Pragmatic Works
Move, Manage, and Expand Customers' Data in the Cloud

Founded in 2007 as a software, training, and consulting services company, Pragmatic Works has transitioned over the years into becoming today’s leading cloud consulting and training company. From the start of operations, Pragmatic Works offered software, training, and consulting, with the latter as the most significant piece of its business.

Today, Pragmatic Works leverages cloud technology to focus on Microsoft Azure, which has accelerated the company's transformation to one of the leading global Azure experts. Following are insights shared by Adam Jorgensen, President of Consulting at Pragmatic Works, on what makes his company the expert in data management and performance, business intelligence, big data, and cloud technologies.

What are the major pain points that CIOs face today pertaining to cloud migration and training?

Most of our customers are trying to evolve with the fast-moving and transitioning cloud technology space. To this end, they have employed teams specifically dedicated to matching the pace of cloud technology innovation. Many organizations are also relying on various partners to assist them in defining their migration processes. Further, CIOs lack the ability to plan their cloud operations within the associated cost bracket. They understand the ‘to be achieved’ bottom-line through the cloud strategies but don’t understand the ways to manage the costs.

Pragmatic Works typically performs initial cloud planning and strategy for clients to help them prioritize their opportunities. First, we help clients in moving the workloads, whether a complete migration or an upgrade to the Microsoft Data Platform. Secondly, we help them to manage the entire migration process by offering managed services for Azure data, applications or PowerBI data workloads in a unique way. This not only assists them in their deployment, user support, and actual development strategies but also provides them with architectural oversight, best practices management, compliance, and cost analysis. Finally, we help them expand their capabilities by allowing clients to add additional functionalities such as advanced analytics and real-time reporting, AI or cloud management and automation.

Is there a process that Pragmatic Works follows to deliver these three value propositions?

Typically, our process starts with an initial visit to the customer's site in order to deliver an envision session on their campus. The customer's underlying business principles and operations are of utmost importance to us, and thus we also meet with their business and IT leadership team to assess their requirements. Next, we pilot the technology or operationalize a deeper assessment exercise to ultimately deliver the right roadmap and solutions.

Please elaborate on the training services that Pragmatic Works offers.

We have a history of providing valuable content on Microsoft Data Platform. Pragmatic Works publishes a daily video series on YouTube that we call, 'Azure EveryDay'. In addition, we also telecast a free weekly one-hour webinar to 800-1000 people that help the audience in learning Azure and data capabilities.

Pragmatic Works offers in-person workshops, Dashboard in a Day training focused on Power BI and regional events with Microsoft on Azure technologies. We also provide our On-Demand Training platform, which is an amazing enterprise-grade platform where training can be deployed for different topics according to the clients' needs. It includes the most up to date and awarded content on Microsoft data and cloud technologies. This has been a strategic benefit for us, as we acquire many customers through our training offerings. We have a sizeable group of customers in the healthcare, financial services, oil and gas, and retail industries that benefit from our training services.

Pragmatic Works' Partnership with Microsoft

We are a Microsoft Gold Partner in the cloud platform, data platform, and data analytics. We are also a part of Microsoft National Solution Providers, which is an elite group of partners. As a result, our customers have access to specific funding programs, Microsoft product teams, and experts that can deliver knowledge on cloud best practices and innovation roadmaps.

What steers Pragmatic Works ahead of the competition?

We have been an integral part of Microsoft’s transitional journey and this distinguishes us from the other vendors in the market as we have the advantage of understanding the client’s process and help them in moving at the right place to achieve innovation. Further, we have a relationship with Microsoft that goes beyond just the partnership. Our senior leadership members have personal and long-standing relationships with the senior leadership at Microsoft.

Pragmatic Works has a close-knit partnership with the Microsoft ecosystem to help drive product features and roadmaps which help us in providing value back to the customers. In addition, we also work with various independent software vendors (ISVs) that accelerate migrations and unblock key scenarios for customers in their migration strategies and operations.

What is the next big step that Pragmatic Works will take in the near future?

We will continue to learn about our customers’ evolving demands and needs and will grow to fulfill them. The next step involves looking at marketing and other front-end platforms that can benefit from the managed analytics solution that we provide today.

Pragmatic Works is excited about 2019, and we are on our way to be the front-runner in the cloud technology space in the next 12-18 months.