Unifying disparate digital programs

As part of its broader effort to provide clean energy across the country, the UK government approved the construction of a nuclear power station at Hinkley Point C (HPC), to be delivered by EDF Energy鈥攖he first in 25 years in the UK. Since construction began in 2017, work has progressed steadily from initial earthworks and civil works to outfitting, and now to the current commissioning and pre-operations phase. To support modern ways of working, a transition from document-based to digital processes was necessary. An integration platform was required to eliminate siloed ways of working. EDF chose a scalable enterprise solution in MuleSoft, which would enhance their ability to construct and commission Hinkley Point C initially, while also accelerating the development of Sizewell C and enabling future operations to be digital.

As part of this effort, EDF initiated five distinct digital programs that would address critical business challenges. However, if each of these initiatives were run in silo, they would not deliver the desired outcome until all the five systems and associated data were connected and automated through an enterprise integration solution. In addition, without a fully integrated digital system, EDF ran the risk of excessive costs due to manual workflows, infrastructure management inefficiency, and challenges related to meeting construction timelines.

Acknowledging the importance of taking action, the company decided to identify a partner that could provide end-to-end managed services for enterprise application integration. After a competitive RFP process, EDF selected 乌鸦传媒, which had been involved with the HPC site since the beginning of construction. In addition, 乌鸦传媒 offered proven integration capabilities as well as the proven technical leadership and solutions needed to develop a connected IT ecosystem that would enable the company to fulfill its vision for the HPC site.

An agile approach built around a Center of Excellence

After reviewing EDF鈥檚 existing systems and circumstances, 乌鸦传媒 leveraged its experience with nuclear construction and supporting EDF at the HPC site to propose establishing an Integration Center of Excellence (ICoE). As part of this structure, the project team would implement integration architecture governance and multi-pod teams while providing an extended team for platform and application support.

Based on the proposed governance model and EDF鈥檚 needs, EDF and 乌鸦传媒 then selected MuleSoft technology as the basis for the enterprise integration platform, which would rely on a modular architecture to bring together different applications and workflows onto a single system. Through this project, the project team would fully integrate the five key digital programs while streamlining end-to-end business processes, managing crucial infrastructure, and supporting HPC鈥檚 ongoing construction and future operations.

Following the agreed-upon approach, the team adopted an agile delivery model that leveraged 乌鸦传媒 assets to set up a continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) as well as test automation. This was managed using a balanced mixture of onshore and offshore support, wherein a core (CoE) team offered architecture, build and support services while a scalable and flexible support team provided additional assistance as needed.

Throughout this effort, the project team regularly coordinated with EDF stakeholders, ensuring that their combined expertise tailored the solution to the organization鈥檚 key objectives. 乌鸦传媒鈥檚 Rightshore methodology enabled the partners to follow an efficient delivery approach while regular feedback and change management refined the solution and prepared EDF users to adopt new technology and processes.

Preparing the path forward with a fully integrated digital system

The result was a solution that leveraged MuleSoft 鈥檚 API-led connectivity as part of a unified, scalable data ecosystem that allowed seamless communication between diverse applications and brought together the five digital platforms under one umbrella. This streamlined infrastructure management, enabling faster data-driven decision-making. In addition, the new architecture has expanded EDF鈥檚 long-term adaptability so that the company can scale its operations as needed.

The Integration CoE has provided the company with a greater ability to automate workflows and integrate key applications, which has contributed to greater operational efficiency. By digitizing records and centralizing data, the CoE team improved maintenance response times and reduced delays related to manual processes by 40%. In addition, the reduction of paper-based processes has streamlined maintenance and expanded the company鈥檚 access to critical real-time data, enabling it to make critical decisions confidently.

All of this has introduced standard practices and composable architecture, enabling a 30% acceleration to the solutions time to market. This success has led to a continuation of the partnership between EDF and 乌鸦传媒, who have since worked together to replicate the MuleSoft solution at the organization鈥檚 Sizewell C project. The energy company is now better prepared than ever to pursue its future ambitions and provide clean energy to people and businesses throughout the UK.

Successful innovation requires a company to be able to examine itself and identify opportunities for improvement. So, when Barclays wanted to become more client centric and deliver a new customer experience, it engaged 乌鸦传媒, which could apply experience from various industries to help the bank realize its vision.

Together, the partners examined the existing technology and operations supporting the Barclays Live feature. Based on this review, the project team introduced a new technology stake that could be scaled more effectively while introducing a simplified customer experience. Meanwhile, Barclays and 乌鸦传媒 updated the bank鈥檚 approach to managing its client experience to ensure that the organization is now better prepared to continually innovate and deliver a user-friendly digital experience.

Few companies that exist today can claim the longevity of Twinings, which was founded as an English tearoom in 1706 and boasts the longest continually used company logo in history. Over such a long stretch of time, business has changed substantially. For example, in 2002, the company acquired Switzerland-based Wander AG, which has produced and distributed Ovomaltine, also known as Ovaltine outside of the Swiss market, since 1904. Such a combination of history and longevity fed into the company鈥檚 entrepreneurial spirit that has driven adaptation to modern-day market shifts and customer interests.

This attitude led the company to expand beyond its traditional hot-beverage business and to expand into a variety of international markets, including Europe, Thailand, China, and North America. As is often the case, this growth led to greater operational complexity. With each new market, Twinings Ovaltine (TwO) needed to adapt its processes and systems to increasingly diverse local tastes, market conditions, and practices. The result was a decentralized business that had ample opportunity to simplify its diversifying operations to better enable growth and expansion into new markets.

Eager to capitalize on those opportunities to simplify processes, TwO set out to implement a common and integrated solution, based on a greenfield SAP S/4HANA system, that would unify its internal processes 鈥� including order to cash, manufacturing, end-to-end planning, procurement, and finance 鈥� and substantially reduce complexity.

TwO recognized that 乌鸦传媒 possessed the necessary combination of a thorough understanding of the business, a complete聽consumer products聽reference model based on leading SAP practices and latest technologies, and a strong, international delivery. As a result, the organizations forged a partnership to combine their strengths and tackle the project.

Balancing global and local business needs

As the collaboration began, the partners prioritized open communication between the project team, global stakeholders, and local managers. This ensured that the new integrated solution would not only bring together the numerous local teams that had maintained their own structures, systems, and processes, but that the solution would incorporate feedback from key leaders who were active on the ground.

An intense Global Template Definition (GTD) phase was kicked off with a winning combination of experienced TwO business process owners and subject matter experts and 乌鸦传媒 SAP transformation experts. To demonstrate the functionality of SAP solutions, 乌鸦传媒 used its global reference model, which the business then reviewed to determine how it could be adapted to the company鈥檚 unique needs. At the end of this intensive phase, a global design was signed off, enabling the development of change impacts, a delivery plan, and actions for the pilot implementation in Switzerland.

After a thorough review of TwO鈥檚 existing systems, ways of working, and objectives, 乌鸦传媒 rolled out the global solution in four waves, each targeting a different geographic region.

The global, and highly integrated, solution provides a unified platform for Ambio, using the latest SAP technologies:

• Day-to-day operational processes with SAP S/4HANA as the core ERP solution
• Demand and Supply Planning using SAP IBP
• Integrated Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) leveraging SAP Analytics Cloud for Planning
• Enterprise Reporting with SAP BW/4HANA
• Procurement and Vendor Collaboration with SAP Ariba
• Employee Expenses in SAP Concur
• Mobile data entry and embedded analytics supported by custom Fiori Apps in SAP BTP

The project team established a highly effective change network to provide education about new processes and the benefits delivered by the new tools. 乌鸦传媒 and TwO used Gen AI in support of learning material that enabled the upskilling necessary for the solution to have the desired impact. Using design documentation and Signavio data, the partners created prompts that generated course outlines and key learning objectives. In this way, the educational program was aligned with the solution and specific employee needs to earn widespread buy-in and excitement from the business.

Taking the first step

As a result of the consistent collaboration and communication between TwO global and local stakeholders and 乌鸦传媒 experts, the rollout for Wander Ovomaltine proved to be a notable success. As a result, the company has already seen improvement in its various processes, which, combined with the smoothness of the launch, has led to increased enthusiasm in other regions to see the introduction of SAP S/4HANA. Finally, the solution played a significant role in the development of a shared services center, further supporting the global unification of the company鈥檚 processes.

The scale of the transformation was all too apparent, as virtually every function of the business was impacted:

• Account Managers receive real time and accurate information and are able to manage the revenue growth with much more control
• Procurement is now able to manage suppliers globally and easily track spending and supplier performance using SAP Ariba
• Factory performance has improved due to the introduction of an intuitive handheld digital solution for maintenance operations and integrated supply chain planning
• The Supply Chain team is leveraging now the automated Demand Forecasting solution in SAP IBP, which enables the business to avoid inventory costs, stockouts, therefore improving the customer satisfaction and enhancing the competitive edge in the market
• The Finance teams now enjoy a common and integrated planning and analytics solution in SAP Analytics Cloud, with earlier visibility of variances and the support of a shared service center
• Supply Chain, Manufacturing, and Finance teams benefit from collaborative planning across S&OP and Finance, sharing plans and working together on the different planning cycles 鈥� e.g. budget, monthly forecast 鈥�, increasing the transparency and accuracy of plan figures.

鈥淎cross the board, processes are online, digitally enabled, and consistent. This has helped break down siloes and promote a culture of continuous improvement.鈥�

Sandeep Seeripat, Twinings Ovaltine CIO

As the solution expands, Twinings Ovaltine will enjoy improved data visibility and consistently across its different markets. In addition, the shared processes and general standardization will make it far easier for employees to transfer within the company, ensuring that the right talent is always in the right place.

鈥淚t has been a real pleasure to follow and be part of Twinings鈥� journey over the last couple of years. It is commendable to see the company鈥檚 focus on transforming itself to becoming a truly, end-to-end digitized business, by prioritizing a cloud mindset, quality in delivery and change management. Our partnership has evolved. We have a trusted relationship, and in collaboration with Twinings鈥� implementation partner, 乌鸦传媒, we are ensuring that the company realizes the value out of its investments.鈥�

Elena Cebanu, VP Cloud ERP Solution Area, SAP

As the partnership continues, TwO and 乌鸦传媒 will find work together to find more ways that the new solution can deliver benefits to the company. Already, the organization has seen its planning process streamlined, ensuring that future market expansions will be far easier to manage. Together, TwO and 乌鸦传媒 will identify new opportunities to apply technological innovation to serve global objectives while respecting local business expectations.

A North America-based global restaurant franchiser wanted to implement a multi-brand digital vendor platform that delivered increased scalability, stability, and reliability during periods of higher traffic. The company was looking to expand its digital presence by onboarding new brands at a faster pace and creating a consistent experience across those entities by adding more customer-friendly features.

To future-proof the platform and onboard new brands, it needed to be stable and scalable, and work reliably across multiple vendor spaces.

乌鸦传媒鈥檚 in-house expertise in developing robust solutions with new digital features made the team an ideal strategic partner for this engagement.

ADMnext solutions for platform overhaul

The team conducted robust performance and endurance testing to identify problem areas. Based on the results, they proposed a future-state architecture built on their expertise and focused on key priorities that would enhance the customer experience. By implementing best practices in performance engineering, the platform was upgraded and refurbished into a scalable, robust, and future-ready solution.

The existing system was split into more than 18 product-oriented deliveries (PODs) across mobile apps (React Native), web (React JS), and domain services (Java).

In addition, the project team launched a key 鈥淏ack to the Core鈥� initiative to introduce robust monitoring that identified platform issues. Meanwhile, the project team upgraded the company鈥檚 platform domain services from Java Development Kit (JDK) version 11 to 21, which elevated performance, security, and resource utilization to make applications faster and more reliable. Critical production issues and ticket backlogs were reduced to near zero, further improving platform stability.

Furthermore, the platform was moved to Azure Cloud to optimize resource usage. This resulted in significant cost benefits and improved platform stability. Finally, 乌鸦传媒 also performed a detailed platform assessment to pinpoint problem areas and proposed solutions that included a scalable architecture.

Strategic upgrades to unlock value

Among the top priorities was addressing the delay in displaying accurate menu item availability. ADMnext solutions enhanced both the backend and frontend systems to reduce this delay from 24 hours to just five minutes. This significantly enhanced the user experience, with out-of-stock updates happening 12 times faster.

Enhancing gift card reloading processes resolved the complexity of adding funds to gift cards and managing minimum balances during checkout. New upgrades also expanded the existing beverage section of the kid鈥檚 menu to include healthier options and dietary preferences.

During this project, the team managed a major migration of loyalty platforms from Session M to Epsilon, which improved resilience. The platforms stretched seamlessly to handle 200% higher volume of traffic during high-traffic events such as the Super Bowl and restaurant promotional activities. This resulted in no downtime, with the platform supporting 182% higher web transactions and 86% more app transactions.

The road ahead

乌鸦传媒 has spearheaded the strategic overhaul of the company鈥檚 digital platform to ensure it remains relevant for customers. With new brands and innovative features, the fast-food franchise is ready to navigate the dynamic landscape of the fast-food industry.

Enhancing the UK tax experience

Before its mobile app was launched, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) faced several challenges that necessitated a monumental change in approach to better serve customers in a digital age. Societal and technological advances, rising digital expectations, and a greater emphasis on data privacy meant the department needed a new way to drive two-way customer engagement and enable customers to interact with the UK government about personal tax matters 24/7.

HMRC partnered with 乌鸦传媒 to develop the mobile app, which would provide a seamless multichannel user experience across mobile and web. Doing so would enhance the user experience, and future-proof the department鈥檚 digital services as part of a broader effort to make HMRC a world leader in digital tax transformation. There has been a notable customer channel shift to 鈥渟elf-serve,鈥� allowing for timesaving and efficiency wins – currently, 50% of all personal tax sessions occur through the app, up from less than 10% in 2019.

Designing for humans through continuous collaboration

乌鸦传媒 provided robust user research, innovative thinking, and technical expertise while helping to leverage the benefits of emerging technologies by building new partnerships with third-party specialists to implement features such as .

A collaborative approach brought together experts from both 乌鸦传媒 and HMRC, including architects, developers, QA engineers, product managers, UX/UI designers, and business analysts, all of whom worked together to ensure efficient resource allocation and smooth implementation. This joint team employed a user-centered design approach wherein they gathered insights and feedback through a mix of research methods to uncover user requirements, pain points, and behaviors so that effective changes could be implemented.

The first version of the app prioritized user experience, security, and accessibility, making a native app the preferred choice. It was built using a standard component library with accessibility features like screen readers and voice-over functionalities included.

In addition to following iOS and Android Guidelines, the app incorporated a recognizable look-and-feel based on Government Digital Service (GDS) Guidance, ensuring consistency in terms of naming, structure, and design across platforms. As a result, the HMRC app was instantly identifiable as a UK Government digital product, allowing customers to feel secure and reassured during their transactions.

Designing for mobile use presented unique challenges. Not only did live service need to be maintained to ensure a seamless user experience, but the project team also needed to thoroughly understand the user journey. This helped to ensure the app could handle interruptions such as phone calls, allowing users to resume their app tasks and interactions smoothly and pick up in the same place without having to start afresh.

Accessibility focus

乌鸦传媒 accessibility champions regularly assessed the app, helping to raise awareness and drive improvements. This led to the creation of a custom component library that prioritized accessibility in design and evolution.

The team focused on making the app accessible by developing custom components that aid customers, such as enabling the app to surface important tax details for the user and reducing the number of clicks required. Additionally, the app can adjust to personal device settings, like zoomed text and dark mode. The team also built custom language toggling features within the app to support the Welsh language.

Delivering a better mobile app experience

Since its launch, the HMRC app has enabled over seven million customers to interact with the UK government about personal tax matters, offering access to information at any time and making tax processes easier and more efficient, with using the app in 2024 alone.

As the app has scaled, high user satisfaction has been maintained, including achieving of 4.7 (Google Play) and 4.8 (AppStore) respectively, based on reviews of actual customers.

In the last year, the HMRC app has:

• Had more than 100 million sessions
• Over 2 million new users
• Received 拢652 million Self Assessment payments
• Seen a 77% increase in downloads in the 16-25 age group
• Consistently featured in the top spot of UK app finance charts

Looking to the future

Remarkable progress was made in the development of this mobile channel, evolving it from a basic tax calculator in 2012 to the top-rated app serving over 1.6 million regular users in 2024. Recent features, like real-time pay and tax data, personalized notifications, and simplified payments through open banking and API platforms have made it the primary channel for HMRC and customers to engage with each other.

The successful collaboration that led to the development of this app, has provided a strong foundation for the future, paving the way for further enhancements as HMRC continues to make tax even easier for citizens of the UK.

Reimagining the future of sustainability in sport

In a landmark study, World Rugby revealed the growing threat climate change poses to the sport, forecasting more extreme heat, heavier rainfall, flash floods, and rising sea levels 鈥� all of which could limit player participation and fan enjoyment.

Despite generating significant carbon emissions through energy-intensive stadiums, international travel, and large-scale fan engagement, major sporting events fall into the 鈥渉ard to abate鈥� category. Transitioning to greener practices requires major investment, systemic reform, and unified industry action. And the challenge extends beyond reducing emissions 鈥� it requires reimagining the future of sport without compromising its global appeal.

Determined to lead the way in sustainable sporting excellence, World Rugby launched its Environmental Sustainability Plan 2030 in January 2022. Its associated roadmap is aligned with the objectives of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals.

乌鸦传媒鈥檚 longstanding links with rugby and extensive experience with sustainability best practices made it an obvious partner for the journey.

Driving substantial improvements in carbon reduction is highly complex and groundbreaking, so this was a pivotal project with vast implications. The engagement required 乌鸦传媒 and World Rugby to build something innovative and bespoke. It demanded close collaboration with all stakeholders involved in the sport 鈥� a large network of governing bodies, events organizations, supply partners, national rugby bodies, and more 鈥� to maximize the overall impact.

World Rugby鈥檚 Carbon Emissions Reporting Tool

Between September 2023 and February 2024, 乌鸦传媒 collaborated with World Rugby to develop a tool for forecasting and measuring emissions from associated tournaments. The goal was to pilot the tool in time for planning the Women鈥檚 Rugby World Cup 2025.

The project required exceptional focus and coordination, especially as the organization鈥檚 events division was busy delivering the Men鈥檚 Rugby World Cup 2023 in France.

乌鸦传媒 had to balance its knowledge of emissions tracking with World Rugby鈥檚 expertise in event delivery. Through a series of focused workshops, 乌鸦传媒 and World Rugby鈥檚 Events & Media team defined the data requirements for key emissions-driving activities, drawing on insights from past and current events. These sessions helped determine the scale of activities, feasibility of data collection, and opportunities to mitigate future emissions.

Understanding how to collect data from fans was crucial, given the impact of their travel and accommodation. To address this need, 乌鸦传媒 worked with the fan insights team to understand the potential of surveys and ticketing systems as data gathering methods.

Based on these requirements, 乌鸦传媒 built the Carbon Emissions Reporting Tool (CERT) to calculate and forecast emissions associated with tournament planning and delivery. CERT is designed to be used early in event planning to inform actions that reduce the overall carbon footprint. To do so, the solution calculates an initial carbon footprint estimate based on available data, which is refined through an iterative process as more accurate information becomes available. The final footprint is then calculated post-tournament.

Throughout the development process, 乌鸦传媒 and World Rugby made sure that CERT鈥檚 methodology aligned with the International Olympic Committee鈥檚 Carbon Footprint Methodology and other industry standards.

A trailblazing solution with significant potential

CERT is currently being used to forecast Women鈥檚 Rugby World Cup 2025鈥檚 carbon emissions by gathering data from across the tournament鈥檚 various functional areas to provide valuable insights that enable organizers and suppliers to act.

This tool has enabled greater visibility and understanding of the carbon emissions associated with World Rugby tournaments and events while improving the organization鈥檚 ability to identify carbon hotspots in support of more sustainable choices.

In addition, CERT has delivered more accurate emissions figures for reporting as well as associated operational efficiencies, cost savings, and potential revenue streams. Through the ability to help pinpoint carbon-intensive activity, for instance, the tool could eventually pave the way for new partnerships with organizations focused on clean energy, water and waste.

And beyond what has already been realized, the rich data now being captured and analyzed by the CERT presents additional, far-reaching opportunities. World Rugby has the potential to improve the initial version of the tool and identify even more carbon emissions sources. This, in turn, could enhance the organization鈥檚 ability to implement robust data collection methodology that would involve all tournament stakeholders and foster new and enhanced stakeholder engagement and commercial partnerships linked to sustainability.

The impact may even extend beyond World Rugby, as the sports body will be able to support member unions and other tournament organizers in their own sustainability efforts. All of these future efforts would embed sustainability at the heart of decision-making for far-reaching and meaningful change.

This was by necessity a complex engagement requiring far-reaching, sensitive collaboration to maximize success over the long term. Most governing bodies have not yet thought about sustainability holistically, nor with this level of detail and clarity here, establishing this project as genuinely trailblazing.

As rugby continues to evolve, World Rugby鈥檚 pioneering approach to sustainability sets a powerful precedent not just for the game, but for global sport. With tools like CERT, the industry is proving that environmental responsibility and world-class performance can go hand in hand and be entertaining. This is more than a playbook for carbon reduction 鈥� it鈥檚 a rallying cry for a more resilient, inclusive, and sustainable future for sport everywhere.

LifeNet Health is in the business of saving lives. A global leader in regenerative medicine and life sciences, the US-based nonprofit facilitates organ and tissue transplants and delivers innovative, human cell-based solutions to researchers worldwide. Its mission 鈥� to saves lives, restore health, and give hope 鈥� is deeply embedded in its culture and in every employee鈥檚 work.

鈥淟ifeNet Health strives to give healing every advantage,鈥� said Aju Paul, the Senior Director of Digital Transformation at LifeNet Health. 鈥淭oday, we bring healing to more than 40 countries, and we are just getting started.鈥�

Despite its leadership in biomedical innovation, LifeNet Health was working with a legacy enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that had begun to show its age, creating IT debt and limiting business agility.

The organization had long planned to move from SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA, deployed in the cloud. In 2023, the leaders decided that it was time. Evolving digital tools promised greater speed, precision, scalability, and flexibility, key enablers for expanding the organization鈥檚 global impact.

鈥淪AP is foundational for us in terms of traceability, quality, and regulatory compliance,鈥� said Meaghan Moody, LifeNet Health鈥檚 Director of Corporate Information Systems. 鈥淭his project was about giving our business a more advanced, capable version of a system we rely on daily.鈥�

Minimizing disruption during transformation

More than 700 employees depend on SAP to support nearly every business function, including procurement, finance, operations, distribution, and order fulfillment. The team needed to ensure minimal downtime to avoid interrupting the mission-critical services LifeNet Health provides to donor families, healthcare professionals, recipients, and researchers.  

鈥淓very graft that we ship helps someone, and we never want to miss the opportunity to fulfill that need,鈥� Moody explained. To keep that promise, Paul established a tight implementation timeline: 鈥�12, 36, 9.鈥� The project would allow for only 12 hours of actual downtime, 36 hours to bring the new system online, and nine months for end-to-end execution.

Selecting the right partner

During the request-for-proposal process, LifeNet Health prioritized finding a partner that could go beyond a technical upgrade, one that understood the life sciences space and could deliver value while minimizing risk.

鈥淚t became clear early on that 乌鸦传媒 had the expertise, a solid methodology, and the right team,鈥� said Moody. 鈥淭hey were ready to support us every step of the way.鈥�

Paul prioritized three key qualities: strong capabilities, shared goals, and alignment with LifeNet Health鈥檚 mission. 鈥溛谘淮� was the one partner that met all three criteria. We took the journey with them, and I have no regrets,鈥� Paul said.

No ERP implementation is without challenges. But the strength of the partnership allowed for honest conversations and effective problem solving, leading to what Paul described as a 鈥渂oring go-live鈥� 鈥� a compliment in the world of enterprise technology.

乌鸦传媒 Client Executive Dave Bartoli was inspired by the company鈥檚 unwavering dedication. 鈥淲hat they鈥檙e doing for society is making a difference in all of our lives,鈥� he said. 鈥淐ompanies like LifeNet Health truly focus on their mission: helping patients in need with their healing solutions.鈥�

Preparing for migration

乌鸦传媒 helped LifeNet Health achieve two major objectives: upgrading to S/4HANA through a brownfield conversion and transitioning operations to the cloud. A cross-functional team comprised of employees from LifeNet Health, 乌鸦传媒, and cloud partner Syntax crafted a precise migration plan.

乌鸦传媒 conducted a thorough analysis of business processes, identifying all touchpoints from legacy ERP to external applications and offline tools like spreadsheets. The team then modernized or replaced outdated functions, reducing IT debt and laying a foundation for future scalability.  

聽provided the target cloud-based environment, hosted on Microsoft Azure, while 乌鸦传媒 utilized its聽Accelerated Migration Factory (AMF), an integrated delivery framework designed to guide clients through the complex transition from ECC to S/4HANA.

鈥淯ltimately 乌鸦传媒, LifeNet Health, and Syntax operated as one team to deliver the project successfully,鈥� said Andrew Odlaug, SAP Project Manager at 乌鸦传媒.

Executing a seamless cutover

Given LifeNet Health鈥檚 indispensability to its customers, the shift to S/4HANA needed to be completed over a weekend to avoid any service disruptions. The team conducted a series of dry runs to prepare for the actual deployment. The collaboration surpassed the goals of 12 and 36 hours and just went slightly over nine months.

鈥淲e wanted zero impact. We wanted the next day to be no different than the previous day and business as usual. Thanks to the partnership with 乌鸦传媒, we achieved it.鈥�

Aju Paul, the Senior Director of Digital Transformation at LifeNet Health

The launch went so smoothly that some employees didn鈥檛 realize it had already happened.

鈥淥ur goal wasn鈥檛 just to reduce apprehension, it was to eliminate it altogether,鈥� said Paul. 鈥淎nd we succeeded.鈥� The next business day, employees resumed their tasks seamlessly but with a powerful difference: the new S/4HANA system was now live, enabling future growth and transformation.

Looking ahead: A platform for innovation

The July 2023 go-live was just the beginning. With a clean, cloud-based digital backbone, LifeNet Health is now positioned to respond more flexibly to emerging needs.  The organization is currently implementing SAP鈥檚 Integrated Business Planning (IBP) and exploring SAP鈥檚 Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) next.

S/4HANA鈥檚 agility is already driving innovation. Moody鈥檚 team is leveraging SAP Fiori to build user-friendly business applications in areas where the previous ECC fell short. The upgrade was also a strategic move to showcase the power of scalable, future-ready technology. 乌鸦传媒 played a key role in bringing that vision to life. 鈥淲hat stood out most about our experience with 乌鸦传媒 was the strength of the partnership,鈥� Moody said. With a project of this complexity and scale, the relationships we built and the way our teams worked together were critical to our success.鈥�

Tackling a vast collection with unique challenges

With collections of over 33.5 million objects, including photographs, documents, film, and sound, Imperial War Museums (IWM) is a world-renowned institution dedicated to understanding the causes, course, and consequences of war.

The museum has invested significantly in digitizing its collections in recent years. This investment was the springboard for further modernizing a part of its oral histories collection, a selection comprising roughly 8,000 interviews with service men and women and civilians, conducted between 1945 and the early 2000s. This collection of recordings presented unique challenges, including regional accents, specialized military terminology, and varying audio quality.

The goal was to prove that transcribing these historic archives and making them available for easier, more discoverable public consumption was feasible and impactful.

鈥淲e are proud to partner with Imperial War Museums and Google Cloud on this culturally significant initiative. This project demonstrates how generative AI can breathe new life into historical archives, transforming them into accessible and captivating experiences. It underscores the power of technology to bridge the past and present, enriching our understanding of history to better guide the future.鈥�

Steven Webb
UK Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, 乌鸦传媒

Bringing history into the present with AI technology

Together with Google Cloud, 乌鸦传媒 developed a solution to transcribe these recordings. This involved creating a Google Cloud environment, marking the museum鈥檚 first foray into AI on Google Cloud.

Beyond basic transcription, 乌鸦传媒 developed a pipeline to process this wealth of audio files 鈥� extracting metadata and passing it through Google Gemini to generate comprehensive summaries of interviews, from which can be extracted details of key people, places, and events. This significantly enhances how IWM can make its extensive oral history collection searchable and would have taken over 20 years to complete manually. Sophisticated prompt engineering and Gemini 2.0 enabled the project team to handle challenges such as recording quality, accents, and languages. The finished application enables users to search through interviews that were previously only accessible on audio files, via searchable transcriptions and metadata, listen to recordings while viewing synchronized transcripts, and access AI-generated insights about the languages covered, length of recordings, and subject matter 鈥� all in one easy-to-use interface.

In addition, the innovative 鈥淎sk a question鈥� functionality allows users to ask natural language questions about any interview and receive answers drawn directly from the content. This feature is particularly valuable for historical research as the system shows its reasoning process and provides direct citations to the relevant parts of the transcript, ensuring accuracy and trustworthiness in responses, and allowing different users to approach these interviews in completely different ways based on their interests and needs.

鈥淕oogle Cloud is committed to empowering organizations like Imperial War Museums with AI tools that can transform how we interact with history. The use of Gemini to process and understand such a vast and nuanced audio collection demonstrates the sophisticated capabilities of generative AI to overcome complex challenges and deliver meaningful outcomes.鈥�

John Abel
Managing Director, Office of CTO, Google Cloud

Unlocking the past to understand our future

With a remarkable 99%-word accuracy and 94%-speaker diarization (partitioning audio according to the identity of the speaker) accuracy on transcription tests, the solution represents a scalable approach that could be applied to other collections.

Future visions for the application of AI technology at IWM include expanding AI capabilities to include image recognition for photographs, creating a volunteer-friendly workflow that combines AI analysis with human expertise, and enabling immersive engagement with the past through image recognition and voice technology.

The digitization and transcription of IWM鈥檚 oral histories collection will significantly enhance the accessibility and searchability of these valuable assets. This project will enable the museum to provide the public with better context and understanding of historical conflicts. Not only has it fulfilled IWM鈥檚 immediate objectives, but it has also paved the way for a more connected and informed future.

鈥淭hrough this incredible partnership, we鈥檝e made thousands of hours of oral histories far more accessible and searchable. By harnessing artificial intelligence, we are enabling researchers and the public to connect with these personal perspectives of conflict in ways never before possible. This work goes beyond transcription, enabling new forms of digital discovery.

This partnership between Imperial War Museums, Google and 乌鸦传媒 is the first use of such advanced AI technology in the museums sector. It will be foundational in changing how we can all access and learn from our shared past.鈥�

Nick Hodder
Director, Digital Engagement and Transformation at Imperial War Museums

Building the foundations of AI governance

Tampere, known as the industrial capital of Finland, boasts a strong heritage in manufacturing and innovation. It is a leading hub for smart and sustainable manufacturing and renowned internationally for its expertise in intelligent machines and information and communications technology (ICT). The city thrives on close cooperation between businesses, educational institutions, and research organizations, making it a vibrant ecosystem for growth and technological advancement.

AI and, more specifically, Generative AI have been hot topics for the past couple of years, capturing the attention of public organizations and businesses worldwide. For Tampere, the tipping point came with the global rise of ChatGPT, which demonstrated the power of language models and AI-driven tools in everyday tasks, such as creating headlines or summarizing text. Suddenly, everyone wanted to understand how they could benefit from generative AI. In response, Tampere began exploring how AI could be utilized securely and ethically.

The city had already developed a data strategy, recognize that all evolving systems rely on a strong foundation of data. However, the rapid rise of generative AI prompted Tampere to explore how this new technology could enhance public services.

鈥淟arge language models can harness vast amounts of freely available information from the internet and research sources have significantly enhanced the ability of intelligent systems to engage in dialogue with humans. This development compelled us to reflect on our approach and ask ourselves what this means in our context. It鈥檚 not just about implementing AI but about rethinking our operations and understanding the implications these technologies bring to our work.鈥�

Aleksi Kopponen,
Director of Digital Transformation, City of Tampere

Pragmatic pilots and systematic learning 

This reflection and rethinking marked the beginning of Tampere鈥檚 learning journey, where the city set out to openly explore what Generative AI is all about. The city chose 乌鸦传媒 as its companion on this journey. 

Tampere鈥檚 approach to AI was anchored in pragmatism and a focus on learning. The city set clear goals for AI: creating governance models that support broader digital transformation and identifying practical use cases that can eventually be scaled to different needs and environments. 

For its pilot use cases, the city chose an experimental approach, focusing on the renewal of its intranet. The goal was to explore how Generative AI could support AI-driven dialogue using only the city’s own HR information, rather than drawing on all available internal data.  

By starting with a carefully targeted pilot, the city ensures the initial focus is on improving internal understanding and dialogue among employees, before considering public-facing applications where both the impact and risks could be greater. 

“We have ongoing AI governance activities aimed at ensuring our governance models align with the city鈥檚 digital transformation on a broader scale. We want to make pragmatic decisions and understand where the real benefits lie.” 

Aleksi Kopponen, Director of Digital Transformation, City of Tampere 

A key part of the collaboration was learning circles, which included participants from various parts of city of Tampere. The topics covered ranged from the basics of AI to content management and more advanced aspects of technical implementation. The learning circles played a crucial role in spreading knowledge, building skills, and fostering a culture of continuous learning.

“The collaborative aspect of 乌鸦传媒’s approach has been highly adaptable and collaborative. They have acted as guides, facilitators, and problem solvers, ensuring the learning circles were well-prepared and aligned with real work context. It wasn鈥檛 just about attending random courses but truly integrating learning with our daily tasks. Through this partnership, we have ensured that this journey is a shared learning experience, not just an outsourced solution.” 

Aleksi Kopponen, Director of Digital Transformation, City of Tampere 

Partnership with 乌鸦传媒 brings expertise to the table

In addition to facilitating the learning circles, 乌鸦传媒鈥檚 role in the collaboration has included developing the initial use cases for generative AI, 鈥淎sk HR鈥� and 鈥淎sk About Procurement Contracts,鈥� applications that streamline internal processes by leveraging generative AI to provide instant access to information.

鈥淥ur task was not just to build solutions but also to create the foundational architecture for future AI use cases. The goal was to design an architecture that could scale as the number of use cases grows, without having to reinvent the wheel each time.鈥�

Jaakko Lehtinen,
Automation and Technology Director, Sogeti

Sogeti, a leading 乌鸦传媒 business unit driving automation and business assurance, has been developing generative AI solutions for enterprises since 2019 鈥� long before the technology became a mainstream topic of conversation. Its Finland-based experts have direct connections with international Gen AI pioneers. Now, Sogeti brings its long-developed expertise and insights to Finnish clients, leveraging the latest GPT models for business needs. This unique access has allowed Tampere to benefit from the latest advancements and best practices in AI deployment.

A strategic approach sets Tampere apart

What makes Tampere鈥檚 AI journey particularly noteworthy is the city鈥檚 commitment to a systematic and strategic approach. Unlike many organizations that rush into AI without a clear plan, Tampere is building a strong foundation first, focusing on learning and developing governance models before rolling out large-scale solutions.

This deliberate approach is crucial not just for the success of individual AI projects, but for ensuring that AI becomes a trusted and integral part of Tampere鈥檚 public services.

鈥淎I implementation requires patience and strategic thinking. It鈥檚 important that leadership understands the significance of AI and stays closely involved in the development process. We鈥檙e making sure that our projects are open and inclusive, cutting across the entire organization.鈥�

Aleksi Kopponen
Director of Digital Transformation, City of Tampere

As the city continues to pilot AI solutions, the focus remains on building a sustainable and strategic AI infrastructure that can adapt to evolving needs. The partnership with 乌鸦传媒 and the emphasis on learning ensure that Tampere is not just adopting AI but doing so in a way that is thoughtful, systematic, and geared towards long-term success.

“Tampere鈥檚 systematic approach to AI shows that it鈥檚 not just about the technology, but about the people and the processes behind it. Our shared goal is to find the right solutions that can be scaled and brought into production, making a tangible difference for the city and its residents.” 

Jaakko Lehtinen, Automation and Technology Director, Sogeti 

The vision for the future

Tampere aims to harness AI to deliver better public services, enrich community life, and foster regional prosperity.

As the city navigates its AI journey, its focus on strategy, governance, and learning sets a powerful example for other municipalities looking to harness the power of AI. Through meticulous planning and close collaboration with professional partners like 乌鸦传媒, Tampere is actively shaping the future of public services.

鈥淲e can鈥檛 just focus on the exciting parts; we need to get the basics right. That鈥檚 why we carefully prepare and prioritize building a solid foundation first. At the same time, we are working on developing ideas to explore where these cutting-edge solutions could best be used. Showcasing our spearhead products to the world is also an important way for us to get feedback on what we are doing.鈥�

Aleksi Kopponen,
Director of Digital Transformation, City of Tampere