Fabick Cat, a tractor dealer specializing in the distribution of Caterpillar® equipment, faced a challenge when it acquired a second Caterpillar dealership. The newly acquired dealership had its own custom-written order processing system running on OpenVMS with RMS files, different from Fabick Cat's IBM® AS/400 based system. Fabick Cat wanted a solution to provide a data warehouse for both systems to ensure uniform reporting and analytics for both companies. The initial plan was to FTP files from the OpenVMS server and load them into SQL Server. However, the amount of data downloaded every day and the manual nature of this approach raised concerns.

The company, a global leader in consumer health products, was facing several challenges. They wanted to 'win differently' with a digital business platform, improve access to information across the enterprise, reduce manual work and standardize processes, increase visibility across the global supply chain, and become more customer-centric. They were dealing with painful processes like manually collecting data from disconnected systems. The company had no way to detect issues in delivery flow, and customer interactions were reactive rather than proactive. Costs increased due to shipment escalations. The Approval for Product Release (APR) process was disjointed and required manually consolidating paper specs into binders across all R&D functions. Every region had a different framework with no way to monitor or share information. There was no workflow support, no integration to other systems.

The company, a leading marketing agency, was facing challenges due to the overwhelming volumes of data, the industry-wide revolution in digitalization, and a disruptive media and advertising environment. The company needed to deliver marketing messages to customers where they are, when they are receptive, and perfectly optimized for the right device or medium. They also needed to move beyond simple, post-campaign analysis to a set of analytic techniques that incorporated probability, statistics, algorithmic modeling, data mining, and machine learning. The volumes of data, computational resources, and technical knowhow required for this were tremendous.

Coca-Cola Erfrischungsgetraenke AG (CCEAG), the sole German bottler of The Coca-Cola Company and the largest beverage company in Germany, was chosen as a pilot center for the Coke One global template deployment. The project would ultimately impact more than 75 percent of CCEAG’s existing applications in a highly interdependent IT landscape. Close to 1,000 business processes had to be reviewed and aligned across seven key areas: market-to-order, order-to-cash, forecast-to-deploy, procure-to-pay, record-to-report, master data management and human resource management. This corresponded to roughly 120 enterprise applications, 300 operational interfaces, 900 BI interfaces and 150 business objects that were impacted. CCEAG’s decision to use Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM) to facilitate its Coke One deployment was a clear project success factor.

Equens SE, one of Europe's largest providers of payment services, needed a way to provide proof of compliance with Service Level Agreements (SLAs) in payment processing to its customers. The company also wanted to utilize process measurements for internal analyses. The challenge was to monitor the SLAs without negatively impacting the operation of back-end systems. Additionally, Equens did not want to pursue a traditional data warehouse approach due to the several million transactions needing to be monitored every day.

The Department of the Registrar of Companies and Official Receiver (DRCOR) in Cyprus faced several challenges. The national financial crisis in 2013 had a significant impact on DRCOR's operations. The department had to deal with outdated information systems, paper-based processes, inefficient workflows, and a cumbersome user experience. Additionally, the department had to align with EU-wide best practices as part of the EU memorandum agreement. The department also had to deal with data overlaps and gaps, which further slowed down their operations.

The Chinese automobile manufacturer was facing pressure for improved sales forecasting, better manufacturing logistics and after-sales service, and a necessity to centralize data from multiple systems. The company was also dealing with growing customer expectations relating to specifications and services. The company planned to bring in a new Distributor Management System (DMS) to better manage its sales, logistics, and after-sales claims. However, the company faced challenges with data validity and timeliness from distributors. Data was also spread across numerous disparate platforms, creating data management headaches. In March 2017, the company faced the monumental challenge of integrating all of the old DMS’s whopping 744 modules into the new-generation DMS.

The multinational conglomerate corporation, a multibillion-dollar global manufacturer producing industrial, safety and consumer products, faced several challenges. The company decided to globally deploy SAP in 2010. However, the complexity of local legacy configurations strangled the SAP initiative. Millions of dollars were spent monthly on consultants to make changes at the plants and their legacy Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES). Four years into a five-year project, the company’s global SAP deployment was only 10 percent complete. The company needed a solution to accelerate SAP integrations at plants across the enterprise—making SAP deployment faster, simpler and safer while leveraging and extending legacy investments.

The regional subsidiary of a multinational power distributor was facing several challenges. The company needed to accommodate renewable energy on the grid, but had no visibility into medium- and low-power network issues. This resulted in high transformer maintenance costs and poor grid reliability in remote locations. The company also needed to monitor assets in locations with low or no internet connectivity. The utility had to find an economical and reliable way to reduce transformer loss and downtime, and fast!

The Russian oil company faced several challenges including technological disruption across all lines of business, intensifying global competition, managing dozens of subsidiaries operating worldwide, overly complicated business processes, and a government mandate to digitalize operations. The company operates in an extremely challenging physical environment and must manage new disruptive technologies transforming all areas of the oil production process. Failure to keep up can mean unprofitability without warning. The company's top priority is the urgent adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, real-time big data analysis, predictive intelligence and resilient production systems.

The Star Entertainment Group, one of Australia’s largest casino operators, was facing challenges in differentiating its VIP customer experience and closing high-value transactions quickly. The company's existing chip buying process was taking its VIP patrons away from playing for up to 20 minutes as they waited to convert their account credits to chips at a gaming table. The process was manual and resource-intensive, requiring paperwork in triplicate and multiple approvals for security purposes. The company wanted to transform this complex manual process into a fast and convenient mobile experience for its VIPs.

Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) is a non-profit organization dedicated to conserving wetlands and other natural spaces for waterfowl, wildlife, and people. To achieve its mission, DUC administers fundraising, retail, and advocacy campaigns and manages projects using software built on Adabas & Natural. However, the organization faced the challenge of moving its applications to the Web and integrating them with third-party applications. This was necessary to engage and mobilize stakeholders effectively, maximize awareness and support, and manage projects in support of its conservation mission.

Crédit Logement, a leading French financial institution, was facing challenges in meeting the needs of its customers, which include more than 200 banks with 7 million borrowers. The company's customer call center was struggling with an outdated green screen interface, which was not user-friendly and made it difficult for customer service personnel to quickly respond to customer requests. The company needed to replace the green screens with a modern Web user interface to optimize customer call center processing and improve the end-user experience.

The American Armed Forces Mutual Aid Association (AAFMAA) was facing a need for new digital services to attract a new generation of members. However, the business was anchored in legacy IT systems, and a rip-and-replace project was deemed too costly and risky. In 2005, AAFMAA needed to innovate and change because the old ways of doing business simply didn't appeal to the new digital generation. Digital business transformation was the answer, but IT could barely handle current business needs. Rip-and-replace projects often seem like the only answer. But getting rid of old systems means losing decades of investments. Worst of all, these expensive multi-million dollar projects come with no guarantee of success. As a practiced investor used to managing risk, AAFMAA didn’t like these odds.

The multinational luxury fashion company faced challenges due to rapid expansion and major acquisitions. The company was under pressure from global competition and growing costs. The company's IT leadership team wanted the Information Systems (IS) teams to have visibility into their portfolios to be able to develop project plans and future IT strategies to support the company's ambitious business transformation goals. The piecemeal process in place at that time involved manual updates to a Microsoft® Access® database, visualization in the Visio® modeling tool and PowerPoint® for presentations. Information on the portfolio was updated twice a year— not a good basis for road mapping and investment decisions that needed to be made on the turn of dime.

Trackerando, a startup specializing in GPS and IoT solutions, faced several challenges. The existing GPS tracking solutions lacked ease of use. The company also faced competition from telematics solutions. Additionally, there were increasingly strict data protection requirements to adhere to. Trackerando also aimed to add value with IoT communication apps. A specific case was when the city of Mainz was looking for a GPS tracking system provider to monitor its garbage compactors. The city needed a solution that included a waste-level gauge and alarm activation when bins are 75 percent full. The solution also needed to provide position tracking in the event of theft. The city wanted to avoid larger telematics providers as their systems were too complex and expensive for the city’s needs.

LCL, a leading French financial services and banking company, faced several challenges as banking went digital. The customers who valued reliability above all else came to expect omni-channel accessibility, better communication, and more digital services. LCL wanted to adopt an omni-channel strategy and serve its customers with digital channels available around the clock as well as branches in a seamless way. This digital transformation required a major initiative to modernize the existing IT architecture. In 2012, LCL lacked a robust and integrated system for enabling such functionality, particularly when it came to new service initiation.

The insurance market is highly dynamic and shaped by intense competition, so insurance companies must be able to adapt processes quickly to changing conditions. As such, ongoing business process optimization is an important factor for strengthening a company’s market position. CosmosDirekt, Germany’s leading online insurance company, has shown consistent growth in this market environment. In order to support its ongoing dynamic development, the company’s long-term goals include optimizing process efficiency and improving customer satisfaction. Faced with stiff competition, it was strategically important for CosmosDirekt to further improve customer satisfaction and process efficiency to expand the company’s leading market position.

Aras Kargo, a courier and cargo company, was facing challenges due to its rapid expansion. The company was experiencing a surge in demand from online shoppers and vendors, which its operations were not equipped to handle at such a high scale. The company had up to 1,000 hardcoded integrations for its existing 200 business partners, which needed to be streamlined. Additionally, the company needed a robust application and data integration tool to manage its business processes. The company was also looking to expand its international network of over 200 partners and needed a solution that could scale with its business.

The utility company was facing a dire situation in its IT department. Years of cobbling together one-off solutions using a variety of applications had resulted in a tangled web of connections that was crippling new projects. System stability was decaying due to the patch-work architecture, and ballooning costs for licensing and support left the IT budget cupboards bare. The company’s CIO recognized that a high-performance Enterprise Architecture (EA) practice was the pragmatic fix it needed. EA would transform the existing IT into a technology-leveraging dynamo powering the company’s business transformation.

Fibabanka, a private bank in Turkey, was facing several challenges. The bank had ambitious growth targets and was dealing with disruption within the banking industry. Regulatory pressure was also increasing, with the Banking Regulation and Supervision Authority pushing banks to create process flowcharts. Fibabanka was using Microsoft Visio, which was not fit for purpose as it didn't link processes, create a process library, or attach duration information or definitions. The bank needed to apply its digital ambitions to its internal landscape to meet these challenges.

The retail pharmacy company, a global enterprise with nearly half a million employees and operations in numerous countries, was facing challenges due to heightened competition from digital disrupters like Amazon, increasing healthcare costs and changing regulations, growing customer choices and expectations, and a boom in IoT healthcare devices. One of the biggest changes in the company’s history was the recent merger of two major companies that created it. This massive undertaking brought together two iconic brands with complementary footprints, but very different IT architectures. The newly formed company was dealing with a very complex environment—and many different technologies across the enterprise. It needed a solution to standardize global operations—a “cook once, serve many” solution.

The luxury fashion company was facing several challenges. The growing customer demand for an omni-channel purchasing experience was not being met by the company's legacy IT systems. These outdated systems were unable to support the company's corporate goals and were leading to operational inefficiencies and high costs. The company also needed to unify its global inventory management solutions. Furthermore, the company was growing through acquisitions, which necessitated a system integration solution. The lack of a standardized application-to-application integration practice was causing transaction duplications, complicated processes for new partner onboarding, and costly, custom, point-to-point solutions. Different application release and governance cycles, and regular synchronization issues between the three ERP and warehouse systems, meant management was laborious and costly. It also made accurately assessing stock levels or cash flow impossible.

The bank, one of the largest in the U.S. and the world, is facing new market dynamics born of the digital age. Digitally savvy customers today expect more, like omni-channel banking, and they have more choices in banks like FinTechs. This is forcing traditional banks to rethink how they compete and operate. The bank is also facing regulatory challenges. As regulatory requirements expand, the bank needs insights into operations. Regulations like Dodd-Frank demand it. Without full visibility into its 4,000+ applications, the bank was in the gunsights of such penalties.

The company, a global leader in medical technology, services, and solutions, was facing several challenges. They were in the process of transforming into an outcome-based healthcare solutions provider and needed to quickly integrate acquisitions to maximize operating efficiencies. The company was also looking to change how the world delivers patient care. The company's systems were previously locked down by point-to-point integrations, which was not flexible and technology-dependent. The company needed a more flexible, technology-agnostic solution for lower-cost internal and partner integrations that could be quickly configured, turned on, and changed.

ALTE OLDENBURGER Krankenversicherung AG, a leading health insurance provider in Germany, was facing the challenge of modernizing their legacy claim processing system. The existing system was over 20 years old and was not able to keep up with the changing business requirements. The traditional process required customers to save their medical bills and mail them all in at the end of the year, leading to a 'claims tsunami'. The company wanted to enable a new service where customers could use their smartphones to snap and send pictures of their medical bills for processing the moment they received them. This would not only provide convenience to the customers but also distribute the work throughout the year.

The company, a global leader in imaging technology solutions and managed print services, was facing increased competition and service level agreement (SLA) compliance issues. There was a push for IoT-enablement and new device location tracking requirements. The company was also dealing with inefficient field maintenance and rising costs, and lacked real-time visibility into partner supply chains. In the case of on-site printer fleet repair and maintenance, the old way simply couldn’t cut it. Reactive failure reporting, multiple technician visits and manual parts ordering dragged down profits and aggravated customers. With tens of thousands of printers moved per week, and third-party supply chains to contend with, manual repair and maintenance led to SLA violations, billing headaches and logistical nightmares.

Primur Systems and Resources, an IT solutions and services provider based in New South Wales, Australia, identified a gap in its competitors’ Internet of Things (IoT) offerings. The company's customers were seeking automation, condition monitoring, and predictive maintenance solutions. To stay up-to-date with the latest technology and provide end-to-end IoT solutions, Primur needed a robust and versatile IoT platform. The company's clients, which span various sectors including manufacturing, distribution, health, finance, and insurance, required customized, end-to-end solutions to their IoT issues. These ranged from monitoring the transportation of goods and performing diagnostics of truck engines, to ensuring livestock is eating properly.

The Israeli Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services was struggling with a slow, manual process for handling tens of thousands of requests for assistance each year. The process involved paper forms being passed between municipalities and the Ministry, often requiring multiple signatures and taking up to six months to process. Some cases were even lost in the shuffle. The Ministry was using a 20+ year-old, legacy green-screen mainframe technology that could not be opened up to the municipalities using the internet.

BSA Group, a leading provider of asset management solutions in Australia, faced several challenges in their quest to optimize building management. They needed to connect disparate systems and sensors in buildings to collect and analyze new information and find efficiencies. They also needed to consolidate this information into a single view for customers and provide integration and connectivity between disparate and proprietary building systems and vendors. The goal was to reduce energy and maintenance costs for customers while addressing new revenue opportunities in the market.