For more than 50 years AccuWeather has been providing vital weather data globally and today more than 1.5 billion people rely on their products and services. They made the decision to migrate their application programming interfaces (APIs) to Microsoft Azure and begin using several cloud services including the Cortana Intelligence Suite. Since then the number of requests they receive for data through their apps, websites and social media has more than tripled to over 17 billion every day. Now, thousands of businesses, including more than 240 of Fortune 500 companies, use AccuWeather’s enterprise solutions to power their decisions with real-time weather data. AccuWeather’s expanding use of Microsoft technologies has also allowed them to integrate new data sources and functionality, including radar feeds, imagery and device sensors. These improvements have directly led to Minute by Minute™ forecasts with Superior Accuracy™ for any longitude and latitude on earth.

1. Azure Banking Case Studies

Real Madrid Azure Case Study. Real Madrid give their fans plenty to cheer about every time they’re on the pitch, but they didn’t feel like they were doing enough when it came to connecting with their 450million supporters across the globe. Using Microsoft Azure, Real Madrid have built a better understanding of who their fans are, where they are and what they want from the club, in part by capturing and storing every interaction with fans. This includes profiles on the club’s website, social media mentions, and merchandise purchases - their new consumer app and extended video platform has been built specifically to get the most from Microsoft Azure. This vast collection of data was then aggregated into a social segmentation of each individual fan using an innovative Azure solution, allowing them to create personalised content for individual users based on their preferences and prior interactions. Now communication with fans feels more like a conversation and less like Real Madrid just talking at their fans and not listening in response. GE Healthcare Azure Case Study.

Healthcare providers across the globe rely on GE Healthcare to provide insights that help them provide better care for their patients. So, when GE sought a highly flexible and scalable new platform to deliver their solutions and services, it needed to comply with a number of data and security regulations. One of the things that drew GE Healthcare to Microsoft Azure was it offers a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement (BAA) in which Microsoft commits to adhere to certain security and privacy provisions set forth in HIPAA and the HITECH Act – helping customers all over the world remain compliant. The project was soon extended to multiple other GE applications that used different development tools. Thankfully Azure provided the flexibility needed to continue working with the tools they were used to. And Azure’s Software Development Kit allowed them to simplify deployment of code to the cloud. As a result, healthcare organisations of all sizes can meet their compliance requirements while benefitting from cloud-based solutions and the apps they’re used to.

About Crayon The Software Experts Crayon are experts at optimising client ROI from complex technology. We are the global leader in software asset management (SAM), cloud and volume licensing and associated consulting services and are trusted advisers to many of the globe's leading organisations. Through our unique people, tools and systems we help optimise our client's technology estates within the new hybrid cloud world. The company has over 1,000 team mates, is head quartered in Oslo, Norway with offices around the world. Newsletter Sign-up Below First Name Last Name Organisation Name Email Address Choose your subscription Optimised - Quarterly from Crayon & Gartner Careers Join our Expert Team Many seek to hire good people. Crayon provide the training, support & empowerment to create the best. We passionately believe that our continued success depends upon the unique people we have in our team.

If helping customers maximise the IT possibilities presented by the new hybrid cloud world excites you and you want to learn more about how your career can develop and transform with Crayon contact us now. Contact Us Crayon Group.

Sandakerveien 114 A, NO-0484 Oslo P O Box 4384 Nydalen - NO-0402 Oslo - Norway.

Transforming Insurance with Azure Cloud With increased regulation of companies—including the upcoming Solvency II Directive in the European Union—the insurance industry has a strong need to control the cost and complexity of IT systems used for actuarial analysis and regulatory reporting. To help insurance companies manage their high-performance computing needs, Milliman, a global provider of actuarial software and consulting services, launched MG-ALFA that uses Windows Azure to distribute highly complex, mission-critical computing tasks across cloud-based resources. The result is supercomputer-level processing capability that is enormously scalable and powerful, yet can be delivered at a lower cost and with fewer IT resources than through traditional on-premises IT deployments. With the MG-ALFA cloud-based solution, Milliman clients pay only for the processing and storage capabilities they need, without having to deploy, manage, and upgrade hardware. Using Azure to Disrupt the Insurance Industry Willis Towers Watson uses Microsoft Azure to gain competitive advantage, save costs, and broaden the market for its solutions. The power, reliability, and elastic scalability of Azure are crucial contributors to the competitive advantage that Willis Towers Watson gains One of the industries that Willis Towers Watson is changing is auto-insurance.

The disruptive challenge is the usage-based insurance (UBI) model. “Unlike some other UBI vendors, we’re not just counting driving events for covered vehicles,” says Andy Lingard. “We actually monitor position, speed, acceleration, and other factors at every second of every journey for every vehicle. We integrate granular environmental data. And we run analytics that are more sophisticated—and more predictive—than those of competitors, which make them more valuable to insurers.

Azure Banking Case Studies

Azure is crucial to our ability to do this.” Azure is also crucial to the company’s ability to conduct those analytics cost-effectively. Towers Watson estimates that using Azure saved it 20 percent in initial capital costs compared to building an entirely on-premises solution.