Houthoff, a top-tier independent Dutch law firm, was facing challenges in managing and coordinating their projects efficiently. The firm operates globally with offices in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Brussels, London, and New York, and representatives in Asia and the United States. The rapidly changing legal landscape necessitated quick adaptation and constant communication with clients about the impact on their business. However, the traditional methods of work distribution and assigning lawyers to matters were proving insufficient. The firm was struggling with the growing challenge of staying fully informed and keeping everybody involved and happy in an era dominated by hybrid working, increased workloads, time pressure, and labor shortages. Especially for large complex matters, setting up a team with lawyers from different practice groups across the firm was a daunting task for a partner. Moreover, ensuring a balanced workload for lawyers to prevent any risk of overload was also a significant concern.

Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF), a leading international law firm, was facing several challenges due to its traditional development processes. The business departments’ application requests were communicated to the IT department, which then developed them in isolation. This resulted in slow development cycles, high resource consumption, and solutions that did not truly address the problem. NRF was grappling with increasing client requests for technology workflows and portals, excessive reliance on manual communication processes, slow development cycles, lack of innovation, and dispersed request tracking and ticketing tools. A new approach was needed to develop innovative solutions that addressed the exact business problems.

J-W Power Company, a Dallas-based manufacturing service provider of natural gas compressors, was facing a significant challenge due to a depressed market of natural gas. The company had to deal with multiple divestitures and reductions in force, particularly in the IT department and staffing for developers. This situation presented a significant hurdle in meeting the demand for custom homegrown applications, as the company lacked the necessary in-house resources. The challenge was to find a solution that could help the understaffed IT team clear application request backlogs, reduce internal IT costs, and provide a scalable cloud infrastructure.

Aperia Technologies, a leading tire inflation and management solutions provider, faced a significant challenge in managing their factory data. The company had to deal with a vast amount of information pouring in from various testing equipment around the world. Without a proper catalog, it was nearly impossible to find the right data when needed. The company also faced difficulties in integrating data from various sources, including on-site and off-site test equipment, and ensuring that this data was accessible and organized efficiently. Another challenge was to make complex data accessible to non-technical team members, including those in quality and manufacturing, without extensive technical skills.

Endy, a leading online mattress brand in Canada, was facing challenges in managing its customer support operations due to its explosive sales growth. The company was using simple spreadsheet-based solutions and manual data fetching and entering, which was no longer feasible with the increasing sales and a growing customer support team. The company needed to speed up the process of pulling off various customer attributes and shipping partner information from distributed data sources to power internal operations such as reporting and return and replacement order fulfillment. The data resided across multiple systems that didn’t natively interact with one another, slowing down the customer support reps in making quick and informed decisions. The company was also facing issues in integrating and getting the customer details in one place from different sources like Shopify, Microsoft SQL Server, and Google Sheets.

Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) and Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies heavily rely on mobile apps for their field agents and brokers. These apps are crucial for improving merchandising, taking orders, launching new products, announcing promotions or price changes, and managing inventory. However, the need for custom software is increasing at a rapid pace, with IDC predicting that about 500 million digital apps and services will be created by 2023. This demand is putting pressure on CPG and retail companies to find faster and more efficient ways to develop software. Traditional development methods are often slow and require a high level of dependency on development teams. This situation is further complicated by the need for these apps to be highly personalized and adaptable to different retail models, languages, and SKUs.

Animales sin Hogar (ASH), a non-profit organization based in Uruguay, was founded in 2003 with the aim of promoting the adoption and responsible ownership of pets, and animal welfare in general. A year after its inception, ASH developed a web app using GeneXus technology, primarily to enable people to post notices about lost pets or animals in need of adoption. However, as the organization grew, so did its needs. ASH required a more comprehensive system that could keep records, manage, and define the traceability of the animals, their treatments, adoptions, and follow-ups. The organization also wanted to create a space for posts related to different aspects of animal well-being. The challenge was to expand the existing solution and develop a management system that could handle all the data related to the animals.

Bovitrato, a company created through a partnership between FMX and Seys, was initially focused on livestock confinement management. However, the company recognized the need to expand its services to cover the entire life cycle of cattle, from gestation to slaughter. The challenge was to automate the breeding and rearing stages of the animals, ensuring total control of nutrition. This required a system that could manage costs and automate the entire cattle feeding chain, including the breeding phase, from cow gestation to calf birth, and the rearing phase, covering the animal's growth until the confinement or fattening stage. The system needed to be able to send planned production orders for loading and unloading operations in feed mixers, whether in vehicles or static mixers. The scale, incorporated in the mixers, had to select the necessary ingredients and prepare the diet, whether for individual animals or batches of cattle.

King Jouet, a family-owned toy company with a significant presence in Europe, embarked on a project in 2019 to consolidate its data flows. The project, initiated by King Jouet’s holding company, the Prenatal Retail Group, aimed to provide all group entities with a single, modern, open, and scalable ERP solution. The company selected Microsoft Dynamics as its ERP solution in March 2020 and Avanade as the implementation partner. However, King Jouet identified the need for an integrator capable of managing all incoming and outgoing data flows. This was a significant challenge as the company had multiple software applications that needed to communicate with each other, including checkout and store management, warehouse management system (WMS), cash management, e-commerce site, the B-to-B order portal dedicated to affiliates and various other applications such as expense report management or decision-making tools.

MéO, a leading manufacturer of custom-made, decorative, accessible, and efficient wood-aluminum joinery, was facing challenges with its ERP maintenance. Over time, the ERP system had become complex with interfaces to many systems and a wide range of corporate information stored in it. This complexity made the maintenance of the ERP system cumbersome. In addition to this, MéO was looking to modernize its production tools and equip its manufacturing workshops with the right management tools to improve performance. The company needed a solution that could simplify its ERP setup and provide real-time insights to enhance its production efficiency.

ABN AMRO, the third-largest bank in the Netherlands, was facing a growing demand for digitalization of their services, a need that was further amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic. With over 3 million customers and €197B in assets, the bank was under pressure to offer more digital touchpoints for both customers and employees. The bank's workforce of 19,000 employees began resorting to shadow IT solutions to meet these needs, which posed a risk given the high regulatory and compliance standards of the banking industry. In 2016, ABN AMRO reassessed their IT landscape and determined that they needed a more efficient development platform to deliver innovative solutions quickly while maintaining a level of governance that met industry standards.

AESSEAL, a subsidiary of AES Engineering Ltd, is a global company with 235 locations in 104 countries, specializing in engineering products and systems for pumps and rotating equipment. Despite its industry-leading portfolio of custom predictive and preventive engineering products, AESSEAL faced a significant challenge. The company needed to bridge its core legacy systems with a modern technology stack to keep up with its own progress. The existing siloed legacy manufacturing systems, coupled with significant technical debt, hindered the IT team from delivering new, innovative solutions. The team was stretched thin managing continuous upgrades in Windows and Oracle, refreshing legacy applications, and addressing challenges from non-standardized shadow IT solutions created by the business. The need for a solution that could extend development capacity and solve their integration challenge was evident.

Ensuring the quality and safety of medication is a complex task due to the intricate lifecycle of pharmaceutical products. From production to warehouse to patient, each stage requires careful handling to maintain the potency of the medication. This is a global challenge, with over 275 million people using prescription drugs worldwide. AntTail, a Netherlands-based IoT services provider for the cold-chain logistics of medical supplies, has been working to address this issue. However, they faced challenges in building custom applications for medicine-related logistics quickly and efficiently. They also needed to ensure data availability, security, and scalability for their applications. Furthermore, they had to deal with the complexities of monitoring conditions of medications in patients’ home refrigerators, maintaining stringent standards in warehouses, and dealing with the traditional method of monitoring with wired sensors, which was costly and required frequent maintenance.

BAE Systems, Europe’s largest defense contractor, was facing a common challenge in the IT sector. The company was struggling with a backlog of demands to maintain or replace mission-critical core systems while also delivering new, innovative solutions. The shortage of resources to deliver in all areas was leading to the growth of opaque shadow IT solutions. The company was also reliant on third-party providers for managing their systems, which made getting applications into production and retaining control in-house a challenge. The IT team had adopted an agile way of working, but the current suite of tools and partners did not fit with this cultural shift. The team was looking for a platform that would enable them to deliver faster on bespoke development demands to prevent the creation of shadow IT, while simultaneously keeping their core clean and reducing their reliance on external development support.

Addison-HVAC, a leading DOAS manufacturer based in Orlando, Florida, faced significant challenges in managing their maintenance activities. The company employed a team of five technicians, including a maintenance supervisor, who relied on a physical paper request box and an Excel spreadsheet for managing maintenance tasks. This manual process was not only time-consuming but also messy, as technicians often had grease on their hands from working. Moreover, the team had limited Wi-Fi or internet access about 70% of the time due to spotty coverage inside the facility and remote work locations. This lack of consistent internet access posed a significant challenge to the efficient execution and recording of maintenance tasks.

ALCO Harvesting, a leading harvesting company, was facing challenges in managing its assets due to the rapid growth of the company. The existing system was archaic and lacked streamlining, making it difficult for Amir Santiago, the automation engineer, to effectively manage all automated machines and perform data analytics. The company was in dire need of a solution that could provide a clearer picture of the problems they were encountering with their assets and equipment. The old methods of asset management required technicians to be physically present in the office, which was not only time-consuming but also inefficient.

Specialty vehicle manufacturers face a unique set of challenges due to the highly fragmented nature of their market. The design and production requirements for an ambulance, a fire truck, a snow plow, or a taxi cab are vastly different, each with its own unique external hardware that interacts with the vehicle and its controls. The gateway modules that connect this hardware to the vehicle are custom-made for each new vehicle or equipment model. This customization significantly increases the cost of design and production for specialty vehicle makers. Additionally, it also extends the time it takes to bring a specialty vehicle to market, with outfitters spending up to 18 months configuring the necessary custom hardware and software. One such manufacturer approached Flex, seeking a solution to reduce its production costs and time to market.

Google's entry into the streaming media market was a strategic move to bring online media streaming to an unprecedented mass market. The challenge was to create a disruptive device that could be used in living rooms worldwide. Google partnered with Flex to take the Chromecast from idea to concept to worldwide production. The design and engineering challenges included creating a device that was small in size, competitively priced, had wireless capabilities, and could manage temperature effectively. The goal was to design a prototype of the Chromecast in just four weeks and speed up the time to market, beating competitors on both market entry and price.

In the highly competitive and rapidly evolving medical industry, companies are under constant pressure to innovate and stay ahead of the curve. One such challenge faced by a leading drug delivery provider was the delivery of immunotherapies, treatments that utilize the body's immune system to combat cancer. These therapies are notoriously difficult to inject into the human body due to their large molecular size. The company aimed to design and manufacture the world's first electromechanical device for the delivery of these life-saving immunotherapies. The device needed to integrate electrical hardware, software, and mechanical components. It also had to meet New Product Introduction (NPI) requirements, including electrical and mechanical process design, test development, line and equipment build, installation, and operational and performance qualifications.

The automotive industry is under increasing pressure to create more fuel-efficient vehicles due to government regulations and environmentally conscious consumers. One automaker sought to improve its fuel efficiency by exploring the emerging trend of active grille shutters. These shutters, integrated into the vehicle’s front intake grille, alter the flow of air to the engine, promoting cooling when open and fuel-sparing aerodynamics when closed. However, active grille shutters are a relatively new technique in automotive design and carry challenges, particularly in safety and durability. The vendor must ensure that a grille won’t get stuck in ways that would affect vehicle performance or overheat the engine.

Teradata, a leading provider of data warehouse and analytics solutions, was facing a significant challenge in maintaining its leadership position in a highly competitive market. The company's success hinged on its ability to deliver near-perfect performance, which required a fast-paced response to customer demand, efficient production processes, and the delivery of world-class data analytics solutions within tight deadlines. Teradata's clientele included 17 of the world's top telecommunications companies, all six of the world's top airlines, and 17 of the top 20 commercial and savings banks. The company needed a fulfilment partner that could meet these high demands and help it maintain its leadership position.

The keyless security brand, a provider of devices for commercial real estate buildings, parking garages, and multi-family residential complexes, was facing a major challenge in its production process. The company had been working with a cost-effective Taiwanese contract manufacturer, which was capable of handling production-level volumes. However, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic brought about frequent engineering design changes, which required significant oversight from the facility. The 14-hour time zone difference between the client and the manufacturer made real-time collaboration difficult. Overseas flights to facilitate on-site collaboration were considered, but these would delay production times and increase manufacturing costs. Given the uncertainty brought on by the pandemic, it was clear that this arrangement would not be sustainable.

Votronics Premier, a subsidiary of Premier LogiTech, is a trusted provider of printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) and electromechanical assembly services for various industries. Despite its stellar reputation for producing premium single- and double-sided PCB assemblies, the company faced financial limitations common to many small businesses. The procurement of customer materials for assembly required substantial upfront investment, tying up capital resources for extended periods before payment could be secured. Balancing cash flow management with inventory maintenance was a significant challenge as the company sought growth and stability in a fiercely competitive market.

ASK Chemicals, a leading global supplier of phenolic resins, faced significant challenges due to its outdated and fragmented data management system. The company, with over 2,000 employees worldwide and 18 production facilities, was struggling to merge data from different facilities located in various countries. Each facility had a mix of on-premise installations and best-of-breed software, which made it difficult to create a unified global operational base. The leadership team identified several issues, including poor performance, lack of scalability leading to higher costs, suboptimal cybersecurity, delayed response times, and other platform limitations that hindered innovation efforts. The company needed a solution that would not only address these challenges but also lay the foundation for a new digital business model.

CoreFX Ingredients, a manufacturer of dry lipid-based nutritional oils, was seeking to modernize its operations to keep up with its innovative and specialized production methods. The company, which serves the health, wellness, sports nutrition, and pet nutrition markets, was using outdated spreadsheet-based service plans for its maintenance professionals. This approach was not only inefficient but also failed to provide a comprehensive view of the total cost of equipment ownership. Furthermore, CoreFX needed a unified platform that could act as a single source of truth across all stages of manufacturing. The challenge was to find a solution that could streamline their operations, improve visibility of critical information, and enhance decision-making processes.

Dun Yong Food Services, a catering and wholesale supplier specializing in Asian foods, was faced with the challenge of an outdated ERP solution that no longer met the requirements of their growing business. The existing system offered limited opportunities for improvement and was not able to fully support the company's future plans. Recognizing the importance of change management in implementing a new system, Dun Yong began the search for a modern, scalable ERP platform about a year and a half ago. The company involved key users from their teams from the beginning and created a list of minimum requirements that a potential software partner had to meet. However, the project had to be put on hold due to the uncertainties brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Le Duc Fine Food, a family-owned Dutch business specializing in vegetarian snacks, was looking to modernize its operations to keep up with the growing demand and competition in the vegetarian market. The company identified the need for a modern ERP platform to streamline its operations and improve efficiency. However, a few years ago, the organization lacked the internal capacity to undertake such a large implementation project. The challenge was to find a suitable partner with the right software system that could cater to their specific needs in the food and beverage industry.

Wiley Companies, a leading manufacturer in the fine chemicals space, was seeking ways to improve its technological solutions to facilitate future expansion and business growth. The company was particularly interested in harnessing the benefits of cloud technology, including greater agility and scalability. The Director of IT, Thomas Dean Watson, identified the need to convert the company's Aptean ERP system to a Software as a Service (SaaS) model. This transition was not without its challenges, as it coincided with the company's rebranding and name change, requiring an accelerated project timeline. Additionally, the company saw this as an opportunity to clean up its ERP database, a major undertaking in itself. The situation was further complicated when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, necessitating new ways of working.

Fujitsu, an integrated supplier to the automotive industry, was operating on an outdated version of glovia.com. The company had numerous decentralized applications which were difficult to monitor and coordinate. The system had over 3,000 customizations, making it cumbersome to navigate and lacked the ability to provide important information in real-time. The company was also struggling with a large number of decentralized systems, which complicated company-wide processes. The need to manually input customizations into multiple systems was a time-consuming process necessary for the decentralized systems to communicate with each other. The company also lacked full network monitoring and real-time operational measurements.

General Glass, a company based in southeast Portland, Oregon, has been in operation since 1969. The company started as a shower door and bathroom fixture company and later expanded into the world of IG production. After being sold to Bakken Industries in 2002, the company continued to expand its product offerings throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Under the leadership of President Greg Bakken, the company experienced exponential growth, expanding from a six-person shop in 2002 to a 20-person shop in 2010. However, this rapid growth led to the company outgrowing its first and second ERP systems. CFO Greg Elliott and CEO Kristy Hackworth realized that they needed a more comprehensive ERP system to increase efficiency and see a return on their investment in a relatively short time.