With specialization in airline amenity kits, cosmetics and comfort items, Formia is a global leader in the travel industry offering tailor-made inflight service amenities.  Since 2018, Formia has embarked on their journey towards digital transformation.

Enabling Technology with Microsoft Applications

·         Microsoft Dynamics NAV

·         Azure

·         Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD)

·         Microsoft 365 E3

 

Challenges

Formia has been a Microsoft Dynamics NAV customer for over 10 years. However, when it came time to think of replacing its servers or extending server maintenance, a big decision had to be made; should the company move its systems to the cloud, or should it remain on-premises?

 

Benefits

The key benefit of such a move was obvious to Formia’s Chief Financial Officer Eric Luk: there was no need to purchase expensive new servers, nor pay for its maintenance and storage.  During the account planning process with Superhub’s Cloud Solution Architect Eric Chan, Luk had laid out his goals for a move to the cloud with the following operational benefits:

·         High reliability.  To deal with world-class supply chain solutions, Formia had to ensure their Dynamics NAV system would be extremely reliable.

·         Accessible from anywhere. This factor was one of the key reasons to switch to Azure, as Formia’s team needed access to data anywhere.

·         Scalability.  Formia required the ability to adjust its server size and costs to reflect current business realities in various business cycles.

 

When asked why he chose Superhub for the move, Luk pointed to the long-term partnership between the two companies.  Superhub is also the provider for their Microsoft 365 modern workplace solution, which is enriched with the latest enterprise mobile and security solution including Advance Threat Protection (ATP) and Advance Information Protection (AIP) in 2020. With an eligible Microsoft 365 license, Formia can get free extended Security Updates until January 2023, offering more support options of legacy apps while transitioning to Windows 10.

 

While these changes certainly seemed like a good idea from the beginning, Luk noted whilst speaking about 2020, he truly sees the value of this digital transformation today.  With the COVID-19 pandemic, business across the globe needed to shift to remote work almost overnight.  For Formia, the decision to move essential systems to Azure meant this process was much more straightforward.  Not having to worry about staffing an on-premises server room meant his team could simply transition to remote work and keep going about their daily tasks.  More importantly, Formia has implemented Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) a while ago.  It enables remote users to access internal corporate systems and data on any device, including smartphones, whilst adhering to company security and compliant policies.  It was just running in time for our ad hoc work-from-home measures in early 2020.