automation would be sufficient without an effective monitoring solution in place. They needed a tool that could provide immediate alerts when something was breaking and could be easily implemented into their environment.

CURE.org, a non-profit organization that provides treatment for children with physical disabilities in the developing world, was facing challenges in managing its website, which is the primary channel for fundraising and communication. As the organization expanded its operations worldwide, the website began to experience bursts in traffic that were challenging to manage. They were also experiencing random outages that were infrequent and short in duration, but they couldn’t reproduce them or understand the issue. In addition, they launched their first native iOS app, CUREkids, and needed to accurately monitor its performance.

GiftCard.com was on a very aggressive growth path, experiencing 100 percent year-over-year growth from 2011 to 2012. This growth presented a serious challenge from an IT perspective, especially considering that the company does a large percentage of its business during the year-end holidays. The company was concerned about scaling to meet anticipated demand during the final quarter of 2012. A few key performance issues were the source of particular concern. Customers often call 1-800-GIFT CARD® to make orders, and the speed of the admin website was having an impact on the overall customer experience. Having slow admin systems means that customers need to stay on the phone longer. For years, the IT team had heard complaints about the speed of admin screens — the average load time was around eight seconds — but they couldn’t identify the source of the problem.

Rumble Entertainment, a gaming company, was facing challenges in diagnosing performance issues in their applications. The company was using open source tools for monitoring their applications, but the process was inefficient and time-consuming. They lacked easy access to historical data and had limited error monitoring capabilities. The company considered developing an in-house tool for monitoring applications, but it would require significant time and resources, which they could not afford to spare. The company needed a solution that could provide real-time data in an easy-to-consume format and track application latency.