In order to understand our customer’s demands and requests, we need to understand the fast-changing markets and the need for fast information flow. Since “cheap” is rarely going to be in the same sentence with “great”, we decided to focus on an amazing solution done in time – with an agile approach.
Every successful company bases its decision-making process on data. To make use of all the data flowing around us, we need to understand its core meaning, gather, and analyze it. To ensure you have the data transferred, organized and the whole process scheduled and monitored, the best solution is Azure Data Factory.
Here is an easy way how you can simply snapshot, “freeze” your Azure Virtual Machine and then restore it whenever you want. This can be useful for creating Virtual Machines for testing purpose. With this process, you can still use your Virtual Machine Image after creating Snapshot.
This is really important process where you prepare you Virtual machine:
Sysprep shuts down the virtual machine, which changes the status of the virtual machine in the Azure portal to Stopped.
In the Azure portal, navigate to your Virtual Machine.
Then, select:
5. Name your snapshot and select Create
Now you have Snapshot of your Virtual machine (Disk).
Best way to create Image from snapshot is with PowerShell:
$rgName = "myResourceGroup"
$location = "EastUS"
$snapshotName = "mySnapshot"
$imageName = "myImage"Login-AzureRmAccount2. Get the snapshot
$snapshot = Get-AzureRmSnapshot -ResourceGroupName $rgName -
SnapshotName $snapshotName3. Create the Image configuration
$imageConfig = New-AzureRmImageConfig -Location $location
$imageConfig = Set-AzureRmImageOsDisk -Image $imageConfig -OsState
Generalized -OsType Windows -SnapshotId $snapshot.Id4. Create the Image
New-AzureRmImage -ImageName $imageName -ResourceGroupName $rgName -Image $imageConfigImage with $imageName is created and store on Azure portal.
If you want to restore Azure Virtual Machine or create new one from Image, on All resources select your image.
On up right Menu select Create VM and follow instruction same as creating new Virtual Machine.
That’s all, now you have your “new” Virtual Machine created.
If you’ve followed this article be aware that after this process Virtual machine is not usable and you’ll get errors and Virtual Machine will not run or start.
If you have any of the errors below, your virtual machine is not usable anymore.
Set-AzureRmVMAccessExtension : Long running operation failed with status 'Failed'.
ErrorCode: VMAgentStatusCommunicationError
ErrorMessage: VM '' has not reported status for VM agent or extensions. Please verify the VM has a running VM agent, and can establish outbound connections to Azure storage.
StartTime: 8/1/2017 12:41:40 PM
EndTime: 8/1/2017 1:07:06 PM
OperationID: 54486c40-20b6-4a97-be62-b4fcf23a68d0
Status: Failed
At line:1 char:1
+ Set-AzureRmVMAccessExtension -ResourceGroupName "" -VMName ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : CloseError: (:) [Set-AzureRmVMAccessExtension], ComputeCloudException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId :
Microsoft.Azure.Commands.Compute.SetAzureVMAccessExtensionCommandThis is a series of blog posts by Unitfly in which we are describing stories of Digital Transformation – stories about improving business using the power of technology. Have in mind that in these articles, we are not referring to any of our specific clients – these are examples how we see the potential of technology in business context. Today we talk about Human resources automation.
Human resources departments spend most of their time on administration, instead on what should be at the core of their business – employees. M-Files provides complete automation of human resources processes from hiring to managing each employee.
The customer is a flight agency with more than 1000 people in their division. They are using a legacy HR application where they keep all the records of their employees. Current HR application stores all the data in the relational database (they are using Oracle database).
Moreover, all documents are stored on a file share and these documents are referenced in the HR application. The customer is also using Microsoft Active Directory, a solution for rights delegation, managing sign-on and defining and representing hierarchy.
HR department is simply spending too much time on manual updates of data and documents. Since they don’t have everything needed for their tasks, they often have issues with finding the right information and documents.
All mentioned would not be a huge problem for HR department if they had plenty of time to waste. Manual updates in several places are very time-consuming. By spending time on administration, HR department cannot focus on what should be their core business – their employees.
Ineffective HR department results with a whole set of different issues throughout the company.
The customer understands that they need improvements and modernization of current HR application and they want to invest in a solution which can satisfy these needs in long-term:
Having the customer’s goals in mind, we proposed the M-Files platform as a central system for HR processes and document management system. M-Files provides easy-to-use solution and complete automation of human resources processes from hiring to managing each employee.
In order to connect all existing systems with M-Files we decided to use Microsoft BizTalk which allowed us to connect to the existing database, file share and configure everything within existing corporate network.
After the successful implementation of HR processes within the department using our solution, employees in the HR department finally have everything organized and easily accessible, therefore, they are spending less time on administration and more time with the employees.
On corporate level, company is finally improving their employee performance, as HR is providing care and tracking of employees on the individual level.
Implemented solution does not only impact HR. Effective HR department led to a better employee satisfaction, which, consequently, created a more efficient company and increased customer’s satisfaction. Moreover, implemented solution allows us as a provider and client to continue working on further improvements in other departments, in order to digitally transform the whole company.
What do you think of this example? Leave us a comment about your thoughts of digital transformation in HR.
Do you think your company would benefit from this solution?
This is a series of blog posts by Unitfly in which we are describing stories of Digital Transformation – stories about improving business using the power of technology. Have in mind that in these articles, we are not referring to any of our specific clients, these are examples how we see potential of technology in business context. Today we talk about restaurant business process automation.
How can a chain restaurant with offers and procedures that differ from country to country connect all the data in one system? M-Files and BizTalk implementation solves that problem.
Let’s introduce our use case customer; it is a one of the top restaurant chains with more than 10 000 restaurants in 50 countries across the world. They have standardized their offers throughout restaurants, with slight differences from country to country. The main reason for the differences is that they need to adapt their recipes to get closer to the local eating habits and customer needs.
When a new recipe, menu, or even a new item on the menu is added, that information needs to be synchronized with all the systems in all the restaurants per country. Every cashier needs to have updated information, as well as all other departments within their systems (finance, marketing, etc.).
In order to achieve data and application integration, the customer is using Microsoft BizTalk server, enterprise grade solution for integration of different systems and solution for secure data transfer.
Even small enterprises can’t rely only on sending emails with updated information to different departments that then have to update their own systems.
That issue is even more highlighted within big enterprises with complex business processes where every second matters, and absence of updated information is unacceptable.
In this case, the customer doesn’t have a fully automatized process which would allow them to make changes and distribute changes on a daily basis. They are not only spending time to make changes and distribute them. But they also can’t rely on current solution in terms of agility and adaptability.
The customer needs a robust but easy-to-use solution which will allow them to have
After seeing their challenges, business needs and desires, and their possibilities in terms of technology, we were sure that M-Files is what they needed in order to easily connect with all other systems through Microsoft BizTalk. M-Files platform was the right solution for business processes of their central business environment.
We implemented workflows using M-Files which follow customer’s business processes. Teams were collaborating on several items, documents and procedures and were involved in a quick approval process with clearly defined actions and responsibilities.
All created menus were then integrated with all the restaurants during non-working hours and their prices and websites updated automatically with new menus and all the details.
Customer’s primary objective was to have a quick and agile response to market demands. With implemented solution they were able to easily create new menus, introduce new type of food and change existing menus in a second. Their workflow is completely automatized (and also customizable for future business changes), intuitive and simple to use. Changes made in one system were immediately visible in all enterprise systems.
If you are interested in a complete solution and details about technologies that we used in this use case, let’s talk!
This is a series of blog posts by Unitfly in which we are describing stories of Digital Transformation – stories about improving business using the power of technology. Have in mind that in these articles, we are not referring to any of our specific clients – these are examples of how we see the potential of technology in business context. Today, it’s about managing travel orders through automation.
Read on to see how M-Files solves the challenges of manual handling of documents, in this case, travel orders and invoices with document management and digitalization.
The customer is an intermediary company with more than 300 employees where at least half of them are commercial travelers. They are generating around 50 – 100 travel orders per day, so keeping records and logistic is very challenging. To get from point A to a point B in logistic terms employee has a few steps to go through before actually going on the road.
Customer has solved almost every manual step in their process using BizTalk integration solution where they also connected all the systems needed for travel orders process.
Employee satisfaction and productivity has increased with the implementation of BizTalk, and now the only thing to do manually is to create a request in travel orders application. With one part solved we still have problems with managing travel orders, a situation that could potentially give the finance department lots of headache.
Finance department has to deal with a big number of travel order documents (.pdf-s) that are arriving on a daily basis. Also, there is a huge number of additional receipts and documentation for each travel order. Papers pile up.
The customer needs to digitally archive all the travel orders (.pdf-s) that are sent through BizTalk to the finance department. They also need a place where they can digitally save all the receipts and documentation of each travel order.
Knowing what customers need, we have proposed the M-Files platform for document management and digitalization process. The missing piece was a connection between BizTalk and M-Files, so customer purchased BizTalk M-Files adapter.
At the end, the integration process was set up to send data to two asynchronous systems:
After a successful implementation of the travel order process, employees are more satisfied. Finance department got all travel orders and all documentation digitalized in one place. Travel orders are searchable, easily accessed so that employee can effortlessly go through travel orders process. Employees can even scan their receipts and required documentation and upload or send to the finance department by email.
Implemented solution significantly reduced employees’ completion time for travel order process. It’s not only that company “saves” money, but the company has more focused and relaxed employees for their ongoing work.
Are you interested in our solutions and details about technologies used in this use case?
Let’s focus on human communication for a second. If two people who speak in two different languages want to communicate, they can try communicating with their arms, legs, and facial expressions (which we surely all had to do a few times in our lives). Or they need a person who can understand them both. That person, the translator has the same role as the integration system.
“Integration is communication (translator) between systems.
Every system has its own language, the way it understands input commands and responds with output. If another system wants to communicate, that system would need to know how, it needs to know the language of other system.
However, integration doesn’t always have to act as a middleman, it can be done on one side only. In technical terms, when a solution can connect to a database or some other system, integration module is present inside that solution. Then, integration module translates to a language of other system.
We will introduce the three types of system integration.
Based on the area and the type of use, integration services can be divided into three categories:
Enterprise Application Integration is a service-based integration. It’s a process that communicates with different services, gathers data, and then proceeds with further steps based on desired action or a workflow. Process can be triggered with the exposed service.
Usually, every company has a lot of different data sources (or databases). When you want to consolidate your services into one central point of access you need data integration. Data integration enables gathering of data from all services, aggregating, and transforming them into a central place for interactive reporting, most commonly used for management.
Electronic Document Interchange is core business to business-oriented process. It functions on paperless exchange of documents and electronic standards. By automating paper-based business, companies save time and eliminate cost and errors.
If you are new to system integration world or you want to know how system integration can help your business, talk with one of our solutions architects.
So, you came to the end of the page. This means you are passionate about technology as we are.
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