Case Studies

11 years.

Khoros (formerly Spredfast + Lithium) is a global customer engagement software company. It provides online community management, social media marketing and analytics, digital care, and content management solutions for enterprise brands and agencies.

Within its core Communities product, Khoros offers a wide range of configuration and customization options. While many can be handled by end users, others require back-end changes and application instance management.

• Requests flowed through account managers, project managers, and support agents.
• Each change required expert back-end knowledge and elevated access.
• Busy application engineers were frequently interrupted, forced to context-switch, and pulled away from strategic development work.
• Customers sometimes waited days for their requests to be completed.

Khoros partnered with ETI/Artesk to introduce a 24/7, rapid SLA managed service supported by a dedicated team of configuration engineers. The service was named PSCONF (Professional Services Configuration Team).

• Requests submitted through a centralized ticketing system.
• Tickets self-assigned within 10 minutes.
• Most requests resolved within 30 minutes.

Typical tasks handled include:

• Back-end configuration changes.
• Plugin configuration and template updates.
• Plugin file extraction, transfer, and comparison.
• Instance control operations.
• HTML/CSS modifications.
• Requesting pushing changes to production environments.

In addition to deep knowledge of the application platform, PSCONF engineers bring a broad technical skill set, including:

• Linux command-line operations.
• SQL database management.
• Structured text formats.
• HTML and HTTP/REST APIs.
• Virtual machines and cloud workspaces.
• Version control systems.
• Ticketing systems.

• Guaranteed 24/7 coverage for all configuration requests with ultra-fast response times.
• Significant productivity gains for application engineers.
• Improved customer satisfaction with faster, predictable service.

• “Worked very well – I really like this service.”
• “Both response time and quality are great.”
• “No complaints from me – responsiveness to requests has been impressive. “
• “I’ve recently tried to enable a feature and was pleasantly surprised that they were extremely fast.”
• “I love PSCONF!”
• “Absolutely fantastic; they make our lives SO much easier by kindly delivering exceptional, timely services. They are so wonderful to work with. With all the little things that crop up and cause stress for us, it is nice that this facet of work is handled by a team who is totally reliable!!! Thank you for making this possible and constantly adding to the list of things your team supports; for being so dependable and for being on call, around the clock, to make us successful.”
• “PSCONF is the best thing to happen to PS since ever.”

• A dedicated managed service can transform routine but high-priority requests into a fast, seamless process.
• 24/7 expert coverage ensures both internal teams and end customers receive consistent support.
• Offloading repetitive but technical work from engineers enables them to focus on higher-value initiatives.

16 years.

Khoros (formerly Spredfast + Lithium) is a global customer engagement software company. It provides online community management, social media marketing and analytics, digital care, and content management solutions for enterprise brands and agencies.

When organizations transition to the Khoros community platform, one of the most critical steps is migrating their existing community data from legacy platforms. These communities often contain years of conversations, user interactions, and valuable knowledge that must be preserved during the transition. It is essential that key elements of the community remain intact, including user profiles, posts and discussions, likes and reactions, categories, images and attachments, and even private messages. Preserving this history ensures users can continue engaging with the community without disruption.

Most migrations are enterprise-scale projects involving large data volumes, complex legacy platforms, and intricate structures such as permission models, tags, product areas, and regional communities. These projects also require coordination between multiple teams, including engineering, product, security, and community managers. Migration engineers are also granted elevated backend access to sensitive systems, which makes security compliance, strong operational discipline, and customer trust critical throughout the process.

To support these complex migrations, Khoros partnered with ETI/Artesk to build a specialized team of experienced Data Migration Engineers focused on enterprise community transitions.

Each migration project is supported by three dedicated environments:

• Staging (Sandbox) – where the customer configures the community’s appearance, UX, plugins, settings, and SSO.
• Migration Review Site – where migrated data is presented together with the staging configuration, allowing customers to review how their content will appear after launch.
• Production Environment – the final live community, containing both the finalized configuration and the fully migrated content.

The migration process begins with a detailed evaluation of the legacy platform data export, verifying that all required data objects and fields are present and reliable. Migration engineers analyze the data volumes (users, posts, attachments) to estimate migration timelines and infrastructure needs.

Custom elements such as profile fields, ranking systems, and other specialized structures are carefully mapped to the new platform. The process includes multiple test migration runs and QA review cycles, allowing customers to validate the results and provide feedback. After all feedback is addressed and the migration is fully validated, the team performs the final cutover, ensuring a smooth and controlled launch.

Enterprise migrations are delivered by experienced Data Migration Engineers with strong technical and analytical expertise combined with effective stakeholder collaboration. Key capabilities include:

• Planning and executing enterprise data migration strategies
• Performing data analysis and schema mapping between legacy and target platforms
• Developing ETL pipelines using scripting languages such as Python or Ruby
• Managing and optimizing database systems (SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL)
• Ensuring data quality through transformation, cleansing, and validation
• Supporting migrations on cloud platforms such as AWS and Azure
• Applying security and compliance practices when handling sensitive data
• Collaborating with engineering, product, security, and community teams to ensure successful migrations

Through a long-standing partnership with Khoros (formerly Lithium Technologies), ETI/Artesk has developed deep expertise in enterprise community data migrations.

Over 16+ years of collaboration, the migration team has successfully delivered 400+ enterprise migration projects, supporting organizations transitioning from a wide variety of legacy community platforms. Across these projects, the team has migrated:

• 160+ million users
• 380+ million messages and posts
• Data from 50+ different community platforms

This extensive experience has allowed the team to build a robust migration methodology, specialized tooling, and deep familiarity with the data structures, formats, and database technologies used across major community platform vendors.

As a result, customers benefit from predictable, secure, and highly reliable migrations, ensuring their community’s full digital history is preserved while enabling a smooth transition to the Khoros platform.

• “It’s been a pleasure to work with the engineer. He worked on my archiving project practically around the clock, providing timely updates, asking intelligent questions, and working independently unless otherwise necessary. He worked directly with CustOps without me needing to get involved. I couldn’t really ask for more.”
• “I cannot give you credit on You Earned It, but I wanted to thank you so much for all your work and help on this migration. You are one of the most competent and hardworking people I have ever worked with, and I truly appreciate everything you do for our customers (and just us on the internal side).”
• “The engineer has been amazing. I have no idea when he sleeps as he has been around very late nights, and very early mornings his time. The project has been difficult from the start, but the customer added some drama in the final hour, and it is already corrected. Anyway, I wanted to thank you for both your hard work and your friendship!”
• “I wanted to say thank you for your patience and calmness during our challenging customer SSO Migration yesterday. You helped run point on validation, getting PRDs updated, communication with support engineering, etc.. It was great having you on the team! (Thank goodness that project is over!)”
• “I wanted to just say that the engineer is awesome and totally went the extra mile to help out the customer on an issue that cropped up with their Groups migration. 🙂 ”
• “I just wanted to drop a line to let you know how amazing the engineer has been on this migration. He has had an enormous amount of pressure and has gone well above and beyond in every aspect. I am continuously impressed by not only his knowledge and skill, but how adaptable and understanding he is. He is a great asset to not only your team, but the company as a whole 🙂 ”
• “I just wanted to drop you a line about the collaboration with the engineer. He has shown an outstanding, highly professional and competent behavior on this project. He has been incredibly helpful, patient and available, taking care of every small detail and helping the customer stay on the right track. It has been a very hard, stressful project for the team, and he has mastered it in a way that very few people would be able to. I myself learned a lot from him and his teamwork has been invaluable for all of us. I thought I’d let you know about it, as it has been a real pleasure working with him.”
• “I just wanted to let you know I am EXREMELY thankful for the engineer’s assistance over the weekend. He went above and beyond to assist with an issue caused by the customer, and because of him we are likely going to be able to launch on time, or very nearly on time. He is incredibly professional and due to his thorough validations, we were able to quickly diagnose the issue. (This also helped me to quickly identify and communicate it was NOT a migration issue despite my earlier fears that the data may have been corrupt.) He prepared a number of scripts, early mornings and late nights. I believe I speak for our entire team when I say we truly could not have done all that was done over the weekend without his expert assist, and we highly value him as a partner. Thank you so very much!”
• “I wanted to send a quick note of appreciation regarding engineer’s excellent work on this migration project. This client had a lot of “cooks in the kitchen” and had a lot of trouble making decisions and sticking to them. The engineer was incredibly patient in dealing with their questions and plan updates, and the actual Migration to Production was absolutely seamless – everything happened exactly as he described and right on time (or sooner!). The client was extremely happy and they were so relieved. Thank you so much for his extra attention for a client who really needed the time and attention, and for a spotless execution!”
• “Thank you for a super smooth migration. You guys are AWESOME, and the customer wanted to make sure I told you. Thanks again!”
• “The migration ran successfully over the weekend with the help of an awesome team. Thank you team for a smooth migration effort.”
• “She did a unbelievable job of managing TWO significant migrations this week. I cannot thank her enough for the work she did. Thank you!”
• “I wanted to send a quick note to you to let you know how much we appreciate the engineer’s time and attention on the migration this weekend. As I’m sure you’re aware, this has been a lengthy project with a high-touch team of clients, full of shifting needs and complexity, and with that comes a lot of anxiety for our clients.”
• “He was very attentive this past weekend, providing updates to the client and internal team, and attending client calls outside of normal working hours. We deeply appreciate his availability on this launch, and his updates (directly to the clients) went a long way in making sure everyone felt informed and up to date on the project.”
• “Your tenacity, dedication, patience, constant professionalism and can do attitude were essential to the success of this migration. You’re an absolute pleasure to work with, your expertise were invaluable and ensured we managed to achieve what we set out to do. You stayed committed throughout this migration and went way beyond the call of duty to support us. It’s a pleasure working alongside such a committed individuals. Thank you for your outstanding work.”

• Look for Proven Platform Expertise – A strong partner should demonstrate deep familiarity with the target ecosystem. Long-term experience with platforms such as Khoros (formerly Lithium Technologies) enables migration teams to understand platform architecture, data models, and migration best practices.
• Choose a Partner with a Repeatable Migration Methodology – Successful enterprise migrations rely on established processes, reusable tooling, and structured validation checkpoints that reduce risk and ensure predictable outcomes.
• Prioritize Security and Trustworthiness – Migration partners are often granted elevated backend access and handle sensitive data. Strong security practices, compliance awareness, and disciplined operations should be key selection criteria.
• Value Transparent Collaboration – The best migration partners maintain open communication and close collaboration with customer teams, ensuring stakeholders remain informed and aligned throughout the project.
• Seek Broad Platform Experience – Partners who have worked with multiple legacy platforms and data formats are better equipped to anticipate edge cases, address complex migration challenges, and deliver reliable results.

4 years.

ETI Software Smart B/OSS (Business and Operations Support Systems) is a suite of solutions designed for telecommunications and broadband providers to simplify, automate, and integrate core business and network operations. The platform reduces complexity, accelerates service delivery, and enhances customer satisfaction, integrated with Microsoft Dynamics 365 to handle order management, provisioning, device management, and data integration. As part of the platform deployment process, Dynamics ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) work was completed for the following providers, all of whom are focused on expanding high-speed fiber and wireless connectivity in underserved and rural communities through innovative partnerships and community-driven initiatives: All Points Broadband, Novus Communications, Vero Fiber Networks, Eeyou Communications Network, Chelan County PUD, and Canadian Fiber Optics Corp.

Data often needs to permenently be moved (migrated) from one system to another, and to adobt a completely different structure in the process. While direct integration between systems can be developed for such purposes, often times such an approach is undesireable due to its cost, time to accomplish, and mainly the lack of need for constant data flow. Instead, companies rely on one-off data migration projects for large volumes of data when one system is being permenently replaced with another. Many companies strugle with the fine details accompanying such an endevoir, and chose to rely on professional services such as the data migration framework, custom tailored for the needs of Smart B/OSS (Dynamics 365) for:

• Establishing a detailed migration scope.
• Extracting the data set following predefined filters.
• Data validation and providing detailed feedback on potentially problematic datasets.
• Transforming the data to meet the needs of the target system.
• Loading the data, while monitoring the process.
• Providing on-demand reports on the accomplished work.

ETI/Artesk invested time and resource developing both automated pipelines for specific repeatable data migration needs and on-demand custom procedures which have the potential to satisfy every ask.

Typical project types:

• Custom built and staged projects, designed to move the entire dataset of one production system to a completely different one.
• Source data consistency validation, or the process of the finding problems in the source data, which would impede further data migration steps.
• Frequency-based automation projects, working with strictly predefined data structure, and accomplishing the same task repeatedly.
• On-demand automation features, triggered based on arose needs.
• Post-launch, on-demand custom data migration projects.
• Data curating.
• Complex on-demand or automated reporting.

A Data Conversion Engineer analyzes, maps, moves, and transforms data between systems, ensuring accuracy, transparency, and compatibility for new platforms. They design and maintain ETL processes, frameworks and automated pipelines, validate large datasets, and deliver seamless, high-performance data migrations. Their expertise in Azure, Dynamics 365, SQL, and programming enables reliable, scalable, and efficient data transformation across enterprise environments. The technical skill set includes:

• Microsoft Azure cloud architecture.
• Azure Data Factory.
• Microsoft Dynamics 365.
• SQL Database Management.
• Structured text formats.
• Various programing languages, such as T-SQL, C# and Python.
• Rest APIs.
• Virtual Machines.
• Version control systems.
• Ticketing systems.

• Flexable system for managing data, capable of dealing with very large volumes of records.
• Transparent process of data transformation, satisfying the requirements of the client.
• Staged approach into multiple phases, allowing time for user acceptance testing.

• Using a custom ETL framework enabled seamless migration of large, complex datasets into Microsoft Dynamics 365 while ensuring data accuracy and integrity.
• Combining automated pipelines with on-demand procedures provided flexibility to handle both repeatable migrations and unique, one-off requirements.
• Adopting a staged migration approach allowed for user acceptance testing at each phase, reducing risk and ensuring smoother system adoption.
• Leveraging Data Conversion Engineer expertise in Azure, Dynamics 365, and SQL ensured high performance, transparency, and scalability in data migration projects.

4 years.

ETI Software Smart B/OSS (Business and Operations Support Systems) is a suite of solutions designed for telecommunications and broadband providers to simplify, automate, and integrate core business and network operations. The platform reduces complexity, accelerates service delivery, and enhances customer satisfaction, integrated with Microsoft Dynamics 365 to handle order management, provisioning, device management, and data integration. As part of the platform development process, Billing Engine Backend was implemented for the following providers, all of whom are focused on expanding high-speed fiber and wireless connectivity in underserved and rural communities through innovative partnerships and community-driven initiatives: All Points Broadband, Novus Communications, Vero Fiber Networks, Eeyou Communications Network, Chelan County PUD, and Canadian Fiber Optics Corp.

Communication service provider companies sell a vast catalog of products to their subscribers. Often bundled together, companies sell multiple services based on different subscription plans with complicated rules around what the end-client receives and how the company is paid. This is necessary to achieve better market penetration with products that are both desirable and compatible for different needs – residential and commercial. With the large subscriber base and the increased complexity of how a monthly service fee is calculated, comes the need for a robust automated engine that does the hard work generating a continuous stream of detailed documents about recurring and usage fees, various discounting and one-time charges. Requirements often follow for meticulous categorization of large volumes of data in search of both revenue predictions and historical reporting.

• Working with large volumes of data without disrupting the regular day-to-day activities of a production system.
• Compiling tens of thousands of subscriber bills on daily basis, while having scale-up potential.
• Translating complex subscription history events into a precise line of billable service periods.
• Working with various pro-ration approaches via a configurable environment.
• Supporting taxation.
• Compatibility for integrating with external systems.
• Reporting capability.

ETI/Artesk invested time and resources in developing a custom tailored, cloud-based billing engine with the name of Subscription Service Rating (SSR). Specifically designed to handle every need of the Dynamics 365 Smart B/OSS platform, it works on the backend with dedicated Azure resources, so it does not consume any compute power from the Dynamics environment. It supports more than 70 different requirements varying from data validation, retail and wholesale billing algorithms, all the way to reporting, alerting and integrations with external systems. As a highly configurable environment, SSR aims to cover different billing needs that may come from different clients.

Typical types of automated tasks accomplished by SSR:

• Working with configurable Bill Cycles for run-frequency baseline.
• Dealing with as large a data set as needed.
• Performing pre-calculation data validation activities, reducing bad-data risk.
• Supporting both Bill-in-advance and Bill-in-arrears approaches for product construction.
• Generating detailed billable service periods, based on accurate subscription history for each sold product and subscriber.
• Leveraging configurable pro-ration methods for different needs.
• Handling various types of discount approaches
• Seamlessly handling compound taxation scenarios from multiple jurisdictions, with the possibility for integration with external taxation providers for multi-state or multi-country scenarios.
• Integrating with external payment providers for both auto-charge pipelines and on-demand transactions.
• Compatibility for integrating with external ERP systems
• Scheduled Revenue Forecast reporting
• Scheduled daily and/or monthly historical reporting.
• On-demand, single-subscriber bill preview integrated directly into Dynamics 365.
• Various logging mechanisms.

A Data Conversion Engineer analyzes, maps, moves, and transforms data between systems, ensuring accuracy, transparency, and compatibility for new platforms. They design and maintain ETL processes, frameworks and automated pipelines, validate large datasets, and deliver seamless, high-performance data migrations. Their expertise in Azure, Dynamics 365, SQL, and programming enables reliable, scalable, and efficient data transformation across enterprise environments. The technical skill set includes:

• Microsoft Azure cloud architecture.
• Azure Data Factory.
• Microsoft Dynamics 365.
• SQL Database Management.
• Structured text formats.
• Various programing languages, such as T-SQL, C# and Python.
• Rest APIs.
• Virtual Machines.
• Version control systems.
• Ticketing systems.

• A sturdy automated and highly configurable engine that performs its duties in the early hours of every day.
• SSR encapsulates all the complexity around the various tasks it handles and delivers results.
• The engine takes on the responsibility of silently dealing with compound tasks saving the time of human personnel.

• Developing a dedicated cloud-based billing engine (Subscription Service Rating) enabled automated, large-scale bill generation without impacting Microsoft Dynamics 365 performance.
• Implementing configurable billing logic supported diverse client needs, including proration, taxation, discounts, and multiple billing cycles.
• Integrating with external systems for payments, taxation, and reporting delivered a unified and extensible billing ecosystem.
• Leveraging Azure-based architecture and our Data Conversion Engineer expertise ensured scalability, data accuracy, and operational reliability across telecom providers.

1 year.

ETI Software Smart B/OSS (Business and Operations Support Systems) is a suite of solutions designed for telecommunications and broadband providers to simplify, automate, and integrate core business and network operations. The platform reduces complexity, accelerates service delivery, and enhances customer satisfaction, integrated with Microsoft Dynamics 365 to handle order management, provisioning, device management, and data integration. As part of the platform deployment process, Dynamics ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) work was completed for the following providers, all of whom are focused on expanding high-speed fiber and wireless connectivity in underserved and rural communities through innovative partnerships and community-driven initiatives: All Points Broadband, Novus Communications, Vero Fiber Networks, Eeyou Communications Network, Chelan County PUD, and Canadian Fiber Optics Corp.

Telecommunications and broadband providers face a complex and rapidly evolving operational environment. Managing core business and network operations – from order management and provisioning to device and data integration, requires a flexible, scalable, and highly automated system. While leveraging the ETI Software Smart B/OSS platform integrated with Microsoft Dynamics 365, many organizations struggled with:

• Complex data and entity structures: Frequent updates to entities, fields, forms, and views caused delays in delivering consistent business processes.
• Inefficient workflows: Manual and semi-automated processes slowed service delivery, impacting customer satisfaction.
• Integration challenges: Connecting multiple systems, plugins, and external data sources created ongoing operational bottlenecks.
• Governance and security gaps: Maintaining correct access roles, privileges, and security policies across multiple environments was time-consuming.
• Scalability limitations: Deploying new features, patches, or customizations to QA and production environments often disrupted ongoing operations.

The overarching challenge was ensuring seamless, reliable, and continuous management of the Dynamics 365 and Power Platform ecosystem for multiple clients while minimizing downtime, reducing complexity, and accelerating time-to-value.

ETI/Artesk introduced a 24/7, rapid SLA managed service supported by a dedicated team of certified Microsoft Power Platform Functional Consultants.

• Requests submitted via email to a centralized CRM Helpdesk platform, triggering automated case creation.
• Tickets self-assigned within 10 minutes.
• Most requests resolved within 1 hour.

Typical tasks handled include:

• Entity management (creation, exposure to search, schema updates).
• ‎Field management (adding/updating fields, configuring required/optional values, lookups, dropdowns).
• ‎Form customization (headers, tabs, sections, field layout, conditional visibility).
• View configuration (creating summary views, applying custom filters and sorting).
• Business logic implementation (automatic field population, status automation, validation rules).
• Option set and status value management.
• Security and access control (roles, privileges, new user setup).
• Workflow automation (Power Automate flows, business rules, custom workflows).
• UI customization (JavaScript, conditional logic, form behaviors).
• Environment operations (deployments to QA/PROD, applying patches and manage solutions).
• Plugin and integration configuration.
• Navigation and menu updates.

A Microsoft Power Platform Functional Consultant creates, configures, and implements low-code solutions such as apps, automated processes, and data-driven solutions using the Power Platform. The technical skill set includes:

• Dynamics 365 / Power Platform: Entity & field management, form and view customization, dashboards.
• Business Logic & Automation: Power Automate flows, business rules, validation, status automation.
• Security & Access: Role/privilege management, user setup, environment governance.
• UI & Client-Side Customization: JavaScript, conditional logic, navigation/menu updates.
• Environment & Deployment: Solution management, deployments, patches, plugin and integration configuration.
• Data & Integration: Data import/export, entity relationships, connectors, APIs.
• Monitoring & Maintenance: Workflow and solution troubleshooting, platform health checks.

• Guaranteed 24/7 coverage for all functional consulting requests with fast response times.
• Engineering team productivity increased by delegating low-code responsibilities.
• Improved customer satisfaction with faster, predictable service.

• 24/7 managed support ensures rapid response and resolution of requests, while boosting Engineering productivity.
• Seamless handling of Dynamics 365 and Power Platform configurations reduces operational complexity.
• Automated workflows and business logic improve service delivery and reliability.
• Faster, predictable operations lead to higher customer satisfaction.