Featured customer solutions

Learn how Office Business Applications (OBAs) have helped businesses overcome the results gap and achieve better business results. These case studies are only a small sampling of Office Business Applications success stories. Find more OBA success stories.

---

Read the success stories in this book to see how companies have created OBAs to develop and strengthen customer relationships, create innovative products and services, improve operations, reduce costs, and build higher value connections with partners and suppliers.

 Read the book

---

Microsoft Entertainment and Devices (E&D) is responsible for development, production, and marketing for the Xbox video system, other entertainment and learning products, and hardware devices. The group developed an OBA on the 2007 Microsoft Office system that connects over 140 business activities in a custom workflow solution that provides improved data access, tracking, and analysis.

 Read the case study

---

CC Intelligent Solutions provides of IT solutions for clients in the defense, intelligence, homeland security, civil government, and commercial sectors. CC Intelligent Solutions designed an Office Business Application called FusionNet, a distributed system that disseminates "ground truth" intelligence and unit management information throughout the battlespace. The solution is built with Microsoft .NET software, SharePoint Products and Technologies, and SQL Server. It also represents one of the first military deployments of Microsoft Office Forms Server 2007, which helps military teams centrally publish and manage electronic forms. This allows team members in the field to access forms and complete them using a Web browser.

 Read the case study

---

Microsoft needed to make the customer data in its Siebel customer relationship management system and other applications more accessible and usable to the company's enterprise sales force. The Siebel UI was frustrating to use, forcing salespeople to spend too much time entering customer data. To address that challenge, Microsoft developed Customer Explorer, an Office Business Application that uses Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 to provide access to customer data in several line-of-business systems. Field sales personnel now manage customer data with the same tool that they use to communicate with customers. They now spend more time selling, and can collaborate more easily. The Outlook add-in has significantly increased sales force productivity, giving the average user an additional three hours per week to focus on new opportunities.

 Read the case study

---

Microsoft developed an Office Business Application called Customer Explorer to improve sales by providing "anywhere, anytime" access to customer data in Siebel through Office Outlook 2007. Customer Explorer provides access to customer data in Siebel and other line-of-business systems through the Office Outlook 2007 messaging and collaboration client. Customer Explorer functions as an add-in to the familiar desktop program, extending its functionality to include the management of customer data and information on sales opportunities.

 Read the case study

---

Ampacet is a specialty chemical manufacturer that is the world's leading volume provider of color and additive master-batch solutions for both rigid and flexible packaging applications. To improve its ideation and product development processes, Ampacet chose to deploy an Office Business Application developed by DataLan, a Microsoft Gold Certified partner. By building on the 2007 Microsoft Office system, DataLan was able to develop an OBA that opens ideation to more workers, business partners, and customers; streamlines and structures the review of new ideas; standardizes the progression of ideas across the organization; and provides visibility and improved business intelligence on ideas as they are advanced across the enterprise.

 Read the case study

---

Epicor is a global leader, providing integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), and professional service automation (PSA) software solutions to over 20,000 customers. Epicor developed Epicor Information Worker (IW), an Office Business Application that delivers data from its applications on the Microsoft Office system. Epicor IW empowers information workers to perform most of their business activities within the familiar environment of Microsoft Office Outlook 2003, while business data from their work is automatically integrated with the Epicor ERP solution.

 Read the case study

---

The Pfizer Global Research and Development unit has 12,000 scientists in seven research centers working on the next generation of pharmaceutical products. In a joint effort, experts from Pfizer, Microsoft, and Infosys developed a new Office Business Application based on the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0, Windows Presentation Foundation, and Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003. This new application allows Pfizer scientists to search their databases for specific biological results and view the results in a contextual, multidimensional display.

 Read the case study

---

Microsoft developed an Office Business Application called "Rhythm of the Business" to empower Microsoft financial analysts and senior executives to make more informed and timely business decisions. The application provides real-time business intelligence in the form of spreadsheets and graphics of global sales, measured against key business metrics. The spreadsheets consolidate data provided by geographically diverse business groups, each using a standard template to record and confirm required business information.

 Read the case study

---

South Holland District Council (SHDC) provides a wide range of services related to housing, employment, and traffic from its head office in Spalding, United Kingdom. By working with the newest business intelligence and enterprise content management tools from Microsoft, SHDC was able to address the critical success factors and employ business strategies to improve the quality, reaction time, and efficiency of the performance reporting process.

 Read the case study

---

Del Monte Foods is one of the largest producers and distributors of premium-quality processed food and pet products in the United States. To make its Pet Products formula change process more efficient, and to serve as a model for new product development companywide, Del Monte Foods implemented enterprise content management capabilities with the 2007 Microsoft Office system. With the new solution, Del Monte Foods has automated product lifecycle processes, reduced time-to-market, and shortened the formula change process by 33 percent.

 Read the case study

---

The Office of the State Auditor (OSA) of Massachusetts identifies and investigates fraud against government-funded assistance programs. The OSA needed to address its increased workload and create a more efficient way to process cases. Using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the Microsoft Office System, the OSA and Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Magenic Technologies built a solution using the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 and Microsoft Office Word 2007. Windows Communication Foundation, along with Microsoft BizTalk Server, integrated the solution with the OSA back-end systems to provide real-time access to current data for reporting. The solution reduced data-collection times by 75 percent and allowed the agency to focus on higher value cases.

 Read the case study

---

Dassault Systèmes designs, manufactures, and operates complex products such as airplanes and ships where product life-cycle management (PLM) is critical. Using products from the 2007 Microsoft Office system, Dassault Systèmes created a proof-of-concept PLM solution for its customer, Dassault Aviation. The result is a conceptual Office Business Application that streamlines complex processes and allows people to collaborate and communicate across geographic and other boundaries.

 Read the case study

 Top of Page