Infopulse: 17 Years of Successful Partnership with Microsoft

In 2021, prominent Ukrainian and international IT company Infopulse celebrates its 30th anniversary and 17 years of its partnership with one of the largest IT market players in the world the "Redmond giant" Microsoft. Since the beginning of the partnership in 2004, Infopulse has received 12 Gold and four Silver Microsoft competences. In 2018, the Cloud Solution Provider Direct Partner status was received and in 2019, at the annual Microsoft Inspire event in Las Vegas, Infopulse was recognized as the partner of the year in Ukraine. In early 2021, Infopulse received an exclusive Microsoft Azure Expert MSP badge from Microsoft.

2020: the year of opportunities

Despite being the year of great challenges for business, 2020 opened the era of consolidation and search for new ways to overcome obstacles created by the pandemics for IT. Yes, it was in Q3/Q4 2020, when Infopulse received five Advanced Specializations from Microsoft including implantation of SAP solutions in Azure, migration and upgrade of web applications workload and app service management in Azure, migration of Windows Server- and SQL Server-based workloads to Azure, migration of Linux and open-source databases to Azure, deployment, mapping and protection of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure on Azure. Also, in 2020, Infopulse took part in Microsoft Industry Days, organized 50+ workshops, webinars and bootcamps, including a five-week long course in Microsoft Power Platform. Infopulse was mentioned in two reports of Forrester: Now Tech: Azure Services Providers, Q4 2020 and Now Tech: Microsoft Business Applications Services, Q3 2020 as a certified service provider for Azure and a featured vendor of Microsoft Business Applications Services.

Development in 2021

In 2021, the issue of digital transformation remains among the top priorities for the technological development of business. In this respect, it is telling that Infopulse received Microsoft Azure Expert MSP status which marks the company as a reliable ІТ-partner for digital transformation and testifies that its competence and experience meet the strict criteria of an independent audit. It is also worth noting that Infopulse is now among the Top 100 companies for Azure Solutions & Managed Services in the world. Since the beginning of 2021, Infopulse specialists have received 430+ certificates in respective Microsoft competences in total.

The competences in Security that Infopulse acquires are more and more sought after and popular with the onset of the pandemics as the security of cloud services is one of the main factors for reliability and continuity of business. In early June 2021, the company enriched its portfolio with Threat Protection Advanced Specialization from Microsoft.

Digital transformation: business cases

The following projects serve as perfect examples of digital transformation of Ukrainian businesses working together with Microsoft and Infopulse:

• The first successful case is a full-scale migration of SAP to Azure, implemented for Darnytsia, one of the leading Ukrainian pharmaceutical companies. At first, Infopulse took part in the development of an overall strategy of digital transformation based on Microsoft Office 365. After the digital collaboration tools were implemented on the company level, the corporate ERP SAP was successfully migrated to cloud platform Azure, which cut infrastructure costs by 60% and the total project cost by 50%. At the same time, the productivity of the customer's IT systems increased 30%.
• The second large-scale successful case implemented in partnership with Metinvest Digital, is the migration of IT infrastructure of the international group of companies Metinvest to Microsoft Azure. During the migration, 680 servers from two data processing centers, which run all IT services of the group, were moved to the cloud. In addition to that, 85 terminal services were transformed into PaaS format of Windows Virtual Desktop for 2000 users which is the first instance of such solution in Ukraine. In general, the 12-month project turned out to be one of the largest in scale in the country and Europe, and owing to its extreme effectiveness, flexibility, adaptability, and protection, it will save more than UAH80 mln. for the customer over the next ten years.
• Another significant project of Infopulse is a complex solution for sales management based on Microsoft Dynamics 365 developed for Zeppelin CE Eurasia, supplying construction equipment and the legendary machinery Caterpillar to seven countries, including Ukraine. The re-engineering of the customer's legacy systems based on Dynamics CRM 2011 and the implementation of a modern solution had a number of stages determined by the business and user needs. One of the most significant results is that new business rules now get implemented within two days instead of two or three weeks as it used to be. Moreover, the implemented universal mobile access to the system considerably improved the decision-making process for sales and other management.

For more details of Infopulse's participation in the digital transformation of business in Ukraine, see AIN «20 Cases of Digital Transformation in Ukraine: Ukrenergo, UIA, Oshchadbank, Toyota, Eldorado, Ecosoft and others».

The pandemic has made its corrections in the management processes. Now the front line is led by the movement of IT services to cloud and their security. The shift from office to remote work requires businesses to -continuity and create comfortable and secure digital workspace. Moreover, it is important to implement solutions for data analysis and automation of routine processes both at the employee and company levels. 

Ivan Musiienko

Head of Cloud Center of Excellence, Infopulse

As Ivan Musiienko suggests, considering the new challenges and reality, business should concentrate on the following main steps:

• Migration of local infrastructure to Azure.
• Business continuity and data security (SOC, Azure Security Center, and ATP).
• Digital workspace (Microsoft Teams and WVD).
• Data analysis solutions (Power BI and Azure Synapse).
• Automation of routine operations and processes with the help of Microsoft Power Platform.

In 2021, the partnership between Infopulse and Microsoft continues strengthening. Specifically, in mid-April, Infopulse received three rewards at Microsoft Partner Day Ukraine. The nominations included Cloud Security and Threat Protection, Windows & SQL Server Migration to Azure, and Windows Virtual Desktop. In addition to the Azure Expert MSP status mentioned above, the company has received the Solution Partner for Power BI status and has held over 50+ events in Security, SAP on Azure, Infrastructure Migration, Power Apps, and Power BI, including a 6-month course in Microsoft Power Apps Consultants Training Program.

Since the beginning of the partnership between Infopulse and Microsoft, the industry in general and the local market have undergone considerable changes that affected the trends for the IT component of business as well as the model of interaction with clients and partners. Early response to the changes in the market and the constant strengthening of partnership with Microsoft, proved by the acquired statues, help Infopulse to provide high-quality services and develop the competences of its specialists to meet the challenges of the modern business. The company continues mobilizing its technological and organizational resources and growing its team to further supply high-quality services to its clients and customers.