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Moving to Containers and Microservices for More Efficient Infrastructure
This customer wanted to move from a legacy platform to a modern, cloud-native platform. The choice was made to use Kubernetes, Docker, and orchestration tools as the foundation to the new platform. Moving to a cloud-native approach enabled the customer to scale up or down as necessary with no limitations. It also improved cost efficiency. A third benefit was the ability to enable “high availability” with a larger number of applications without increased costs.
Enhanced Application Management for AWS
A very large hosting and application management service provider needed better tools and best practices that would allow their internal team to handle a larger workload, moving applications to AWS. Increasing the productivity of this team is central to meeting their business objectives. The Maverick team helped the client, starting with the implementation of improved and proven processes that were consistent across different applications and allowed the team to build “reusable” expertise. Maverick’s consultants possessed the expertise and knowledge that gave the client the jump start necessary to upgrade their ability to deploy and manage applications running on AWS. With better tools and processes, the client was able to scale their business and become more competitive. These new capabilities also benefit customers by reducing provisioning costs and lower total cost of ownership (TCO). With the ability to scale up and work more efficiently, the client can take a more strategic view of their business and focus on growth.
Upgrading to Amazon RDS for MySQL and Aurora
The client, a large Financial service company wanted to outsource the project of moving from an old, on-premises version of MySQL to AWS using RDS for MySQL and Aurora. Maverick’s consultants' first task was documenting and understanding the on-premises database as it was an older implementation with little documentation. In addition, it was imperative that no service interruptions occurred during migration, and the Maverick team took a measured approach to ensure no outages occurred. The project started with a migration from the old MySQL implementation to MySQL version 5.1 before the migration to RDS and Aurora on AWS could even begin. This step ensured that no problems would be encountered during the migration itself. It was important to get the migration done right as there were other IT initiatives that were using this data base as the foundation. The Maverick consulting team successfully completed the migration and met all the customer’s requirements. The migration eliminated the cost and need to manage on-premises hardware and provided better security and accessibility on AWS. Operational expenses were also reduced with the move to the cloud. Most importantly, this cloud migration provided the foundation for the other projects that built from it.
Providing a Blueprint for Effective DevOps
A major pharmaceuticals corporation had begun to embrace DevOps but did not have a central DevOps team. In addition, there was no group that was setting standards for tools or processes that would organize DevOps projects. Individual teams were “doing their own thing”. The customer also wanted to leverage the Maverick team’s deep expertise in application stacks, development environments, and the processes that link the Dev and Ops teams. To create a common set of processes and approaches, it was necessary to go into substantial detail to cover all the bases. The Maverick team provided the client with a complete DevOps roadmap, combining people, processes, and technology. This is supported by a unique agile operating model developed specifically for the client that focuses on tools, infrastructure, and automation. Standardized processes for tasks such as build automation, continuous integration, QA automation, release, and deployment automation are now in place. In addition, Maverick delivered a predictive monitoring tool to support strategic decision making. This new approach dramatically improved efficiency and gave the DevOps team the speed necessary to rapidly respond to business opportunities. Release cycle time dropped by 50% and operations costs were reduced by 40%.
Development of a Security Plan
A large metropolitan hospital needed to create a documented information security plan incorporating a risk assessment. The project also required the development of a documentation platform to track any mitigation work done to reduce IT risk at this complex and fragmented teaching institution. Maverick’s consultants utilized their proven tools and processes to build an information security plan that met the specific needs of this client. The combination of solution expertise and ability to incorporate unique aspects of this customer environment was central to the success of the project. The Maverick team was able to deliver a full information security plan with an aggregated risk registry that leveraged the NIST security framework. The project delivered several benefits for the customer. First, there were cost and operational savings gained from the elimination of duplicate security products or services. This also reduced complexity for the SecOps team. The new, streamlined environment freed up security team staff to proactively identify and reduce risk and better protect information. The plan also enabled more effective senior management involvement in data security decisions.
Simplifying Client Image Management
A worldwide consulting firm wanted to move from older and often non-mobile devices to the Microsoft Surface Pro. End users needed the tablet functionality and wanted portable devices. However, the organization had to ensure that it could maintain the benefits to the users of having a custom image such as seamless connection to any server or network. The Maverick team built an adoption script that would be installed in combination with the factory image on the Surface Pro. The adoption script gave the users the same look and feel they received when images were delivered via System Center Configuration Manager System (SCCM), without the complexity of creating and maintaining custom images.Using this approach, the Maverick consultants reduced by half the time necessary to roll out the Surface devices. In addition, the new machines could run on any network or connect to any server, worldwide. There was also a substantial reduction in support tasks since the image was hardware-agnostic and unique configurations or peripherals no longer generated support tickets. The number of trouble calls resulting from image problems virtually disappeared. This freed up a large amount of staff time, enabling the IT team to focus on higher-value tasks.
Microsoft 365 Migration Project
A property and casualty insurance firm was migrating to Microsoft 365 in conjunction with a Windows 10 migration project. The Maverick team was tasked with the effort, remediating support tickets that occurred during migration and analyzing support requests to improve future communications with the user base to mitigate commonly occurring problems. The migration process utilized both Microsoft tools and ZenDesk for ticket documentation. Maverick’s consultants also built a documentation platform that enabled the support team to respond more effectively and consistently when a problem occurred. With this process in place, the support team now has more bandwidth and can better provide documentation to end users so that they can resolve their own issues. With a more efficient process, the migration was completed with minimal impact on the day-to-day operations of the firm. More importantly, with a better platform to support users after the migration to Microsoft 365, more IT resources were freed up to focus on new strategic projects that improved business processes, rather than working on trouble tickets. One outcome from having more strategic IT resource available was a new corporate initiative to enter the high-end property and casualty insurance market.
Enhancing an Oracle Deployment
A financial services organization needed to complete a full inventory of all its Oracle applications and databases in preparation for migration to a new data center. This identification process also required analyzing current application performance levels and developing a plan for future growth. This was a complex and large task, and the Maverick consultants had to ensure the information was accurate, since any database or application that was “missed” would create operational problems. The Maverick team worked with numerous application owners and DBAs to identify a complete roster of applications and data stores. To facilitate the migration process, the Maverick consultants, working within tight time frames, developed migration plans that included data migration, enhanced backup, and data guards. The team also evaluated application performance on Oracle 19c before migration, finding ways to increase performance when the applications moved over. The successful migration provided the customer with improved application performance, both now and in the future, and the Maverick team also included important security enhancements for the Oracle environment. The new deployment also improved DR capabilities to ensure system availability. And all of this was accomplished with very minimal downtime.
Next-generation Master Data and Product Information Management
This customer found that their legacy approach created data silos and information flows were inconsistent. Using a new technology platform, the customer now has a single repository for all workflows and the ability to make changes or additions once, and ensure they are in place for all users. The Stibo Master Data Management solution is easy for customer staff to use and work with. It is now possible to focus on workflows by role, update or change workflows easily and eliminate confusion.
Delivering a Highly Customized CRM and Improved Analytics Reporting System
A customer wanted a major enhancement to its systems that support sales and analytics that would provide more detail on KPIs for that function. It had disparate sales datasets that needed an improved platform for aggregation to support both a doubling of the sales force and an expansion of the firm’s master distributors. In addition, the customer wanted improved analytics focused on these operations to provide more insight and support better decision-making as it grew. Using Veeva CRM and Tableau, Maverick was able to deliver a new data foundation and enhanced reporting capabilities. Despite the broad scope of the project and the very different tasks, Maverick’s consultants were able to complete all phases on schedule and ensure that the solution supported all the customer’s needs. The customer now has greatly improved BI capabilities that enable it to understand and identify business changes more quickly. Further, the customer was able to improve operational efficiency, lower costs, and focus its resources where they will have the greatest impact.
Driving Business Intelligence with Tableau
A large pharmaceutical firm needed to enhance its ability to identify business trends and assess the results of strategic decisions using Tableau. This project required working with senior management to develop an “organizational health” dashboard. Historically, the solution was a spreadsheet that had more than 100 unique metrics, and gaining a thorough understanding was somewhat difficult. The firm needed a better way to understand the business and make the optimal course corrections. Maverick started the project by organizing the underlying data to provide the foundation for the analytics activities. This required working with the Denodo Data Virtualization platform and leveraging the resulting datasets with SQL Server Analysis Services and Tableau. Maverick’s consultants then built a design for a multi-faceted Tableau dashboard that would consolidate key metrics and provide a more easily understood information set. With an improved dashboard that provides more focused results while highlighting the most important metrics, management is now able to make faster decisions with better results.
Delivering a Cohesive Data Warehouse Solution
A leading provider of genomic testing had several silos containing its critical business information. The customer chose to use SQL Server to act as the central repository and support data integration with SalesForce and NetSuite. The Maverick consultants were tasked with a short project timeline since both SalesForce and NetSuite were going live on the same date. The project started with moving data from the homegrown applications with unique data formats into a cloud-based platform that would provide a single, comprehensive, and consistent data warehouse. To complete this, Maverick’s consultants had to clean, massage, and convert the data and migrate it to the new platform. When this project was completed, it enabled the customer to scale up its use of data and the applications it supported. The data warehouse became a corporate standard that enabled both internal and external integration activities. With a single data platform, the customer also increased its use of analytic tools to make decisions faster.
Delivering Enhanced BI Capabilities
A global, web-based travel company needed more consistent, impactful, and timely business intelligence to inform its operations. It wanted a dashboard format that would be more useful and easily understood by its executives. Its current process was based on distributing Excel spreadsheets, which was not perceived as very useful. Maverick’s consultants implemented a Tableau solution that delivered the exact dashboards that the management team required. The Tableau dashboards provide critical information about hidden trends and insights, enabling the customer to better respond to them. The project started with moving data from legacy platforms that included homegrown applications, Oracle, Teradata, and AWS. All of these were integrated in the central data warehouse to support the Tableau solution. Maverick’s consultants then incorporated several change orders that occurred as prototype dashboards were delivered. This tuning process helped the customer optimize the dashboards. With both tabular and graphical analytics output, which is delivered in a timelier manner, the speed and quality of decision-making are greatly improved. This information supports more successful operations. The ability to drill down when important trends are identified gives the business more confidence that it is making the right decisions.
Supporting a Large-Scale SAP Implementation Project
A major pharmaceutical firm had committed to a large SAP integration project. However, the scope of the project and attendant tasks were larger than expected and delays were occurring. The solution Maverick designed added external expertise to the on-site staff resource to ensure that the tight project schedule could be completed while staying on budget. Maverick used its SAP expertise to identify where the most important skills gaps existed and put experienced consultants on the project to fill in those areas, such as WM, MM, FICO, and SD/FA. These individuals worked on-site to optimize the interaction with the customer’s team. The Maverick consultants also stayed with the customer after “go-live” to ensure that any operational issues that arose were swiftly remediated. Customer benefits included meeting the project budget and timelines as expected, and using Maverick’s project and communications plan provided a better foundation for this and future projects. Upon completion, the project enabled the customer to consolidate ERP platforms, providing reduced costs and greater operational efficiency from using a single platform.
Enhancing Oracle ERP to Support Global Operations
A large biotech company that is a leader in research and development wanted to sell products in new geographies around the world. The desire to add new revenue sources made this a high-priority project with tight time frames. Maverick was the partner of choice for its ability to identify the very specific expertise necessary to complete this project. The project required working with the EB Tax module of Oracle and expanding the customer’s global R12 EBS footprint to support the new geographies. The critical functionality that Maverick delivered to the customer included supporting tax tabulation and VAT tracking for individual countries. More importantly, the Maverick consultants worked with the customer to make it self-reliant, so that going forward, it could expand operations using its own staff. As a result, the customer can now quickly roll out EB tax in new geographies with better quality using the automated processes delivered by Maverick. This allowed the firm to quickly gain market share.
Enhancing a PeopleSoft Deployment to Meet the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
A $1 billion-dollar staffing company needed to become payroll-compliant with FSLA. As part of this effort, it also needed to align its business processes with PeopleSoft HCM. The move to HCM also required change management policies and training for the transition. The customer planned to integrate its PeopleSoft deployment with a third-party payroll vendor as well. Another desired output of this project was to deliver streamlined and more efficient processes for this business-critical function. Maverick brought a new and creative approach for building processes that enabled the customer to be compliant with all Department of Labor requirements in each individual state. This included compliance with FLSA. Maverick also delivered a strategic component of this project that helps the customer maximize its investment in PeopleSoft HCM over time and enhance internal processes along the way. This was supported with documented and proven change management processes that included training for the customer’s employees to ensure successful adoption.
Delivering a Business Analysis for NetSuite
A world-leading provider of genomic diagnostic tests that focus on early-stage cancer wanted to improve the integration of NetSuite to support more impactful and detailed financial reporting. The project also required building and testing integrations of NetSuite with ReQlogic, Sharepoint, and ServiceNow deployments the customer is currently using. The goal of the integrations was to better identify any errors and detail the source of those errors. Maverick’s consultants started by creating user workflows and requirements for NetSuite to ensure that it met the needs of the business. Once these workflows were documented and approved, it then worked with both internal and external teams to identify and remediate any errors that were still occurring. Improved integrations that provided accurate results enabled the customer to improve revenue recognition and be confident in its accuracy. This project also ensured that the customer was optimizing its investment in NetSuite and that the deployment could support the rapid growth the customer was experiencing.
