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Migrate
Increase scalabilty and business agility, while reducing risk through an accelerated migration.
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Optimize
Minimize cloud overspend and drive greater value as you optimize costs, security, data and applications.
Innovate
Get to market faster and unlock practical innovation.
Innovating for the future by embracing cloud technology
EDF Hinkley Point C moves its sensitive data and applications into the cloud
Resources to support rapid, geographically dispersed growth
Advancing health and safety in the workplace
Making life easier for project managers and employees
A step towards a larger digital transformation journey
Securely unlocking the value of the cloud
Unlocks innovation with nearly 20% in cost savings
Leveraging cloud to fuel the real-time enterprise
An industry-first migration to the cloud
Moving to cloud for flexibility and growth
Accelerating digital transformation
Using data to help strike a delicate operational balance
A new template for future medical research?
Enhancing financial and tax service to partners
Jumpstarting digital transformation with a move to Microsoft Azure
Who are Europ Assistance Belgium?
Founded in 1963, Europ Assistance is a world leader in providing insurance and assistance services. The group specializes in assisting people with various travel, driving, family and health care needs.
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If we had to do the migration ourselves, we would not have started yet. With Avanade, experts are there for you through every step of the process. We are on this digital journey together, which is the key for success.
“
Michel Kennis ICT director at Europ Assistance
Business situation
Decentralized IT leads to capacity and cost issues.
Solution
Cloud strategy to migrate and modernize all applications.
Challenge
The company’s Belgian office operated 120 servers on-premises, leading to:
Capacity limitations High maintenance costs Cooling problems Security threats
. . . .
Results
Early benefits include:
Ability to telecommute Employee flexibility Proper forecasting Quicker response
Why Europ Assistance chose Microsoft Azure
Scalability: Fully integrated set of laaS and PaaS capabilities
Watch the video
Get in touch with Avanade's cloud experts
I believe we now have all the building blocks for the future. IT and business should now come up with ideas to innovate.
Looking forward
The cloud migration in Belgium is a fundamental step towards Europ Assistance’s larger digital transformation journey.
Close
Avanade initiated the project with a
successfull cloud transformation workshop
with key stakeholders in Belgium.
As part of this process, our team performed an
Application Roadmap to Cloud (ARC)
assessment to develop a strategy for the migration and modernization of all existing applications.
This cloud assessment gave the company an
in-depth roadmap
and steps required for its transformation journey.
Avanade recommended the
Azure Site Recovery Service
be used to migrate the workload to a full
Azure laaS infrastructure.
Europ Assistance Belgium's cloud transformation journey kicked off with the
migration of its on-premises data center infrastructure.
EDF Hinkley Point C confidently moves its sensitive data and applications into the cloud
To support the needs of the largest construction project currently underway in Europe, HPC needed more appropriate IT to digitally enable the project.
Who are EDF?
Jointly building a secure platform Simple tools and borrowed infrastructure were no longer enough to support the needs of this major project Needs specific to the nuclear power industry Intensive security considerations and a data retention policy of 100 years
Avanade were very much pioneers of cloud in EDF Energy, and we've had a lot of kudos and credibility this year for the amount that we've delivered. We've really promoted what IT can do and how it can be a real enabler for our business.
Kate Brady - Head of Development & Digital Delivery for HPC - EDF Energy
EDF understood that the quickest way to spin up its IT requirements was by leveraging the cloud to migrate existing applications and develop new solutions
Previous story
EDF owns and operates a number of power plants and wind farms across the country, and when the new Hinkley Point C (HPC) station opens, it will provide an estimated 20% of the UK’s electricity.
Secure cloud foundation built, with a factory model to continue to expand the Azure platform on which Sensitive Nuclear Information (SNI) can securely sit – a world first.
Kate Brady Head of Development & Digital Delivery for HPC - EDF Energy
To ensure the process was done properly and securely, HPC needed a trusted partner to help choose and implement its cloud platform.
Avanade Advisory worked with EDF to discover and understand how the Microsoft Azure cloud could be used to meet all its needs.
Our team helped develop the implementation strategy and prioritise the applications that would be migrated to the cloud infrastructure using Avanade’s Cloud Foundations methodology.
We helped build the secure cloud foundation, the processes and the new servers that HPC’s document management application – TeamCentre – is hosted on and where documents will be stored for 100 years. Helped to build HPC’s secure cloud, bringing together components from both the company’s existing infrastructure and the Azure cloud to control access to information, including data stored in TeamCentre. The TeamCentre application is now live in the cloud, helping to improve collaboration among HPC employees and ensure compliance with industry regulations. We built a factory model to continue to expand the Azure platform on which Sensitive Nuclear Information (SNI) can securely sit – a world first. Accelerated deployment of new solutions.
. . . . .
Looking ahead, Avanade will continue to work with HPC to put more applications onto the Azure platform and also look to move some functions offshore to reduce operating costs. As the HPC nuclear power station pushes forward in its journey toward full operation over the next few years, Avanade is excited to continue our relationship with HPC, exploring the opportunities and challenges that are waiting in the cloud.
Bonava had a nine-month deadline to move its entire infrastructure and application landscape, as well as solve all the mobility and security challenges of its new environment.
A modern secure enterprise with Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS), Office 365 and Windows 10 Enterprise.
Who are Bonava?
A nine-month deadline to move its entire infrastructure and application landscape Solving all the mobility and security challenges of its new environment
From our experience with Microsoft, we knew it had the best mobility, security and cloud solution for us with the most complete set of services. And we knew that Avanade was the best partner to work with given its deep insight and skill set with Microsoft technology.
Patrick Ström CIO, Bonava
Cloud success
Mobile management
Security
Productivity
The solution
Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS) Office 365 Windows 10 Enterprise
A modern secure enterprise with:
Trusted, secure, productive
Mobile and cloud first infrastructure to enable secure, anywhere, anytime network access without expensive and cumbersome VPNs Colleague and vendor collaboration
Bonava found the right technology - and the right technology services provider - to fully transform its IT in the cloud.
Employees now have new ways to be increasingly effective in the digital workplace.
. .
Bonava is a leading residential developer of affordable housing in Northern Europe, with operations in 23 regions across Germany, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, St. Petersburg, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
. . .
Bonava found the right technology - and the right technology services provider - to fully transforms its IT in the cloud.
To drive improved workplace practices, PESA wanted to develop a secure, accessible tool that provides peer-to-peer analysis.
Using a cloud-first approach and agile methodology, Avanade helped the association develop and deploy Microsoft Azure in just eight weeks.
Who are PESA?
With health and safety such a critical and highly visible issue for the energy services industry the association recognized the importance of equipping its members with tools and insights to drive improved practices at their workplaces.
For the first time in this industry sector, the people who lead health and safety for their organizations have a valuable resource at their fingertips.
Molly Determan PESA's vice president of strategy and programs
Our success is based on confidentiality; as a trade association we can’t exist if data is compromised. Avanade’s understanding of the sensitive nature of this data was critical to the success and launch of this platform.
Not only would this benefit the individual companies it would also elevate perceptions of the industry and position PESA as a leader within the sector.
Deep insights with granular data, available in customizable reports and graphs Peer-to-peer comparison and benchmarking of health and safety practices Gap analysis
Conduct peer-to-peer
comparative analysis
Benchmark their
health
and safety practices
Establish
baseline standards
We reached out to Accenture and they recommended Avanade as a Microsoft technology expert
Molly Determan PESA's vice president of strategy & programs.
This association looked for a partner that could provide deep expertise with
end-to-end application development and a cloud-first approach.
Using
agile methodology
, Avanade developed
and deployed the Microsoft Azure-based application in
just eight weeks.
The application security model uses:
Azure Bring Your Own Identity (BYOI)
Azure SQL Services (Cloud Database as a Service)
Avanade Digital Studio experts built the entire app, providing an exceptional user experience for desktop, tablet and mobile.
As the unified voice for the energy industry’s oilfield services and equipment sector, the Petroleum Equipment & Services Association (PESA) advocates and supports job creation, technological innovation and economic initiatives.
Members globally
200
PESA envisioned providing members with an entirely
new digital tool
- a cloud - based app that members could use to:
Making life easier for project managers and employees at Avanade
Cost containment and optimization take center stage.
Power BI dashboards and governance are key to cost savings.
Avanade's methodology focused on three levers
As cloud adoption has increased, so too have the challenges. These include:
Immediate and longer-term cost savings Greater transparency More accurate budgeting A reduction in environmental impact due to a lower carbon footprint Security improvements stemming from a cleaner infrastructure environment
Avanade France was looking for ways to
contain costs and optimize investments without cutting service levels.
Microsoft Power BI dashboards.
Massimo Guarnieri Senior director in Infrastructure Consulting. Avanade Germany
Potentially unlimited cloud consumption Non-governed cloud spread Over purchasing of features and services All of which contribute to rising costs
We realized we needed to change the way we maintain and control our infrastructure in the cloud, but it would require a different approach from on-premises.
Key to the optimization program were the
The new dashboards really shed light on where our costs are and where they can be reduced. And they allow people to get accurate information in a format that’s easy to understand.
Massimo Guarnieri
You no longer have to be a data expert to understand your cloud consumption and costs.
Executives can use the dashboards to see the big picture, and project managers can gain insights into their specific cloud usage and costs - say goodbye to those cumbersome spreadsheets.
40%
Cost reduction in the first month
Additional savings over the following six months
30%
1 2 3
Optimize resources and decisions
The project team set a clear direction and strategy.
Create visibility and control
They developed Microsoft Power BI dashboards to better understand, monitor and manage costs.
Implement finance and operations governance
They defined new roles, and governance and approval processes.
and optimize investments without cutting service levels.
contain costs
The company’s Belgian office operated 120 servers on-premises, leading to significant issues such as capacity limitations, high maintenance costs, cooling problems and security threats.
Europ Assistance Belgium decided to migrate its data to the cloud rather than investing in new on-site infrastructure.
Why Avanade was chosen as the right vendor for this project
Helps with proper forecasting Offers the ability to react quickly during peak times throughout the year
As Europ Assistance Belgium didn't have enough manpower or in-house expertise to manage the cloud infrastructure itselff, it recognized the
need for dedicated specialists
The complete project consists of two parts:
An Application Roadmap to Cloud (ARC) assesment to develop a migration and modernization strategy An in-depth roadmap of the steps required for the transformation journey
Lower costs Expand data storage capacity Improve IT security
Avanade initiated the project with a cloud transformation workshop, which delivered:
The infrastructure migration to the cloud The setup of managed services
Europ Assistance has an in-depth roadmap of the steps required for its transformation journey.
Avanade recommended that the Azure Site Recovery Service be leveraged to migrate the workload to a full Azure IaaS infrastructure.
This cloud migration will allow Europ Assistance to become more agile and innovative.
The value of IT is enabling business, not managing infrastructure. We made the choice to stop losing time and money in infrastructure and partner up with Avanade, a trusted organization capable of managing our cloud infrastructure. This allows us to free up time to focus on our core business.
Our extensive knowledge of Azure Expertise in managed services
to
guide it along its digital transformation.
Europ Assistance Belgium's cloud transformation journey kicked off with the migration of its on-premises data center infrastructure.
Continuous monitoring of the cloud infrastructure:
The cloud migration in Belgium is a
fundamental step
towards Europ Assistances's
larger digital transformation journey.
Michel Kennis ITC director at Europ Assistance
As Europ Assistance Belgium didn't have enough manpower or in-house expertise to manage the cloud infrastructure itself it recognized the
While the bank provided its agents with a flexible way of working, employees still needed a modern way to provision their devices.
Crelan was ready to begin its digital transformation, and the first step was a move to the cloud.
For Crelan to support future growth ambitions, it needed to
modernize its workplace and optimize its processes.
Many employees worked offsite, but every 90 days, when it came time to reset their passwords, they would have to go into the office.
By securely unlocking the value of the Microsoft cloud, Crelan has taken the first step in its digital transformation and laid the foundation for it to proceed with a full implementation of Microsoft 365.
Who are Crelan?
Once the solution goes live, more than users will have single sign-on authentication.
engaging key stakeholders in a number of design workshops.
To understand the current IT environment as well as future requirements, we started by
building and configuring the required components.
We are now performing a technical upgrade on Crelan's Microsoft infrastructure and workplace,
The components
Azure Active Directory
to help employees sign on and authorize access to resources and data from anywhere, anytime.
Azure multifactor authentication and conditional access
to help safeguard access to data and applications while maintaining simplicity for end users.
Self-service password reset
features are available for employees and they can also unlock their accounts using their own credentials, without helpdesk or administrator assistance.
Microsoft Intune
to manage device compliance remotely, push updates and block or wipe both corporate and 'Bring Your Own Devices' (BYOD)
Avanade's Zero-Trust Network
standards are at the center of Crelan's new security protocols, enabling the bank to maintain complete control of data access, movement and storage.
3,000
Microsoft 365 platform and Avanade, as one of the most trusted Microsoft partners.
Given the security standards of the banking industry, Crelan chose the
Crelan is a large Belgian bank and insurance company with an extensive branch network.
With competent agents and a digital platform, it is committed to supporting individuals and entrepreneurs in their personal and professional development.
3,000+ users
GroupM wanted to pursue new and ambitious digital initiatives – but time was in short supply for its team of IT professionals.
GroupM set out to find new efficiencies within its existing application development cycles.
Modern software engineering tools Approaches to create efficiencies and increase agility
We made application development more predictable using:
It wanted to pursue more ambitious, strategic digital initiatives with the world changing, fast, it wanted to embrace new digital opportunities as soon as possible. To achieve this, it also needed to find new efficiencies, freeing up the time internal IT staff were spending on existing application development cycles.
Who are GroupM?
With Avanade's Application Managed Services, GroupM received:
Alvin Yong GroupM's IT director for Asia Pacific
Avanade is a true business partner. Its managed services approach and strong delivery capability help us maximize efficiency, increase agility and give the freedom to innovate.
Recently GroupM began to face new challenges.
It hoped to:
Reduce development costs Speed time to market Unlock more flexibility with its development partner
1
After evaluating GroupM’s goals, Avanade helped the company realize two distinct approaches to IT.
2
We empowered GroupM's IT team to
focus on using technology to innovate the business.
Maximized efficiencies
with scalable resources
Increased agility
through Modern Software Engineering
The freedom to innovate on new projects,
all while cutting costs and improving end-user service
Since 2012, Avanade has worked closely with GroupM on bringing efficiency, scalability and simplicity to its development needs, often building cutting-edge solutions on top of the latest Microsoft technologies.
20,000+
employees
81
countries
20%
in cost savings
As Towergate acquired more companies, its IT landscape grew to include hundreds of different systems, applications and processes.
One of the most comprehensive IT reboots and ambitious cloud migration efforts the financial services industry had ever seen.
Fragmented, outdated and unstable, this IT environment was expensive and made collaboration difficult. Customer experience wasn’t optimal and a lot of experience and information became tangled up in legacy systems and processes.
Who are Towergate?
The transformation has produced significant value, enabling Towergate to:
Adrian Brown COO, Towergate
The transformation to the cloud really puts us into a completely different environment. We have witnessed a massive improvement in the way our customers see us and – just as importantly – the way our people see us.
With an eye toward improving IT service quality, operational efficiencies and user satisfaction, Accenture, Microsoft and Avanade zeroed in on four key areas:
Network and telephony
See more
End-user computing
3
Service support
4
Data center and hosting
See less
2,100+ existing servers were rationalized 1,200 workloads from Towergate's fragmented, outdated server estate
> >
Towergate's server estate will be reduced to fewer than 1,000 Microsoft Azure's secure and highly scalable cloud computing platform
The new environment helps:
Mitigate risk Improve compliance and agility Offer a number of new and critical features such as proactive monitoring and usage-based pricing
Inconsistent, expensive services
A more flexible, scalable and reliable British Telecom MPLS network and new telephony services in the form of Skype for Business
>
Multiple, unreliable and outdated device types and programs
New, standardized hardware and software tools
Towergate is now receiving service for its entire IT infrastructure
and efficiencies are being gained from the deployment of a new management services operating model, service catalog, and service desk with automated features and tools.
Achieve approximately 30% annual run rate cost savings Improve user experiences with new tools, a single service desk and enhanced self-service capabilities More easily collaborate across departments Reduce IT incidents and outages Make better, faster decisions
The program has provided Towergate with a solid IT foundation that not only accommodates new acquisitions should they be made in the future, but also
enables digital and business transformations that will aid the growth of the business.
UK-based Towergate is one of Europe's largest independently owned insurance intermediaries.
200+
general and specialty insurance products
Over 100
offices nationwide
4,000 staff
More than
12
month
transformation
Intermediate
cost savings
One of the most comprehensive IT reboots and ambitious cloud.
2,100+ existing servers were rationalized 1,200 workloads from Towergate's fragmented, outdated server estate.
A more flexible, scalable and reliable British Telecom
MPLS network and new telephony services in the form of Skype for Business
All wired desk phones
Softphone applications on employees’ laptops or mobile devices
A major transformation in the cloud.
Moving its application estate from its legacy data center onto the Azure cloud.
The team built a strategy for how applications could be moved off the company’s existing legacy data center infrastructure and into the cloud with minimal disruption to its 24x7 trading operations.
Who are Centrica Trading?
Visibility and efficiency, make an immediate impact on the bottom line.
Rahul Malik Head of IT at Centrica Trading
We immediately started seeing the results of moving to a transparent environment. I began getting reports each morning detailing the costs of each application on the platform and could take immediate action.
But first, Centrica had to overcome a number of key challenges and goals.
Reduced operating costs by for one app Increased transparency Faster time to market for new ideas No outages No security concerns flagged
With Azure, the company now has the right platform in place, and our joint team will continue optimizing applications and exploring the ways cloud technology can further push the boundaries of what’s possible for the business.
Increased speed and efficiency:
Legacy technology stack and fixed data center infrastructure limits the ability to innovate.
Flexible infrastructure:
Many complex trading activities require complicated, analytical models and simulations.
Lower cost per trade:
Cutting costs is one of the primary ways a trading firm can increase profits.
Transparency of costs:
Lack of full visibility into infrastructure and operations costs makes finding efficiencies and reductions a challenge.
Need for DevOps:
Implementing DevOps is key to improving time to market.
The process of moving Centrica Trading’s application estate from its legacy data center onto the Azure cloud was a complex journey.
Moving everything involved multiple phases and many thousands of virtual machines.
Using an agile methodology, the project team worked to migrate multiple applications onto Azure piece by piece without outages.
We created technical designs for every application that were thoroughly tested and signed off by Centrica’s information security team.
60% - 70%
Centrica is the largest gas and electricity company in the UK.
reduced operating costs
Azure cloud platform
60%-70%
Centrica Trading is the company’s energy trading division, which trades energy in the electronic markets, hedging the risk for British Gas or dealing directly with corporate consumers.
99%
faster to spin up new environments
One of the industry's first in Europe to move its data venter applications onto the cloud
Axesor needed to guarantee that it could reach new markets – with readily available products and services – faster than the competition.
Avanade moved Axesor’s IT systems to the Microsoft Azure cloud platform.
As Axesor began expanding the delivery of its products and services into new markets, it became necessary to transform its data management process. Previously, the company relied on manual systems to transfer information to its global offices.
Who are Axesor?
Greater speed, capabilities and scalability
The cloud is just the beginning.
Axesor chose Avanade as its partner due to our:
Knowledge of the full Microsoft technology stack Focus on data quality Bold, unique approach to standardizing services in the cloud
To replicate and automate its current experiences globally
a technologically advanced architecture that takes full advantage of the PaaS, SaaS and continuous integration capabilities of Azure.
Combined with , the solution provides valuable insight into the company’s data sources and automates the data management process so that it can easily publish and deploy in new environments.
The company wanted an analysis of what its business could achieve in the cloud in terms of:
Speed Greater insights
Goal:
Avanade moved Axesor’s IT systems to the Microsoft Azure cloud platform –
greater analytics capabilities
It can automatically replicate work from one region to another, while providing the flexibility to customize solutions for individual clients.
Azure uses all of the PaaS competences to allow Axesor to than the competition.
consolidate its data, build new systems and gain access to more high-quality data faster
at a reduced cost.
Infrastructure-as-a-code allows Axesor to quickly do
provision testing
and
pre-production environments
using Visual Studio.
The solution is cost efficient because it
eliminates redundant work.
Enriched information
is now available and easily accessible.
Before: Moving 1 million operations per kernel in 24 hours
Axesor will use new technologies and services to:
Go into more depth with predictions Get more information faster Discover ways to use more cloud-based services instead of building each solution separately
After: Moving 26 million operations per kernel in 24 hours
Axesor is the leading credit risk management company in Spain, operating in both Europe and Latin America.
Its main goal is to provide its clients with solutions that optimize their credit risk management.
clients
300
2000
invested in innovation over the past three years
€20 million
After: Moving 24 million operations per kernel in 24 hours
To provide a seamless, digital and transparent experience.
Through the help of Avanade Advisory, we created ConectCar’s digital transformation roadmap.
Who are ConectCar?
Through the implementation of...
This was made possible by promoting a digital transformation of the channels and architecture of ConectCar’s backend platforms, generating:
Scalability and flexibility through the modernization of platforms Improvement and agility in processes and tools
ConectCar chose Avanade to assist in its transformation and digital innovation journey, providing for
As a trusted adviser, we ensured that best practices in transforming technology platforms and processes were implemented – which provided the
more flexible processes and technology platforms.
flexibility needed to leverage new capabilities in a fully agile, resilient and cloud-based model.
DevOps
Jefferson Elva Santana CIO, ConectCar
The goal is digital transformation focused on the customer. With the support of Avanade, ConectCar has built a flexible and resilient architecture to meet the growing demands in an agile and innovative way.
The business will have...
Agile methodologies
Architecture developed in Azure
The elasticity and flexibility to manage a more complex environment
The ability to offer a fluid experience to customers
+
=
Who are ConnectCar?
ConectCar is an electronic payment company, which has been working for more than six years to improve the mobility and connection of people in Brazil.
Jefferson Elva Santana CIO, ConnectCar
The challenge of optimizing an entire delivery network.
Artificial intelligence (AI) in the cloud, bringing alfred.simOne to life.
Who are thyssenkrups Materials Services?
Run simulations that process large amounts of data Intelligently analyze results to see the impact on transportation costs and inventory levels
Building this tool was complicated and required the help of a reliable technology partner. thyssenkrupp found that partner in Avanade. Together, we set out to build the solution that would come to be known as alfred.simOne.
Christian Bernsdorf Head of logistics planning/SCM at thyssenkrupp
Now that alfred.simOne has shown what it’s capable of, people are starting to think differently. It will completely transform the way we think and act in the future. Rather than starting with a gut feeling, we’ll have data to support our hypotheses.
The power of the tool lies in its ability to:
The rising of cost of maintaining stock levels. The importance of cost efficiency in transporting its products has increased significantly in recent years.
The idea was simple: build a cloud-based platform that could automatically analyze data and run simulations based on operational hypotheses.
It was determined early on that a proof-of-concept (PoC) of alfred.simOne would be built on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform using platform as a service (PaaS) components and Microsoft Power BI for visualization.
Using Avanade’s minimum viable product method, or “MVP,” our joint team realized the PoC in a matter of weeks.
In one test simulation during the development phase, we discovered that centralizing a single product to a smaller group of sites could save thyssenkrupp half a million euros per year without sacrificing service.
Looking ahead
Further optimize the simulations with the help of Databricks scalability capabilities so they can be done in minutes rather than hours alfred.simOne will learn to run its own simulations and perform a continuous intelligent analysis
Watch our video here
Who are thyssenkrupp Materials Services?
thyssenkrupp Materials Services – a major materials distributor headquartered in Essen, Germany – services its customers from a network of locations spread across the world.
New template for future medical research?
Harness big data and AI to help determine what causes ALS and identify potential treatments.
A data query engine capable of processing research queries in hours instead of weeks.
Who are John Hopkins and Answer ALS?
A new template for medical research based on collaboration and AI data analysis Participating researchers are able to query a database of thousands of petabytes of new ALS-specific information Queries can now return results within minutes or hours vs. weeks
Once the Answer ALS consortium selected Microsoft Azure as the backbone for the data research bank,
Peter Warlick, Vice president of corporate development for American Airlines, who was diagnosed with ALS in 2015
The technology is a critical component. If the data isn’t accessible in a manner that data analysts can access it, the value of the work that preceded it is lost. The infrastructure is critical to drive accessibility and accountability.
The goal:
Leverage cloud computing, machine learning, an enormous amount of patient data and a powerful, interactive data infrastructure with the ability to harness artificial intelligence.
Avanade began with a that focused less on technology and more on deciding what functionality was required, then prioritized objectives.
What the team needed, it turns out, was an Azure-based query engine capable of:
All to help determine what causes ALS and identify potential treatments.
Azure expert Avanade was selected to lead phase one of the project.
design-led workshop
Processing research queries in hours instead of days or weeks Integrating the AI and machine learning capabilities that will be added in later phases
, Avanade built a
powerful, secure system
that allows reasearchers to use tools they already familiar with, one that is designed to expand as the project continues to build momentum.
Researchers will be able to fully evaluate genetic information from each participating ALS patient and perform
the most comprehensive biological analytics ever.
Researchers hope the new insights will serve as the foundation for new clinical trials The project is already showing results. Sharing the Answer ALS data with a research group based in the Netherlands, scientists have identified a gene linked to ALS The next phase will incorporate AI and machine learning to further speed and amplify research analysis
.
Who are Johns Hopkins and Answer ALS?
Answer ALS is a revolutionary research program founded and run by Johns Hopkins and the Robert Packard Center for ALS Research.
Bringing together:
Global research centers Leading technology companies World-class researchers 1,000 ALS patients
Slow, expensive paper-based systems risk inaccuracies.
Partner portal, data management, financial and tax systems built on Microsoft Azure.
Who are Linklaters?
Sandy Clark Senior partnership finance manager at Linklaters
Without such flexible systems and the partnership we developed with Avanade over the years, it would never have been possible to deliver the changes the firm wanted or needed to deliver in the time required.
The firm must consider a myriad of complex financial and tax policies to calculate profit allocations each year for its partners.
In addition to the original profit allocation model, the suite now includes:
A digital transformation with intuitive, adaptable applications was imperative.
A master data management system A partner management system An adaptable partner portal A document management system
But its paper-based system was:
Slow
Expensive
Risked inaccuracies
We helped migrate the system from an on-premises solution to Microsoft Azure.
But the environment was too good to keep only for the profit allocation processes.
Several more modules were developed to enhance the service to partners and to reduce time, cost and risk in the team’s processes.
A tax management system A profit-sharing management module A highly resilient disaster recovery solution
Linklaters unlocked the power of the Azure stack to increase business agility and improve the overall partner experience.
The power of Azure stack has delivered far-reaching business value, including:
Increased business agility Improved partner confidence Speed and operational efficiency
Time savings Security Collaboration
The team will continue to work with Avanade to maintain and enhance the system as it continues to focus on excellence.
Linklaters is one of the world’s largest global law firms operating across 30 offices in 20 countries with around 480 partners.
Risked Inaccuracies
