AkzoNobel, a Dutch paint and coatings company, has been at the forefront of color matching for two centuries. However, the company faced challenges in keeping up with the rapidly evolving color trends in industries like automotive and interior decor. The traditional method of color prediction, which involved complex mathematical models, was no longer efficient or innovative. The paint industry was under immense pressure as new colors emerged daily, and manufacturers constantly sought new finishes to gain a competitive edge. AkzoNobel's color prediction process, which involved deciphering multiple physical elements influencing color, was complex and time-consuming. The company needed to innovate and adapt to meet the modern demands and expectations of its customers.

Albertsons Companies, a major supermarket chain in North America, was facing the challenge of modernizing its operations to meet the rapidly changing market demands. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the need for this transformation as online orders surged by 240 percent in a few months. The company needed to operate and innovate faster to stay competitive and meet the growing customer demand for online shopping. Albertsons decided to migrate its on-premises data center to the cloud to leverage the scalability, flexibility, resiliency, and agility offered by cloud technologies. However, the company needed expert assistance to ensure a smooth and successful transition to the cloud.

Alder Hey Children's Hospital, one of Europe's largest and busiest children's hospitals, generates a significant amount of data about its operations, patient pathways, medical challenges, treatments, responses, and more. The hospital recognized the potential value of this data but needed a way to effectively utilize it. One of the key challenges was predicting bed space utilization, a critical aspect of hospital management. The hospital also had to address concerns about data security, ethics, and governance in the application of AI in healthcare.

Alışan Grup, a top-500 Turkish business conglomerate, was facing several challenges in its digital journey. The flagship company of the group, Alışan Lojistik A.Ş., a market maker for the Turkish logistics business, was dealing with high costs of database update, maintenance, and management. The company also had insufficient capacity to ensure efficient management of business continuity. The company's existing services were difficult to comprehend and run, and there were challenges in access, document management, security, integration, and development. The company was also facing issues with its internally hosted SharePoint, which posed challenges in terms of business continuity and practical hurdles for database scenario and application layer creation.

Allegiance Consulting, a South African fintech company specializing in complex financial planning systems, faced significant challenges when the COVID-19 health crisis struck. The company had to quickly adapt to a remote working environment and reassure its clients about the future. The main challenges included developing applications quickly on a secure and scalable infrastructure and staying connected with colleagues and clients. The company had to develop an engagement application for one of its large clients using Microsoft's Blazor technology. This application was a diagnostic tool providing guidance on dealing with the health crisis financially while staying safe. The company also had to ensure that its entire staff of 37 people could connect internally over a secure platform and collaborate with clients.

Allscripts, a leading healthcare software manufacturer, was facing several challenges. The company had to ensure that its infrastructure was secure, available, and performed well as a portion of its client base consumed its products using a software as a service model. Allscripts maintained six development/non-hosting datacenters around the world but wanted to curb datacenter sprawl and consolidate and centralize these facilities to reduce costs, simplify management, and increase security. Synchronizing the hosting and software development sides of the business was also challenging due to a siloed methodology that introduced inconsistent product deployments and support issues. In 2017, Allscripts acquired two companies with datacenter assets that needed a home, and fast. The two companies brought dozens of applications and Allscripts had nowhere to put them and their 1,000-plus virtual machines (VMs). The applications included a mixture of older versions of Windows Server and Microsoft SQL Server, which were facing end-of-support challenges, and the remainder ran on the Linux operating system, which presented migration challenges of its own.

Alpega Group, a leading global logistics software company, coordinates the transportation of freight in 80 countries, working with 80,000 carriers and 200,000 members. This complex operation relies on the company’s Transport Management System (TMS). However, the company faced challenges with system reliability and efficiency. A system failure could cause significant delays and queues, impacting logistics processes worldwide. The company needed a solution that would ensure the smooth and continuous running of its TMS, allowing it to respond to demand and scale its operations accordingly. The challenge was to implement a new container management system that would not only improve the reliability and efficiency of their operations but also help optimize freight transportation and create more sustainability within the industry.

Alpha Travel, a travel agency based in the Faroe Islands, was looking to expand its operations globally. The company, known for its personal customer service, primarily served shipping companies by arranging crew changes. However, the CEO, Tommy Næs Djurhuus, wanted to take the business to the next level. The challenge was to find a solution that would reduce administrative tasks, allowing the team to focus more on customers. The solution also needed to offer the flexibility and scalability required for global growth. The existing on-premises IT infrastructure was not sufficient to meet these needs, and the company was looking for a more efficient and effective solution.

The American Cancer Society, a large nonprofit organization based in the United States, heavily relies on its volunteers who in turn depend on the society's mobile apps. The organization was facing challenges in terms of collaboration, development speed, process organization, and high database costs. The IT team was in need of a solution that could streamline their operations, accelerate the development process, and significantly reduce their database costs. The existing system was not efficient enough to meet these demands, thereby necessitating the adoption of a more robust and cost-effective solution.

The American Council of the Blind (ACB), a nonprofit organization advocating for the blind and visually impaired, was facing significant challenges with its technology infrastructure. The organization's on-premises servers were unreliable, frequently going down and causing disruptions to staff and members. The servers, which housed over 20 years of institutional records, were also experiencing data loss due to corruption issues. This shaky IT foundation was hindering the organization's ability to fulfill its mission and adapt to the needs of the people it serves. The ACB realized that it needed to invest in technology and integrate it into its long-term strategic goals to ensure up-to-date, secure, and efficient operations.

The American Nurses Association (ANA), an organization advocating for four million registered nurses and their patients across the United States, was facing a challenge with its Azure environment. The costs were escalating, and the organization was unable to identify the factors driving this increase. As the COVID-19 pandemic spread, ANA needed to quickly transition over 250 employees to a remote workforce. This situation required a strategic partner to help manage, navigate, and optimize Microsoft Azure usage for ANA’s 400 employees. ANA also needed to enhance its security posture to prevent attacks on systems and data, especially with the shift to remote work.

AnalogFolk, a digital agency, was tasked with creating an innovative and engaging way for people to discover their own 'Marmite Gene'. The challenge was to design a system that could accurately gauge people's reactions to tasting Marmite, a food product known for its divisive taste. The goal was to create a fun, interactive experience that would encourage users to share their results on social media, thereby increasing brand visibility and product sales. The challenge also involved the technical aspect of integrating facial recognition technology with an algorithm that could interpret various emotions and translate them into a measure of love or hate for Marmite.

Kumba Iron Ore, a multinational mining company operating primarily in South Africa, was struggling with a manual approach to onboarding and risk management across all its work sites. This process was not only time-consuming but also led to errors, delays, and inefficiencies throughout the company's operations. The lack of consistent standards and requirements across different sites further increased costs and risk. Kumba needed a solution that could consolidate and automate its manual processes, thereby improving risk outcomes and streamlining operations.

Anthony Nolan, a UK-based nonprofit, collaborates with other stem cell donor registers worldwide to match people with blood cancer with donors whose stem cells can save lives. The organization was facing challenges with its legacy technology. Information about potential donors and recipients was kept on a different system than that of volunteers, financial supporters, and others. This lack of a single view made it difficult for the transplant, marketing, and fundraising teams to find the details to cultivate the most meaningful relationships possible. The nonprofit also used a 22-year-old, email-based system to communicate with more than 100 other registries around the world. This legacy platform was inefficient and resulted in hundreds of failed messages a day, which someone had to check and process. This took valuable hours in a time-sensitive matching process.

ArcelorMittal, a leading steel and mining company headquartered in Luxembourg, was facing challenges with its on-premises data centers. The company had data centers in almost all major European countries where it stored its SAP applications. However, maintaining these data centers was becoming increasingly costly and inefficient. The company was investing heavily in the servers and infrastructure needed to operate them. The company began to question the viability of these data centers and whether it was time to move their SAP and non-SAP workload to the cloud. The challenge was to find a solution that would not only reduce costs but also provide a platform for innovation and growth.

Armanino, one of the 20 largest independent accounting and business consulting firms in the United States, faced a common challenge among large professional services companies: managing office space for a mobile workforce without overspending on expensive building leases. The firm operates in 16 office locations in 15 major urban centers, deploying specialized professionals wherever needed. The challenge was to ensure office space was always available for its highly mobile workforce but avoid overspending on underutilized space. The firm's second largest cost after labor was rent, and the traditional office model was not reflecting the increasingly agile work styles. The firm also faced issues with its mobile workers finding available workspace in different offices, leading to inefficiencies and disruptions in the office schedule.

24Storage, a Swedish self-storage company, was founded in 2015 with a vision to disrupt the traditional self-storage industry through digitalization. The company aimed to create a centralized, cloud-based solution that would allow remote control of all its facilities, eliminating the need for on-site employees and giving customers complete control over their service. However, the storage market in Sweden is highly competitive, and the company faced the challenge of developing its own digital systems to fine-tune the user experience for both customers and its customer support team. The goal was to manage each facility efficiently and increase the overall quality of service. The company also faced the challenge of transitioning from a startup to a more comprehensive platform, requiring a partnership to help maintain its digital ecosystem and engineer the next stage of innovations.

3M, a multinational conglomerate corporation, produces over 60,000 products across various business groups. At one of its US manufacturing plants, the 3M Corporate Research Lab and the local 3M Manufacturing team identified an opportunity to predict anomalies and use these insights to reduce manufacturing downtime. The challenge was to integrate data streams from two production lines, correlate them, and then run analytics and machine learning locally. However, the data from the two systems arrived at different times, and the plant’s network connectivity was limited. The team needed a solution that would provide the necessary performance, management, and security.

Aberdeen City Council, a large government organization in the United Kingdom, was facing challenges in its digital transformation journey. The council was struggling to provide efficient and timely responses to the numerous queries from its 8,000 employees and 250,000 residents. The situation was further exacerbated by the Coronavirus pandemic, which forced many council services to cease overnight. The council needed a solution that could quickly adapt to the changing circumstances and continue to provide essential information and services to its employees and residents.

Mothership, a company modernizing the freight industry with its all-in-one shipping platform, faced a significant challenge. Their platform, which provides customers with real-time tracking of freight and offers carriers the flexibility to choose their own schedule, was experiencing usage spikes. This led to a need for a solution that could operate reliably and at scale to push out real-time data to their client-side applications. The company's focus on speed and transparency throughout the delivery process made it essential for them to deliver real-time updates to their customers. However, the existing infrastructure was not able to handle the increasing demand, especially when it came to rebuilding their mobile app.

Toyo Tires, a leading tire manufacturer established in 1966, faced a significant challenge in managing their warehouse operations. The global demand for tires was high, and the company needed to upgrade its warehouse management system to keep up with this demand. The current economic climate further pushed Toyo Tires to make a decision that would minimize waste and provide better control over their product distribution. The company was seeking a solution that would offer tighter inventory control, agile inventory management, and increased productivity. The challenge was to find a system that could efficiently manage the inventory of a wide range of tires for various vehicles, including high-performance cars, luxury vehicles, light trucks, SUVs, and commercial trucks.

Connexus Energy, Minnesota's largest electric cooperative, faced significant challenges in protecting its Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and Industrial Control System (ICS) networks from cyber threats. With the rise of smart grids, smart devices, and IoT devices, traditional SCADA and ICS systems often lacked the necessary security controls to defend against sophisticated cyber attackers. Connexus Energy was using multiple security solutions from different vendors, each with specific management requirements, consuming a significant amount of the team’s technical resources. The security team had to parse logs from different systems to identify issues and respond accurately. Furthermore, secure gateways for the SCADA system had to operate in extreme physical conditions, and many of Connexus Energy's existing security solutions were not ruggedized or only partially ruggedized. The challenge was to find a solution that could protect the SCADA system while delivering centralized visibility across the entire security environment.

Faraone SRL, an Italian provider of architectural components, was faced with the challenge of designing a new full glass balustrade with a special aluminum profile at the bottom to hold the glass structure in place. The goal was to save on development time, material, and production costs, while increasing the stiffness of the aluminum profile. The development engineers at Faraone needed a new design strategy and special optimization tools to help reach these goals. The design of architectural components such as a balustrade can be challenging, since the design does not only have to look good, it also has to meet several safety requirements and standards. In addition, all designs have to be developed within the shortest time possible. To meet these challenges the engineers, architects and designers at Faraone are always looking for solutions that can reduce their design and testing cycles.

The Colruyt Group, a major player in Belgium's retail network, was struggling with inefficient communications and order management due to the use of manual processes and homegrown solutions. The company, which operates a vast network of retailers, distributors, and suppliers, found that these methods no longer met its need for efficient communications and order management. The existing process used manual processes for orders, invoicing, and change orders, resulting in inaccurate orders and drawn-out order-to-cash timeframes.

Santam, South Africa’s leading short-term insurer, was facing challenges with its IT changes which were difficult and expensive. The company was using Microsoft® Word templates, fragmented tools and different methodologies which led to frustration among employees. The company needed an Enterprise Architecture (EA) with a repository-based product to support its drive to optimize the organization. The aim was to develop an integrated environment that’s more agile and supports the business strategy.

The market communications department at Süwag Kundenservice GmbH processed more than 23 million messages in EDIFACT format in 2011 alone. The company wanted to improve process controlling with greater transparency and more detailed key performance indicators. This would enable the company to better analyze processes when disruptions occur, deadlines are set or when incoming and outgoing messages need to be checked. The solution needed to incorporate requirements from the market communications, supply management and accounts payable management departments. This would ensure all customers could be enrolled in a timely manner by the supply management department, guaranteeing the processing and handling of supplier change processes and ensuring that contract confirmations and budget billing plan notifications to Süwag Kundenservice GmbH customers are sent by defined deadlines.

SICK AG, a global provider of modern sensor technology, has experienced significant growth, leading to an increase in the heterogeneity of the company’s IT environment. With over 40 subsidiaries, numerous sales agencies, and partnerships, ensuring seamless communication between the different IT systems was crucial to guarantee smooth operations and customer satisfaction. The company needed a solution that could integrate the various IT systems from procurement to production, logistics to sales, and handle the increasing volumes of data being exchanged.

Staples Inc., the world's largest supplier of office products, promises to make buying products easy, including making customer deliveries the very next day whenever required. When Staples experienced an increase in delivery volume, the company needed an integration solution that could be implemented rapidly and scaled easily. The company had recently acquired Corporate Express and was seeking ways to maximize synergy and reduce costs across the business. They identified an opportunity to integrate transportation networks for a potential multi-million-dollar cost savings. However, the supply chain platform they had selected couldn't scale to handle the massive transaction volume. Staples was committed to finding a solution that did not slow down integration efforts with Corporate Express.

Split Airport, the second largest airport in Croatia, was faced with constant growth in seasonal traffic. The management identified the ability to perform core processes within strict time limits as key to business success. This led to the decision to implement performance analysis of its key business process—passenger and aircraft handling. The initiative was aimed at gaining insights into the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), identifying weaknesses, and optimizing process times. The seasonal character of the airport's business, with most traffic occurring during the summer season, made effectiveness, efficiency, and speed crucial factors for success. At the same time, strict compliance with all local and international air traffic standards, regulations, and obligations was essential.

Landesbank Berlin AG (LBB) was faced with the challenge of managing an extensive rulebook, which comprised 180 manuals and required 10.5 million pages to be updated every year. The bank decided to replace the old system with intranet-based rules and procedures, thus avoiding the need to distribute huge amounts of paper to employees across the enterprise every day, as well as structure and archive it. The bank needed a solution that would provide redundancy-free, audit-proof documentation and give employees direct access to all relevant process descriptions.