Back in 2010 0 our client, a famous global retail brand were sweating old hardware and software and needed to keep costs down. With very little remote access the client had issues extending their solution and meeting business needs outside the business.

We needed to assess Office 365 vs. On-Prem. The catch was that Office 365 hadn’t been released at the time, still being engineered by Microsoft. So we needed to help build both the business case and validate the technology. When it had never been validated or used live in production (outside Microsoft). To make matters more challenging, IBM and Google were offering to move the client to the cloud as well – for free!

We built the business case between Microsoft and the client, setup all the testing and fended off the competing challengers. This was a super complicated situation as a lot of the platform was being pivoted against our customer needs and testing. We also had to defend against naysayers in the business and especially the tech team who wanted to keep things on-prem. We also had to learn and deliver cloud tech which was very different to old on-prem methods. Everyone learnt and everyone collaborated.

The client reduced their outgoings significantly. Google and IBM didn’t get their product in (even though Google called the FC a week before the deal was sealed and presented an amazing deal for them). We surveyed users who simply loved the solution – suddenly fashion designers could attend fashion shows without worrying about what was happening in the office. Microsoft recognised us as a cloud leader. Unfortunately, the client company was acquired by a new ownwer, who prevented us from doing any marketing at all. Gutted as you can imagine.