Case Study: 3M achieves 50% revenue growth with Microsoft Azure

3M Unit Boosts Revenue by 50 Percent with Choice of Cloud Service

3M’s Visual Attention Service (VAS) is an internal startup that uses proprietary software to show how consumers view marketing materials. To launch VAS the team needed first-class responsiveness and reliability without heavy upfront hardware investment or the internal management overhead that can slow new business initiatives.

3M chose Microsoft Azure, using Visual Studio and Azure SQL Database, to host VAS—scaling from 3 to 12 instances, cutting image processing from 15–20 seconds to 2–3 seconds, and increasing deployment scale by 400%. The cloud lowered management costs and boosted credibility with customers, allowing the team to focus on growth and driving an estimated 50% increase in revenue.

3M

William K. Smyth

Global Business Manager