The Customer
The customer is a leading global vehicle leasing company based in the US, with operations extending through 7,000 branches across more than 35 countries.
The Challenge
The customer’s European division approached Crimson for a sophisticated IT solution to consolidate its employee and HR information from various workforce management and personnel software systems into a single, secure, efficient, and accessible platform. They required an integrated hub that would amalgamate branch data, employee records, payroll, timesheets, and legacy details, providing a unified employee data view. Due to the sensitive nature of the data involved, the solution needed to uphold the highest security standards and align with the customer’s cloud-first strategy, targeting data management for all employees in the UK, Ireland, and Germany.
The Strategy
Crimson’s Cloud Services consultants assessed the customer’s needs and conducted a risk analysis to identify potential security vulnerabilities.
Considering several technological options, including on-premise solutions, Microsoft SQL, and Microsoft BizTalk, Crimson decided to employ Microsoft Power Automate, part of the Microsoft Power Platform, leveraging its integration with Azure services. Power Automate was chosen for its robust support from Microsoft, cloud-based architecture, and alignment with the customer’s preference for agile methodologies and cloud-first initiatives.
To address potential security risks associated with using Power Automate as a Platform as a Service (PaaS) and safeguard sensitive employee information, Crimson developed a custom Web API to act as a security layer around the Power Automate workflows. This setup ensured data validation and restricted access to sensitive information. Additionally, encryption was applied to the Azure SQL database to enhance data protection. These precautions guaranteed that only authorised personnel could access critical data.
Over six months, Crimson designed, deployed, and integrated the solution into the customer’s European operations. Following this, the system underwent a two-month evaluation by a global architect team, confirming its efficiency and robustness. Crimson’s specialists also provided initial support post-launch to facilitate user adoption.
Return on Investment
Crimson successfully fulfilled the customer’s requirements by delivering a flexible, accessible, and scalable integration system that presented a consolidated view of employee data.
The solution leverages the extensive benefits of Microsoft Azure’s cloud services while ensuring stringent security measures, effectively mitigating all data protection risks.
Encouraged by the success in Europe, the customer is now contemplating extending Crimson’s Power Automate-based solution to its worldwide operations.