Innovation spotlight: How 3 customers are driving change with migration to Azure SQL

Organizations are under constant pressure to modernize their estate. Legacy infrastructure, manual processes, and increasing data volumes in silos make it harder to deliver the performance, security, and agility that today’s business landscape demands to keep pace with the competitive pressures.

Continue reading to learn about how three organizations—Thomson Reuters, Hexure, and CallRevu—each jumpstarted their transformation with migration of their on-premises workloads to Microsoft Azure. As a result, organizations were able to improve operational efficiency and accelerate AI-powered innovation. Their stories reveal how fully managed platform-as-a-service solutions like Microsoft Azure SQL Managed Instance helps organizations move from legacy constraints to a scalable and secure AI-ready foundation ready to power future possibilities.

Modernization at scale: Thomson Reuters  

For Thomson Reuters, one of the world’s most trusted providers of tax and accounting solutions, modernization was less of an option and more of a necessity. Supporting over 7,000 firms and 70,000 users during the peak of tax season required an infrastructure that was both robust and scalable. The company previously hosted more than 18,000 databases and over 500 terabytes of data on third-party servers, an approach that came with high costs, operational complexity, and challenges scaling to meet seasonal demand.  

By migrating this massive estate into Azure SQL Managed Instance from another cloud hosting environment, Thomson Reuters achieved modernization at scale. With programs like Microsoft Azure Migrate to support every step of the migration journey, and automation tools like PowerShell and Azure Resource Manager templates, they were able to streamline deployments and maintain performance while minimizing disruptions. Azure’s fully managed platform allowed Thomson Reuters to streamline database administration and automated key tasks like backups and updates. As a result, their teams could focus on delivering value to customers rather than managing infrastructure. Azure Virtual Desktop together with Windows 11 facilitated access to tax preparation applications, reducing complexity and costs.  

The benefits were immediate and significant. Thomson Reuters gained: 

• Consistent performance during seasonal peaks.
• Improved resiliency.
• Reduced support overhead.
• Optimized costs across licensing and infrastructure.  

Thomson Reuters now has a foundation for continued growth and the flexibility to scale its services as demand requires.

Operational efficiency and performance: Hexure  

While Thomson Reuters’ story highlights scale, Hexure’s migration shows the operational efficiency gains that come from moving to a fully managed platform with Azure SQL Managed Instance and Microsoft Azure App Service. Hexure provides digital solutions for insurance and financial services companies—managing sensitive customer information across many databases and applications.  

The company faced challenges with aging infrastructure that slowed down critical processes and demanded heavy manual intervention. Provisioning new customer instances, managing backups, and handling failovers was time-intensive. Processing delays made it harder to serve clients with the speed and reliability customers expect.  

Migrating to Azure SQL Managed Instance changed that equation. Hexure cut processing times by up to 97%, transforming overnight batch jobs into near-instant operations. Migration times were reduced by more than 80% thanks to built-in compatibility and automation. With Microsoft Azure Key Vault, Hexure could better manage cybersecurity and protection of their data. Features like point-in-time restore, automated backups, and geo-replication not only boosted resilience but also ensured compliance with industry regulations.  

Equally important, the move allowed Hexure to:  

• Onboard new customers in minutes versus hours.
• Deliver faster shipping cycles for features and platform improvements.
• Reduce management of infrastructure—including servers.

With migration, Hexure could now focus on innovation and customer service. For an industry where trust and responsiveness are critical, this operational leap forward directly translates into stronger client relationships.

Innovation with AI and insights: CallRevu  

CallRevu’s story illustrates the next frontier: innovation. CallRevu helps automotive dealerships improve lead conversion, follow-up, and customer experience by analyzing phone calls across more than 5,000 locations. Handling this volume of conversational data requires not only advanced analytics, but scalable platform. 

With a fully managed solution built on Azure SQL Managed Instance, Microsoft Azure Kubernetes Service together with Microsoft Azure AI services, CallRevu created a platform that goes beyond storing and managing data. It ensures reliable, scalable performance for call data and transcriptions, while services like Microsoft Azure OpenAI for real-time summaries and insights. This integration allows CallRevu to surface actionable insights in real time—helping dealerships connect marketing to results, improve agent performance, and ultimately drive more sales. 

The company also benefits from the operational simplicity that Azure SQL Managed Instance delivers. By migrating from their on-premises SQL Server environment, they were able to benefit from automated backups, scaling, and monitoring to reduce administrative overhead, while built-in security helps protect sensitive customer interactions. Data is mirrored in Microsoft Fabric allowing Power BI dashboards to generate real-time insights. With a strong and agile data foundation in place, CallRevu can focus on innovating faster—bringing AI-powered capabilities to an industry where customer engagement is a critical differentiator while also:  

• Increasing customer satisfaction by 10%.
• Saving USD500,000 annually in labor costs.
• Increasing lead conversion by 15%.

Take the next step in your transformation journey  

Modernization is not a one-time project—it’s a journey that is different for every organization. For some organizations, the first step is simply migrating off legacy servers. For others, it’s about rethinking how operations can run more efficiently. And for many, it’s about leveraging cloud and AI to create entirely new opportunities.  

The experiences of Thomson Reuters, Hexure, and CallRevu highlight how migration to a platform-as-a-service anchored on database solutions like Azure SQL Managed Instance supports every stage of that journey. By providing a managed, secure, and scalable cloud platform, backed by the tools and programs, organizations can migrate with confidence, operate more efficiently, and innovate faster.

Ready to get started? Here are some free tools you can start trying today: 

• Try Azure SQL Managed Instance free today. 
• Learn how Azure Migrate can help you get started.

Join Microsoft at PASS Data Community Summit 2025 to continue your learning journey and how Azure is making it easier than ever to start your transformation journey. Learn more on our sponsorship and presence.