Solvay Pharmaceuticals www.solvaypharmaceuticals-us.com
Sales Force Effectiveness Initiative
Project Lead: Donna Lenning, Sr. IT Manager
Project Description: The pharmaceuticals firm revamped its inefficient paper-based sales operations and stovepiped systems, launching a streamlined sales force initiative complete with tablet PCs, digitized forms and signatures, and integrated client and back-end apps. [ Readthe full Solvay finalist profile | See Top 10 Finalists slideshow ]
Industry: Pharmaceuticals

State of Illinois, Department of Human Services www.dhs.state.il.us
Automated Forms Processing
Project Lead: John Rigg, Manager, Workflow Automation
Project Description: The Illinois DHS launched a form-processing automation initiative to improve its ability to provide Illinois residents with human services, including substance abuse treatment and prevention, family health, and domestic violence protection. The project integrates Adobe Acrobat Professional and LiveCycle Reader Extensions capabilities into the department's legacy systems, providing more than 1,000 auto-populated forms as interactive PDFs to case managers and the public.
Industry: Government

Steak 'n Shake www.steaknshake.com
Achieving Tier-1 PCI Compliance
Project Lead: Sean Smith, Director, Strategic Technology Services
Project Description: Threading vulnerability auditing software from Qualys, end-point security software from McAfee, security information management from RSA, and patch management tools from Altiris, Steak 'n Shake launched a PCI compliance initiative, establishing a centralized enterprise architecture to push out security patches, anti-virus updates, and additional software to 490 stores in 20 states. The company's enterprisewide directory system ensures POS employee log-ins and activities are logged and compliant with Tier-1 PCI regulations.
Industry: Hospitality

Sterling Testing Systems www.sterlingtesting.com
Role-Based SOA Platform/Fulfillment Automation Network
Project Lead: Michael Richardson, Chief Technology Officer
Project Description: The provider of employment and background screening services undertook the shift to SOA, threading BPM, ESB, and portal technologies to serve 100,000 users across multiple industries, each with its own hiring procedures and compliance regulations. [ Readthe full Sterling finalist profile | See Top 10 Finalists slideshow ]
Industry: Services

Stonebridge Bank www.stonebridgebank.com
Server Virtualization
Project Lead: George Rapp, Senior Vice President of IT
Project Description: Having maxed out the rack space and power and cooling capabilities of its datacenter, the Pennsylvania-based bank embraced server virtualization, consolidating 131 servers down to 26. By connecting the resultant VMware ESX server environment via SAN, the bank has reduced its data management costs from $230 per server per month to $31. All told, the project has freed up 60 percent of its rack space and has reduced UPS use to 37 percent of capacity.
Industry: Financial Services

Summer Bay Resort www.summerbayresort.com
Open Source VoIP Rollout
Project Lead: David Kurtz, Director of IT
Project Description: The time-share vacation property company rolled out an open source VoIP initiative in response to rapid operational growth. Replacing its legacy PBX with a series of HP DL360 machines running CentOS and Asterisk at each of its call centers, Summer Bay reduced its telephony expenditures tremendously. In addition to moving all calls from PRI circuits to SIP channels, the company has developed numerous in-house tools for reporting and a .Net app to handle all call monitoring, and it's currently working on a predictive dialing application for Asterisk.
Industry: Hospitality