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SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud & SuccessFactors HCM Integration
About the Client Client is a leading IT products & solutions engineering company in the US, having strong presence in Education & Public Sector, BFSI, Payments & Manufacturing Industry Verticals. Their main business markets being the USA & the UK, with delivery centers in India, Philippines & the Dominican Republic.
Automated Software Testing Solution for Healthcare Organization
Overview A leading provider of government sponsored healthcare sought to rapidly expand their IT Teams to enable supporting necessary agile software updates to changing business needs but found that their manual testing capabilities could not keep pace. Challenges The company quickly determined that using an Agile Methodology approach as well as automated testing should provide the necessary speed and quality results. However, the company identified multiple challenges related to planning and implementing an automated testing approach including: Insufficient knowledge to determine which automated testing tool would best fit their needs Lack of experience organizing a detailed automated planning approach Limited understanding of the platform needed to reliably execute thousands of automated testing cases nightly in a limited period of time Limited test data available to support repetitive test case execution on a daily or more frequent basis Insufficient knowledge to estimate the benefits of implementing an automated testing process at this scale Solution To help our client meet these challenges, we worked with them to first identify the automated testing tool that would best meet their specific needs. Multiple tools such as Selenium, QTP and Ranorex were evaluated including vendor demos to determine best fit. After taking into account the requirements and constraints including HIPPA and compliance needs, Ranorex was chosen due to its capabilities to automate Web, API and Mobile automation support. Once the appropriate tool was selected, the team focused on understanding the chosen tool and how to use it to develop the appropriate automated testing approach. Ranorex was introduced to multiple Agile teams with education and support provided. What followed was a six-month introductory period from which a new challenge arose. Acceptance and adoption of Ranorex was being constrained primarily due to the tool’s reliance on users having at least a limited understanding of C#. Ranorex provides C# wrappers to reduce the programming demands but that support was proving insufficient. To address this constraint, the client created a QCoE (Quality Center of Excellence) and a C# team was pulled together to develop a framework including additional wrappers for the most common automated testing needs to further ease the setup process. Libraries were created and provided as part of Ranorex installation and QCoE members were imbedded for short stints on individual agile teams to assist those teams in understanding and utilizing the new capabilities. Additionally short learning videos were created and uploaded to the internal website to increase acceptance and appropriate usage. With the additional processes and support mechanisms in place and the barriers to usage reduced, the teams quickly adopted the testing tool and its usage increased rapidly, leading to several additional challenges. First, the adoption of the automated testing approach meant that 100s of new test cases were being produced each week each of which was expected to be executed unattended on a nightly basis leading to overly long testing times. To address the issue, several options were explored including utilizing the Sauce Labs cloud testing platform but HIPPA and compliance requirements again limited cloud based solutions. Ultimately the QCoE decided to create its own Software and Hardware platform to run the growing batch of test cases unattended and in parallel. This platform has been a success and continues to be extended to meet new and evolving needs including supporting test suites from other tools such as Cypress and Selenium. The second challenge created by the increased testing efforts involved building and supporting sufficient test data to meet the repetitive testing needs. Specifically, as the teams continued to utilize automated testing, they found that they quickly exhausted the available test data or struggled to find existing test data necessary for the growing set of test cases. These limitations were made visible as teams slowed creation of new test cases and runs of existing test cases, as monitored by the new test platform. To address this challenge, the QCoE adopted a TDM (Test Data Management) strategy utilizing Talend to identify existing test data and subsequently create synthetic test data. The team utilized Talend to create test members, claims and more to ensure appropriate and sufficient test data could continually be synthesized. As a final challenge, the client continued to acquire health plans with the need to ensure their systems supported their new members at the same high quality as their existing membership. While the automated testing systems continued to support this growth, we worked with the client to assemble an End-to-End test validation team focusing on testing a smaller set of end-to-end suites to ensure both new and existing members were supported. This team provided value in ensuring the systems supported all members and provided leadership with the confidence that rapid changes were appropriately being tested before moving into their Production environment.
New Era Technology Enables a Leading Healthcare Provider to Build a Centralized Project Data Repository using Project and Portfolio Management for Better Command
About the Client The Client is a leading not-for-profit healthcare service provider in the USA. With a vast network of 17,000 professionals and 4,800 affiliated physicians, it operates seven reputed hospitals that provide extended healthcare services. The Client operates from New Jersey, supporting 11 counties and 4.9 million people, focusing on easy access and affordability of healthcare services. Challenges and Considerations The Client needed diverse technology solutions to conduct its business operations, which were catered to by specific internal projects. The project data was stored using separate Microsoft Project plans, and a ticketing system retrieved the information. This led to constraints and complications in rapid, timely access for organizational stakeholders. The significant challenges that the client faced with the storage architecture included: The lack of a proper unified storage architecture led to project managers and team members working in siloes, leading to gaps in communication. Inherent challenges in interaction and collaboration led to implementation delays across the overall project lifecycle, mostly with seeking approvals. Lack of an intuitive and informative reporting format restricted project stakeholders and the top-level management visibility into individual project progress. An inconsistent approach to project data storage and access presented a potential risk to data integrity. There was, therefore, an overarching need for a standardized format for storing and accessing the project data. With the above challenges causing a substantial business impact, the Client sought a solution offering a unified project repository that would be easily accessible and consistent in its architecture. An interactive interface and custom reporting capabilities for all the stakeholders would further provide easy visibility of all the stages of the projects. With its successful association with New Era Technology, a Microsoft Solutions Partner, in the past, the Client chose us to develop and implement a solution that would address the above challenges and cater to the specific requirements that were needed. Solution New Era, with its vast expertise in providing custom solutions in the Microsoft technology stack, quickly assessed the requirements and suggested a solution leveraging Microsoft Project and Portfolio Management (PPM), as the Client was currently using Office 365 and SharePoint-which was the base for the Project Online application. New Era started with a comprehensive assessment of the Client’s requirements for the process flow, beginning from the project initiation to the governance phase and ending with the closure, along with the approving authority for each stage. This served as a base for configuring the Project Online application to meet the desired objectives. The team developed a custom workflow using Microsoft Power Platform for the project intake process, apart from configuring other workflows to suit the various stages of the project flow. The latter part of the solution involved the creation of custom reports using Power Platform, as well as modifying the out-of-box reports, enabling direct and informative visibility for all the stakeholders of the project. Project Online met the Client’s requirements for a unified central repository of projects. This did away with the legacy system in use, improving the accessibility of critical project information. It also enhanced the communication and collaboration across the project stakeholders, leading to better project management. Savings in Time: The Project Online implementation reduced the time needed to access project information, with easy accessibility and real-time updates.
New Era Technology Helps Pharma Major Maximize the Benefits of SharePoint & O365 Platform
About the Client The Client is a leading pharmaceutical company headquartered in Dublin-Ireland and Malvern-Pennsylvania for the USA. It started its operations in 1997 by acquiring pharmaceutical products, assets, and production rights from other pharmaceutical companies. It has an active headcount of around 3,000 employees, with a yearly revenue close to USD 2.9B. Challenges and Considerations The Client faced resource deployment challenges for monitoring and maintaining their SharePoint environment. Given the situation, they sought a technology partner with the right expertise and insight to provide the necessary support services. The Client expectations included: Immediate resolution of business-critical issues that have a significant financial impact with the potential to impede the ability to conduct business Comprehensive support across Development, Testing & Production environments Monitoring SharePoint through health checks and remediation Management of User Administration and Permissions Site Provisioning and Maintenance support Creation of lists and libraries, page layouts, site templates, and content types Escalations and User Support Best Practice Recommendations Support for InfoPath Forms deployment and maintenance Support for SP and SP Designer workflow deployment and maintenance The Client chose New Era Technology to meet its requirements. The confidence arose from previous engagements as a technology partner for its SharePoint development services and other past projects. The Solution Based on the Client’s expectations, New Era Technology did a comprehensive situational assessment. Using the intelligent services model, New Era Technology deployed a project team comprising offshore resources. The team included a project manager to oversee the engagement and a suitable, competent resource for the Client’s R&D center. This project team provided the required support and maintenance for the O365 and SharePoint collaboration tasks. New Era’s team of qualified and competent service engineers, including a lead engineer, prioritized the Client’s need to deliver the required services to support and maintain the SharePoint environment seamlessly.
Leading Aviation Giant Leverages New Era Technology’s SAP S/4 HANA Brownfield Migration Services to Consolidate Global Systems
Overview New Era Technology has been an SAP services partner for a principal aircraft management, charter, and aviation consulting services company in the United States and delivered an SAP ECC 6 system to a S/4HANA Migration through a Brownfield implementation. Our approach utilizes New Era Technology’s Program Management, Data, Training, and Security services for the client. Challenges & Considerations SAP S/4 Program This client was undergoing a global S/4 Implementation, resulting in their U.S. Business Units’ migration to the company’s SAP S/4 HANA solution. The client needed SAP strategy and enabling services to execute the Agile framework and SAP Activate methodology during the program. New Era Technology successfully provided and delivered the complete scope of S/4 Migration for the client within 11 months. SAP S/4HANA integrated with Concur, Flight Scheduling Program, Bullhorn Staffing Program, Fixed-Base Operator Program, Resident A.P. Program, SAP BW, and,BI HANA 400+ Custom RICEFW Objects 600+ SAP Users 14 locations across 5 Lines of ERP with SAP (across four time zones) New standard processes defined and enabled in the S/4 Solution Complex Code Remediation Data Model Changes Operating Concerns Master Data Issues Multiple Partner Management Solution Highlights Delivery of functional & technical Impact assessment Advising mandatory activities required on the existing ERP ECC System Committed availability of bandwidth from in-house I.T. & Business team Multiple other in-flight projects New Era Technology’s Strategy and Advisory consulting services determined that the best course of action was to recommend our experienced Program Leadership and Data services to drive the U.S. Business SAP S/4 global template. This approach would be industrialized for future use in planned global deployments for the client. This solution ensured digital and non-digital transformation of business operations while guaranteeing maximum process optimization, process redesign, and data integrity. By honing our leadership, the client was successful in their transformation initiatives by instilling structural changes and discipline that both reduced overall complexity and provided greater flexibility, insight, and value through the SAP Program and the organization. Through the SAP Migration Program, New Era planned and provided the planning and provisioning of SAP PMO, SAP Data, SAP Security, and SAP Training practitioners. An essential component for completing this project included showand-tell workshops to analyze the functional impact and define the code remediation changes. The SAP team leaned on considerable SAP implementation and deployment experience and accelerators to clarify the client’s S/4 vision. Providing clear and synched systemic benefits of the adopted solution and continued to provide navigation and leadership for the S/4 roadmap. Despite the complexity, challenges, and considerations surrounding this program, New Era successfully delivered the outcomes using the SAP Activate Agile framework. The team re-used and established non-digital transformation techniques, such as process standardization, eliminating waste, redesigning processes, best practices of SAP, and robust security controls. The client realized the Digital transformation methods that an SAP implementation brings (i.e., reduction of manual efforts, expunging manual code, and process automation). The client successfully implemented their SAP S/4 solution and allowed the organization to transform its operations in finance to become more closely aligned with the business strategies going forward. The skill set shift of the program allowed Finance to focus on advanced analytics, ramp up domain, technical, and business understanding of a tightly integrated system, and become a business panacea for the lines of business they service
New Era Technology Executes SAP C4C Retail Implementation for Field Staff in DIY Stores for a leading manufacturer of Tool and Power Equipment
About the Client The Client is a world leader in manufacturing Power Tools, Hand Tools, Floorcare, and Cleaning and Outdoor Power Equipment. Its products were targeted at DIY users as well as professionals in home improvement, repair, and maintenance. The Client’s products are widely used in the construction and infrastructure industries. Challenges and Considerations The Client has a workforce of around 1500 field representatives that operate across 2000 DIY stores in North America and Mexico. It faced challenges in proper task allocation and feedback between the field staff and the central operations and marketing team about changes to be applied to the product layouts in the stores. This delayed conveying the required information and had a detrimental impact on their sales operations. Without the much-needed mobility advantage, the flow of updates was affected, leading to challenges in visibility and availability of the Client’s products in the DIY stores. Requirements The Client needed a cloud-based solution with the required mobility for its vast workforce. The solution needed to have ease of usage for 1500 concurrent users. The central team will generate, track, and review user tasks. The Client’s required a robust and reliable workflow for field representatives. The solution needed to generate instantaneous task progress reporting to the leadership team. There was a need for integration with Outlook to reduce dependency on non-SAP application New Era Technology has provided staffing support for the Client’s SAP C4C (Cloud for Customer) solution. New Era’s strong domain experience, customer-centric approach, and ongoing engagement success made the Client choose New Era for the required solution The Solution New Era assessed the Client’s requirements and strategized a solution to meet the objectives. We provided project management, design, development, customization, configuration, testing, production deployment, and Hypercare support. New Era collaborated closely with the Client regarding Organizational Change Management activities for communication and training. The development activities included close collaboration with SAP. Key Challenges during the Project Development Phase Extending Requirements Limitations in SAP C4C Mobile App The Client’s business users had a vision of the basic features they needed. During the end-user testing, they realized some of the complexity and challenges within the SAP C4C solution. This has been resolved with several requirement changes and extensions to ensure the experience for the field representatives was as comprehensive as possible. Together with consultants from SAP C4C, we had to work around multiple unexpected challenges with the mobile app. Several times, a process worked perfectly in the desktop representation of SAP C4C but did not port to iOS and Android App users. Collaboration with the SAP development team enabled us to resolve these issues and deliver a workable solution. The project was a fixed-fee engagement with some essential business deadlines. Therefore, it was important for both the Client and New Era to ensure timely project delivery. We achieved this through open communication and close collaboration in every project phase.
Software Testing Solutions for Leading National Bank
Overview A leading national bank reached out to New Era Technology as a follow-up to a previous software assessment project. The customer was interested in an evaluation of their application’s security posture. The customer was in the process of taking steps to ensure compliance, but also needed a third-party to provide an unbiased evaluation of their implementations in the event of an audit. Challenges This project was unique as the client’s configurations of their applications were on-premises and required local installation of the assessment software. The client specifically requested to not have any outside traffic interaction. This request required installation of various components to run the software within their infrastructure. Access to the client’s environment was locked down by policies, which created a challenge for allowing components to execute. New Era’s team executed a discovery to look into the processes that were required to run on the machine and the coordination with the client’s security personnel to grant appropriate access An additional challenge included the manual installation of the software due to the on-premises requirements. Configuration was hampered by security policies and the overall assessment was delayed due to these challenges. New Era Technology effectively communicated this situation with the client and the software vendor allowed for successful implementation. Solution To ensure client satisfaction, New Era Technology provided an increase of elaborate reports of the client’s security posture via the software’s dashboard and reporting capabilities. The dashboard provided detailed security analysis using the latest web and security vulnerability protocols, broken down by severity and time estimates. The overall assessment provided the client with detailed information on their security posture and how to address the concerns. The project took 3-4 weeks to complete. Download Case study
eCommerce Website Transformation for B2B Parts & Services Provider
Overview A family-operated manufacturing business that provides service, repairs, and installation for commercial kitchens across Ohio, Southeastern Indiana, and Northern Kentucky connected with New Era Technology for support to modernize their website. Solution The customer was operating on a full-bespoke e-Commerce platform that presented limitations and failed to integrate with their ERP and Service applications. Data challenges resulted in many canceled orders due to inaccurate inventory counts and misquoted shipping rates. Additionally, the client felt the website’s UX and design was challenging to navigate and was overall outdated in appearance. The client was seeking a new website platform to set them up for continued digital transformation and evolution while bolstering their online presence. The Magento 2 eCommerce platform was chosen as the target platform for migration. As an enterprise, open-source platform, the solution was both cost effective and robust enough to adapt to the needed integrations and customizations. New Era’s team worked creatively to bridge gaps in product data while accounting for drop-ship scenarios that added complex exceptions to purchasing and shipping processes. Working with over 2 million products served as a significant undertaking. New Era’s team of experts creatively optimized the migration process and performed targeted product data cleansing. This complex infrastructure was complimented by a revitalized UX and visual design, highlighting the brand’s value propositions and optimizing paths for users to quickly find their desired parts and services when arriving to the site. To ensure client satisfaction, New Era conducted a series of on-site training for new technologies, interfacing not only with the client’s web team but also with the warehouse staff who managed fulfillment, the billing team, and the sales and outreach teams. The Digital Transformation solutions implemented transformed the employees’ day-to-day execution of their roles and improved critical security problems that had been overlooked. The project was completed within ten months, from discovery to delivery. Download Case study
Global EPC (Oilfield) Organization Undergoes Divestiture in SAP Using Selective Data Migration
Summary New Era Technology has been an SAP services partner for a leading oilfield services company in the Middle East and delivered SAP On-Premise to Azure Cloud Migration, SAP S/4HANA Application Version Upgrade, Implementation of SAP IFRS16 Lease Management, and SAP Application Maintenance Services for this client. This client was undergoing a divestiture, resulting in one of their two business units getting acquired by another global oilfield services company. The client needed SAP Carve-Out strategy and execution services to create two SAP landscapes, one each for the respective business divisions, along with IT infrastructure enablement to host one completely new SAP landscape resulting from this carve-out. New Era Technology successfully delivered the complete scope of SAP Carve-Out services for the client in a record time of five months. UNLOCK THE FULL DETAILS
Engineering Firm CDG Boosts Data Accuracy and Reporting with New Era Technology and Microsoft
Engineering firm CDG, Inc., had relied on manual processes for storing its financial data and project information. To generate monthly reports for analysis, the firm was also manually downloading data to an Excel spreadsheet. These processes were errorprone and of limited use. CDG turned to IT consulting and development company New Era, which helped the firm modernize its data storage and project management and improve its reporting by implementing a Microsoft Azure SQL-driven approach, supplemented by the reporting capabilities of Power BI. Customer Challenges CDG provides engineering, consulting, and development services to public entities, private enterprises, and the petroleum industry. Data is key to its success, but the slow, manual data-entry processes it had been relying on left room for errors. CDG had been using the Deltek Vantagepoint solution for storing the firm’s data and using an OLAP cube to connect the data, but the cube alone wasn’t capable of storing historical data. In addition, the firm also found the overall usability of the data it needed for accurate reporting to be limited, and it couldn’t easily create data visualizations and surface actionable insights. Partner Solution To act on its job-to-date (JTD) reporting with confidence, CDG needed greater accuracy and improved insights in reviewing its accounting data at the end of each month. As the firm’s data was stored in an additional database and OLAP cube, the data is now extracted using an MDX query from the cube to another database using a linked server. The steps to capture the historical and JTD accounting data are then entered in the stored procedure by combining MDX and Microsoft Azure SQL queries. The project uses SQL to gather multiple datasets to organize accounting cycle cashflows into a pipeline reporting dashboard and .pdf in Power BI.
Unifying and Strengthening Brand Presence through Website Redesign
With several internal websites, two public-facing sites, and challenges in infrastructure, branding, and marketing, UnitedHealthOne needed a significant overhaul of their online presence. At the same time, their website redesign needed to comply with individual state and national regulations and handle a significant increase in traffic due to the Affordable Care Act (ACA).Challenges Challenges Unclear Visual Branding Although their legacy website was modern and uncluttered, PRECISION wondered if it was really communicating the nature of their work. With limited imagery of people in medical settings and few visual cues about the ground-breaking data and technology aspects of their products, the website wasn’t memorable or visually descriptive. Lack of Supporting Content PRECISION’s team wanted to use the website for lead nurture as part of their developing ABM strategy, but the website didn’t support that goal. Beyond product pages and videos, the site lacked supporting content, leaving sales teams struggling to help potential customers understand the products beyond traditional collateral. Confusing Customer Experience As the company grew, the website architecture started to reflect internal business structures more than what customers might need or want. The sitemap made sense to PRECISION, but not necessarily to their ideal customers, and people who didn’t know the names of the company’s products couldn’t easily navigate to the right spot. Solutions UHOne partnered with New Era Technology Alliance to develop a solutions-based approach to website redesign. Using an Agile Scrum methodology, we implemented three concurrent workstreams: technical, digital and design, and content. Project Goal Build a Technical Workstream We needed to ensure a stable, scalable website that offered the flexibility and comprehensive functionality UHOne needed to maintain multiple operations and adapt to a changing landscape quickly, and we knew Sitecore would support these goals. Our Solution Conducted an analysis of infrastructure and system parameters required to establish an enterprise-level Sitecore Content Management System (CMS) environment with appropriate security, capacity, and operation readiness Planned, designed, and rolled out Sitecore environments for development, test, model, and production Created a platform-as-a-service model that supported microsite creation and configuration for future web properties within Sitecore Project Goal Configure a Digital and Design Workstream Even though UHOne had multiple microsites, cohesion across the entire website needed to go beyond visual design to include website structure, navigation, and functionality. We also wanted to provide this cohesion in a repeatable form for future needs to build out the website. Our Solution Created a repeatable design and user-experience strategy that can translate to multiple sites across the Sitecore platform while allowing each site to stand out individually Established critical success factors for website organization, experience architecture, navigation, functionality, and visual design Determined mobile usage needs and parameters for responsive web design Project Goal Establish a Content Workstream Setting a brand identity, connecting with customers, securing search engine results, and building trust and authority requires consistent, high-quality content, but it also needs to align with state regulations. Our Solution Restructured existing content to utilize Sitecore’s CMS capabilities and deliver personalized, modular content for customers using a variety of devices Laid the foundation for a “localization” approach to creating personalized content to maintain compliance with state regulations Developed content governance protocols that leverage Sitecore’s workflow capabilities and reflect current content marketing, SEO, and device best practices Implemented Google Tag Manager for accurate data related to visitor activity and conversion rates. Impact The new website launched on time and on-budget, and PRECISION's team was proud to direct prospects to a site that better reflected their brand. In addition to organic traffic driven by enhanced SEO, sales can now direct customers to the right content at the right time, using pages to cross-sell products, cultivate leads, and assist in closing business. And the new visual direction also serves as a pilot for future revisions to other websites within the corporate domain. "We appreciate the professionalism, meeting deadlines, and creativity that went into delivering a best-in-class product! New Era is an excellent partner." In spite of the tight timeframe, technical constraints, and multiple levels of stakeholders, New Era engineered creative solutions that transformed PRECISIONxtract's digital presence and set the stage for ongoing growth and market leadership.
Custom MDM Solution with Intune for a Leading Pharma Giant to Enhance Data and Device Security
About the Client The Client is a leading pharmaceutical company with its headquarters in Dublin-Ireland, and Malvern-Pennsylvania for US operations. It started its operations in 1997 by acquiring pharmaceutical products, assets, and production rights from other pharmaceutical companies, and currently, it has an active headcount of around 3000 employees. Business Challenges The Client was using the native (Mobile Device Management) MDM capabilities of M365 for securing its enterprise data and devices. As a part of a strategic exercise to enhance the scope and potential of the current MDM solution by leveraging the complete capabilities of M365, it wanted an implementation of a new Intune-based custom solution. The enhancements sought from the proposed solution are outlined below. Unified suite for easy configuration and administration of corporate security policies Secure access to enterprise data and applications across company-issued and BYOD assets A comprehensive solution for Mobile Application Management (MAM) Advanced access controls by integrating with Azure Active Directory The ability to access enterprise data and applications, from everywhere and anytime across any registered device New Era, by virtue of having successfully completed many projects for the Client, was engaged to develop a custom Intune-based MDM solution. Solution Approach New Era did a comprehensive assessment of the enhancements that the client sought and implemented the below-outlined steps for developing the solution with Intune-based best practices. Configuring the Azure Directory portal with Role-based access (RBAC) for improved access management Setting-up Windows, iOS, and Android in the MDM portal for usage across a variety of devices Define and configure device, compliance policies, and groups, as per the Client’s enterprise regulations Develop a plan to transition iOS devices from native mail to Outlook as part of the Mobile Application Management Strategize the transition of Android-based devices from Android device administrator to Android Enterprise work profiles.
New Era Technology Implements Custom Governance Strategy to Regulate Microsoft Teams usage for a Leading Pharma Giant
About the Client The Client is a leading pharmaceutical company with its headquarters in Dublin-Ireland, and Malvern-Pennsylvania for US operations. It started its operations in 1997 by acquiring pharmaceutical products, assets, and production rights from other pharmaceutical companies, and currently, it has an active headcount of around 3000 employees. Business Challenges The Client was using Microsoft 365 for managing its business operations and had planned a Teams implementation for Q2, 2022. It was looking for a comprehensive governance strategy and solution to ensure optimal and secure implementation and prevent the unregulated creation of Teams. The other objective of the solution was to provide reporting, administration, provisioning, and naming conventions. The specific technical requirements of the provisioning solution are outlined below Regulate the creation of a new Team within the Teams environment by an in-built assessment of the business need. Provide users with a questionnaire within the App to determine the requirements, scope, and utility of the proposed creation of a new Team. Assess the submission from the questionnaire and provide direct approval if it meets the Governance guidelines, or send it for further approval, or reject it. To ensure seamless implementation of Teams and provide an effective Governance solution, the Client chose New Era, with which it had partnered for multiple projects in the past Solution Approach New Era, with its vast expertise in developing bespoke solutions in Microsoft Technologies, did a complete assessment of the Client’s requirements and strategized a solution to provision Teams. The solution included the development of three Team templates and a provisioning questionnaire. A Power Automate flow was designed to review and approve the submissions for creation of a new Team. The questionnaire was accessible in the Teams App, as well as the Client’s intranet, and helped determine one of the below outcomes for a user submission to create a new Team. An approval, if the need for the requirement matches the Governance guidelines Moving the request for an additional approval The option of an existing SharePoint site to be incorporated in the Team The feasibility of the requirement to be handled in an alternate manner Apart from the above functionality, the solution also included a feature to have sensitive content or tagging stored in the Client’s SharePoint lists in the M365 tenant. The project implementation was supplemented by two weeks of Hypercare support, as well as a knowledge transfer session with usage documentation.
Pharma Major Experiences Sales Surge Post Migration | New Era Technology
About the Client The client is a global healthcare company with 95 years of innovation and leadership in diabetes care. Headquartered in Europe, its workforce is spread across 79 countries. The company is a leader in innovative medicines and delivery systems that address needs of people with obesity, hemophilia, growth disorders and other serious chronic diseases. Background The client was facing serious issues related to business-critical communication and timely updates. Leadership team and field executives were in adequately equipped to connect, communicate, and collaborate to drive action and deliver results. The prevalent process of manual management of the distribution list was ineffective, cumbersome, prone to errors and resulted in delays and missed opportunities. The various issues the company was facing included: Low ROI on efforts Lack of effective communication Absence of control Lack of visibility into process and progress of work Absence of timely information on performance The challenge lay in: Improving outcome of sales efforts Transitioning out of a manual process to an automated workflow to eliminate human errors and improve reliability Improving visibility into the metrics around salesperson efficiency Viewing real time data on ongoing work Integrating HR processes to streamline workforce availability Enabling cross functional collaborative work i.e., sales, marketing, HR, etc. Ensuring effective and efficient communication and management of the sales distribution list Enabling adequate communication within the sale distribution network to overcome the issues related to lack of control and loss of productivity The client looked toward New Era to find a solution that would address all the pain points faced by the company. Solution New Era evaluated the landscape, the specific requirements of the client, and the industry the client operated in, to arrive at the best fit solution. Based on their independent assessment, New Era designed and built a tailormade Distribution List Management solution that users could deploy and access from anywhere. Benefits Surge in sales propelled by enhanced collaboration between the field reps, the leadership team, and related stakeholders. Productivity driven profitability through streamlined workflows, reliable, always-on communication a visible improvement in results. Enhanced output quality as an outcome of customized solution. Tailormade solution helped move away from manual system boosting efficiency and reliability, prompt, and human-error free updates to the list. Transparency and visibility through Single pane of glass interface. Data, metrics and granular data availability resulted in clear visibility into operations. Integrated, automated solution ensured consistency with platform designed to talk to the HR systems, the database, active directory, and exchange server. Boost to collaborative productivity with cross functional communication through secure messaging for closed group communication. Group communication for managers and field staff for monitored, guided progress of tasks and management by objective. Easy management of groups. Sales groups could be created based on title, region, location, districts etc. This made it easier to allocate or reassign resources between groups. Intuitive platform. Easy navigation through intuitively designed solution. Enhanced customer responsiveness with access to clear, on-the-go communication channels
Custom-Built Formulary App for Efficient Drug Management
About the Client The client is a leading pharmaceutical company with its headquarters in Denmark, and production facilities in eight countries. It markets its products in 180 countries, with a focus on quality and affordability of medicines for diabetes, obesity, hemophilia, and growth disorders. Background In the pharmaceutical industry, Formulary intelligence plays a crucial role in contributing to a healthy topline. Formularies are constantly evolving, and that these must always contain the latest information. Companies rely on and use inputs from the on-field sales team to track and provide the latest updates. The client was facing challenges in establishing a clear workflow to enable the Sales team to share updates with the Market Access Strategic Execution team, and for them to distribute it internally. The client sought a unified application that would enable the Sales team to quickly update the formulary changes and automatically send them to the designated team, while also creating a central repository of the updates. Business Challenges In the pharmaceutical industry, Formulary intelligence plays a crucial role in contributing to a healthy topline. Formularies are constantly evolving, and that these must always contain the latest information. Companies rely on and use inputs from the on-field sales team to track and provide the latest updates. The client was facing challenges in establishing a clear workflow to enable the Sales team to share updates with the Market Access Strategic Execution team, and for them to distribute it internally. The client sought a unified application that would enable the Sales team to quickly update the formulary changes and automatically send them to the designated team, while also creating a central repository of the updates. The client required New Era to build a modern formulary application. This application would be used by the sales team to fill in formulary or protocol updates in forms which would then be submitted as an attachment to the client’s managing team. Solution Approach New Era ran tests and comprehensive analysis of the client’s requirements and built solution that would address the issues that the client was facing. New Era built a comprehensive, user-friendly, intuitive solution. The team used Power Apps to build the Formulary App, Power Automate to send automatic updates, and SharePoint to create a separate repository for each product. Result: Field sales teams could effortlessly update formulary changes across the three market baskets of Diabetes, Obesity, and BioPharm using an intuitive form that enabled step-by-step entry of the data. The sales team no longer had to depend on conventional means of sharing formulary data and could access the App that could be used anytime and anywhere. The automated naming convention and sharing of submitted forms ensured easier data access
Largest Office 365 & Intune Migration for Healthcare | New Era Technology
About the Client The client is a reputed not-for-profit healthcare service provider in the USA. With a huge network of 17,000 professionals and 4800 affiliated physicians, it operates seven reputed hospitals that provide extended healthcare services. The Client operates from New Jersey, supporting 11 counties and 4.9 million people focusing on easy access and affordability of healthcare services. Background The healthcare client with a workforce distributed across multiple locations, needed a cost effective and robust Mobile Device Management (MDM) software that would enable the organization to manage its 5000+ devices. This number of devices is among the largest for any healthcare company in the tri-state area. The new solution and migration process would have to address several business requirements including: Addressing the high additional license cost incurred on the AirWatch MDM in use. Easing the compatibility challenges between the MDM in use and the enterprise collaboration software. Working on improvement in the data and device security. Transitioning out from AirWatch in a seamless manner without wiping out devices. Enabling users to self-initiate the migration of their devices. Additionally, there were several unique challenges. Orchestrating a seamless migration at a never-before scale of a network of 5000+ devices without wiping or resetting the devices to factory mode and minimising any disruptions to users. Mitigating cost inefficiencies without compromising on quality of services. Transitioning the 5000+ devices seamlessly onto an alternate robust and reliable MDM software. Based off their long-term engagement, the client relied on New Era technical expertise to find a solution on this business-critical scenario and to provide them with a cost and value driven advantage. Solution New Era saw an opportunity to provide a holistic solution. Based on an analysis of the scenario, New Era Technology decided to leverage the existing MDM capability available in Office 365 to simplify the technology landscape, reduce the technology footprints and save cost on additional licensing costs. New Era Technology evaluated the client’s existing MDM platform, and used a third-party product to help end users self -service the migration launch and initiate the complex migration from the existing MDM to Intune, Microsoft’s Office 365 integrated MDM. Benefits • 30% savings in cost post migration to O365 Intune. The savings arose from the elimination of the additional license fees paid for the non-Microsoft MDM in use. • Significant reduction in third-party technology footprint. The migration consolidated the technology platforms into a single integrated one. • Streamlined process with support from Help Desk and utilization of in-house talent pool. • Elimination of multiple Device-IDs required previously. Single Azure ID were sufficient after migration. • Delivered improved ROI on Office 365 platform. • Enriched user experience by deploying accelerators and tools that expedited migration speed. • Enabled advanced management through Intune. Compared to other solutions, Intune is an integrated console for the advanced management of mobile devices and enterprise apps. • Intune driven added benefits such as easy integration with other Microsoft services like Azure and Office365. It also offers customers access to Microsoft Graph API for workflow task automation besides being ideal for businesses of all sizes and works on all devices.
Portal Solutions: Simplifying Enterprise Collaboration | New Era Technology
About the Client European multinational pharmaceutical company with production facilities in eight countries, and affiliates or offices in 5 countries. Client manufactures and markets pharmaceutical products and services. Key products include diabetes care medications and devices. Background In absence of a comprehensive solution, client’s Leadership team was compelled to use manual process of managing multiple distribution lists in Outlook to execute critical communications with their regional and local sales teams. With over 500 lists, administration was a huge challenge But the larger risk was interrupted flow of communication between leadership and sales teams. Distribution List Updating Issues: Client’s Sales leadership team used distribution lists in Outlook to execute critical communications to its regional and local sales teams. It was important for them to have these distribution lists’ membership updated daily to reflect changes in org structure & new hires. To achieve this, internal IT support team’s help was required with list updating. This process had 24 hours of TAT and to complicate the matter further, there were close to 500 distribution lists. Keeping the membership updated was a big challenge. Risk of important communication not reaching the intended recipient was always a cause for worry. Solution New Era was engaged to provide a solution which addressed this challenge and provided immediate results, while simplifying the administration with self-servicing features rather, than having to raise requests through their internal IT support. We deployed a comprehensive portal solution to fulfill the requirements and provided minimal & responsive UI that enabled the Sales Admin group to: 1. Create new lists 2. Delete unused groups 3. Add/ delete members to a group The portal was also integrated with their HR management system to effectively update members of distribution lists, automatically, based on certain criteria like Region, District, Position and Sales hierarchy codes derived from their profiles in the HR management system.
Central Document Storage Repository with SharePoint Portals and O365
About the Client The Client is a leading publisher of academic documents, books, journals, and research papers. It has offices in the US, England, and China. Founded in 1905, the client has close connections with an Ivy League university famed for providing a platform for bringing scholarly ideas to the world stage. Business Challenges The client publishes a range of manuals, books, research papers, and documents spanning multiple disciplines from its global locations. It uses Fileshare to store and access them locally. The numerous storage locations led to challenges in easy accessibility and organized document management. To make these documents globally available, the Rights department of the Client required a central online storage repository to facilitate easy storage, management, and access for all its internal and external stakeholders. New Era Technology conducted an initial assessment and roadmap strategy and proposed a solution that would store all documents in the cloud and have a central repository to access them. The solution would be implemented using SharePoint, as the client was already using the Microsoft Office 365 platform. Solution Approach New Era, with its vast expertise in custom application development in Microsoft technologies, implemented the roadmap solution to develop an online repository of the content using SharePoint. New Era approached the solution in a structured step-by-step manner. Step 1: The initial step involved the creation of separate portals for active and archived data with a well-defined data structure that aligned with the Client’s document retention policies. Step 2: The next step involved creating group-based access privileges to public and private documents. A well-defined taxonomy structure for information architecture was created for document naming conventions across all the global locations of the Rights department. Step 3: The third step involved the actual migration of the files and data from Fileshare to the online portals using Sharegate. Necessary cutover guidelines were implemented to ensure data consistency, and once the migration of over 4 TB of data was completed, the Fileshare storage functionality was locked. Additionally, new documents were prompted to be stored in SharePoint in a pre-defined format to streamline data as per the Client’s specifications. Security guidelines were implemented for critical data by enabling a data retention timeline, which would alert the user for updating the information or have it get automatically erased.
SAP Application Support for Chemical Industry
The Client With over a billion dollars in annual revenue and more than 5000 employees, the Client, together with its subsidiaries is a producer and marketer of nitrogen and methanol products for agricultural and industrial markets in North America and the United Kingdom Background The client uses SAP 4.7 with an emphasis on SD, MM andFI modules with users across US and Canada requiring functional, technical, and basis support 24/7 Application Support Group (ASG) had major concerns on: Huge backlog of tickets and high user dissatisfaction High cost to complete impacting IT budget Need for a reliable vendor with consistency and flexibility in delivery execution. Solution New Era Technology proposed an onsite-offshore model, (with flexible hours and resource ramp-ups ) aimed at addressing the existing gaps in solution delivery Key Customer Benefits After nearly 18 months of operation, the Application Support Group (ASG) was able to demonstrate that Backlog of tickets have been done away with The IT budget did not rise in tandem with the closures. Quality of resolution has been high and user experience has been vastly improved at much-reduced impact to their budget. Technical Achievements New Era Technology solution has encompassed Reports, BSP, Interfaces, Smart forms, SAPScripts, RFC, BDC, User Exists and Enhancements.
SAP Application Support for Designing and Manufacturing Industry
Business Need The Client is a global leader in design and manufacture of both high-performance case solutions and advanced portable lighting systems. With over 2000 employees worldwide, the client has 750 SAP Licenses with 700 strong global users (USA, UK, Barcelona, Canada, and Australia). All the users perform functions including Contract, Manufacturing, Shipping, and Orders, etc. The demand to provide best-in-class IT support solutions and services and the organizations' lack of required IT skilled resources to deliver them is strongly felt throughout the enterprise. In an industry that faces ongoing margin pressure, operational efficiency is critical to business success. Realizing this need the Client made a decision to outsource its mission-critical IT functions to a partner who has the required capabilities, solid delivery and good governance models and who can deliver services cost-effectively New Era Technology presented a proposal after collecting extensive information about the Client's existing and future requirements and challenges of their SAP applications service's needs. After evaluating a number of potential technology partners, the Client choose New Era an SAP services partner as it has the experience, structured approach, robust governance model for managing and optimizing SAP applications in a cost-effective manner Challenges Stabilized modules in disarray prior to starting operations Outstanding issues had to be taken care off Designing appropriate project documentation for all Modules Designing of an efficient mechanism to handle the tickets Resource flexibility in all the time zones Solution New Era Technology has designed a perfect onsite and offshore delivery model to suit the Client's business operations environment to provide the required support for the bellow mentioned modules: FICO MM/WM SD PP ABAP with Workflow And On-Demand services for the surrounding areas of SAP which include APO, HCM, BI, and Basis.
SAP Application Support for Electronics Industry
The Client Established in 1921, the Client is a Chicago-based world leader in circuit protection, offering the industry's most extensive product portfolio including nine core technologies. With employee strength over 6,500 and over 500 million in annual revenues the client has operations all over the world. Background The client needed a high level of technical support for their ongoing BW system and also top class professional support for its upgradation. The client needs: Minimize the cost of application support Ensure development support for upgrade project Leverage on the time zone advantage for faster completion Solution New Era proposed an offshore model (with flexi hours and resource ramp-ups) aimed at addressing the existing gaps in solution delivery. New Era offshore team coordinated successfully with the onsite Client's IT manager to solve the issue. The project went on for nearly 12 months. Key Benefits Back log of tickets have been done away with. The IT budget did not rise in tandem with the closures. Quality of resolution has been high and user experience has been vastly improved at much reduced impact to their budget.
SAP BI Solutions for Chemical Industry
About the Client The client is a world leader in Chemical Manufacturing. Business Case The client has global operations and had acquired lot of profitable business in the last decade. As a part of these acquisitions, it has recently acquired one of the largest manufacturer in Europe and its subsidiaries in multiple geographies. The client is currently running its business operations on SAP and the acquired business also runs business on SAP. With the recent acquisition they have decided to integrate the IT systems for better visibility and tracking of financials across the globe. Business Need The most important business needs are listed below: To integrate the acquired business using IT transformation and integration program. To roll-out the integration foot-print in 4 continents i.e. Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia involving a total of 19 countries. Design a common reporting solution across the globe, while retaining a minimal local flavor. Reporting solution to cover the business processes of Order to Cash and Accounts Receivable. The key limitations of the existing system included: Non-existent BI strategy and roadmap Silo'ed reporting solutions High cost of ownership High redundancies High time to market These limitations led to a very weak business information framework implementation which did not support exploiting the information available and using it for strategic business growth. The client needed a partner who could build an integrated, consistent and structured information repository to enable business transformation and exploitation of knowledge while at the same time work hand-in-hand with the delivery management inleading this very strategic and highly visible initiative for the client in setting the direction for the program there by providing input to the BI strategy and also managing delivery at the operational level
Implementation of CPG100+ Provided Single Automated and Integration Solution for Leading Manufacturer
About Client The client’s products are part of some of the key ingredients of nutritional supplements. Apart from carrying some products in the inventory, the client provides contract manufacturing services,spray-drying, milling, grinding, and juicing services. Background The client, a leading farming and food manufacturing company, conducted business with manual process controls due to: Insufficient IT security Inadequate workflow and alerts Limited cross-department information visibility The client realized the need for a strong technology platform to streamline operations to replace the legacy and paper and spreadsheet-based processes that lead to steadily declining inefficiency and inaccuracy. In addition, the client wanted a transparent view of all operations data. The client’s key requirement was an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution that would help to automate and integrate all of the business processes across all functional areas, from farm operations to customer service, for enhanced integration and control. Solution New Era Technology, with its in-depth knowledge and experience of the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) industry, was selected as the client partner. Given the limited scale of the client’s operations in the United States and the client’s desire for a shorter implementation cycle with ready-to-deploy ERP solutions, New Era suggested a fast-track implementation with a four-month implementation cycle. After a thorough review of the client’s existing landscape, New Era suggested the deployment of CPG100+, an SAP-certified and pre-configured Business All-in-One solution powered by SAP S/4HANA that is based on SAP Best Practices for the CPG industry. The out-of-box functionality of CPG100+ was an ideal fit for the growing business needs and would cover the existing business processes and the enterprise reporting requirements. CPG100+ would also minimize the number of customizations and enhancements that would be needed (because the solution is based on industry best practices), thus reducing the overall cost for the client. Utilizing its proprietaryExcelSAPmethodology for rapid project execution, as well as a hybrid offshore/onshore delivery model for further cost reduction, New Era began the implementation which included the following modules: Sales and Distrib Inventory production Supply Chain Production Management Financials New Era Technology developed robust and complex interfaces catering to various process requirements and integrated comprehensive reporting, both standard and customized, for providing support to day-to-day business functions. Additionally, New Era deployedSAP Fiori for the client
Successful Single-Phase Implementation of SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central
About Client CommScope Inc. is an American network infrastructure provider based in Hickory, North Carolina. CommScope employs over 30,000 employees. CommScope designs and manufactures network & infrastructure products Business Challenges Constant expansion of company Portfolio through acquisitions. Large, multi-lingual HRIS systems & 30,000+ Employee footprint spanning across 52+ countries and globally. Multiple ERP (including SAP ECC & Oracle EBS) and other downstream systems integrated to their HRIS systems. Larger-sized acquisitions back then required Clients to streamline their ERP & HRIS platforms – SuccessFactors Employee Central was the application of Choice. Client already was using SAP ECC for HCM Core, Talent Solutions from SAP SuccessFactors & multiple 3rd party Regional Payroll systems. Solution Successfully implemented SuccessFactors Employee Central for 52 countries globally in a single phase (big-bang_ format) Central, Core Global design implemented with Local Processes & Mandatory (Legal/ Fiscal) Configurations Secure Data Migration from SAP ECC HCM & other ERP systems to Employee Central Backward Integration of employee Data from Employee Central into SAP HCM (& other subsequent downstream systems like ADP Payroll, etc.) using SAP BTP Integration Suite (AKA SAP CPI) Retrofitting of SuccessFactors Talent Solutions like PMGM, Compensation, Recruitment & Onboarding to integrate with Employee Central instead of the erstwhile SAP HCM Mobility & Organizational Change Management Planning & Execution – deployment of digital Assistant to support the OCM execution
Achieving Design and Development Efficiency at Scale
Solutions Our client had starting points already for two design systems catering to different business units. We came alongside their teams to facilitate consistency and help them think through a common standard and vocabulary that the company could easily scale across the business – with a goal of increasing operational efficiency while reducing risks. Project Goal Streamline Elements To facilitate consistency across brands and platforms, we analyzed existing digital properties and multiple sources of internal brand standards to develop a more consistent, streamlined approach to design components and code creation. Our Solution Standardized a library of UI components Created global UX guidelines Implemented code standards Facilitated consistency of component use across applications Established documentation and implementation guidelines Project Goal Accelerate Workflows The company’s internal teams needed to do more in less time, so we worked to simplify workflows and bridge gaps between teams – making every effort more effective and every interaction more productive. Our Solution Simplified design and development processes Provided a common language to enable clearer communication and faster coordination between teams Established processes for iterative improvement Equipped teams to bring components to the page faster, reducing costs Project Goal Manage Accessibility In the face of steep accessibility fine costs, the volume of websites the company created each year represented a huge exposure to risk. Our team centralized UI, UX, and accessibility standards within the design system, so designers and developers could create fearlessly. Our Solution Conducted an in-depth accessibility audit Established an accessibility framework as a baseline standard from which teams could create and iterate freely Created a development library and code package to ensure quality and standardization Delivered a single source of truth for UI, UX, and accessibility Established parameters for compliance to enable quicker rollouts without increased risk
A Customer Journey Map Points the Way to Success
Solutions Altafiber wanted to provide a meaningful and satisfying experience for customers using the new application and partnered with New Era’s team of digital experts to make this happen. We knew that creating a customer journey map would be essential in assessing their current CX strategy and providing insight to better understand and improve end-to-end customer service. Project Goal Create a Customer Journey map Before focusing on how Altafiber could better develop and deliver elements of their mobile application, we needed critical insight into their customers to better understand their actions, thoughts, and emotions. Our Solution Analyzed collected data to determine the customer base Created two specific persona profiles representing two separate customer segments Developed a customer journey map that identified touchpoints and engagements with Altafiber Project Goal Understand Current CX and Areas for Improvement With a customer journey map and clarity into engagement opportunities between the customer and Altafiber, we could dig deeper into their current customer service strategy. Our Solution Performed a gap analysis to find strengths and weaknesses of the existing customer experience Established specific areas in the journey where both personas experienced friction Provided a 360-degree view of the current customer experience
Customer Insight and Web Design Improve CX for an Auto Glass Service Company
Solutions Originally, the auto glass service company partnered with Fusion Alliance to design the two new websites that would increase traffic and implement self-service capabilities. However, we saw opportunities to build customer trust and improve CX by pinpointing the exact needs and wants of their target audiences. Project Goal Understand the Customer Journey We wanted to know how customers felt about the existing website, what they wanted to see, and the pain points they experienced that brought them to the website to begin with. Our Solution Conducted interviews with existing customers about their experiences and needs. Created customer personas that would inspire the design process Examined existing websites for how they stood up against competitors Project Goal Build Self-Service Capabilities into the New Design Our client wanted to build in self-service capabilities and customer interviews gave us insight into exactly what they wanted from an auto glass service company’s website. We looked at ways we could improve CX while getting quick feedback from the client. Our Solution Set a minimum viable product for each initiative Designed roadmaps to implement the MVP to keep Fusion and the client aligned on common objectives and goals Project Goal Deliver Web-Enabled Solutions on an Expedited Timeline To hasten time to market, our Agile team knew that working side-by-side with the client’s team on front-end and back-end development solutions would move the project forward quickly without hitting obstacles. Our Solution Worked within the client’s existing processes to deliver solutions Planned and executed the project within an Agile framework Provided training and guidance to the client’s team through the entire process to ensure faster adoption of initiatives Used sprint-based development to deliver features for client review more quickly
Boosting Data ROI with a Data Analytics Assessment
Solutions Seven Corners reached out to Fusion Alliance to get to the bottom of their data inaccuracies. After listening to their concerns and determining that the problems stemmed from Google Analytics via Google Tag Manager, we conducted a comprehensive digital analytics assessment to identify issues and look for areas of improvement. Project Goal Determine the Source of Inaccuracies To determine why Google Analytics was collecting inaccurate data, we looked at how it was implemented across the Seven Corners website and lead generation sources. Our Solution Evaluated implementation across primary interactions on their website Checked implementation against Google Analytics best practices Audited the digital transaction path Project Goal Rebuild a Solid Foundation for Analytics After running the digital analytics assessment and seeing where improvements were possible, the next step was to provide Seven Corners with a clear plan of action to improve their implementation of Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager. Our Solution Created a list of 40 actionable recommendations, prioritized by urgency, to significantly improve the accuracy and quality of collected data Built a detailed list of specific issues in Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager that need to be fixed immediately. Recommended best practices to prevent issues in the future Project Goal Create Opportunities for Further Improvements To help Seven Corners achieve their long-term goal of owning and maintaining their analytics and leverage their data to build successful and effective campaigns, we offered a more future-focused strategy in their digital analytics assessment findings. Our Solution Offered suggestions for continued improvements to implement after initial issues were resolved Provided greater clarity in leveraging analytics tools
Reshaping a Commercial Apparel Company through Microsoft Dynamics ERP
Solutions At first glance, it seemed that Affinity’s problems stemmed from a third-party implementing Microsoft Dynamics ERP and ecommerce platform in the cloud, but this was before Dynamics had a cloud-based option. While this was certainly a problem, an in-depth assessment also revealed inefficient custom code, failures in critical architecture, and a lack of scalability. New Era Technology partnered with Affinity to not only fix these problems but ensure they were positioned for further success. Project Goal Stabilize the Existing Infrastructure The first step was to perform a technology rescue to stabilize the environment to get daily operations running smoothly. Our Solution Repaired critical architecture and increase capacities Fixed and improved upon the existing code to increase efficiency within the system Migrated Dynamics AX ERP to a new datacenter to instantly improve performance Reconfigured architecture to adhere to Microsoft best practices for interoperability of devices in Affinity’s warehouses and fulfillment centers Project Goal Increase Efficiency across the Company Affinity initially implemented Microsoft Dynamics AX ERP to increase efficiency and streamline operations. We looked at options that would not only meet these goals but also support a scalable system with the flexibility needed for growth. Our Solution Eliminated customizations in the original implementation that caused transactions and orders to get lost in the system Improved transportation management system to eliminate unnecessary costs and gaps in shipping. Updated warehouse management system to improve how orders are processed and prepared for shipping. Project Goal Improve Customer Experiences and Rebuild Confidence Fixing the tech issues and improving operational efficiency would help speed fulfillment and rebuild any lost customer confidence, but we also looked for ways to improve customer experience to also attract and convert new customers. Our Solution Deployed customized websites focused on UX to create a more engaging experience Increased website capabilities to handle increased traffic, offer more functionality, and ensure a seamless buying process for customers.
Implementing Best Practices is Key to Success with Microsoft Dynamics AX
Solutions The furniture company was concerned with the loss of productivity, poor user experience, and lost revenue. They were determined to rebuild their ecommerce presence and build a stable foundation for their online platform. The company reached out to New Era Technology for an architectural assessment to determine what was causing the poor performance and how to fix it. Our team found that the existing implementation of Microsoft Dynamics AX and Sitecore did not align with either platform’s best practices, which led to the company’s issues. Project Goal Determine the Source of Platform Instability The retail furniture company chose Microsoft Dynamics AX to streamline operations, manage finances, provide customer service, and maintain ecommerce. When implemented properly, this robust platform creates a foundation for success, but it requires close adherence to best practices to achieve ideal performance. We knew the first step was to determine why the site kept crashing and system failures continued to occur. Our Solution Completed an in-depth platform assessment Evaluated the existing system configuration and performance characteristics against both Microsoft and Sitecore best practices Determined high-level, symptomatic issues that needed to be fixed immediately Project Goal Stabilize Dynamics AX and Sitecore Once we determined the source of the problems, the company needed direction and a plan to fix the most significant issues. Our Solution Created a detailed roadmap of recommendations and how to implement them Categorized the recommendations to allow the company to prioritize actions to make the biggest impact Advised the company on which configuration and deployment changes would result in immediate performance or stability enhancements
Laying the Right Pipes: Modern Data Architecture Sets Foundation for Water Innovation Company
Solutions We recommended a four-phase approach that provided a complete assessment and analysis of their current data architecture, future state options, roadmap, and proofs of concept based on the final selections. This would allow us to build out use cases for the modern data architecture. A Four-phased Foundation: From Assessment to Tool Selection Phase 1: Analysis and Information Gathering Gathering essential information to understand the needs and factors the define the objectives of the platform. Review the Client Data Strategy artifacts to understand business strategy and platform objectives Gain and understanding of key business and technical factors leading to an interest in cloud or modern data platforms Gain an understanding of the most essential high-level use cases that will increase in value from the platform Plan and conduct supplemental interviews to address any unknowns and gaps in understanding Deeper dive with technical representatives on the current state landscape and technical considerations as necessary Phase 2: Current State Architecture Readout Capture the challenges with the current architecture and ecosystem and identify the main criteria to be considered in modern architecture. Identifying constraints, limitations, and pain points with the current architecture Assimilating criteria for considering the cloud and modern data platforms Validate criteria with project sponsors Phase 3: Future State Architecture Options and Roadmap Document the architecture options and establish the roadmap and next steps to move to the next phase. Outline summary of possible cloud platforms, modern data architectures, and technologies. With the assumption that the Client has preferences for a cloud platform and relevant data management technologies, focus on identifying the services and design patterns most relevant for that architecture Evaluate the options for key components including ETL/ELT orchestration, data/database tech, and metadata catalog Identify solutions for various ingestions, including near-real-time and streaming requirements Develop a recommended strategy to transition to modern architecture Identify POCs to finalize recommendation or for further validation, if either applies Engage with product vendors in support of tools rationalization, demonstrations, and POCs Phase 4: Proof of Concept for Tools and Final Recommendations Perform further rationalization, demonstrations, and POCs of the options identified in the architecture Enable, acquire, and configure tools for demonstrations and POCs, working with vendors, and Client infrastructure teams Refine criteria and scope for POCs Define the method for evaluating and measuring POC results Perform POCs and capture results Conduct a review of results and work with the Client to support decision making Identify stand-up engagements for pilot phases Define the scope of the pilot; data source(s), data subject area model, data pipeline patterns, BI dashboard/report, aspects of the data catalog Goals Project Goal Rinse and Repeat (or Iterative Implementation As seen in phase 4, standing up and providing the initial iteration is basically creating a pilot program. We recommended taking an iterative approach so the client could see quick successes with the modernized architecture and allow them to continue to build on it as use cases surfaced. Once an iteration worked, we repeated it with new data sources. Our Solution Each time, we would: Figure out what data they still needed What sources they had or did not have to provide it Identify why it was important Add the data sources to the data warehouse in the cloud All without the Client having to worry about the on-prem limitations they were previously using and with a roadmap of use cases to expand upon. Project Goal Modernize BI and Analytics Work and Reporting With near-real-time access to data and improved data pipeline patterns in place as seen in Phase 4, we wanted to create a successful, easy to use BI dashboard. This would let them put their data to work and gain powerful and functional insight from the data they collect. Our Solution With the data sources streaming into the cloud-based data warehouse, we could shape the data into the language the BI teams are using. Transform the data Configure new, updated reports Build a successful BI dashboard/report They now had access to the right data they needed to achieve greater business insights and make informed decisions.
Improving Customer Retention through Machine Learning Insights
Solutions Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance worked with New Era Technology to build a machine learning model that would capture the likelihood a given household will have an active policy or still be a customer within 30, 60, and 90 days. Project Goal Fast Setup of Machine Learning We wanted to provide Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance with accurate, actionable insight quickly. Our Solution Chose practical use cases with small but significant results Vetted use cases to drive maximum predictive value with minimal risk Automated machine learning technology instead of bespoke algorithm development Project Goal Capture Accurate, Actionable Results Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance wanted to provide the customer retention team with insight on who to contact and how to position retention strategies. We needed to quickly capture accurate, actionable results. Our Solution Built two machine learning modules including deep neural network and traditional statistical analytics Selected concrete questions that would leverage over 3 million policy snapshots and target 35,000 at-risk policyholders Drove returns through incremental machine learning investment
Transforming the Website into a Business Enabler
Solutions Having worked with New Era Technology on digital marketing and product launches in the past and having looked to New Era Technology for suggestions on how to take the brand in an edgier direction, PRECISION extended the partnership to include the website redesign. With a limited budget and an aggressive timeline driven by a key upcoming industry event, New Era Technology pulled in a team with diverse skillsets to meet the challenge. Project Goal Elevate Design to Make the Website Stand Out To create a memorable website experience that communicated their brand’s breakthrough products, PRECISION asked for a bolder, more edgy design that was still consistent with the overall brand standards of their organization. Our Solution Create a new design standard with more conceptual imagery Integrate existing brand fonts and colors, but with a more modern application Incorporate movement and strong design elements to capture attention and elevate the brand experience Develop the new website within the limitations of the existing custom WordPress theme to maximize prior investment and leverage in-house skillsets Project Goal Convey Market leadership in Messaging & Imagery PRECISION leads the market in innovative solutions for their target customers, but the legacy website wasn’t positioned with that focus in mind. PRECISION asked for more direct language that would answer customer needs with bold brand statements — and visual imagery that would reinforce that direction. Our Solution Customer interviews and market research to discover themes that resonate with the company’s target audience New core messaging for the products and business unit using shorter, bolder phrasing Core messaging pulled through the website Illustrations, design elements, and page layouts executed in bolder, more conceptual visual direction Project Goal Design a Better User Experience People who landed on the legacy website weren’t sure how to navigate, as internal business names were used to differentiate sections of the site, and visitors who were not already familiar with product names didn’t know what to select to meet their needs. PRECISION asked for a more customer-focused user experience and site navigation. Our Solution Customer interviews, sales team interviews, SEO research, and topical research to inform new site navigation, information architecture, and page naming conventions Design and implementation of customer-focused pillar page strategy offering topical paths into product information Creation of a new menu structure designed to be intuitive and meet the customer at different points of awareness Project Goal Create Customer-Focused Content to Support Sales To support continued growth and expansion into target markets, PRECISION hoped to implement account-based marketing and create stronger content funnels to assist with lead nurture and cross-selling. They asked that the new website structure and implementation include significant supporting content designed for customer acquisition, lead generation, and nurture. Our Solution Complete content audit evaluating existing resources and positioning Repurposing existing content with new tone and voice, messaging, and product positioning Rewriting existing content for website format, SEO, and funnel position Creation of new, topical pillar page content purpose-built for customer needs and helping to surface the right content at the right time, drawing the ideal customer along the funnel toward a product decision
Retailer Reaches Global Growth with Dynamics ERP Optimization
Challenge During a period of significant growth and with plans of expansion on the horizon, an international retail company found their point of sale (POS) and logistics systems couldn't scale with their company or even keep up with day-to-day operations. System crashes caused lengthy downtimes with their register systems while delays in data transmission and poor system integration capabilities caused inaccessible and incomplete information in the stores. Not only did this put their strategic growth plans on hold and block their ability to open new stores across the nation, but Black Friday and the holiday shopping season was rapidly approaching. Company leadership was concerned about significant interruptions, downtime, and outages would affect their most profitable time of the year. The retail chain knew they needed to move away from a monolithic, legacy system and chose to adopt Microsoft Dynamics ERP, an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to align their systems and data. They planned for this to improve operations and productivity at the store level while increasing access to valuable data at the corporate level. However, poor implementation by a third party left them struggling to maximize the platform's functionality and leverage its features to serve their company. Frustrated with the problems they faced, they turned to New Era Technology to assist them with properly implementing Dynamics ERP and were confident we could collaborate and achieve the best results. Solution When Dynamics ERP is implemented with best practices in place, it can be a powerful tool for driving optimal performance, accelerating operations, and supporting business agility. We knew that once their platform was optimized with their systems, processes, and data connected, it would provide the business intelligence and adaptability they needed. Our team began by implementing Microsoft best practices to ensure the platform was stable, and then moved on to tackling several projects to customize the system to improve speed, minimize outages, and improve scalability. These included: A new loyalty program and gift cards Updating how data is captured, transferred, and stored each night to ensure accurate inventory the following day Re-writing the nightly processes for POS data to include sales numbers, customer data, and employee information into the BMS Configuring proper systems for business processes, including architecture Implementing JDA supply chain software Integrating multiple websites Implementing Azure Data Factory to facilitate data movement As we rolled this out, our client experienced immediate success. We continued to work with them to incorporate their "stores-within-stores" properties and their data into their nightly process by engineering third-party feeds into their existing process and systems.
Enterprise Website Redesign & HubSpot Migration Boosts Engagement by 60%
Challenge Outgrowing a digital Footprint As a quickly growing company with multiple sub-brands and product lines serving different audiences, Mesa Labs struggled to unite a sprawling set of websites that didn’t reflect the leading-edge nature of their work or the commonalities between their brands. Moreover, maintaining ten different sites in WordPress, with a total volume well over 1,700 pages, was proving untenable. Making simple edits and updates to the sites often resulted in site crashes, so over time, more and more errors went unresolved. With a below-standard conversion rate, slow site speed, and an overall web health score of 0, the Mesa Labs team knew something had to be done. After consulting with the Mesa Labs marketing team and business units, we identified several key challenges and opportunities to address: Streamline multiple brand websites into one unified digital experience Migrate from WordPress to HubSpot CMS Hub Integrate siloed tools to create seamless functionality and simplify site management Increase SEO domain authority, improve customer engagement, and boost conversion rates Solution Migrating from WordPress to HubSpot As enterprise-level users of HubSpot Sales, Marketing, and Service Hubs, the Mesa Labs team was inclined to choose HubSpot’s CMS Hub for the website redesign and migration, and we found that the platform made sense for Mesa on multiple levels. Hosting – As a cloud-hosted CMS, HubSpot offers greater flexibility and significant savings over self-hosted WordPress maintenance, particularly for enterprise-sized sites. Security – HubSpot’s built-in security features easily accommodate Mesa Labs’ need to meet both Content Security Policy requirements and GDPR standards. WordPress could accommodate security but requires third-party plugins and oversight, adding expense and risk while slowing the site down further. Performance – The option to consolidate into one ecosystem and seamlessly integrate with other tools was a major selling point for Mesa Labs’ choice of HubSpot. The migration to HubSpot CMS delivered advanced functionalities without requiring as much backend development assistance, while increasing site speed and performance. Self-service – After creating custom page templates, HubSpot gives marketing teams more flexibility for creating and updating content — including layout changes — without requiring developer input, additional plugins, or more subscriptions. Building Understanding During our four-week discovery process, the New Era team: Fully assessed the current state websites Captured and prioritized requirements from different stakeholders across the business Performed a content audit and created a comprehensive content catalog Redefined the information architecture into one unified customer experience across the legacy brands Developed low-fidelity wireframes to visually outline new page structures Consolidating multiple brands into one unified website is never a lift-and-shift operation. By taking the time to build foundational understanding and develop a strategic information architecture, we had a more accurate view into the final-state website and the effort needed to put the transformation into effect. Unifying the Brand We worked with Mesa Labs to bring their unified brand vision to life structurally, visually, and through core messaging. As we moved the company away from their previous multi-site footprint and consolidated all business units and products under a single domain, we bolstered SEO domain authority, but, more importantly, designed a streamlined user experience that better serves the company’s engagement and conversion goals. Visually, we leaned into bolder graphics and more compelling art, and used more direct and inspiring language to emphasize the company’s core strengths. Testing Assumptions Before moving into development, we tested our assumptions against actual user input. Conducting virtual unmoderated testing with customers from each business unit around the world, we validated the site organization and pathways, and gained critical insight into how users progressed through the redesigned site architecture. Customizing for Flexibility Our team customized and built out the theme, 11 custom templates, and 30 custom modules into a flexible structure within HubSpot to give Mesa Labs marketing the ability and flexibility to lead creative page generation. We added several custom React apps to the HubSpot environment, including a filterable product component, a robust resource library, on-site search, and a gated certificate finder tool. Integrating to Streamline Workflows As we built the new site, we also streamlined workflows. We removed form management from Mesa Labs’ third-party tool, FormStack, and into the HubSpot ecosystem, creating workflows and contact properties to enable the Mesa Labs sales team to act on leads generated by the website. We also developed preliminary architecture to integrate an evolving SharePoint-based asset management solution, Office 365, and the Power Automation platform into the HubSpot instance. And, using HubSpot’s GDPR toolkit, we enabled site cookies and tied and tracked those to communications within Mesa Labs’ Marketing Hub subscription lists.
Managed Services Solution Provides Relief for Retailer
Challenge A retail furniture and home appliance store was dissatisfied with their managed services provider. They submitted helpdesk tickets and wouldn't receive assistance for weeks, causing significant delays and backlogs issues for the organization. Frustrated by the lack of service and poor response, they began searching for a new managed service solution. New Era Technology worked with this company in the past to support Dynamics 365 and facilitate their transition to Azure. When they needed support for their immediate transactional IT needs, they reached out to collaborate again. Solution Immediately after taking over as their managed service provider, we began eliminating the backlog of unresolved issues related to IT support and new store deployment. Our support services for their stores and corporate offices include: Monitoring online support via email ticketing system Providing near real-time monitoring and alerts Best effort monitoring for unsupported platforms Providing support for IT-related store equipment issues (e.g., wireless access points, printer toner, etc.) Our managed service solutions for their new store deployment include: Building machines for new locations Setting up the store router and access points Creating users in the point of sale (POS) system Setting up hardware, including printers and new phones Creating a new store group in Outlook Creating ticket numbers for new locations Our team also partners with their internal IT team to roll out new hardware to their retail stores and facilitate ticket fulfillment to additional third-party vendors. Our goal is to ensure all tickets are handled by each responsible party in a seamless and timely manner.
DAM Solution Streamlines Business for Insurance Agency
Challenge A mid-market regional insurance company was dealing with an extensive collection of brand collateral, creative, and brand-approved imagery that needed to be distributed to multiple audiences such as employees, sales members, and a broad network of independent agents. Fundamentally, there was a lack of organization for these assets and their team members could not access what they needed promptly. This left people opting to recreate assets or search for ones to use that were not approved based on brand standards. Their existing bespoke solution was inflexible, poorly maintained, and unable to scale with the organization. The inflexibility of the platform led to “Band-Aid” solutions that had both working documents and final assets stored in disparate systems. They recognized the need to put this information into a single, more operational platform instead of having all of their data live in places like Sharepoint, Google Drive, etc. The solution they realized they needed was a DAM (digital asset manager). After exploring over a dozen top-tier DAM platforms on the market, and evaluating the many different features and price points, our client decided on Widen Collective. Without significant coding resources on staff, this platform that requires zero development work and lives entirely in the cloud was the perfect choice for the client. Based on their licensing with Widen Collective, they would be able to centralize the management of asset creation requests and the review/feedback process and enable templated cobranding of assets for use by sales and agent partners. With their platform selected, they needed a partner to take on the details of the transition. They reached out to Fusion to help operationalize the DAM platform configuration and rollout and to serve as interim product owners and project managers. Solution In a highly collaborative partnership, we worked with the stakeholders to drive implementation and ensure the platform was set up in a way most conducive to their needs and business. We worked with leaders across the organization to: Set deadlines and milestones Define critical criteria for the configuration of the DAM platform Coordinate efforts to gather and upload assets Create training and governance documentation to encourage adoption and define ongoing upkeep Partner with a Widen Implementation Specialist in initial site standup Collaborate with their IT department on implementation of Single Sign-On via Okta and Active Directory During the project execution, we: Defined six asset types across four key user roles Defined over one dozen metadata fields with more than 140 different values for asset categorization Uploaded and tagged over 1,600 unique documents As the team was planning out the dashboard design and rollout plan, new requirements caused a need for an immediate launch of the Widen DAM. We quickly pivoted the roadmap to launch the platform within seven business days, including finalizing the creative, essential training modules, and key launch communications.
Global Healthcare Non-Profit Uses Data and Analytics to Provide Better Customer Service
Challenge This global, nonprofit healthcare organization connects public healthcare programs, including Medicaid, Medicare, and the Marketplace, to underserved and vulnerable populations. Due to the nature of their business, they need accurate, readily available information. The organization began a vital initiative develop more mature business practices that would give them better access to their data and extract valuable insights. To meet this goal, they implemented a data supply chain strategy that gathered data from hundreds of source systems and built a Hadoop data lake to serve their data warehouse and analytical requirements. However, the implementation fell short of meeting their goals as data delivery to the organization and the plan itself were sluggish and failed to meet quality expectations. They still needed a data supply chain delivery model that would accelerate access to high-quality data to their business users, meet regulatory requirements for the healthcare industry, and create a data governance model for alignment with the different departments. They reached out to New Era Technology to assist in creating a data solution that would ensure the quality and timeliness of their data and subsequent analytics. Solution Our first step was to complete a current state assessment that collectively addressed all aspects of their data supply chain strategy. We identified opportunities to address each challenge and provided prioritized recommendations for execution through this assessment. These recommendations included: Establishing a scaled agile program management office Optimizing the delivery, data quality, and metadata processes under an Agile framework Leveraging data integration technologies to maximize delivery Realigning the data architecture We outlined these recommendations in a roadmap that established the program operating model and realigned their architecture to create the foundation for confirmed delivery. After developing a data lake in Hadoop that collects all data from a source to support diverse use cases, we developed an enterprise metadata strategy. In this strategy, all the data is accompanied by the many forms of metadata that better serve business stakeholders and technical users. Looking beyond their initial needs for BI and analytics, the solution also supports more diverse use cases, including PHI, security, and compliance, with proper data quality throughout the data flow.
Child Services Agency Increases Case Compliance Using AWS
Challenge A state agency governing child services, programs, and policies wanted to modernize their technology and data platforms to better fit their new goals related to enabling more proactive case management. Case management is highly regulated and must maintain compliance with federally mandated timeframes. To improve their processes and gain added insight to facilitate proactive case management, the agency wanted to take their regularly updated raw data from their operational environment and bring desired analysis to life, resulting in more concrete, valuable insights. As the agency worked to transform some of their core agency functions, they faced concerns about whether their existing data architecture could deliver reporting, analytics, and BI in a modern landscape. To meet their objectives, they decided to use Amazon Web Service (AWS) as their cloud data solution, but they had limited code developer resources skilled on the AWS platform. Their other significant challenge was the significant bottlenecks they faced that were created by process issues and backlogs at different levels of the agency and other departments involved. The agency reached out to Fusion to assist them in delivering a modern data platform that would integrate seamlessly into their ecosystem and build a foundation for the future. Solution First, we performed an assessment of the current data landscape and also considered the processes in place to enter and analyze data. This included: Identifying child support cases within the state that exceeded federal timeframe compliance rules or were approaching the federal deadlines Pinpointing bottlenecks in processing at the agency and caseworker levels that were leading to compliance issues Understanding where and how data was currently being entered and utilized throughout the agency Once we completed the assessment, we created a data model design for their immediate use case (enabling proactive case management) that supported BI analysis of current cases and and trends over time and would integrate different subject areas from their core systems. Our team also provided a modern data reference architecture to guide platform migration within the AWS cloud environment. Our team used standing up native AWS services including: Identity and access management (IAM) Virtual private cloud (VPC) to launch resources in a logically isolated, defined virtual network Lambda, a serverless compute service that runs code in response to events and manages compute resources for the user Glue and Glue Catalog to analyze and categorize data during the extract, transform, and load (ETL) process S3, Aurora Relational Data Service, and Redshift to establish raw, curated, and enriched environments for the data as it is processed from a transactional arrangement of string inputs into a strongly typed and structured format for reporting Our team designed data models and built databases in each of the environments and highlighted additional AWS-specific capabilities for future use cases involving volume growth. By implementing this cloud data solution, the data was brought to life with a series of ideations, visualizing the defined metrics across a host of relevant dimensions, including maps of the state that showed counties with compliance issues and drill-down options that showed cases requiring immediate attention. The data architecture also allowed the agency to consider other BI technologies, such as Tableau, for future use cases and extend the architecture to support data growth and use cases at scale.
CoOp Saves $100,000 with a Closer Look at Licensing
Challenge Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software is a critical tool many businesses rely on to manage day-to-day operations. Microsoft Dynamics AX is a popular ERP as it integrates information into a single database to improve access throughout the company and offers industry- and company-specific customizations to the interface, data, and applications. When implemented properly, organizations will often see reduced costs and increased customizations. This leading oil cooperative implemented Dynamics AX to create an environment where both employees and customers could operate within an enterprise application. Soon after the software was launched, the organization determined that they weren't seeing the return on investment (ROI) they expected. They wanted to reap the full benefits of their investment and knew they needed a partner with expertise in Dynamics AX implementation and customization, so they turned to Fusion for guidance. Solution Goal: Assess the Existing Implementation The first step to helping our client maximize their ERP software was to perform a comprehensive assessment of the existing installation, configuration, and customization of the existing implementation. Our solution: Collected usage information Reviewed customizations Interviewed key staff members to determine how they utilize Dynamics AX Created an outline of prioritized next steps Goal: Create a Detailed Licensing Plan Our assessment showed that their existing licensing was set up to give many system users higher and more comprehensive levels of licensing than they needed for their roles. For example, an employee that only needed role-based access for a specific function was assigned a full enterprise license. Multiply this by dozens of employees, and this added up to thousands of dollars in unnecessary spending. Our solution: Created a detailed license matrix to maximize the distribution of enterprise, functional, task, and self-service licenses Provided a custom code review and roles-analysis document After reviewing Fusion’s assessment and matrix, our client had the information they needed to optimize Dynamics AX. By understanding the licensing and completing the recommended actions, our client could renew their licensing agreement with Microsoft at a much lower cost, saving them around $100,000.
State Leverages Analytics to Improve Quality of Life for Residents
Challenge State agencies gather and generate massive amounts of data. A Midwest state had approximately 4 petabytes of data siloed into 1,600 databases within 120 separate agencies, boards, and commissions. Despite the vast amount of data, it was mainly only used for traditional reporting by each individual group. There was no cross-agency sharing or analytics capabilities in place which prevented each agency and the state as a whole from leveraging the data into a more holistic picture. The state's governor recognized the importance of accessing and using the data and tasked an agency to remove the data siloes and open up access to the groups. He maintained that unlocking data was imperative to allow the state to identify and drive meaningful social change and tackle complex problems facing residents' health, security, and well-being. While this is true, there were two significant challenges blocking their ability to meeting this objective. First, were privacy concerns. Many of the state agencies are highly regulated and have very strict privacy rules and regulations in place. Without proper governance, they couldn't share data while remaining in compliance. Their existing technology landscape was a significant obstacle to creating a data architecture that opened up access throughout the state government. Most agencies were saddled with legacy platforms and didn't have the resources to break long-term contracts or shift to a new, modern data platform. In order to meet their objective, the state agency tasked with overseeing this project reached out to New Era to help establish a data sharing platform that would empower the state to maximize their data's potential through analytics. Solution Once we assessed the challenges the state agency was facing, we worked with them to develop a robust data sharing platform that would also protect and secure their data. Our data experts used Cloudera's open source platform distribution and Hadoop's reliable, scalable framework to build a big data platform that allowed the agencies to share resources, tools, and commons services to execute their analytical use cases. To ensure compliance with strict privacy and security regulations, our team developed the platform to include: Defining a data governance program and establishing processes and policies, including data lineage, metadata management, quality assessments, and usage monitoring Developing deidentification capabilities to protect critical data Configuring security services to include authorization, authentication, auditing and monitoring, and encryption To ensure data could be transferred and shared smoothly between the agencies, our team also built in: Defining the framework to support shared capabilities for data ingestion and analytics Developing flexibility to enable agencies to integrate into their internal systems Defining policies that enable agencies to launch and solicit new projects Enabling platform administration services for care and feeding of the platform Defining the framework to allow for shared capabilities for ingestion and analytics, along with the flexibility to enable agencies to integrate uniquely with their internal systems Our team also worked directly in socializing, evangelizing, and consulting with different agencies throughout the state to help them leverage the analytics platform with their use cases. Each agency can operate securely within a flexible and scalable platform that they can customize as their needs change and as they continue to build out use cases and include additional agencies, boards, and commissions.
Modern Data Platform POC Transforms how Oil CoOP Looks at Data
After an Intensive POC Process, this Oil CoOP Landed on Azure and Snowflake for a Modern Data Platform Challenge This leading Midwest oil refinery cooperative must manage many business processes to successfully deliver fuel and oil, oversee pipelines, and manage retailers. And to do so, they were relying on point solutions from multiple vendors for many of their operational needs. They had data coming in from these disparate solutions but no enterprise data management platform to integrate the information and support accurate business intelligence reporting. But they were not just looking to integrate their data; they wanted to elevate their data landscape through advanced analytics and machine learning to improve their business prospects like price optimization and targets for profitable oil exploration. Their primary goal was to evaluate which platforms would best support their business needs and provide scalability and efficiency for their anticipated use of the platform. We had done previous work for this client, so when the time came to integrate and modernize their data landscape, they reached out for help. Solution Modern Data Platform Evaluation The first step was to assess the client’s current data landscape and state of applications and their demands for data integration based on business needs. We looked at their business requirements for data and functionality, from the key select sources including WolfPack, Guardian, and select unstructured manual data sources, and organized the data into subject areas to serve as a semantic layer for all data available. With an understanding of their current state, we then began evaluating viable solution options for a target modern data platform. Based on feedback from the client, we presented two options with a focus on cloud implementations that support BI and analytics — an Azure-based data architecture and a Snowflake Data Cloud solution. Then we provided the client with a complete assessment deliverable that included our findings of their current state and viable options for the modern data platform, including: An outline of solution options, components, benefits, and impacts An outline of the data architecture Estimated costs for development and deployment Anticipated operational costs Side-by-side comparisons of key features and considerations of the two options We also provided the client with a high-level roadmap of prioritized next steps, which included the creation of POCs to test the business use cases against. Modern Data Platform Proof of Concepts (POCs) Armed with the information from our initial assessment, the client asked us to execute a combination of POCs to demonstrate how these modern Azure-based cloud platforms and technologies would support the company’s BI and analytics needs. To create the POCs, we defined the modern data platform reference architecture within Azure with options for specific technologies, including native Azure components (e.g., Azure Data Factory, Azure Data Lake, Azure SQL Data Warehouse, Azure Analysis Services, PowerBI, and Azure DataBricks), and Snowflake. Building the POCs included: Configuration of Azure subscription and services Design of structures in Azure SQL Data Warehouse Creation of tabular model in Azure Analysis Services Execution of data pipelines into Azure and Snowflake Creation of a Snowflake database & designated views Build out of data pipelines between Azure services and Snowflake Creation of analytics model using Spark with Azure DataBricks Once the platform was created, we demonstrated BI reporting using PowerBI against the POC platforms and the execution of machine learning use cases using Azure ML studio and custom model development. We then tested multiple use cases for data ingestion, BI, and analytics. We validated various use cases for viability, including: Financial reporting using Dynamics AX data that is integrated with budgeting and pricing data Supply chain optimization Predictive maintenance
New Modern Data Platform Keeps Annuity Org Competitive
Challenge Statistics show that in 2031, the U.S. population over the age of 65 will be around 75 million — almost double what it was in 2008. This national retirement services organization recognized that a generation of this size transitioning out of the workforce would cause two significant economic shifts. First, it would instigate a considerable transfer of wealth as balances switched from asset accumulation to asset withdrawal. Second, asset wealth will move to the next generation as wills are executed, and the upcoming generations have different needs, a greater digital focus, and increasing expectations for customer service and engagement. The annuity organization knew that to better serve transitioning and emerging clients, they needed a more integrated approach to accessing and leveraging comprehensive data about their clients, products, and beneficiaries. However, they had several challenges blocking their goals. First, their data assets were scattered across a disintegrated data warehouse, siloed business systems, and disparate reporting assets. They needed a partner to look at their entire data landscape, assess its current state, and create a strategic and actionable plan to meet their new business needs. They were (and continue to be) a well-established, multi-billion dollar organization which isn't a challenge in and of itself. But they had numerous legacy systems and a highly fragmented data asset landscape already in place, and there were long-term managers who weren't ready for change. Additional roadblocks included: A lack of integrated architecture for data across the diverse systems landscape Redundant sources of reporting and analytics data Mistrust of their data resulting from a lack of data integrity and inaccuracies across different platforms Challenges with data analytics due to difficulty accessing applicable integrated data This company worked with Fusion for over a decade on several different initiatives, so when they needed a new modern data platform for financial services, they reached out to us. Solution After collaborating with the company leaders, we understood their goal — to better serve different client populations and prepare for changes in asset management — and how their current challenges were blocking their path forward. With that clarity, our team began a three-phased approach to meeting the objective. Analysis We began by assessing their data and analytics environment. This gave us a foundation for determining gaps and opportunities as well as identify and prioritize business needs and drivers. Program strategy alignment Our team created a data charter that included a full inventory of their strategic business and use cases, an outline of their objectives and program goals, and a list of the identified challenges and barriers to meeting them. We used this to build a cohesive strategy to realign their data management and analytics capabilities with their business objectives, including: Prioritization of strategic business initiatives Key milestone targets for program increments Capability gaps to address Maturity assessment and program roadmap With the assessment and strategy in place, we then worked with our client to understand where they wanted to be on the data maturity scale. From there we could create an integrated, multi-year roadmap to address master data challenges, starting with the highest priority tasks. With a clear strategy in place, our data experts designed and built a modern data platform for the financial service company. The new platform would support data science, management reporting, and executive dashboards with integrated data that was accurate and reliable.
Creative Campaigns Cut through a Traditional Market to Triple Leads
Challenge PRECISIONxtract’s transformative healthcare market access solutions offer patients and providers unprecedented connection to the right medication and resources in clinical settings. However, they struggled to communicate innovation when healthcare and pharmaceutical audiences are used to a specific type of messaging and imagery. Lab coats and stethoscopes figure prominently. PRECISIONxtract wanted to stand out from competitors and show prospective clients the transformative nature of their ground-breaking products. To help them build a dynamic, innovative digital marketing campaign, they turned to Fusion Alliance's digital strategists. Solution With a clear objective in place, Fusion quickly became an integral part of PRECISIONxtract’s team, assembling a cross-functional group of experts to deliver responsive support for a growing set of initiatives. In addition to advanced data, technology, and AI expertise, PRECISIONxtract looked to Fusion for help with branding, design, and digital marketing Our team began by building a data-driven, multi-stage buyer’s journey model to better understand of PRECISIONxtract’s target audience. Fusion’s people-focused approach then informed our recommendations to disrupt the audience’s usual ad stream. With this insight into where their prospective clients were online and what would cut through the noise of traditional ads, our team developed a creative series of ad campaigns designed to stand out to pharmaceutical industry customers on LinkedIn. Where other products market to this audience with literal imagery and jargon, Fusion brought the donuts. Fusion supported the overall go-to-market brand strategy for four flagship products in rapid succession. Our digital marketing collaboration included: Digital strategy Content marketing strategy Branding Design Lead magnet content Microsite design, development, and content Sales collateral design and content LinkedIn ads Follow-up lead nurture campaigns Each piece of strategy, content, and design worked toward a goal to reach the market with a radically innovative product suite and facilitate rapid adoption.
Retailer Puts Cloud Integrations and API Modernization into Action
Solution The retail company understood their technology challenges and was ready to tackle them, but they didn't have set starting point or a solid strategy in place. They enlisted New Era Technology Alliance to design and implement a new technology architecture to support existing stores, continued growth, and a more customer-focused online shopping experience. To meet these goals, our team recommended API modernization to bridge the gap between existing applications and a future-focused, rich integration architecture. Our Goal Built an API Modernization Roadmap Because the client’s outsourced API functionality limited their flexibility, we recommended an API modernization strategy to bring the integration back in-house. To translate “API first” into action, we collaborated with the client’s internal teams to design a roadmap that aligned internal business objectives with concrete steps toward digital transformation. Our Solution Designed the reference architecture that would support a modern scalable architecture that included essential capabilities, platforms, and components Established key business capabilities that were adequate for the current state and those that needed additional support for channel modernization Analyzed platforms and tools, and explored a variety of software packages across IPaaS, marketplace, API management, and other COTS/SaaS to accelerate the future program effort Our Goal Driving API First Success With a blueprint in place that showed possibilities and empowered the client to make clear decisions related to their API modernization, our client was positioned to grow over the long term. From there, our team laid out the key infrastructure that would drive API modernization success. Our Solution Selected and deployed an API marketplace that would act as the heart of future integration topology Layered in other modern platforms, including Confluent Kafka, to accelerate the API modernization strategy Produced and shared the essential accelerators and templates needed to support future federated delivery models across all business units Ultimately, implementing API modernization is an organizational change project. Our work not only laid the technical groundwork and built out a modern API ecosystem, but also gave the client the knowledge and confidence to be successful from day one — and well into the future.
Creating Connections: Bob Evans Farms Leverages 365 Applications to Improve Employee Experience
Challenge Bob Evans Farms delivers fresh farm-to-table food to grocery stores all over the nation. They have thousands of employees based in corporate offices, production plants, and transportation facilities. For operations to run efficiently, they need all their employees to have ready access to relevant and current information, so they sought a way to facilitate accessible and streamlined communication through a modern, secure means. This was not possible with their existing communications system, as they were using a “traditional” intranet for internal communications and document storage which was cumbersome, difficult to search, and inaccessible to all but corporate and select facility employees. Company leadership recognized the need for an updated system, with modern capabilities, to achieve their goals and asked current users for input. Based on this feedback, they identified and quantified several areas for improvement, including: Lack of use or using the system only for HR and benefits documents No effective search functionality, so employees couldn’t easily find content The content was stale, mostly outdated, and there was no standard process for updating A lack of connectivity between the intranet and other systems resulted in employee confusion about which systems to access and when they should be used Ready to create a communications platform that was more user-friendly, provided modern content capabilities, and allowed more efficient communication across the entire company, Bob Evans Farms reached out to New Era Technology. Solution New Era Technology looked at their primary objective, which was to easily and quickly connect employees to the person or content they needed. We knew this would require multiple steps and quickly got to work to create and implement a strategy that would overcome Bob Evans Farms' challenges and help them meet their goals. Our Goal Establish Guiding Principles Our first step was to analyze their challenges and objectives and assess their existing intranet and how it integrated with third party systems. With an assessment in place, we then established guiding principles to connect them with the right solutions. Our Solution Keep the first iteration simple and intuitive to ensure an enjoyable user experience and prompt more employees to use it Focus on content auditing, optimization, and infrastructure to ensure users could find the content and information they needed Create a content governance process to keep content up-to-date and relevant to employees Solve intranet and third-party system integration issues so they could also simplify and streamline supply chains, sales, and QA/safety teams access to documents housed on other platforms Our Goal Identify content goals With the assessment complete, we worked with Bob Evans Farms to identify content goals for their new site. They wanted the site to include four main content themes, including: team engagement, employee resources, company information, and community involvement. At the same time, we worked on the creative development aspect of their intranet site. Our Solution Complete a content survey and provide recommendations related to organizing content Built a proof of concept (PoC) SharePoint page to highlight their new themes and the potential that 365 applications could bring to their intranet site. Completed a UX assessment to understand their current user experience Created three different designs for their homepage to see what captured their brand and expressed the purpose of the site Our Goal Creating a roadmap for moving forward We implemented several 365 applications to meet their objectives, but we didn't want to just leave it at that. We created a comprehensive roadmap with recommendations on the content and features that needed to be prioritized for the initial intranet launch. This included recommendations for subsequent site updates so they can continue to elevate their site as they move forward. Our Solution Implemented Office 365 SharePoint Online and SharePoint Framework web parts and customizers Implemented Power Automate Flow Created a modern and reactive UX with updated pages and page templates Built an information architecture and established governance Page and document approval workflows
New Wearable Devices: How BioLink Used Emerging Tech to Improve Patient Care
Can a bracelet really save your life? See how wearable devices resulted in improved care quality and patient outcomes for some of our most vulnerable populations. Challenge Nursing homes have consistently struggled with staffing ratios, and it has only worsened with the pandemic. With a caregiver shortage, nursing home administrators are having to find new ways to keep their patients — a vulnerable, elderly population — safe. That’s where BioLink Systems came in. Nursing homes need to constantly monitor patient vitals to ensure they are providing the appropriate care and can intervene as quickly as possible if there is an issue. But that can often be difficult with large patient loads and patients that sometimes cannot communicate their needs to staff. And with an elderly population, things can spiral out of control quickly if they aren’t caught in time. By constantly monitoring a patient’s vitals, nursing staff can address concerns quickly and mitigate potentially catastrophic events with the patient. BioLink Systems had initially created a device that could attach to an adult brief to monitor urination levels and the patient’s body position. However, they quickly began experiencing issues with their prototype and realized that although it demonstrated their capabilities, it was not ready to take to production. They needed to fix these issues quickly, so they reached out to Fusion Alliance for assistance. Solution The first step was to fix the proof of concept (POC) to create a new demo to get the necessary funding for the project. However, even after the initial fixes, BioLink realized they needed to start over. The POC had to be rebuilt including the software, like web pages and portals, but also the hardware and firmware. Our solution was to architect a full-blown IoT solution from scratch. With the initial POC, all of the data was on-premise. But with the new architecture, we moved everything to the cloud. We were able to ensure each patient had a unique identifier and that all data was encrypted, safe, and HIPAA compliant. In addition to re-creating their initial adult brief wearable, we created a wearable device to monitor patient vitals, including body temperature, oxygen levels, and heart rate. Accurate Data in Real-time Once we had a solution for collecting patient data by wearable devices, we needed to ensure that it was transmitted to the right people at the right time. To do so, we created smart hubs that were spread around the facility to upload data to the cloud in addition to web portals and a mobile application for caregiving staff. The web portals allow caregiving staff to check-in at nursing stations and in offices, and the mobile application is something they can carry around to check on a patient immediately and provide real-time feedback when they are alerted to a patient concern. These executions allow data to be transferred from the cloud to the portals and mobile apps where caregiving staff are notified with an alert of any patient that requires follow-up care. Improving Patient Care & Outcomes Each patient device is outfitted with an NFC chip so once the nursing staff is alerted, they cannot dismiss the alert until they scan the chip on the wearable device and complete the appropriate assessment. If the alert is not dismissed in a timely manner, as identified by the nursing home administration, the alert is escalated to a new caregiver. This ensures that no alert is missed because a caregiver ise attending to another patient or busy, and interventions are completed in a timely manner. Personalized Monitoring & Care Powered by Machine Learning Now that we have this data from patients, we can use machine learning to gain insights about a patient’s care and needs. Initially, the patient care staff will set thresholds for appropriate vital levels, but as more data is collected, the system will learn and be able to figure out what the normal levels are for that patient specifically and alert accordingly. Data Security The POC device was acting as a Bluetooth beacon, so as we evolved and proposed a new solution, security was at the center of the entire project. We needed to ensure that the data transmission was completely secure and HIPAA compliant, but also that the wearable device had significant battery life so that data was accurate and consistent. To ensure a long battery life, we created a wearable and smart hub that doesn’t have any screens and only communicates via Bluetooth. You simply have to put the wearable device into pairing mode and it exchanges the encryption key through the cloud. Then, the encryption key is sent to the smart hub, and the data is all encrypted through the device and decrypted once it is in the cloud. In addition, each wearable device has its own dedicated encryption key so if one wearable is compromised, BioLink can simply address the issue that individual device without other wearables and data being compromised.
Modern Data Platform Transforms Analytics for Manufacturer
Challenge Our client, a large-scale automotive components manufacturer, implemented a real-time health feedback solution for vehicles using their components. The system used IoT engine and sub-system data points that would notify the user of issues with the vehicles' components in real-time along with recommendations for correcting those issues. This system was built in Azure using Event Hub functionality and custom development. While the solution was successful, it was also limited to only reactively responding to warnings and errors as they occurred. The company needed an analytics solution to create functionality for developing predictive models that provide meaningful proactive recommendations to the fleets. To help them build a successful machine learning project, they chose to collaborate with New Era Technology. Solution To support the high-level analysis and machine learning required to build predictive models, the company needed a large amount of data collected over an extended time frame. Since the current system only retained data long enough to provide real-time responses, New Era needed to build a second big data solution to capture and retain the IoT data and integrate manufacturing data that our client would use in the analytics process. To complete this objective, we designed and implemented a data warehouse to collect and organize the data and provide a data platform for high-end analytics and machine learning. In addition to creating this solution, we also worked alongside the client and: Developed an Azure and cloud solution architecture Identified recommended technologies and planned for implementation Designed and developed an integration model to ingest enterprise source data Built the Azure data pipelines to process the near real-time data from devices Integrated data into a curated data model for BI & analytics Demonstrated the BI capabilities to prove the business value of the data Ultimately, we built a modern data platform that uses the existing Event Hub functionality to output the data, Azure Data Factory to manage the data flow, and Snowflake Data Warehouse to store, organize, and integrate the data.
Website Optimization: AI Healthcare Company Takes it to the Next Level
Challenge A good website needs more than an attractive design and the latest feature. A business website also needs to attract a target audience, provide an engaging experience and intuitive navigation, and deliver the information, service, or product a visitor is seeking. To meet this objective, a business needs to leverage relevant content and optimize it so the specific pages will be visible in search engine results. And of course, it should also be aesthetically pleasing and align with your brand and mission. An AI automation company specializing in healthcare found their website wasn't getting traffic nor bringing in the leads they needed to grow their company. While they were creating content frequently, their target audience either didn't find it in search engines, couldn't find it on their site, or didn't find it engaging enough to take the next step of asking for more information. Compounding this issue, their marketing team couldn't add new content, optimize existing pages, or update designs and layouts without IT support. This delayed campaigns, slowed how content was published, and hurt their search performance. This company needed a website optimization and had three goals for the project: Boost their SEO performance Improve website navigation and user experience Enable their marketing team to make updates without additional IT support To achieve these goals, they knew they needed outside assistance to evaluate their content, website, and internal processes. That’s when they reached out to New Era Technology for help. Solution During the initial assessment, our team found that our client created a large volume of complex content that was targeted toward a fairly niche audience. To help their target audience find what they needed when they visited the site, our team made logical and intuitive information architecture and navigation the cornerstones of this website design. We implemented drop-down navigation for a simpler experience while introducing "pillar pages" which are topic-specific pages that provide overviews of the topic and link out to other internal pages. This creates a guided path to relevant information, resulting in a better customer experience, and it also improves SEO results. While the client's website was built using WordPress, they weren't leveraging the platform's full capabilities. Our team helped them implement WordPress best practices and selecting plug-ins to customize and improve their site performance while also working with the internal marketing team to control content delivery. With WordPress Advanced Custom Fields components, their marketing team can create the content they need, publish, and update whenever it's necessary, without involving the IT department. During the website optimization, we helped the client focus on delivering their content in ways their target audience wants to consume it. We developed a clear, consistent component library approach to create “pillar” pages that provide short content for busy users who only have time to scan for information and long content for users who are researching and considering options. After using this “pillar” page concept of multiple components to optimize their home page, our client asked us to implement the same concept on their other main website pages as well. The result is a content-rich, optimized site that is easy to navigate and find valuable, relevant information.
Achieving Corporate Agility through Data & Analytics
Challenge Most organizations have a large volume of data available, including information about customers, products, services, and more. All this data can be incredible useful to companies by giving them insight into how they can improve customer experiences or improve operational efficiency. However, without the right strategy and technology in place, all of that data may just sit there like a digital paperweight, providing little valuable insight for companies to act on. This was exactly where a large real estate investment firm found themselves. They wanted to gain more insight and knowledge from their data but were burdened by extensive manual data entry, data that was siloed in multiple locations, and delays in reporting and data. In addition to these already large challenges, their on-premise infrastructure was nearing data capacity. They knew they needed to take action and leaders were ready to shift their data to the cloud. Ultimately, their goal was simple: enable corporate agility by implementing a platform that would ultimately allow them to gain valuable, actionable insights through data and analytics. Now they just needed the right tools and expertise to get there, and they turned to Fusion for assistance. Solution Cloud Solution We started with an assessment of their existing system and data sources to determine what type of data platform would provide company stakeholders with better insights into their data. Our client was looking at different cloud options and wanted to ensure their platform decision would align with their existing systems while helping to improve their current processes. More than just a new implementation, they also needed the right data strategy in place that would allow them to meet new business goals. Based on interviews with stakeholders and the results of the platform evaluation, we ultimately recommended a hybrid cloud model that would work with their existing infrastructure, utilizing Azure as a cloud solution and the Snowflake data platform. We created a roadmap that prioritized options for building out their data and technology strategy and a plan for getting from the current state to the updated future state. Implementation & Proof of Concept Armed with the recommendation and roadmap, this investment firm was ready for implementation. Our data and analytics team worked with them to: Build out the new data architecture, data model, and ingest processes Identify and integrate new data sources into their analytics environment Create and refine data governance processes and information This process gave them the means to store and manage data effectively, and from there, our team helped them develop and implement dashboards and analytics reporting that would give them the insights they needed to make informed business decisions. Given its analytics and visualization capabilities, automation functions, and ease of customization, we knew that Power BI was the right tool for this client’s analytics needs. Continued property insights Because this real estate investment firm focuses on shopping malls, data from their shoppers was critical. They wanted to track how well their properties were engaging with customers via different social media channels. We worked with their marketing department to build out a dashboard pulling data from Facebook, Instagram, Chatmeter, marketing email interactions, and other social media platforms to give them the detailed look they wanted.
Intranet Reimagined: Leveraging Sitecore to Build Efficiencies and Collaboration
Challenge Today's customer expects a top-tier experience, especially online. In order to attract customers, websites have to be easy-to-navigate and offer relevant content, while customized portals and self-service solutions are essential to keeping customers engaged. One regional insurance company wanted to deliver an excellent digital experience both internally and externally. While New Era Technology worked with them to complete their digital strategy which included recommendations on how to leverage their intranet portal to deliver personalization, automation, and user insights, their next step was to overhaul their existing intranet. Their existing homegrown content management system (CMS) was neither customer-friendly nor employee-friendly. It was visually fixed, so it couldn't play embedded content, it didn't have any search capabilities, and there weren't any interactive elements. They company wanted to overhaul their site, updating the design and content, then moving it to Sitecore, which is a powerful content management system with expansive capabilities that combines data, analytics, and marketing automation to provide real-time content across any channel and an environment that allows connectivity and interactivity. Ultimately, they wanted to: Create a frictionless user experience for agents and associates Increase awareness, clarity, and understanding of the uniqueness of their service offerings Provide more brand consistency and marketing efficiencies Empower marketing by enabling them to create and publish content Measure content effectiveness to ultimately engage more effectively with their audience Because we had recently worked with the company, they reached out to us to assist them with their Sitecore development project, and our team quickly got started. Solution When the project started, the client already knew exactly what they wanted from their website and that Sitecore was the right CMS to help them meet their goals. Our first step in this project was to evaluate their existing platform and take the necessary next steps to implement a solution that would meet all of their business needs. Following a digital strategy workshop, we began an initial assessment of our client’s current intranet implementation, design artifacts, content tree, and analytics implementation. During this phase, we interviewed stakeholders and primary users, conducted a CMS platform analysis, and identified strategic and tactical goals to lay the foundation for an optimal user experience in Sitecore. We then mapped out a strategy for the Sitecore development project to meet their objectives Optimize their Sitecore Environment We created a content structure that would support multi-site, multi-channel marketing strategies and tactics. This included a digital content governance plan and a publishing workflow process that included both Sitecore functions and offline business activities. Create a Scalable Design System We created a design system to scale across their Sitecore ecosystem, including design templates and objects, including: Description of tone and visual objectives Visual design comps illustrating the visual extension of the brand into a graphic user interface A content matrix Training requirements Testing plan A backlog of user stories Build a Measurement Strategy Our team then built a measurement strategy that leveraged digital analytics platforms to setup appropriate tags and collect customer data that positions proper analysis. This included internal reporting systems and Google analytics so our client could gain more insight from their data. By assessing their initial state, identifying the gaps, and creating the right workflows and systems, we were able to target functions that were most impactful to this organization and their goals.
Cloud Transformation: How DWA Revolutionized their Business Processes and Improved Productivity
Challenge Keeping data and files properly managed is essential for any organization. This includes having a documented process in place to ensure data and files are saved to appropriate locations so they are organized, accessible, and most importantly, secure. Leadership from DWA Healthcare Communications found that their current file management system was inefficient and ineffective for their needs, with silos of inaccessible data, unnecessary licensing needs, and gaps in security. They wanted to take proactive steps to review their file management system and related processes but needed a team of experts to bring clarity and solutions. They partnered with Fusion Alliance to conduct a comprehensive assessment of their file management tools and the processes employees used to save files so they could design a more effective file system. We collaborated with DWA stakeholders to complete a thorough, four-step assessment framework and put a plan in place for a comprehensive cloud transformation. Talking to stakeholders and assessing their system, our team found several elements that were causing company-wide issues, including: An assortment of on-premises file servers causing siloed data An overreliance on employee OneDrives which made it difficult for employees to find content and information Significant content duplication which caused confusion and required added storage space. Solution Working with our team, DWA recognized the need to streamline and upgrade their systems and sought a solution that would allow employees to move through systems seamlessly to improve efficiency. Our consultants suggested a cloud transformation using the following tools: Microsoft Stream for video storage and sharing Teams to improve communications and collaboration SharePoint Online for accessible, efficient file storage and col OneDrive for Business Azure, a scalable cloud computing platform Facilitating a cloud transformation with an efficient, scalable architecture would allow DWA employees to store and share files conveniently and securely. However, we couldn't stop at platforms and tools, we knew that for this strategy to succeed, the DWA employees would need to understand the changes and feel confident in the new setup. We created an implementation and education strategy that we supported with comprehensive training materials and resources to ensure buy-in and proper usage related to storing, sharing, and archiving.
Improving Results through Strategic Data Management and Analytics
Challenge The ability to analyze valuable, relevant data quickly offers merchants, retailers, and service providers new insight into consumer behavior and opportunities for personalized experiences. A Fortune 500 card services provider served 135 individual private-label credit card merchants and needed a way to optimize how it retrieves and analyzes data for them so they could provide customized loyalty marketing services. However, leveraging their data for loyalty marketing was a challenge they didn't have the tools to meet. Their existing data management and analytics platform supported marketing and financial analytics, but they recognized a need to optimize these systems to align with their expanding opportunities for growth. The card services provider turned to Fusion Alliance for help in developing a strategic data management and analytics strategy as well as a roadmap to guide their optimization journey. Solution When we started the collaboration with the card services provider, their partners included 135 different merchants with private-label credit cards. For each merchant, the company provided reports and analytics based on specific, unique requirements and needed a data management strategy for their current resources while maintaining the level of customization their clients were used to while growing their brand-partner portfolio. To better understand their specific challenges and determine and implement the best possible solution, we completed a comprehensive evaluation to determine current business needs, requirements, and market opportunities. We also assessed the technical landscape and reviewed the client’s current strategic plan and collaborated with them to create a more effective data management and analytics strategy with a multi-year roadmap for implementation. With the full support of our client’s executive committee, Fusion began solution delivery, starting with creating an Enterprise Data Governance Council to oversee the data management and analytics Program. Fusion applied our comprehensive, proprietary Catalyst Strategic Data Management framework to accelerate the process which allowed us to complete the strategy and roadmap on a fast-paced schedule. This ensured our client could more effectively guide development efforts needed to deliver analytic enablement in support of business objectives. After working with Fusion Alliance, the client gained a roadmap that outlined areas for improvement and strategies that would enable the company to offer more individualized services, including loyalty management to merchants while reaching additional clients. The end result was a strategic data management and analytics strategy that would build out a better future.
Fortune 500 Company Boosts Productivity through SharePoint Intranet Development
Challenge A Fortune 500 company that provided credit card services and loyalty and marketing solutions to over 100 merchants and retailers wanted to design a virtual workspace and improve internal communications for its 8,000 employees using an intranet site. The company envisioned a user-friendly intranet site that would support efficient and secure workflows and facilitate collaboration, but the resulting site fell short of their vision. While intranet sites should help companies share information and improve communications, the reality is that many sites don't deliver the needed results and become a disorganized mess and a navigational nightmare due to a lack of governance. The card services company's employees found their site difficult to navigate while administrative tasks were sluggish, leading to declining productivity. Having invested in an intranet that was not sufficiently meeting their employees' workload demands, the organization asked New Era Technology Alliance to build a site that was reliable, secure, and functional for the company. Solution The client wanted to build three different site templates, one for teams, projects, and pages. New Era Technology looked at their clients objectives, and the challenges that were standing in the way of meeting the objective, and stepped into the picture with a plan in place. First, our team inventoried content in the existing SharePoint site to distinguish current usage patterns and ensure the new templates would accommodate these patterns. We also conducted numerous stakeholder interviews to identify key content items necessary for the redesign. Using Agile and a proprietary project-management methodology called SureSolve, our team designed a new site for each of the templates and created a branded master page consistent with the organization’s style standards. Each site was specifically created to adapt, scale, and evolve with the changing demands of the employees, business, and industry. Finally, we designed and launched multiple elements to streamline workflows and facilitate efficient document and project management, including: My Documents Web Part Governance plan Content guide Comprehensive site map Information architecture We implemented the SharePoint intranet development following Microsoft best practices, taking care to ensure that those customizations didn't hamper the client's ability to upgrade SharePoint or move to SharePoint Online in the future.
Racing the Clock: Creating a Coronavirus Data Dashboard to Measure Economic Impact
Challenge During the summer of 2020, government leaders needed to continually evaluate the economic impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on their communities. Having accurate, timely data was essential to making strategic decisions about how to help businesses, determine what businesses could open and which should stay remote, and how long shutdown protocols should remain in effect. Unfortunately, they didn't have access to the data they needed. Illinois-based economic development services firm, Blane Canada, LTD., partnered with the volunteer grassroots BR|E (business retention/expansion) COVID-19 Response Network to create a way to quickly provide data to government leaders. They created a benchmark survey and follow-up questionnaire consisting of carefully selected questions related to the workforce, finances, supply chain, and future needs and used the responses to measure the level and severity of the economic impact and learn the needs of businesses. While they had a large volume of relevant, valuable data, they needed a data dashboard that would allow them to analyze and distribute data and share it freely to the public on a large scale. The group needed a technology partner who would take time to understand the problem, ask the right questions, and build a technology solution against a tight timeline. Eric Canada, CEO of Blane Canada, was confident that Fusion Alliance, his company’s technology partner of two years, would be the right fit and asked if our team could build a data dashboard for economic developers to learn the impact of the virus on their business communities. Within two weeks, we had a solution and dashboards up and running, available to the public. Solution Our team was aware that a solution needed to be launched quickly. We started by evaluating survey platforms and conducting proof-of-concept testing to see which platforms met all the requirements, and then selected the best option for our data dashboard. With a platform in place, we could determine how to standardize and unify data collection to improve returns and gain more quantifiable data. Our team built the survey, sent it out and also shared it with other entities so they could also send out the survey to businesses in their area. This all took place within five days of Blane Canada, ltd. reaching out to Fusion. From there, we turned our focus to displaying the results. We recommended a data dashboard that was similar to the Johns Hopkins coronavirus dashboard, and our client agreed. A dashboard would allow users to see the story in a visual format and interact with the data. Working against the clock, we built the dashboard and demoed it a few days later to over 100 organizations in the growing grass-roots volunteer network. Two days after the survey was sent, they began receiving data which was then aggregated and put into the analytics toolset. It worked exactly as it should, and the group continues to send surveys and follow-up monitoring questionnaires nationwide, updating the data dashboard as more results come in. Many companies submitted four separate monitoring surveys, providing added data points that government entities and grassroots organizations could use.
Insurance Provider Innovates to Modernize Quote System
A large insurer was looking to modernize their online quote system to save time, money, and resources. Setting out to have users fill in only one question, they worked to develop a platform to provide accurate quotes with minimal information and clicks. Challenge A leading property and casualty insurer wanted to modernize their online quote system to make the process more efficient for both customers and underwriters. More specifically, they wanted to reduce the time both customers and adjustors had to spend filling out forms while maintaining the integrity of the quote. However, they also needed a solution that would integrate with their legacy applications and comply with industry regulations and the insurance requirements of individual states. We had worked with this insurance company in the past and had historical expertise with their backend legacy applications. Because of our past relationship, they engaged New Era Technology to work alongside their team members in modernizing technology and creating a custom solution that would improve their online quote system. Solution Understanding their objective and how the challenges they faced impacted meeting the objective, We designed and developed a platform that reduced redundancies and would support completing a policy quote in real time without having to fill out long online forms. More specifically, we minimized the amount of information required and cut down the quoting time by approximately two-thirds. Although the time to get the quote was now drastically reduced, this insurer wanted to take the platform a step further and make it easier for users to get to multiple quotes without having to click through additional screens or start over. They wanted to ensure the system could provide a quote for one insurance line (e.g., cybercrime), but also provide you with multiple quotes across all their service lines. We deployed five teams to use scaled Agile framework (SAFe) and create a more advanced, modern platform that allowed agents and underwriters to get quotes in real time for multiple lines and with multiple information.
Transform the Customer Experience by Focusing on Data
Evolving demands require evolving strategies. Learn about how one company transformed their customer experience by focusing on data. Challenge The ability to analyze quality data in a timely manner allows loyalty marketing companies to create strategic campaigns targeting new and existing cardholders. And as new technology continues to drive the market across industries, it is imperative that loyalty marketing companies implement data-driven solutions to manage the increasing volume of client demands. This Fortune 500 card services provider recognized the need to provide customized loyalty marketing services to its 135 private-label credit card merchants, and realized that the only way to do that was to optimize how they retrieve and analyze data. Their existing data management and analytics platform supported marketing and financial analytics, but they needed to optimize these systems to align with its expanding business vision and strategy. Ultimately, they wanted to: Create a strategic data management program to drive data and analytics maturity Optimize teams to enable delivery of customized client solutions more efficiently Establish greater oversight of goals and results from investing in a strategic data management program They knew where they wanted to go, but they needed help with how to get there. Looking for help in developing a data management and analytics strategy, they reached out to us for help. The organization turned to Fusion for help in developing a strategic data management and analytics strategy and a roadmap to guide the optimization journey. Solution At the time we got involved, the client’s brand partners included 135 different merchants with private-label credit cards. For each merchant, the company provided reports and analytics based on a unique set of requirements. They saw that they needed a strategy to better manage the volume of reports with their current resources and still maintain the level of customization clients were accustomed to, especially as the brand-partner portfolio continued to grow. We completed a comprehensive evaluation to determine current business needs, requirements, and market opportunities. Then, we assessed the technical landscape and reviewed the client’s current strategic plan. The result was the creation of a data management and analytics strategy and a multi-year roadmap to help them achieve their goals. With the full support of the client’s executive committee, we began solution delivery, starting with the creation of an Enterprise Data Governance Council, appointed to oversee the Data Management and Analytics Program. The process was accelerated by applying Fusion’s comprehensive Catalyst Strategic Data Management framework. Through this approach, we completed the data management and analytics strategy and roadmap on a fast-paced schedule, allowing the client to more effectively guide development efforts needed to deliver analytic enablement in support of business objectives.
Modern Cloud Solution Helps Nonprofit Simplify Fundraising
Challenge Like most nonprofit organizations, Hands of Hope, a nonprofit organization focused on adoption, foster care, and children’s home support, worked with a limited budget and staff and primarily relied on donations as their lifeline. Having to manually enter and reconcile donation information into their external-facing contribution portal and backend donor management system was incredibly time-consuming and quickly drained their valuable time and resources while increasing the potential for mistakes that could be disastrous. Hands of Hope leadership knew they needed a more efficient, effective way to enter and track donations, but they couldn't do it alone. They reached out to Fusion's technology experts to create and implement the right solution for their organization. was bogged down with having to manually enter donation information from their external-facing contribution portal and their back-end donor management system. Solution After assessing their needs and challenges, we determined that Hands of Hope needed an affordable, low-maintenance modern cloud solution to connect their two systems. Our team evaluated multiple options and decided that Azure Logics Apps, an integrated platform as a service (IPaaS) would be the best option. Azure Logics Apps is a cloud-based platform that allows you to automate workflows with little to no specific coding. We could integrate their contribution portal and donor management systems and implement an automated workflow to eliminate tedious and time-consuming manual data entry. For Hands of Hope, it was a perfect, budget-friendly solution that requires minimal long-term maintenance. In order to implement it successfully, we needed to complete some important planning steps first. This work included: Testing authentication Field mapping, which allowed them to understand what data needed to be integrated, including how many fields were involved and if the data was 1:1 or if it needed to be transformed Process mapping to identify data requirements to allow the integration to work for a variety of fundraising scenarios, including steps like schedule triggers, variables, data validation, etc. Understanding error scenarios Once these steps were completed, we created a workflow to: Retrieve data from one endpoint (the fundraising portal system) Transform and prepare the data Post the data to another endpoint (Hands of Hope’s back-end system) Because we used Azure Logic Apps to complete the system integration, the normally lengthy and complex process took only a matter of hours and required no manual intervention. This simple to use solution is exactly what we were looking for when we reached out to Fusion Alliance. The business process review helped us confirm the necessary requirements and the resulting integration will provide long-term efficiency gains. Suzy Roth, Hands of Hope Executive Director
Helping Kids at Risk: How a Vision Became a Startup Tech Solution that Reaches Millions
Challenge Schools provide help and resources to students who they know are suffering from stress, abuse, and mental health concerns, but a lot of children's issues go undetected. To prevent children from falling through the cracks and missing out on needed support, Terrace Metrics was founded in response to schools wanting to understand the behavioral-health status of their students, identify at-risk kids early on, and intervene to change the course of their lives. Utilizing proprietary algorithms, Terrace Metrics created a behavioral health tool that allowed schools to assess the mental health and well-being of their students in a non-threatening, non-invasive way. that established a comprehensive, non-threatening way to assess the mental well-being of students. Schools adopted this tool rapidly, and Terrace Metrics realized that the tool's reliance on multiple third-party tools and manual steps prevented it from scaling with the pace of demand. While their main challenge was an inability to scale with demand, the startup tech solution also needed to address the following needs: Automate manual processes Implement strong security features Automate report generation and distribution Provide schools with access to administrative tools to manage information Create scalability to handle increased usage and thousands of simultaneous assessment submissions Allow the addition of new features such as text to speech Ensure a low operating cost They reached out to New Era Technology for design and technology expertise they could use to reimagine their behavioral health tool and expand nationally and internationally. Solution Creating a Roadmap to Success We worked with Terrace Metrics to understand their processes, goals, long-term strategy, and market demand. It became clear that they needed a comprehensive technology solution that included: Creating a code repository with continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) capabilities Development and testing capabilities Production, monitoring, and support Updating the user interface (UI) to focus more on user experience (UX) and ensure an easy, intuitive function for students, parents, teachers, and administrators We built a comprehensive strategy to meet these objectives and revamp this startup tech solution. Cloud Application First, our team developed a cloud-based web application using Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud. This eco-system offers the tools and services needed to overcome current challenges and future functionality, including: Cognito for secure user authentication Lambda for managed serverless compute DynamoDB for scalable managed database Polly for text-to-speech. We designed the application specifically as a multi-tenant SaaS application with event-driven design and serverless architecture. This ensured faster time to market, lower costs, improved scalability, and greater resiliency. With no infrastructure administration and the ability to add more functions in the future, such as machine learning, we knew this would be the right option their product. Improved User Experience This tool needed to be accessible to a variety of populations. We addressed UX for students, parents, administrators, and mental health professionals by offering several features, including text-to-speech and translating the tool into other languages beyond English. With an extensible platform on AWS designed to accommodate changes and updates, we could continue assisting them in their expansion to international markets. We’ve worked with several software development companies in the past. None compare with New Era Technology in terms of quality of product, customer service, and willingness to go above and beyond to ensure that our needs are met. We love New Era Technology and are so thankful that they are our partner. Rich Gilman, President, Terrace Metrics
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