Amgen, the world’s largest independent biotech company, embarked on a digital transformation journey to leverage its data for better outcomes across the business. The company faced challenges in improving R&D productivity, optimizing supply chains, and commercialization. The problems that the data teams were looking to solve had drastically changed over the years and were no longer isolated by skillset, department, or function. The most impactful problems were cross-functional and required a collaborative approach. Amgen had a wealth of valuable data within its core verticals - clinical trials, manufacturing, and commercialization. However, increasing volumes of data presented challenges when it came to using that data efficiently. The company was unable to weave together the various aspects of its business, which impacted operational efficiency as it scaled both internally and with its customer base. The key challenge was to make it easy to access and process data in a collaborative manner that ties in different personas with different viewpoints on the data.

IKEA, a global home furnishing chain, was grappling with an outdated and siloed data process. The company was manually managing large amounts of data from various sources, services, and agencies, which was labor-intensive and inefficient. This data included not only the usual localized website and sales data but also crucial customer data from the IKEA Family Loyalty program. The data team aimed to disseminate this data across the organization, allowing other departments such as finance and e-commerce to gain access. However, the existing process made it challenging to turn this vision into reality. The company needed a solution that would establish data and facts as the foundation to accelerate and enhance IKEA’s overall growth.

AMC Networks, a leading cable television network, was facing the challenge of understanding customer behavior in a rapidly evolving multi-channel world. Despite its success with critically acclaimed shows like Breaking Bad, Mad Men, and The Walking Dead, the company recognized the need to appeal to a new generation of millennials who consume content in very different ways. The traditional reliance on ratings data and third-party analytics providers was proving insufficient. The company needed to take ownership of its data to get a richer picture of who their viewers are, what they want, and how to keep their attention in an increasingly crowded entertainment marketplace. The challenge was the sheer volume of information available – hundreds of billions of rows of data from various sources such as Nielsen, comScore, AMC’s TV Everywhere live web streaming and video on demand service, retail partners like iTunes and Amazon, and third-party online video services like Netflix and Hulu.

Ninja Van, a leading last-mile logistics company in South East Asia, was facing a significant challenge in delivering a million cost-effective and reliable messages per day across the region. The company, trusted by over 600,000 companies and brands, was struggling with the lack of transparency in the parcel delivery process. This was a major issue for customers across Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. The delivery landscape in these countries was complex, with each country having its own communication regulations, requirements, and different messaging price points. Ninja Van needed to find a real-time messaging provider that was cost-effective and could provide consistent and reliable service across the entire region.

Bluewater Health, a Canadian healthcare facility with hospitals in Petrolia and Sarnia, Ontario, faced several challenges. The organization, which includes a 10-year-old redevelopment and addition to a 60-year-old building and a 110-year-old building in the midst of redevelopment, had to deal with the complexities of managing multiple locations with varying infrastructure. The new construction incorporated many innovative and sustainable design features, but these also brought the challenge of consolidating many inputs of information and technology into one stream of collection and output. Budget constraints and the need to spread finances across every need were also a concern. The Bluewater Health team wanted to perform predictive maintenance, learning from operating data to see issues before they became problems. They sought an intelligent platform that could work with, learn from and grow with their current systems.

ArcelorMittal, a leading steel and mining company headquartered in Luxembourg, was facing challenges with its on-premises data centers. The company had data centers in almost all major European countries where it stored its SAP applications. However, maintaining these data centers was becoming increasingly costly and inefficient. The company was investing heavily in the servers and infrastructure needed to operate them. The company began to question the viability of these data centers and whether it was time to move their SAP and non-SAP workload to the cloud. The challenge was to find a solution that would not only reduce costs but also provide a platform for innovation and growth.

The process of transforming great ideas into real, physical electronic products involves a team of talented individuals and multiple companies. One of the key challenges in this process is the communication of PCB designs with customers. This is often difficult as visualizing the board’s development can be somewhat esoteric. Furthermore, the process of designing electronic systems can take upwards of a year and a half or more, making it challenging to explain to customers where their projects are in the pipeline. It’s difficult to share schematics and part placement during the development cycle. Paul Payen de la Garanderie, Founder and Owner of AW Audio, an engineering services company based in France, understands these challenges very well. He has had to work with multiple companies over the years, from small start-ups to celebrated AV firms, and is all too familiar with these challenges.

Apollo Fusion, a Bay Area startup, develops propulsion systems for satellites that provide global connectivity. Their Power Processing Units (PPUs) are built to withstand the harsh environment of space, being rugged and radiation-tolerant for ongoing operation inside thermal vacuum chambers or in orbit around the earth. However, to ensure that their PPUs can hold up under extreme conditions, Apollo Fusion has to test their propulsion systems for just about everything, from radiation, to shock, and random vibration. The electronic components, including the PCBs, have to withstand the rigorous testing. As a startup company, maintaining a level of transparency is essential from an investment perspective. With the first major launch on the immediate horizon, Apollo Fusion needed to find a way to connect their R&D team, management and investors quickly and easily, ensuring all key stakeholders had the most accurate, up-to-date information on product development.

Animo, a commercial coffee equipment company based in The Netherlands, has been a leader in the European commercial coffee dispensing market for over 70 years. Their products, ranging from traditional filter coffee pots to award-winning touchscreen systems, are sold in over 70 countries. However, with the increasing complexity of their designs, particularly in their OptiLine series, Animo faced challenges in developing their products. The OptiLine series, which includes the OptiVend, OptiFresh, OptiBean, and OptiMe, are designed for convenience and elegance, with features such as touchpads and the ability to yield up to 1250 cups of coffee daily. The first-generation OptiLine devices were created using freeware PCB software, but as designs became more complex, Animo began working with external firmware development houses that relied on Altium Designer. This shift to external development houses presented a challenge for Animo in terms of control and efficiency in their product development process.

Coast needed an end-to-end solution to quickly launch their fleet cardCoast identified a gap in the operations of the fleet industry and launched with the goal of having a credit product that was intuitive and easy to use while saving the business money. Unlike traditional players, they wanted to put the power into their customers’ hands, giving them the ability to set limits, issue cards, and authorize payments in just a few clicks. They also wanted the entire process to be fast and easy for their customers whether they had 5 or 500 vehicles to operate. Coast needed an end-to-end onboarding and underwriting solution to accomplish this goal.

A Minnesota casino wanted to replace their player’s club reward card printers. The company’s existing printers required employees to change the card stock type each time a new rewards-level card needed to be printed. Additionally, the printers were aging and continually breaking down, and the casino wanted to streamline its card issuance process and not be tied to using custom printer software.

Clara, a legal command center for startup founders, was facing a significant challenge in managing client calls. The team found it difficult to share the details of a client call with everyone involved, leading to a time-consuming process where clients had to explain their problems to different team members. Additionally, taking detailed notes during a call was proving to be a hurdle. The act of writing everything down disrupted the natural flow of conversation and reduced meeting engagement, risking the loss of customer interest. Furthermore, the transcription software they were using did not integrate well with their CRM and video conferencing solutions, limiting their efficiency and workflow.

Rain, a licensed cryptocurrency brokerage and custodian servicing the Middle East, Turkey, and North Africa, was facing significant challenges in its customer engagement and retention efforts. The company was struggling with its existing CRM system, which was not effectively facilitating communication across various channels such as emails, in-app notifications, and SMS. As a crypto investment brand, Rain also had to deal with additional due diligence requirements, which presented further hurdles. The team was constantly working to upgrade its Martech stack, but the existing solutions were not meeting their needs, leading to difficulties in measuring active users and driving engagement.

Andretti Autosport, a renowned racing team, was grappling with the challenge of effectively analyzing the massive amount of data generated during races, approximately 1 terabyte per car. The team was in search of innovative ways to leverage this data to gain a competitive edge and win more races. The primary objective was to upgrade their existing data analytics infrastructure by incorporating proprietary Zapata Generative AI techniques to drive their race strategy. The challenge was not only to manage and analyze the vast amount of data but also to make real-time strategic decisions based on the insights derived from the data.

The case study focuses on two businesses, TinySuperheroes and Speak English with Vanessa, both founded by women entrepreneurs. TinySuperheroes, founded by Robyn Rosenberger, provides capes to children dealing with sickness and disabilities. The challenge for Robyn was the time-consuming process of order fulfillment and management. She had to manually create orders for every cape shipped, which was slowing down the business. Speak English with Vanessa, founded by Vanessa Prothe, is an online language teaching platform. Vanessa faced the challenge of managing her courses, payments, and emails manually. This was a significant roadblock for her, especially as she was not tech-savvy and her expertise lay in teaching English, not in coding or managing complex software systems.

Mammal Digital, a leading data-driven digital marketing company based in Chennai, India, was facing a significant challenge in their daily operations. As a digital marketing agency, they had numerous meetings every day, discussing marketing strategies, engagement, and campaign-related tasks. During these meetings, they had to take notes to create their marketing plans. However, they often missed critical information during these conversations. Capturing pivotal moments from client conversations was crucial, but they lacked an efficient tool to do so. The impact of this problem was significant. Gathering client requirements was extremely important, and sometimes, these requirements could make or break a deal. To fill the gap in their workflow, Mammal Digital had to rely on manually transcribing calls, which was not only expensive and cumbersome but also very time-consuming.

SelectQuote, a pioneer in providing unbiased price comparisons for various insurance types, was facing a significant challenge in their fast-paced work environment. The company often needed to refer back to meeting notes to recall important points and discussions. However, capturing everything accurately and effectively was proving to be a difficult task. The impact of this problem was quite severe. Due to the quick turnaround time required for customer queries and issues, many decisions were forgotten, directions were missed, and the documentation of processes was often abandoned. This lack of effective note-taking and reference system was hindering their ability to make informed decisions and maintain a smooth workflow.

Beyond Intent, a company that assists other businesses in excelling in the digital space, was facing a significant challenge in maintaining accurate records of their meetings. The process of taking notes and creating transcriptions for their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system was not only time-consuming but also prone to errors and omissions. The company found that either the notes were incomplete or crucial discussion points were missed. This issue was not just a matter of administrative inconvenience; it was a serious problem that could potentially lead to miscommunication, loss of critical information, and ultimately, poor decision-making. The company needed a solution that could automate the process of note-taking and transcription, ensuring that all important points were captured accurately and efficiently.

Flying V Group, a full-scale digital marketing and advertising firm, faced a significant challenge in their client onboarding process. As part of their service, they needed to gain a detailed understanding of their client's business, which involved multiple meetings and extensive note-taking. The process of manually recording key points from these meetings was time-consuming and inefficient. The lack of suitable software for note-taking and transcription of calls was a significant issue, slowing down their operations and limiting the amount of information they could gather during client calls. The problem was so pervasive that it was affecting the core operations of the company.

ZEIT, a company deeply rooted in developer experience, faced a significant challenge in managing customer case study calls. Sarup Banskota, the Head of Growth and Marketing at ZEIT, was tasked with learning customers' stories through these calls. However, the need to pay complete attention to the customers while simultaneously taking notes proved to be a distraction. The situation was further complicated by the fact that Sarup used three different computers, and he needed a system that would allow him to record calls and take notes regardless of the computer he was using. The challenge was to find a solution that would eliminate the need for note-taking during calls, thus enabling Sarup to give his full attention to the customers. The inability to do so was causing loss of important points discussed during the calls and was also leading to interruptions when customers had to repeat information, thereby breaking their momentum.

Yet one such installation contractor found its progress grinding to a halt around a particularly thorny problem with an MPOdeployment. The company was in the midst of an installation comprised of two MPO fiber cassettes and a pre-tested and certified MPO trunk cable. And it wasn't going well.The manufacturer of the equipment they were using required that pass-fail limits be derived from the company's link loss calculator and then input into test tools such as a Fluke Networks DTX CableAnalyzer as a custom limit. And these custom limits are tight; stricter even than the traditional TIA-568-C industry standard. Total budgets of only 1.40 dB are common for two cassette links. And unfortunately, the installation contractor was struggling to get under this budget for one portion of a particular job.The installers repeatedly examined, cleaned, and retested the fibers without being able to solve the issue. As a result, the profitability for that particular job was vanishing with each additional hour of testing, driving the company to reach out to its distributor, which in turn put in a call to Fluke Networks.

Eko Health, a developer of FDA-approved, AI-powered heart sound and EKG sensors for heart disease monitoring, was in need of a robust, 'always-on' solution to prevent application security data breaches. The company was seeking a vendor to work with on mobile security, as they recognized that current mobile defenses were not keeping pace with new threats. Eko Health was not only looking to get ahead of threats, but also find a solution that is easy to integrate, provides quick results, and is constantly innovating. The team had spent time building their own solutions and exploring open source options, but these efforts were not yielding the desired results. The slow results, cumbersome tasks, and loss of productivity led them to seek a more efficient discovery and autoremediation solution. In 2020, the challenge and demands of managing moving targets in healthcare, as well as reducing re-work for developers led them to Data Theorem.

Akatia Technologies, a company specializing in warehouse management software, was facing a significant challenge in optimizing and streamlining their sales process. The primary issue was the time-consuming method of transcribing client conversations, a critical aspect of their sales process. The team needed to extract accurate information from these transcriptions to gain insights into the challenges they were facing and discuss new requirements with their customers. However, their existing method of documenting and sharing these conversations with clients was proving to be inefficient and cumbersome. As the CEO of Akatia Technologies, Mr. Abdellah Bellahssan, explained, the process of documenting the conversations and sharing them with the customers was taking too much time, causing a bottleneck in their sales process.

Sharktech, a hosting provider with a 20-year history, had built a reputation for its service quality, network expertise, DDoS mitigation, and high-quality support. The company, headquartered in Las Vegas, offers a range of hosting services from datacenters in Los Angeles, Denver, Chicago, and Amsterdam. Its clientele mainly consists of small and medium-sized businesses, including many VPN and game service providers across the U.S., Europe, and China. Despite the prevalence of cloud services, Sharktech had not ventured into this domain until 2019. The delay was due to the company's stringent requirements for performance, reliability, and support, which they felt were not met by the existing cloud platform alternatives.

North Texas Pressure Vessels, Inc. (NTPV) was facing a significant challenge with their inventory management. The company had no inventory management system in place, leading to inaccurate values and quantities of inventory. There were no item numbers, and purchasing relied on multiple spreadsheets to determine if there was enough inventory on hand for the production schedule. Inventory costs were not accurate and not up to date, which led to difficulties in pricing jobs accurately due to the lack of true costing of the inventory. The company's existing system, Sage 50, did not have the necessary functionality. Furthermore, the cost of processing Purchase Orders was extremely high, indicating inefficiencies in the purchasing activities.

In the product assembly operation involving people in the factory production line, the general actions usually include fixed operation procedures such as: reaching out, grasping, moving objects, assembling. After the operator works for a long time or is disturbed, the assembly action will be omitted and it might cause misoperation. It's also necessary to identify the problems existing in the action through action analysis so that the sequence and method of the action can be improved.

PharmaCare US, a subsidiary of PharmaCare Australia, was faced with the challenge of implementing a direct-to-consumer (B2C) initiative for its Sambucol and Real Health Labs product lines. The task was to transition from sending large quantities of products to retailers like Walmart and Walgreen's (B2B) to sending smaller packages directly to consumers. The company needed to convert customer orders from their multiple Shopify websites into an EDI format and transmit this data via AS2 to their warehouse (3PL). The orders then had to be shipped, and fulfillment data transmitted back to the site, with the customer notified of their order's shipment. This process was expected to occur hundreds of times per day. Additionally, PharmaCare had specific shipping requirements based on the options selected by the customer, which needed to be coordinated with the 3PL.

Trekka Logistics, a company specializing in servicing small businesses, was facing a challenge in providing the same level of service that an enterprise business would receive. The company was founded to cater to the ecommerce and distribution needs of small and emerging businesses, which often did not receive the necessary services from their previous fulfillment partners due to their relatively lower order volumes. Trekka Logistics aimed to offer a space for these companies to grow, but this required a warehouse management system (WMS) with a high degree of flexibility in their workflows. Automation was crucial for operating at scale, but the company also needed to be dynamic enough to provide a high level of customization to their customers.

Woodoo, a Paris-based materials company, is on a mission to redefine sustainability by transforming responsibly-harvested hardwoods into a durable, translucent material. The company uses a proprietary nanotechnology process to remove lignin from wood and replace it with a bio-based polymer made from recycled materials. The resulting product is as versatile as plastic, but thinner, stronger, and more translucent. However, in the early years of operation, Woodoo relied on a free PCB design tool that was insufficient for their growing needs. By 2020, it was clear that a more comprehensive solution was needed to meet the company's ambitious goals. The challenge was to find a new PCB software tool that would support the company's progress and clients with ease.