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Taking business to the next level.NET live

Series 1

These case studies are for informational purposes only. Microsoft makes no

warranties, express or implied, in this summary.

Microsoft, Windows, .NET, Windows NT and Visual Studio are either registered

trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or

other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned

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No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by

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obtaining permission in writing from the publisher.

© 2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

1

CONTENTS .NET live

Introduction .................................................................... 2

Entertainment and MediaThe Commonwealth Games ................................................... 7IRN ....................................................................................... 11World Rally Championship ................................................... 15

Financial ServicesBank of New York European Fund Services Group................. 21Nationwide Building Society .................................................. 26

Retail ServicesHogg Robinson .................................................................... 33lastminute.com .................................................................... 36Tesco.com ............................................................................ 39Virgin.com ........................................................................... 44

IndustryAscent Technology ................................................................ 47BT Group .............................................................................. 53The Royal Mail Group............................................................ 58

Public SectorBradford Hospitals NHS Trust ................................................ 63

2

While existing and largely standalone applica-

tions have brought value to many businesses, inter-

connected systems have the potential to dramati-

cally increase the value of software. The underlying

idea being that the more things your software is

connected to, the more valuable it is. But up until

now, integration has been too hard, too expensive,

too time-consuming and, when actually completed,

inhibits flexibility going forward.

.NET, however, is about connecting everything

to everything else in a standard and straightfor-

ward way using XML. XML Web Services are a

powerful business tool, allowing unprecedented

customer integration and partnering opportunities.

Today .NET is delivering best-of-breed integra-

tion for businesses everywhere. In this booklet you

can read how a number of today's future-thinking

companies are using .NET and XML Web Services

to improve the way they do business, cut develop-

ment costs, and increase customer satisfaction.

Companies across all sectors are discovering

the ways in which .NET can benefit their organisa-

tion, whether it’s allowing employees to act on the

appropriate information where and when they

need it or enabling different software programs to

interact in order to share information

.NET is the key component to enabling these

exciting new possibilities.

The purpose of this book is to highlight how

real companies are using .NET today to deliver tan-

gible business benefits. You can learn how BT used

.NET as the foundation for its innovative new web-

site management system; how Nationwide Building

Society used Visual Studio™.NET to completely

replace its proprietary runtime environment and

associated development methods; and how Virgin

Group is using .NET to deliver truly personalised,

intelligent and interactive Web Services across a

range of channels and devices.

Microsoft is putting together a series of books

highlighting successful .NET implementations.

If you are interested in contributing, please

email [email protected]

Taking business to the next level

Today, there are a number of business and technological catalysts driving Microsoft™ .NET adop-

tion. As solutions evolve from single systems or applications into constellations that can span

multiple applications, devices, services and organisation, senior management are faced with the

fundamental and recurring challenge of getting different technologies to work together.

.NET live

3

The Microsoft .NET Framework is a component of

the Windows® operating system that provides

the programming model for building, deploying,

and running Web-based applications, smart client

applications, and eXtensible Mark-up Language

(XML) Web services. It provides a highly produc-

tive, standards-based, multi-language environ-

ment for integrating existing investments with

next-generation applications and services, as well

as the agility to solve the challenges of deploy-

ment and operation of Internet-scale applications.

The .NET Framework consists of two main parts:

the Common Language Runtime and a hierarchi-

cal set of unified class libraries that includes a

componentised version of Active Server Pages

(ASP.NET), a loosely coupled data access subsys-

tem (ADO.NET), and an environment for building

rich Windows-based applications (Windows

Forms).

For more information about the Microsoft .NET

Framework, go to: http://msdn.microsoft.com/net-

framework/

Microsoft Visual Studio .NET is the rapid applica-

tion development (RAD) tool for building next-

generation Web applications and XML Web servic-

es. Visual Studio .NET empowers developers to

rapidly design broad-reach Web applications for

any device and any platform. In addition, Visual

Studio .NET is fully integrated with the .NET

Framework, providing support for multiple pro-

gramming languages and automatically handling

many common programming tasks, freeing devel-

opers to rapidly create Web applications using

their language of choice. Visual Studio .NET

includes a single IDE with RAD features for build-

ing Web applications and middle-tier business

logic, and RAD XML designers for working with

data.

More information about Visual Studio .NET can be

found at http://www.visualstudio.net.

The Microsoft Rapid Economic Justification frame-

work is designed to help IT professionals analyse

and optimise the economic performance of IT

investments, and appropriate optimal resources

and capital for IT projects. The core premise of this

framework is that it is "business centric" and

drives to align business priorities and IT invest-

ments. The focus is on business improvement,

which may include operational efficiency as an

important element, but not the primary focus. In a

collaborative process, REJ enables both business

and IT stakeholders to understand how technolo-

gy capabilities can improve the metrics that define

success for the business.

More information about REJ can be found at

http://www.microsoft.com/value

Microsoft technologies explained

4

From quickly linking the systems of a car rental

agency with major airlines to alerting a repair

technician on his Pocket PC that a customer’s

machine has malfunctioned, XML Web Services

are providing real business benefits today.

XML Web Services enable software on com-

puters and mobile devices to connect and interop-

erate with each other, both inside and outside a

company’s walls. Built on industry standards,

these discrete units of software can connect and

interoperate across platforms, programming lan-

guages, and applications.

By creating a standard way to connect dis-

parate business systems, XML Web Services are a

natural solution to many integration challenges.

They enable businesses to more economically con-

nect with partners and customers; they create the

opportunity to act on information from a variety

of mobile devices; and they provide added flexibil-

ity to respond quickly to change.

Microsoft® .NET is software that connects

information, people, systems, and devices through

XML Web Services. Microsoft offers a rich set of

development tools, servers, client software, and

services that provides clear business benefits today

through the power of XML Web Services.

By using the Internet to enable software applica-

tions to more easily work together, Microsoft .NET

offers businesses the opportunity to increase

operating profits, decrease costs, and connect

with customers and employees.

Here are four ways .NET can help your busi-

ness today.

LOWER OPERATING COSTS

The ability to connect systems can have a dramat-

ic impact on the bottom line for any business or

organisation, whether it needs to connect a hand-

ful of internal applications or integrate an exten-

sive supply chain.

Traditional business integration methods

based on Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) often

don’t work well when dealing with smaller suppli-

ers and partners who frequently use isolated com-

puter systems and communicate via fax, phone,

and e-mail. Microsoft .NET-connected software

can help bridge the communication gap among

smaller partners who never adopted EDI.

.NET-connected software is built on XML Web

Service standards, which enable both new and

existing applications to connect with software and

services across platforms, applications, and pro-

gramming languages. In applications such as

Microsoft Excel 2002, .NET-connected software

allows analysts to monitor up-to-the-minute pro-

duction tallies across numerous suppliers, enabling

Helping Businesses Benefit from XML Web Services

Four Ways .NET Can Improve Your Business

5

everyone in the supply chain to effectively tailor

production to match demand.

DRIVE MORE SALES

.NET connects sales professionals with the infor-

mation they need and provides businesses with

the opportunity to increase revenue and create

new business opportunities.

.NET-connected software provides a sales

force with the ability to analyse information that

was once isolated in back-end systems through

familiar programs such as Microsoft Office XP. This

information can be delivered anywhere to a wide

range of new smart devices, from smart phones

to PCs.

.NET-connected software and services also

enable companies to create new business oppor-

tunities. By exposing key business processes that

were typically locked in internal systems, the

enterprise can create a number of new opportuni-

ties to make money.

INTEGRATE BETTER WITH CUSTOMERS

Increasing revenue can be a tough challenge for

any company. Most businesses derive more rev-

enue by finding more customers, providing better

customer service, and selling more products or

services to existing customers.

.NET can help companies meet this challenge

by enabling them to more easily integrate services

and applications. Connected back-end systems

provide businesses with the opportunity to com-

bine information and more easily assist customers

– whether in a call centre setting or in an online

Help application. A company can turn quality of

service into a competitive advantage.

LOWER IT COSTS

Microsoft Visual Studio® .NET and the .NET

Framework empower developers to quickly and

easily create cutting-edge XML Web Services and

applications, building on their existing skill sets.

Through support for multiple programming lan-

guages, developers are freed to use the program-

ming language of their choice in building XML

Web Services. Seamless deployment, as well as

the ability to use existing XML Web Services, pres-

ents substantial savings opportunities for the cor-

porate IT department.

In addition to improving developer productivi-

ty, Visual Studio .NET helps alleviate one of the

greatest scarcities in the world: skilled program-

mers. Applying rapid application development

techniques to web applications and services

increases developer productivity, saving both time

and money. Finally, by supporting any program-

ming language, these tools tap the broadest

developer talent pool (only about 10 per cent of

the world's developers know Java), take advan-

tage of existing skills, and let people use the tool

most appropriate for a specific task

To understand more about Microsoft .NET

and what it can do for your business, go to:

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/business/agility/

Entertainment and Media.NET live

The Commonwealth Games’ spectators get up to speed with Microsoft Mobile solution

7

Overview

Customer ProfileThe Commonwealth Games isone of the largest sportingevents in the world. Morethan 5000 athletes take part,a million people visit theevent, and a worldwide tele-vision audience of 1 billionwatches the event.

Business ChallengeMajor sporting events likethe Commonwealth Gamesrely on sophisticated technol-ogy to deliver results to arange of audiences includingin-stadium spectators andjournalists, global print andelectronic news services, andthe public. The technologyhas to be both reliable andefficient.

Solution Microsoft delivered a com-plete solution, which includesservices for users of WindowsPowered Pocket PCs, devel-oped in conjunction with theBBC, BT Ignite and applica-tion developer DAT

Benefits• Provision of immediateresults service to WindowsPowered Pocket PCs withinwireless LAN radius• Provision of on demandresults service to any ownerof a Windows Powered

As a key sponsor of the 2002 Commonwealth Games, Microsoft®

implemented a sophisticated results delivery system, which was

able to support a wide range of end users from sports journalists,

commentators and broadcasters to stadium-based event spectators

and web users. The company also deployed a results service for

users of Windows® Powered Pocket PCs, which could be accessed

in two ways. VIP visitors to the Games were provided with mobile

devices and a connection to a wireless network in order to access

results in real-time, while remote users could obtain updates via

dial up. The service is an excellent example of the possibilities of

next generation connected wireless mobile devices.

BACKGROUND

The Commonwealth Games is one of the world’s major sporting events.

Competitors from all five continents engage in 17 different sports over a

ten-day period. Competition is at the highest level: 30 per cent of the

medals awarded at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 went to

Commonwealth athletes.

As befits a major international event, interest in the games in 2002

was intense, with a worldwide television audience of more than a bil-

lion, and more than one million people visiting Manchester, where most

of the sporting events took place.

As a key sponsor of the Games in 2002, Microsoft took a pivotal

role in providing its technology infrastructure. One of Microsoft’s central

areas of involvement was in the management of the results service.

Results of all the events were delivered to a number of key centres

including in-stadium displays, journalist information terminals, the

Microsoft. NET Customer SolutionEntertainment and Media

“We havedeveloped manymobileapplications, butfew with thepotential to reachout to such a largeaudience.”

BRIAN WALSHEMOBILITY MARKETINGMANAGERBT

Manchester 2002 website, secure download sites and news agencies

around the globe. Working with the BBC and Microsoft partners BT

Ignite, and application developer DAT, Microsoft also delivered an up-to-

the-minute results service to wireless-enabled mobile devices within the

Games’ area and to connected devices beyond it.

SOLUTION

Windows Powered Pocket PCs were distributed to guests in the

Commonwealth Games hospitality area so that they could experience

first hand the delivery of up-to-the-minute information services to a

handheld device. There were a number of different live services.

Microsoft turned TV footage delivered by the BBC into Windows

Streaming Media content, and delivered this across a wireless network.

This enabled guests to view key moments from within the showcase

environment and corporate hospitality areas.

In addition, a daily news service and commentary was supplement-

ed by an information service detailing event schedules, travel informa-

tion and maps.

However, the core mobile application was that designed to provide

an up-to-the minute results service to every wireless enabled Pocket PC

falling within the reach of the Games’ wireless network. Running along-

side the live service to Microsoft’s guests at the Commonwealth Games

was a second version of this results service, available for download by

anyone with a Windows Powered Pocket PC from any location. With

the core application installed, users were able to update their mobile

device at regular intervals with the latest results.

Benefits (contd)Pocket PC equipped withGSM communications fea-tures• Repurposing of XML datawith minimum effort• Scalable and easily deployed wireless information distribution solu-tion

Products and services• Microsoft .NET Framework• Microsoft Windows 2000 Servers• Microsoft SQL Server• Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server• Microsoft Visual Studio® .NET• Microsoft C#• Windows Powered Pocket PCs• Compact Flash 802.11 wireless LAN access cards• Project Management,Architecture and DesignConsultancy from Microsoft Services

Partners• BT Ignite• DAT

For more information go towww.datgroup.com

WORKING IN PARTNERSHIP

Microsoft partnered with two experienced companies in order to deliver

this service. The crucial wireless infrastructure that enabled live informa-

tion feeds to VIP guests at the Games was developed by BT Ignite, BT's

business services and solutions division, serving customers worldwide.

BT Ignite has produced bespoke solutions for many of the top 200 cor-

porate organisations in the UK.

Brian Walshe, mobility marketing manager, was pleased that the

Commonwealth Games 2002 provided BT with the opportunity to show-

case the role it can play in the delivery of new wireless services. “We pro-

vided the infrastructure for wireless technology at the Games from begin-

ning to end,” he comments. “As well as wireless access points and the

route out to the wider Internet, we managed the deployment of the

Windows Powered Pocket PCs. Our involvement with the Commonwealth

Games was a superb way for us to showcase our services.”

Meanwhile, the software that resides on the Windows Powered

Pocket PCs and the delivery of data to them, was managed by experi-

enced mobile application developer DAT. Sean Cleaver, head of develop-

ment at DAT, was also pleased to be involved. “Working with Microsoft

on a project of this scale and scope was very exciting. We have devel-

oped many mobile applications, but few with the potential to reach out

to such a large audience.”

THE ADVANTAGES OF XML

The mobile results service took advantage of the fact that Microsoft

used eXtensible Markup Language (XML) to collate, store and share

event results data. XML is hospitable to being scaled across a wide

range of platforms without the need to re-key or to develop bespoke

interfaces. For example, the same XML data used by news agencies

Reuters and the Press Association was used to deliver results content to

the Windows Powered Pocket PCs.

Cleaver explains how the two mobile results systems worked. “We

developed an application that took advantage of the fact that Microsoft

provided a results service using XML. Our software checked the

Microsoft results server continually and provided us with an up-to-date

results data set. Our data set was removed from the main Games data-

base and we could, therefore, freely manipulate it.

“The VIP guests at the Games were given mobile devices equipped 9


For more information go to www.btignite.com

“By using .NET weshaved off at leasta third of thedevelopment timefor this application.because theframework had somuch support.”

SEAN CLEAVERHEAD OF DEVELOPMENT DAT

with wireless network access cards. For as long as they were in range,

the cards checked-in with the network regularly – at around 30 second

intervals. They picked up any results updates available. Software on the

mobile device then integrated this new information seamlessly and

automatically with what was already present, giving the end user up-to-

date information available for no effort on their part.

“Owners of Windows Powered Pocket PCs outside the wireless net-

work area were able to connect via the Internet and download updates

to their on-device databases. These update files were delivered as XML,

and included all the new results data. The files got larger as the Games

proceed, but did not exceed around 100k in size.

“When on the Pocket PC, the data in the update file was automati-

cally integrated with that already present. Just like the VIP guests within

the wireless network area, remote users had an offline, up-to-date refer-

ence tool relating to the Games.”

A FLEXIBLE, SCALABLE SOLUTION

The use of both wireless network and remote end-user self service,

along with powerful servers, means that the system was able to cater

for a large numbers of users – in the case of remote access, up to

20,000 connections at any one time.

Yet the applications designed to deliver this service were developed

within a few weeks thanks to DAT working within the .NET Framework.

“By using .NET we shaved off at least a third of the development

for this application,” Cleaver notes, “because the framework had so

much support. Normally we might have teams of Visual Basic (VB)

developers working on a solution like this and they would probably have

to use a lot of Windows API code. With .NET we were able to use VB

developers to write within the framework, and in C#, which is far quick-

er and easier.”

BENEFITS

The technology behind the 2002 Commonwealth Games was complex,

but it was also robust, and, for the first time at a major sporting event,

the results service was provided using a single, integrated platform. It is

these factors that provided the opportunity for the provision of addi-

tional services, such as those using Windows Powered Pocket PC, which

allowed a richer, more widely accessible service than ever before. ■10

Breaking news: .NET technologies connect radio networks to dynamicwebsite

11

Overview

Customer ProfileIRN is one of the world’smost successful radio newsproviders, distributing local,regional, national and inter-national news to 300 com-mercial radio network in theUK and Europe

Business ChallengeTo provide subscribers withnews stories via the Internetwhich can be previewed forsuitability before being pur-chased and downloaded

SolutionThe development of an e-Commerce facility that storesand lists short audio newsclips

Benefits• Reliable, robust and scala-ble infrastructure• Higher availability andeasy-to-use Web site• Secured access• Subscribers able to previewbefore purchase

Products and Services• Microsoft .NET Framework• Microsoft Visual Studio .NET• Microsoft SQL Server 2000• Microsoft Windows® 2000

Over the years, technology innovations have helped IRN to become

one of the world’s most successful radio news providers. By taking

advantage of Microsoft’s unique world-class .NET systems, the

company has taken customer service one step further by providing

subscribers with an e-commerce resource, which enables them to

preview news stories via the Internet before purchasing them.

BACKGROUND

Broadcast news plays a daily role in the lives of 44 million listeners

throughout the UK. IRN, which accounts for 26 million listeners, is one

of the world’s most successful radio news providers in this sector distrib-

uting local, regional, national and international news to 260 commercial

radio stations in the UK.

The company employs 50 people in London and shares the unrivalled

news gathering facilities used by ITN, the international multi-media

news organisation, which broadcasts daily to a worldwide audience in

excess of 30 million people.

IRN provides audio files of news stories to subscribers, via satellite

link to approximately 300 radio stations in the UK, Scandinavia and

parts of the mediterranean. The news agency wanted to add value to its

business, extend its customer reach and generate revenue. It had set its

sight on an e-commerce resource capable of being integrated with exist-

ing legacy systems as well as distributing content securely to subscribers

who paid for the service.

A strategy was formulated that would deliver an innovative service

to subscribers and attract a new customer base for IRN, particularly from

countries outside of Europe. Digital material would be provided to


“We chose theMicrosoft .NETFramework as itprovides unrivalledopportunities fordesigningintegratedsoftwareapplications thatconnect businessesand individualsanytime,anywhere, and onvirtually anysoftware device.”

MARTIN TYTENEW BUSINESSMANAGERSMART421

broadcasters that could be previewed to ensure that it was relevant

before being purchased and downloaded. IRN believed that the service

would give radio stations a flexible back-up system to the satellite serv-

ice and provide the opportunity to raise its profile with radio stations

around the globe.

“We were aware of the demand for English language news around

the world,” says John Perkins, managing director of IRN. “The only way

up to now we could supply material across all the time zones was to

establish a separate dedicated news team in London working round the

clock contacting individual stations across the world. This was labour

intensive and incurred high operational costs.

“We identified that as a news provider we should take advantage of

developments in technology leveraging the Internet. It would enable us

to make the service available on a 27x7 basis whilst at the same time

abolishing the need to incur any labour or operational costs. We also

wanted station staff to be able to listen to the items before deciding to

buy, but this raised a security issue. We needed a solution that would

prevent the news clips from being pirated at the pre-payment stage.”

SOLUTION

IRN invited several e-business solution specialists to pitch for its business.

Smart421 was one of three companies to be shortlisted. Smart421 is a

global technology organisation specialising in delivering end-to-end e-

commerce solutions via the Internet, intranet, mobile and digital TV.

Perkins explains: “IRN selected the Smart421 team because it fully

understood our objectives and our vision. The team members didn’t try

to over-complicate our brief by dazzling us with a solution that wasn’t

required. We liked their approach to the project and were impressed by

their skills and experience. Their track record also showed that they

were capable of delivering powerful solutions using leading edge com-

ponents from Microsoft.”

IRN commissioned Smart421 to deliver a totally managed web solu-

tion to provide independent radio stations with news via digital satellite

while simultaneously distributing the news via the Internet.

The Smart421 team carried out a detailed analysis of the most

appropriate development and deployment platform ensuring that the

architecture would be robust and scalable to cope with the expected

rise in subscribers.

Martin Tyte, new business manager, Smart421, explains: “We chose

the Microsoft .NET Framework as it provides unrivalled opportunities for

designing integrated software applications that connect businesses and

individuals anytime, anywhere, and on virtually any software device. We

could see that .NET technology delivers the essential framework to give

IRN a Web-based tool to achieve its objectives. .NET also offers ease of

integration with other applications while content is distributed quickly

and securely.”

Following the analysis phase, Smart421 designed and built the infra-

structure. The solution consists of a variety of applications running on

two .NET Enterprise Servers – Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and Microsoft

Windows 2000. SQL Server 2000 sits within IRN’s existing infrastructure,

capturing and processing information from their back-end system. It

then communicates with Windows 2000 Server located at Globix, a

leading provider of advanced Internet hosting, network and applications

solutions for business.

Smart421 used the .NET Framework on top of SQL Server 2000 and

Visual Basic .NET to write the components of the Web site. Functionality

means that subscribers can access the secure site through Visual

Basic.NET business layer using ADO.NET, a communication tool between

the server and the subscriber. The application also uses ASP.NET to pro-

vide a shopping basket- style content delivery system.

The site has been built to be available 24x7 and deliver secure news

bites to subscribers. With its new e-commerce facility, IRN is now in a

position to attract additional customers to drive revenue.

Tyte adds: “Thanks to Visual Studio.NET we had everything we need-

ed in one application for data exchange, programming and formatting

web pages. This included XML, Visual Basic.NET and HTML. We believe

the .NET Framework gives better integration capabilities with databases,

rich-editor functionality and integrated debugging support than any

other competitive applications in the marketplace.” 13

For more information onSmart421 products visit theirwebsite at:http://www.smart421.comOr Email: [email protected]

For more information on Globixvisit their website at:http://www.globix.comOr Email: [email protected] call 0800 085 0885

PartnersSmart421Globix


“The dynamic .NETFrameworksolution is alsohelping to savesubstantial timeand money in abusiness wherefast delivery of thenews is of theessence.”

MARTIN TYTENEW BUSINESSMANAGERSMART421

The website was rigorously tested before going live at Globix’ host-

ing facility. It was launched in October 2001, just five months after the

project began.

BENEFITS

IRN now has a solution – www.irnnewsweb.com – that stores and lists a

rolling 48 hours worth of short audio news excerpts obtained directly

from the IRN newsroom. Users of the site can browse through the list of

available news clips before clicking through to hear a preview of the

chosen cuts for suitability.

To stop unregistered users downloading previews without purchase,

it has automatically been dubbed with a special tone, while maintaining

the users’ ability to assess the news for content. Subscribers can pur-

chase a copy of a specific news clip using a credit card and paying

online or opening an account with IRN, enabling the download in

broadcast quality format.

“IRN has been extremely pleased with the performance of the web-

site,” continues Perkins. “As a news agency we understand the needs

of other journalists. The website is user friendly and has been designed

with them in mind. We have been impressed with the speed of deploy-

ment and value provided by Smart421. The team has developed a solu-

tion which perfectly matches our brief, enabling us to achieve our

vision.”

The new solution is giving IRN greater access to new subscribers.

Within a week of its launch it signed up its first clients outside Europe.

Previously, IRN was limited by the satellite footprint, which only covered

Western Europe. It had difficulties distributing news to North Africa,

southern mediterranean countries and eastern Europe. With this solu-

tion IRN is now able to reach subscribers, regardless of location.

Perkins concludes: “We hope to reap huge financial rewards in the

months and years to come. Our new website has helped to raise our

profile so that we are seen as international news provider. The dynamic

.NET Framework solution is also helping to save substantial time and

money in a business where fast delivery of the news is of the essence.”

FUTURE

IRN plan to add other components to the .NET application so that news

can be distributed via SMS, iPAQS and other PDA devices. ■14

Microsoft .NET technologies drive global brand building throughonline presence

15

Overview

Customer ProfileISC is well known in themotorsport industry andowns the TV and commercialrights to exploit the WRCbrand

Business Challenge• To feed live results directfrom rally events to the web-site• To raise the profile of theWRC brand globally• To utilise innovative tech-nology to showcase WRC as apremier consumer eventTo give consumers, broad-casters and the media a funand entertaining interactivewebsite

SolutionA three-way partner strategyto develop a website creatingan online presence utilising.NET technologies

Benefits• Multi-platform for futureweb services• Scaleable, durable androbust• Cost effective .NET tech-nologies enhances the users’experience• Interactive site which pro-vides real time results, videoclips and live commentary

BACKGROUND

International Sportsworld Communicators (ISC), the TV and commercial

rights holder behind WRC, kick-started an unprecedented level of com-

mercial and marketing focus on the Championship when their chair-

man, David Richards, bought the company in April 2000. Since then,

ISC has negotiated several key partnerships to generate and substantial-

ly accelerate the WRC’s mass-market appeal including terrestrial broad-

cast contracts to secure a significant increase in prime-time TV slots.

The Championship takes place in 14 countries across four continents

around the world. From January to November its world tour includes

Monte Carlo, Argentina, Kenya and Australia before the season finale in

Great Britain.

ISC plans to transform the sport using compelling television and

innovative new media technologies including the web. More than just a

URL address, ISC wanted to supply an unequalled online experience to

the rally enthusiast by helping them “see and experience” the races in

The World Rally Championship (WRC), provides a turbo-charged

atmosphere for both drivers and rally enthusiasts alike. But the

technology used to market the brand and to drive awareness has

largely been traditional. Since securing the TV and commercial

rights for the sport in April 2002, International Sportsworld

Communicators (ISC) has been faced with a number of challenges,

including building a global brand and, as part of this process, con-

necting WRC to its audience via the web. Utilising Microsoft .NET

technologies and Accenture as their new media partner, ISC has

been able to bring the WRC to a broader audience, accessing new

services and interactive online content via wrc.com.


“We have a solidfoundation onwhich to buildinnovative servicesto leverage thebrand name tobecome marketleaders in ourfield.”

KATE GRADYINTERNET MANAGERISC

real-time as if they were actually attending in person. Furthermore, as

the online brand was being created from scratch there was the need to

build a sense of community and loyalty among the rally enthusiasts and

those coming to the WRC for the first time.

Clearly, ISC required a unique combination of skills and capabilities

to deliver its ambitious customer-focused new media site.

Kate Grady, Internet manager at ISC, explains: “We recognise that

not enough people around the world have the opportunity to view the

sport. Making the sport more accessible and available online is raising

the profile of WRC globally. It has also opened new doors to develop

interactive press capabilities and live radio broadcasting opportunities.”

The WRC’s showcase website is now continually refreshed with high

quality content written by a team of journalists operating on the ground

at each event, in addition to event profiles, driver backgrounds, and full

information on each of the teams.

More importantly, the website links into the WRC event manage-

ment system providing real-time results around the world. There is

even a live radio web cast throughout each three-day event. WRC.com

also supports the growing press coverage for the Championship, with

journalists able to download images and official releases over the

Internet.

SOLUTION

To develop this new media platform ISC turned to Accenture, the

world’s leading management and technology consultancy, to develop a

business-to-consumer interactive website.

Accenture’s first step was to partner with ISC to formulate an

aggressive new media strategy, which would help ISC meet its goals and

ensure that consistent and seamless branding occurred across all of

WRC’ s operational media platforms. With this in place, Accenture and

ISC worked with Microsoft to devise the heart of the new media cam-

paign – a flagship website (www.wrc.com) to host traffic from each

partner, including the sponsors, broadcasters and new media associates.

Grady says: “Our business is based on partnerships and trust. We

acknowledged that Accenture had the knowledge, expertise and the

successful track record to build a website that would provide enterpris-

ing solutions to cater for our short and long-term objectives. Accenture

presented us with a number of designs to reflect the functionality and16

Products and Services• Microsoft ContentManagement Server 2000• Microsoft Commerce Server2000• Microsoft ApplicationCentre Server• Microsoft SQL Server 2000• Microsoft Exchange Server2000• Microsoft® Windows 2000Advanced Server (usingActive Directory)• Microsoft consulting services

PartnersAccentureAttenda

content and made suggestions about how the website should be man-

aged once it went live.”

Accenture assessed that the technology would need to operate in an

innovative environment, harnessing a dynamic and technically demand-

ing architecture to showcase motorsport as a premier consumer event.

“ISC’s previous website was very simple,” says Stephen Deane,

development manager for Accenture. “None of the content was home

grown, and as a result, ISC had little control over its editorial. Our role

was to create and facilitate a new website that would be accountable

for strengthening the brand and sustaining a presence online. ISC liked

our ideas and we agreed that the first phase would be to produce a

publishing platform to give the company control over the website.”

Accenture identified that Microsoft’s .NET technologies offered the

best cost-effective solution to develop ISC’s marketing vehicle. An

Accenture team developed a look and feel for the site before moving

into technical and detailed design. At this stage, they worked closely

with Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS). Throughout the partnership

Accenture leveraged its special working relationship with Microsoft both

in Europe and the U.S. Once the designs were in place, a team of

Accenture designers and developers with Microsoft skills, created and

implemented the platform’s first release.

REVOLUTIONARY APPLICATIONS

Just as rally drivers take to the terrain in high performance cars, the

website uses the latest dynamic Microsoft .NET technologies. It is devel-

oped using Visual Basic to build and deploy web services. It is run on

Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server using Active Directory and

has a web and database layer to give it a two-tier architecture. The web

layer utilises Microsoft Content Management Server 2000, which is used

to drive all the WRC content including uploading of rally reports by jour-

nalists and the provision of a search mechanism.

Real-time results and other web services use SOAP and XML data-

streams from the onsite rally result system and give ISC editorial control.

Commerce Server 2000 is used for advertising management, personali-

sation and subscription to wrc.com

The database is run on Microsoft SQL Server 2000 to store and

retrieve information such as maps of rally routes, hotels in the areas,

and details on the cars and manufacturers. Microsoft Windows Media 17


“Microsoft’s .NETtechnologies havemade the websitevisually captivatingand easy to use. Itis helping us tokeep the sportfresh, alive and togive it added pres-tige. Users are ableto look at videoclips and listen toradio commentary,encouraging themto revisit the web-site time and timeagain.”

KATE GRADYINTERNET MANAGERISC

Server is responsible for serving audio and video streaming online. Rally

fans and the media can view on demand video and/or listen to live com-

mentary during rally stages. Information and results are pushed to the

website only a few seconds behind the actual event.

Andrew Muir, architectural strategy consultant at MCS, comments:

“We provided Accenture with consultancy and skills transfer to ensure

the smooth build and implementation of ISC’s website. MCS was aware

that Accenture was working to a tight deadline and was required to

have the site up and running in time for the first event of the WRC

2002 season – the Monte Carlo rally. A tight partner strategy between

Microsoft and Accenture greatly contributed to the success of the WRC

website.”

PERFORMANCE AND AVAILABILITY

Another key factor in the success of the project has been the level of

performance and availability enjoyed by the WRC site.

Attenda is Europe’s leading supplier of outsourced Internet opera-

tions and specialises in deploying complex Internet infrastructures based

on Microsoft .NET technologies. As WRC’s Internet hosting partner,

Attenda ensures that the site is fast, secure and available by designing

and managing a secure, redundant and stable infrastructure to eliminate

any single point of failure which would interrupt the availability of the

application to WRC’s users.

Stuart Bonell, chief technical architect, Attenda explains, “The site

experiences profound spikes during the championships, so we proactive-

ly monitor the architecture and the application 24/7 to ensure that we

pre-empt any issues which may affect the end user experience of WRC’s

site during these busy times.”

Attenda’s 365 day a year approach has given ISC and Accenture

peace of mind knowing that they are on hand to resolve any issues

which may occur.

WRC’s new website was the first .NET collaboration between

Attenda and Accenture, who both have a unique expertise and experi-

ence on the deployment of Microsoft technologies. The project was

completed in under four months, taking just 14 weeks to design, build

and test the WRC website.

“The site successfully went live at the first event of the WRC 2002

season during the weekend of the Monte Carlo rally – from Friday 1818

For more information on ISCproducts or services visit theirweb site at:http://www.wrc.com

For more information on Attendaproducts or services visit their web site at:http://www.attenda.net

For more information on Attendaproducts or services visit their web site at:http://www.accenture.com


January. In its first three weeks the site received over three million hits,

including traffic being driven to the site from partner websites,” says

Deane of Accenture.

BENEFITS

The WRC website is managed and kept up-to-date by ISC. Around 10

people, acting as authors, have been given access to the site, which is

controlled by a single editor. The site content is written by specialists

from the world of motorsport. It provides up-to-the-minute information

about the Championship, the drivers and the cars. It also includes rally

guides, an online newsletter and games, all contributing to the excite-

ment of the sport, before, during and after each event.

Grady adds:“The whole idea of having an interactive website is to

make it fun and to capture the imagination of the fans, as well as

appealing to a new audience who have little knowledge about the

sport. Microsoft’s .NET technologies have made the website visually cap-

tivating and easy to use. It is helping us to keep the sport fresh, alive

and to give it added prestige. Users are able to look at video clips and

listen to radio commentary, encouraging them to revisit the website

time and time again.”

THE FUTURE

ISC has been extremely pleased with the work and the results achieved

by partnering with Microsoft , Accenture and Attenda to implement rev-

olutionary .NET technologies. The site has been built to provide enter-

prise agility and incorporate further .NET functionality when it is com-

mercially sensible to do so. This may include offering users the ability to

access the WRC website via PDAs, PCs, Smart Phones and WAP.

“It is still early days, but over the Monte Carlo weekend, a three-day

event, we served more than 1.5 million pages to 160,000 users around

the world; compare this to last year where we only served 75,000

pages. The site has already made a substantial difference to the busi-

ness, despite having no strong marketing push behind it yet. It has cre-

ated an enormous opportunity for us to harmonise our relationships

with the teams, the events and the sponsors. Our presence online will

further raise the profile of WRC around the world. We have a solid

foundation on which to build innovative services to leverage the brand

name to become market leaders in our field,” concludes Grady. ■ 19

Financial Services.NET live

The Bank of New York European FundServices Group Switches Mission-CriticalFund Servicing to Microsoft .NET

21

Overview

Customer ProfileThe Bank of New YorkEuropean Fund ServicesGroup provides software andadministration solutions,transfer agency, and out-sourcing services for retailfund management compa-nies.

Business ChallengeBNY needed a platform thatcould support its fund servic-ing solution for the next10–20 years.

SolutionBNY switched to Microsoft®.NET because it offered sever-al key benefits.

Benefits• 40 percent faster time-to-market• Significant cost reduction• Richer and more respon-sive user experience• 10–15 percent increase indevelopment productivity• XML Web services for easyintegration and extension• Multi-language support foreasy internationalisation

Products and ServicesMicrosoft Windows® 2000Server or Windows .NETServer Microsoft OfficeMicrosoft SQL Server™ 2000

Switching to Microsoft® .NET for the next major version of its fund

servicing solution is delivering several strong benefits for The Bank

of New York European Fund Services Group. These include a 40

percent decrease in time-to-market, significant development cost

savings, and a richer, more responsive user experience through the

smart client capabilities of Windows® Forms. In addition, the

native support for XML Web services in .NET enables BNY to easily

integrate its new solution with customer systems, extend it to the

web, and make it available from new devices. BNY also will be

more productive in enhancing its new solution in the future, with

.NET expected to increase development productivity over the entire

product life cycle by 10 to 15 per cent.

BACKGROUND

The Bank of New York (BNY) is a premier global provider of asset servic-

ing solutions, administering just under U.S.$7 trillion worldwide –

approximately 17 per cent of global financial assets. BNY’s pre-eminence

and global specialism is based on its longstanding focus and commit-

ment to its core servicing business, resulting in leadership positions in

many of its chosen markets and ensuring that the organisation meets

the distinct and sophisticated financial asset servicing needs of fund

managers, pension funds, broker dealers, and banks.

The BNY European Fund Services Group (BNY EFS) provides software

and administration solutions, as well as transfer agency and outsourcing

services, for retail fund management companies. This business relies on

an internally developed retail fund servicing application known as

RUFUS, which was created using a proprietary fourth-generation lan-

Microsoft. NET Customer SolutionFinancial Services

“By switching to.NET, we’ll be ableto deliver 40 percent faster – almosta year earlier.”

BILL HOOKINGSHEAD OF RETAIL FUNDSPRODUCT DEVELOPMENTTHE BANK OF NEW YORK,EUROPE

guage (4GL) called Application Manager. Since its launch in 1993, in

addition to supporting BNY’s offshore administration centres in

Luxembourg and Dublin, RUFUS has grown to become the leading retail

fund servicing solution in the United Kingdom. The solution is used by

more than 40 retail fund companies, has 4,000 to 6,000 daily users,

and manages close to 6 million retail fund holdings.

To prepare for a deeper market expansion into continental Europe,

BNY EFS decided to migrate RUFUS to a mainstream platform – one

capable of supporting the application well into the future. In addition,

significant new functionality would be needed to address a much

broader range of country-specific languages, tax laws, and regulatory

requirements.

SOLUTION

After a six-week evaluation of Microsoft .NET in late 2001, The Bank of

New York European Fund Services Group decided to switch RUFUS

development to the Microsoft platform and .NET technologies. “When

we first heard about .NET, I was a bit reluctant to look at it because

we'd already started going down a different technology route with

Java,” says Bill Hookings, Head of Retail Funds Product Development for

BNY Europe. “But after having worked with it for a while now, we can

see some clear benefits in using .NET for RUFUS development.”

Previously, development required developing substantial amounts of

custom plumbing, which slowed down our work on the core applica-

tion. With the .NET Framework, infrastructural code was largely out-of-

the-box. .NET also provided excellent support for smart client applica-

tions, a model that we found impractical before. We believe that, over-

all, we are going to see a far better time-to-market for our application

with .NET.”

In phase one of the project, a software-based translator is being

used to convert Application Manager modules into C# code. Once this

is complete, developers will begin adding new features and optimising

the code to take advantage of the powerful capabilities built into the

.NET Framework. “Automated code translation was a powerful factor in

choosing .NET,” says Hookings. “It allows us to avoid manually recoding

the entire user interface for the web, as well as a significant portion of

the application’s low-level functionality. By selecting .NET, we’ll write less

custom code while delivering a richer, more responsive user experience.”22

TECHNICAL ARCHITECTURE

The new version of RUFUS is a smart client application based on

Microsoft Windows® Forms, which are the classes in the .NET

Framework for desktop application development. RUFUS takes advantage

of no-touch deployment, a feature of the .NET Framework where appli-

cation assemblies reside on a centralised server and are downloaded to

user desktops at run time. Once downloaded, the application is cached

by the .NET Framework, which intelligently communicates with the server

to ensure it always has the most current version of the application.

Because the .NET Framework is designed to run on all versions of the

Windows operating system after Windows 95, BNY EFS and its clients

will be able to run the new application by simply installing the .NET

Framework, without having to upgrade to a new version of Windows.

The client component of RUFUS takes advantage of the multi-lan-

guage capabilities built into the .NET Framework. Once the Windows

Forms assembly has been downloaded, the .NET Framework examines

the user’s current desktop language and downloads the appropriate lan-

guage-specific resource files from the server. “The .NET Framework pro-

vides excellent multi-language support – we’ve been very impressed,”

says Hookings. “This was a key benefit of moving to .NET, as our plans

will eventually require support of all major European languages: key to

pan-European fund servicing.”

The business-logic tier of the application will reside on servers run-

ning either Windows 2000 Server and the .NET Framework or Windows

.NET Server, which has the .NET Framework built-in. Within this tier, the

extensive support for eXtensible Markup Language (XML) Web Services

in the .NET Framework is used to expose functionality to the Windows

Forms client. Several other features of the .NET Framework are also

being used, enabling developers to minimise the amount of low-level

code to be written. Some of these features include:

• COM interop, which is used to integrate the server component of the

solution with a third-party postal-code lookup application. COM interop

is also used to integrate the Windows Forms client with Microsoft Office.

• Improved support for the Microsoft Message Queuing Service

(MSMQ), which is used to loosely couple the core application to sup-

porting legacy functionality using a message queuing approach.

• ADO.NET, the loosely coupled data access mechanism built into the

.NET Framework, which is used to provide access to the database tier of 23

Products and Services(contd)Microsoft Visual Studio® .NETMicrosoft .NET Framework• ADO.NET• COM interop• XML Web services• SQL Server Managed Provider• Windows Forms


“By selecting .NET,we’ll write lesscustom code whiledelivering a richer,more responsiveuser experience.”

BILL HOOKINGSHEAD OF RETAIL FUNDSPRODUCT DEVELOPMENTTHE BANK OF NEW YORK,EUROPE

the solution. ADO.NET is used in conjunction with the Microsoft SQL

Server™ Managed Provider, which increases performance when access-

ing a SQL Server database.

The database tier of the new solution is based on SQL Server 2000.

Following the n-tier design principles supported by the Microsoft platform

enables the bank to easily separate the solution’s business-logic and data-

base tiers, scaling each one separately as required to support growth.

Microsoft Visual Studio® .NET provides an integrated development

environment (IDE) for the entire RUFUS development effort, enabling

developers to work across the application’s multiple tiers without having

to switch interfaces or tools. According to developers working on the

project, some of the features in Visual Studio .NET that are proving to

be especially useful include:

• Dynamic help, which provides instant, context-sensitive access to doc-

umentation without having to leave the development environment.

• Intelligent editors, which provide developers with statement comple-

tion and syntax notification.

• The Windows Forms designer, which enables the creation of smart

client applications using the same familiar drag-and-drop techniques

used with the Microsoft Visual Basic® development system – an envi-

ronment that many of the Bank’s developers already know.

BENEFITS

Lower Costs and Accelerated Time-to-Market

According to Hookings, switching to Microsoft .NET will significantly

decrease development costs and reduce time-to-market by 12 months. He

attributes a significant portion of these benefits to the extensive pre-built

functionality in the .NET Framework and the increase in developer produc-

tivity made possible by Visual Studio .NET. “By switching to .NET, we’ll be

able to deliver 40 per cent faster – almost a year earlier,” says Hookings.

Better User Experience

With its built-in support for a smart desktop client, .NET will enable BNY

EFS to deliver a better end-user experience. “.NET has exceptional sup-

port for the smart client model,” says Hookings. “People are used to

RUFUS having a full-featured, responsive user interface. With .NET and

Windows Forms, we get the advantages of a smart client along with the

benefits of centralised administration and application deployment.”24


Increased Development Productivity

Hookings predicts that the team supporting RUFUS will be 10 to 15 per

cent more productive over the entire product life cycle. In addition to

providing significant cost savings, this will decrease the time required to

deliver new features, thus increasing the ability of BNY EFS to win new

business as it expands its target market.

“Not only is .NET making our developers more productive, but

we’re seeing a real enthusiasm for embracing new skills and transition-

ing to a new language,” says Hookings. “Because Visual Studio .NET is

closer to what they already know, they are productive in as little as two

weeks.”

Built-in Security

By using .NET, developers can take advantage of the built-in security

features of the Windows operating system. The new version of RUFUS

uses integrated Windows security mechanisms to authenticate the client

to the server and uses the Active Directory® service as a repository for

all security-related information.

Access to the Broadest Possible Customer Base

Exposing the solution’s functionality as a set of XML Web Services pro-

vides a standards-based interface that can be used to integrate directly

with customer systems, to service a web-based front end, and to sup-

port a wide variety of new devices. This will enable BNY EFS to engage

with potential customers regardless of their existing systems or how

they prefer to access RUFUS.

SUMMARY

By switching to the Microsoft platform and .NET technologies, The Bank

of New York European Fund Services Group is saving money, accelerat-

ing time-to-market, and delivering a better product. Just as important,

the company is assured that its chosen platform is supported by

Microsoft and therefore here to stay.

“We’re making a huge investment and need a platform that’s going

to be around for the next 10 to 20 years,” Hookings says. “We feel very

comfortable that .NET is here to stay and that our decision to create our

next-generation RUFUS application on .NET will have a positive impact

on our ability to serve our customers and market the product.” ■ 25

26

Nationwide Increases DistributionChannels While Lowering DevelopmentCosts Using Visual Studio .NET

A business value analysis based on the Rapid Economic Justification

(REJ) framework, approved by Atos KPMG Consulting, confirmed that

migrating to Microsoft® Visual Studio® .NET and using the .NET

Framework to reconfigure its business processes as XML Web Services

will enable the Nationwide Building Society to increase market share,

lower development costs, and achieve faster time to market. A simpli-

fied product delivery process through XML Web Services could help

improve customer satisfaction and help increase revenue by opening

new distribution channels. IT development time for process changes is

expected to be reduced from eight days to less than one hour, and

96 per cent of custom code can be retired. Online business process-

related support requests are expected to be reduced by 80 per cent.

As a result of migrating to Visual Studio .NET, Nationwide Building

Society expects a rapid return on investment.

BACKGROUND

As a leading mortgage lender in the United Kingdom, the Nationwide

Building Society has utilised information technologies (IT) to automate

business processes resulting in a year-on-year membership growth of 10

per cent for each of the last five years.

Nationwide achieved this success by using proprietary applications

developed in-house to streamline the electronic mortgage application

and lending process for its multiple partners that comprised its distribu-

tion channel. When first developed, these applications were models of

efficient development.

With increasing frequency, new updates required extensive time by

senior developers, were challenging to modify or refresh, and required a

great deal of customised support.

With the recent advent of commercially available off-the-shelf devel-

opment software, Nationwide recognised that its market advantage,

gained by its strategic and tactical use of IT, could be compromised

unless it improved its ability to rapidly update its business processes

“We used the REJframework toassess the financialvalue andtechnologybenefits of movingto Visual Studio.NET and adoptinga Web Servicesdistribution model.Visual Studio .NETwill be thebackbone of ournew developmentenvironment andenable us tochange ourbusiness modeland cost-effectivelyachieve ourbusiness and socialobjectives.”

MIKE WARWICKCHIEF ARCHITECTNATIONWIDE BUILDINGSOCIETY


27

Overview

Customer ProfileAs one of the UK’s leadingfinancial institutions and thelargest mutual building socie-ty in the world, NationwideBuilding Society offers a com-prehensive range of servicesincluding mortgages, savings,banking, insurance, pensions,loans and commercial lend-ing, and home rental servicesThe organisation engages in2 to 3 million financial trans-actions per day.

Business ChallengeA Rapid EconomicJustification (REJ) analysis,reviewed and approved byAtos KPMG Consulting, wasconducted to assess the busi-ness value that Nationwidecan expect from adoptingMicrosoft® Visual Studio®.NET and Web Services basedon Microsoft .NET technolo-gies to develop proprietaryapplications for its mortgagelending operations.

SolutionThe REJ study validated thefinancial viability of com-pletely replacingNationwide's proprietary in-house runtime environmentand associated developmentmethods with MicrosoftVisual Studio .NET and other.NET technologies.

while simultaneously increasing the efficiency of its developers and low-

ering support calls.

“We looked for an IT solution that would help us increase the agility

and operational flexibility we needed to accomplish three objectives,”

said John Sutherland, Director of Mortgage Business for Nationwide.

“We needed to generate new revenue by growing our market share,

finding new customers, and improving the efficiency of our IT develop-

ment processes to meet urgent regulatory changes.”

QUANTUM LEAP

Nationwide turned to Microsoft Visual Studio .NET and the .NET

Framework to provide a quantum leap in developer productivity that is

projected to result in an extraordinary improvement in the efficiency of

its development team. Further, the re-configuration of its online mort-

gage lending application to an XML Web service is expected to greatly

improve customer satisfaction and result in increased revenue through

its channel partners.

Mike Warwick, Chief Architect for Nationwide Building Society

explained, “We could either continue to develop and support our exist-

ing application, which has taken over 40 person-years to develop, or we

could adopt a technology migration strategy and upgrade to a next

generation development platform. We used the REJ framework to con-

firm the financial value and technology benefits of moving to Visual

Studio .NET and adopting a Web Services distribution model. The REJ

validated our initial assertions. And, the prototype project that we com-

pleted absolutely demonstrated that we are on the right track. Visual

Studio .NET will be the backbone of our new development environment

and enable us to change our business model and cost-effectively

achieve our business and social objectives.”

As a result of using the Rapid Economic Justification analysis to affirm

the organisation’s assessment of its prototype application, Nationwide

intends to use Visual Studio .NET as its development platform. Initial

deployment is anticipated to be completed by the end of 2002.

FOCUS ON SOLVING BUSINESS PROBLEMS

Nationwide’s competitive leadership is due in large part to its effective

technology strategy and efficient use of the intellectual capital repre-

sented by its IT professionals. Development and use of Nationwide’s

Process Author runtime environment, the technology platform that con-

tributes to a large part of the organisation’s success, depended on use

of very scarce, very skilled senior development talent. These developers

focused on analysing industry data and building highly effective tools

that delivered high-end mortgage products to customers.

New commercial off-the-shelf technology could provide

Nationwide’s competitors with similar tools to develop competing prod-

ucts, thus potentially eroding Nationwide’s market share. At the same

time, Nationwide recognised that these new technologies, most impor-

tantly Visual Studio .NET, could replace part or all of its Process Author

technology.

A pilot project was conducted for one aspect of its online mortgage

process using Visual Studio .NET. As a result of successfully completing

this pilot, Nationwide decided to stop being a tools developer and

instead focus on using Visual Studio .NET to replace its proprietary

development environment.

“Nationwide has a limited number of senior IT professionals expert

in development for our platform,” noted Hugh Young, Senior Architect,

for Technology Support at Nationwide Building Society. “We need to be

able to leverage the available expertise to solve resilience-related issues

such as load balancing, points of failure, reporting of errors, and system

health checks.”

Dave Green, Senior Architect for Nationwide explained, “By adopt-

ing Visual Studio .NET, Nationwide can replace its Process Author soft-

ware in a seamless multi-stage migration. The Visual Studio .NET devel-

opment environment lowers development risk by providing predictable

behaviour, familiar tools and object-oriented functionality. This gives our

developers control over the development design, configuration manage-

ment, and testing processes.”

The Visual Studio .NET common language environment enables pro-

grammers familiar with any major object-oriented language to code for

the pilot project without need to know language-specific class libraries.

This enabled management to reassign its most highly skilled develop-

ment specialists to higher value-added tasks aligned more to business28

“In our new WebServicesenvironment,MicrosoftWindows® 2000Server will be usedto host a widerange ofapplications andservices that weoffer. Combiningour developmentenvironment ofVisual Studio .NETand our runtimeenvironment ofWindows 2000Server will provideus greater IToperationalefficiencies and anoverall lower costof ownership.”

PETER SNIPESENIOR DEVELOPMENTMANAGERNATIONWIDE BUILDINGSOCIETY


Benefits• Migrating to Visual Studio.NET is projected to enableNationwide’s IT group toretire 96 per cent of existingcustom code and in theprocess have 80 per centfewer IT support requests• NET Framework enablesnew business model based onXML Web Services and fastertime to market with newproducts.• XML-based data exchangesimplified product deliveryamongst legacy environ-ments. • Multi-language and object-oriented development envi-ronment enables faster andmore efficient development.

PartnerAtos KPMG Consulting

units than to specific language skills. The resulting focus on business

rather than technology issues enabled Nationwide to increase market

share more easily than they could with their old development platform.

WEB SERVICES BUSINESS MODEL ENABLES NEW MARKETS

The UK mortgage lending process is complex and involves many people.

Groups within Nationwide, as well as real estate brokers and other

intermediaries, provide referrals for up to 60 per cent of Nationwide’s

monthly mortgage lending business. The central part of this process is

the application in principle.

• Nationwide administers the application in principle by processing

mortgage data through a set of parallel but separate channels, one each

for branches, brokers and other intermediaries, and online transactions.

• Each channel delivers services with somewhat different capabilities in a

sequential process, in which delays can occur while branch, broker or

Nationwide staff members assemble needed information in one step

before engaging in the next.

• Intermediaries and brokers often used their own variations of business

rules to the application in principle process in the business they referred

to Nationwide.

• The existing information system architecture at Nationwide provided

little opportunity to consolidate and analyse management information

across different channels.

Regulatory changes in the UK mortgage industry further complicate

the picture. Technical reports for the UK mortgage industry indicated

that increasing use of the Internet as an e-business platform would

exacerbate price competition, challenge customer retention, and change

the nature of product and customer services. The report recommended

that in this new and highly competitive environment, lenders must

actively use the Internet to avert the rapid commoditisation of credit

and meet changing consumer demands.

Further changes in UK regulatory requirements mandated that bro-

kers and other intermediaries apply the same business rules as the initi-

ating lender, yet at the same time did not require intermediaries to be

part of the main lender’s business process. In other words, the only

value-add that the intermediary provided was market access. The inter-

mediary was then compensated when the mortgage transaction was

completed. 29

Nationwide recognised that as a result of these new regulations,

and its use of technology, it could easily adopt a Web Services business

model and use its channel partners to drive business to the main

Nationwide Web site.

“Using Visual Studio .NET to develop XML Web Services will enable

Nationwide to increase its multi-channel distribution capability by

adding different market segments through independent sales channels

and intermediaries,” said Francis Walsh, Divisional Director, Technology

for Nationwide Building Society.

“This will enable Nationwide to establish a standard data exchange

environment, in which mortgage data in the form of XML documents

are passed to, from, and within Nationwide and our external collabora-

tors according to consistently applied business rules. This will simplify

the mortgage lending process and enable Nationwide to provide cus-

tomers with answers to their mortgage product questions while they

wait on the phone.”

FASTER TIME TO MARKET

Nationwide’s proprietary Process Author environment provided the firm

with a product/service delivery process and a tightly managed develop-

ment approach that made it the UK market leader. Nationwide used its

Process Author tools both at development and run time. Now, as

“Using VisualStudio .NET todevelop XML WebServices will enableNationwide toincrease its multi-channeldistributioncapability byadding differentmarket segmentsthroughindependent saleschannels andintermediaries.”

FRANCIS WALSHDIVISIONAL DIRECTOR,TECHNOLOGYNATIONWIDE BUILDINGSOCIETY


Nationwide IT development efforts align more with business objectives,

rather than to skill sets of IT developers, the company considered migra-

tion to an environment based on the common language runtime in

Visual Studio .NET.

Using Visual Studio .NET to convert its Process Author environment

to the .NET common language run-time, and using XML technology to

provide a standardised, reliable data exchange format, is projected to

enable Nationwide to increase its speed of development in creating Web

Services. Expected benefits of using Visual Studio .NET include:

• Rapid time to market with new products and services – Implementation

time for process changes reduced 99 per cent, from eight days to less

than one hour, thus enabling developers to update products and services

once a week rather than the then current cycle of several months.

• Lower technical support costs – Simpler technical environment

enabled an 80 per cent reduction in support requests.

• Lines of code decreased – Legacy application that took 40 person-

years and 250,000 lines of code reduced 96 per cent to 10,000 lines of

code using common language runtime.

• XML-based standardised data exchange environment – Enables devel-

opers to define, retrieve, and move data between very heterogeneous

hardware infrastructure and standardise the working data set.

• Improved use of development resources – Skill level required of sup-

port personnel was decreased due to simpler application to use for end-

users, and for administrators to operate and maintain, resulting in less

need for senior developers to perform basic infrastructure development.

”The Process Author environment operates on a shared, hard-to-

change infrastructure supported by scarce but highly skilled personnel,”

explained Pete Snipe, Senior Development Manager for Nationwide

Building Society.

“Over time, mergers and other organisational changes resulted in a

complex IT operating environment, in which different mainframe sys-

tems were used to handle different business processes, including con-

sumer products and services, and internal operations. In our new Web

Services environment, Microsoft Windows® 2000 Server will be used to

host a wide range of applications and services that we offer. Combining

our development environment of Visual Studio .NET and our runtime

environment of Windows 2000 Server will provide us greater IT opera-

tional efficiencies and an overall lower cost of ownership.” ■ 31

For more information go towww.atoskpmgconsulting.co.uk

Retail Services.NET live

World class Visual Studio .NET connectsbusiness travellers for hotel bookings

33

Overview

Customer ProfileHogg Robinson is a specialistcorporate and employee serv-ices company providing out-sourcing consultancy prod-ucts to UK and internationalclients. Its main businessstreams are focused on cor-porate travel, employee ben-efits consulting, pensionsprocessing and administra-tion, pensions software ande-commerce.

Business Challenge• To develop a website thatlinks business travellers withhotels and travel information• To control costs and auto-mate processes• To improve communicationEase of integration withexisting systems

SolutionTo develop a self-serviceonline hotel booking service.

Benefits• Automated transactions andimproved communications• Can view pre-arranged roomrates and options• Reduction in telephone traffic• Supported infrastructure andlower cost of ownership• secure, robust and flexibleenvironment• Integration with other systems

Hogg Robinson, technology provider for BTI UK, is spearheading

the development of a new XML-enabled version of a self-service

online hotel booking solution. Leveraging dynamic Microsoft Visual

Studio .NET, Hogg Robinson has revolutionised its infrastructure

and now has the capability to expand product offering by linking

business travellers to hotels and travel information.

BACKGROUND

Hogg Robinson is a specialist corporate and employee services company

providing outsourcing consultancy products to UK and international

clients. Its main business streams are focused on corporate travel,

employee benefits consulting, pensions processing and administration,

pensions software and e-commerce. The company employs 7,000 peo-

ple in offices throughout the UK and internationally.

BTI UK, Hogg Robinson’s business travel company in the UK, oper-

ates a number of business service centres, which arrange travel. Many

of the world’s leading companies have chosen BTI as their travel man-

agement company because it provides a global reach service linked to

quality and value for money. BTI UK identified that the Internet repre-

sented a big opportunity to control time and costs, and also change the

way business travel is contracted and communicated.

Many business travellers’ requirements are so intricate that they pre-

fer personal contact, but BTI UK believes that certain types of transac-

tions could be automated and managed more effectively online. To test

this concept, it initiated a pilot with one of its biggest clients in the UK,

a large telecom company.

This client is a frequent hotel-user, requiring overnight accommoda-

tion for its staff throughout the UK. The client also decided to move its

purchasing processes online. But, as many hotels are not yet online, BTI

UK was able to act as a go-between, meeting both corporate require-

ments of the client and the needs of its business travellers, thanks to

Microsoft technologies.

Microsoft. NET Customer SolutionRetail

“Because we arepart of a largeinternationalorganisation with avariety of serviceand transaction –related businesses,we needed to becertain that wewere choosingtechnology thatwould allow us tointegrate differentsystems quickly.”

PAUL SAGGARDIRECTOR TECHNOLOGYDEVELOPMENTHOGG ROBINSON’SBUSINESS TECHNOLOGYDIVISION

SOLUTION

Paul Saggar, director of technology development at Hogg Robinson’s

business technology division, says: “Making inquiries about travel

arrangements can be time consuming for the traveller and expensive for

the client. A new web product would cut down telephone traffic when

customers are simply trying to identify a location and room details.”

Hogg Robinson’s business technology team, headed by Bill Brindle,

business technology director, created a specialist division specifically to

provide e-business and e-commerce solutions to Hogg Robinson’s UK

and international clients, developed the new system in-house.

As a large user of Microsoft technology, Hogg Robinson already had

significant Microsoft development expertise. A team of 15 set about

building the solution.

Hogg Robinson was confident that Microsoft was the ideal develop-

ment and hosting platform for the website. It decided to build the solu-

tion using the powerful Microsoft Visual Studio .NET. Saggar says:

“Because we are part of a large international organisation with a variety

of services and transaction-related businesses, we needed to be certain

that we were choosing technology that would allow us to integrate dif-

ferent systems quickly.”

KEY COMPONENTS

Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server was selected as its operating

system. Clustered Microsoft SQL Servers run the .NET application. The

team used COM components written in Visual Basic and a user interface

programmed in ASP.NET, accessed through COM interop to create the

elements of the online hotel booking facility. The technologies offered

faster time-to- market, better integration capabilities through web serv-

ices and better versioning management of components and higher lev-

els of performance.

It also provided a platform that could be scaled for future applica-

tions. The system was configured using ASP.NET to provide high-level

security and quick development and deployment.

Guy Dickerson, business development manager for retail, manufac-

turing and services at Microsoft Consulting Services, adds: “Hogg

Robinson has tracked what we have been doing with the Web Services

and .NET technology for quite some time. It had been using a Beta

product of .NET prior to the availability of Visual Studio .NET through34


Products and Services• Microsoft Windows® 2000Server• Microsoft Visual Studio.NETMicrosoft SQL Server 2000

our early adopter programme. The e-commerce team discovered that

the .NET framework made it significantly easier. A lot of the facilities are

built-in and the productivity of developers creating web services

increased dramatically thanks to the interactive capabilities within Visual

Studio .NET. Hogg Robinson has been extremely pleased with the results

achieved with Microsoft technologies.”

BENEFITS

Since the launch of the online hotel booking solution, Hogg Robinson

has been enjoying a wealth of benefits. Travellers are able to view pre-

arranged room rates and options, resulting in a reduced number of

‘shopping calls’ – where travellers telephone a central service office to

check availability.

BTI UK’s service centres are also able to dedicate more time to trav-

ellers with lengthy and more complex requirements, because clients

with simple requests can use the automated processes.

Saggar continues: “When travellers log on, the website automatical-

ly shows the location of all the hotels nearest to their company offices.

The website also displays information relating to the hotel booked and a

weather report for the area. Confirmation of the booking is notified via

email and/or fax depending on the client’s preference.”

Using XML will also enable BTI UK to link to external systems, like

Galileo and Amadeus the booking systems widely used by travel agents.

Galileo is a provider of electronic global distribution services (GDS) con-

necting more than 40,300 travel agency locations to over 500 airlines,

39 car rental companies, 44,700 hotel properties, and all the major

cruise lines. Galileo also uses Microsoft .NET Enterprise Servers, which

make the transactions faster.

Bill Brindle, business technology director at Hogg Robinson, adds:

“Hogg Robinson is one of the first companies in the UK to develop a

new XML-enabled version of its online hotel booking solution built

using Microsoft Visual Studio .NET. We were an early adopter of .NET

with both MSDN and Microsoft running training sessions for our devel-

opment teams. We have a large community of C++ and Visual Basic

developers who were initially sceptical about Visual Basic.NET. But once

their questions were answered we decided that it was the best option

for our product demands. We now have an application that is being

used not only by the client, but also by our own front-line agents.” ■ 35

36

lastminute.com seizes the day withMicrosoft .NET

Based on the idea of matching supply and demand, lastminute.com

currently offers consumers the opportunity to buy flights, holidays,

hotels, entertainments, gifts, auctions and a speciality ‘Staying In’

section – aiming to provide the ultimate lifestyle solution. As one of

Europe’s leading online brands, the ability to understand its cus-

tomers and react to their needs is paramount. Thanks to Microsoft’s

.NET platform, lastminute.com can deliver a truly personalised

online experience to its customers, targeting them the right product

at the right time on the right device.

COMPANY BACKGROUND

Founded by Brent Hoberman and Martha Lane Fox in 1998,

lastminute.com was launched as a online marketplace bringing together

customers in search of inspiration and solutions at the last minute.

With seven offices across Europe, and in South Africa and Australia,

the company is at the forefront of the online retail revolution and has

earned a reputation for rapidly expanding its customer base. Full year

TTV will be in excess of £122 million for the Group, 3.5 times the figure

for the same period last year. At the same time, its customer base has

grown from 2 million to over 4 million.

THE CHALLENGE

As one of Europe’s top online brands, lastminute.com is constantly

focussed on improving its service to customers. It needs to have the agility

to identify and respond to opportunities fast, enter new markets and sus-

tain customer growth and turnover. How could it achieve this goal in what

is one of Europe’s most highly competitive and demanding marketplaces?

The company is continually looking for new technology strategies

that answer this challenge and earlier this year the company decided to

adopt Microsoft’s .NET platform, which comprises the clients, servers,

tools and services that enable retailers to enhance relationships with

customers with services that have traditionally been too costly or com-

plicated to develop.

”lastminute.comwanted to find aservice that wouldenable customersto tell us whatservices and infor-mation they wouldlike to receive,rather than a one-size-fits all strategy.Microsoft’s .NETvision will enableus to deliver thisvision ahead of thecompetition.“

BABAK FOULADIHEAD OF NEW PLATFORMSLASTMINUTE.COM


Babak Fouladi, head of new platforms, is enthusiastic about the

potential of Microsoft .NET. to help lastminute.com deliver fluid, intelli-

gent and dynamic services to customers. ”We wanted to find a service

that would enable lastminute.com customers to tell us what services

and information they would like to receive, rather than a one-size-fits all

strategy. Microsoft’s .NET vision will enable us to deliver this vision

ahead of the competition.“

XML WEB SERVICES

lastminute.com is taking full advantage of MyServices, a key component

of the .NET platform. These are applications that enable customers to

personalise their experience of the Internet and their own corporate net-

works. The company is implementing:

• Passport Services – enables customers to log-on rapidly to

lastminute.com;

• MyAlerts – enables customers to receive rapid notification of offers

and deals that match their personal preferences.

• Passport Services – broadening the customer base

Microsoft Passport Services is a suite of e-business services that

makes using the web and purchasing goods and services online easier,

faster, and more secure for its members. It will help lastminute.com

increase sales and build stronger customer relationship

• MyAlerts – delivering a customer-centric experience

Microsoft MyAlerts gives businesses a powerful new communication

tool that allows them to reach customers in ways that are relevant and

actionable. MyAlerts is an opt-in service in which users sign up to

receive alerts from a specific provider, so that they can quickly be noti-

fied of important events and act on that information.

For example, rather than simply sending a customer an e-mail mes-

sage that could sit in an inbox for days, a MyAlerts provider can send a

simple XML message to the MyAlerts service. This service then intelli-

gently routes that message to a user's desktop, cellular phone, mobile

device, or e-mail address – all based on the user's preferences. The user

can then click on that alert and be directed back to the provider's site 37

Overview

Customer Profilelastminute.com is an onlinemarketplace bringing togeth-er customers in search ofinspiration and solutions atthe last minute.

Business ChallengeTo deliver truly-personalised,targeted information.

SolutionBased on the .NET platformincluding MyAlerts andPassport Services.

Benefits• Customers set their ownpreferences with MyAlerts, solastminute.com delivers theinformation they really want• Increased business efficien-cy through customer detailsheld in one place • Faster, easier customertransactions

Products and ServicesMicrosoft® Windows®Microsoft OfficeMicrosoft SQL Server™Microsoft Visual Studio® Microsoft Exchange ServerMicrosoft Commerce ServerMicrosoft Internet Securityand Acceleration Server Microsoft Host Integration ServerMicrosoft BizTalk® ServerMicrosoft Application CenterMicrosoft Mobile Information ServerMicrosoft Consulting Services

”All theseapplications enablelastminute.com torapidly deliver aneven richer onlinecustomerexperience. We areconfident thatMicrosoft willenable us to growour business.“

BABAK FOULADIHEAD OF NEW PLATFORMS,LASTMINUTE.COM

for more information. In other words, lastminute.com can now notify

customers of advance information, special offers and discounts on trav-

el, music or sport, depending on their preferences.

lastminute.com will also send customers targeted information

though tabs – small windows contained within Microsoft Windows XP

that flash open on PCs, PDA or mobile phone screens. ”All these appli-

cations enable lastminute.com to rapidly deliver an even richer online

customer experience. We are confident that Microsoft will enable us to

grow our business,“ says Fouladi.

EMBRACING MOBILITY

Fouladi is also excited by the way in which Web Services help customers

to manage and protect information across all applications, devices and

services. ”Customers can access lastminute.com from any device – PC,

PDA or mobile. When you think about our type of customer – people

who buy goods and services at the last minute from any location – this

fits in with our strategy and vision perfectly. We think mobility is an

essential part of people’s lives, and Web Services will play a key role in

our strategy,“ says Fouladi.

.NET – THE PLATFORM OF THE FUTURE

.NET will play a significant role in lastminute.com’s ongoing drive to

expand its customer base and deliver outstanding levels of service to vis-

itors. Above all, it will enable the company to retain its position as a

truly innovative business, setting the standard in the online marketplace.

Says Fouladi: ”lastminute.com is excited by the potential of .NET. It will

enable us to delight our customers by offering them relevant person-

alised offers wherever they are, via any device.“ ■

World’s Leading Online Grocer Migrates to .NET

39

Overview

Customer ProfileTesco.com is the world’s lead-ing on-line grocery businesswith daily sales of £6 millionand 1 million registeredusers.

Business ChallengeIncrease speed and productiv-ity of development process.Improve the on-line shoppingexperience and increase cus-tomer loyalty. Enable newsmart devices such as WAPphones and palmtops toaccess Tesco.com.

Solution• Use Microsoft .NET plat-form including .NETFramework and Visual Studio.NET, in particular C#, tobuild XML Web services • Offer customers the optionto log on using .NET Passportand receive notifications via.NET Alerts

Benefits• Highly scalable and secure• Fast, highly productivedevelopment using C# and.NET framework• Use of standard and opentechnologies maximisesfuture options

Products and ServicesMicrosoft .NET Framework – Microsoft XML Web Services

By the end of 2000, Tesco was both the UK’s top food retailer and

the world’s leading on-line grocer. But the company’s IT depart-

ment was not resting on its laurels. With business at Tesco.com ris-

ing towards £6 million per week, the department aimed to estab-

lish a software infrastructure able to handle fast long-term growth

in the scope and scale of on-line services.

BACKGROUND

Tesco.com is built on Microsoft e-commerce software with a standard

three-tier structure. The foundations for this are Windows 2000 Advance

Server and SQL Server 2000. Business process middleware was imple-

mented using COM (component object model) components written in

Visual Basic 6. The software runs on more than 40 web-facing servers

located at Tesco’s two IT centres in Welwyn Garden City. From here,

orders from a registered user base of 1 million are sent to SQL Servers at

local stores, which generate picking lists and process payments.

This system has helped make Tesco.com not only the world’s largest

online grocery store but also one of the most profitable. To maintain this

record, Tesco constantly evaluates new technologies, working with the

IVIS Group, a Microsoft Solution Partner. As part of this policy, the compa-

ny began looking at Microsoft’s .NET technology in November 2000.

Jon Higgins, head of e-commerce development at Tesco, was

impressed by what he saw. “We like Microsoft’s user-centric view of the

way ahead,” he says. “The .NET concept gives users more control, making

it quick and easy for them to get all they want from an on-line service –

which ties in well with our own aims. We are also attracted by the

prospect of being able to add new facilities very rapidly and creating extra

sales channels via devices, such as palmtops and digital TVs,” he says.


"With .NET inplace, we can movequickly to providecompelling newfacilities withoutdevelopment costdamaging thebottom line. It letsus provide the kindof customerexperience tofinally convincepeople that usingour online storecan save severalhours a week andmatch manyattractions ofgoing out to asupermarket."

JON HIGGINSHEAD OF E-COMMERCEDEVELOPMENTTESCO

IVIS had already won the Microsoft’s E-commerce Solution of the Year

Award for Western Europe for its work on Tesco.com. Now the company

was determined to help build on this success by using the new technolo-

gy to help Tesco offer its on-line customers further benefits.

MANAGING GROWTH

Over the five years since it started, Tesco.com’s business had grown dra-

matically. It was clear that as this continued the service’s technology plat-

form would have to be upgraded. At the same time, customers were

becoming more sophisticated and demanding. This presented the IT

department and IVIS with a challenge. They had to constantly scale and

refine existing facilities and, simultaneously, add new business processes

to improve and extend the customer experience.

In addition, a new wave of handheld communications and computing

devices was emerging, promising to make online shopping an ‘anytime, any-

where’ activity. But, while the new WAP phones and communicating palm-

tops offered opportunities, each type required its own Tesco.com interface.

With existing methods, the development workload to cater for this was

daunting.“We needed a new development framework and toolset that

would let us expose our service via all types of smart devices quickly and easi-

ly,” says Higgins. “The framework would also have to help us add new busi-

ness processes to enrich our service and keep it ahead of the competition.”

Tesco had already extended its online store to include electrical goods,

CDs, books and other products. Rather than build its own supply chains to

do this, the company linked its site with business partners who provide

product information and fulfil orders. Success with this strategy highlighted

the potential to sell a much wider variety of products and services through

Tesco.com. To make the most of this, the IT department wanted a way to

establish deeper interaction between sites without investing excessive

development time. It was already using the XML (eXtensible Mark-up

Language) data format to implement links with partners’ sites, but it now

needed a complete framework for sharing data and functionality.

While they were meeting these objectives, the Tesco IT team also

wanted to build a new off-line client to maximise the advantages of

shopping off-line. In its early days, Tesco.com had distributed an off-line

client together with its list of 80,000 products on CD-ROM, updating

this online via a difference file. As modem speeds and Internet perform-

ance improved, online access became a better option for most cus-40

Products and Services(contd)Microsoft Visual Studio.Net –primarily C#SOAP

PartnersThe IVIS Group The DAT Group

tomers. However, some users remained faithful to the off-line method

because of its lower telecom costs, and the new client would bring their

shopping experience up to the standard of the latest on-line client.

“With developments of a new client and Web Services running in

parallel, it was essential they were fully compatible and synchronised, so

customers were aware of the benefits, but not the transition process,”

says Higgins. “We needed solutions that were highly compatible both

with each other and with our existing software.”

XML SERVICE SOLUTION

Having studied and tested .NET, both Tesco and IVIS believed it provided a

practical, affordable way to meet all their foreseeable needs. .NET overlays

the Windows environment, providing developers with a powerful, high-

level platform for developing services that realise the Internet’s full poten-

tial. Like Microsoft’s family of servers that underpin its operation, it can be

scaled at incremental cost to support any number of users.

Tesco decided to start taking advantage of these abilities by exposing

Tesco.com business functions via XML Web Services created using .NET. This

would not only make it simpler to integrate new business functions, but

also opened the way for Tesco.com to interoperate more easily with third-

party systems and client software, including its new off-line shopping facility.

The .NET Framework with its CLR (Common Language Runtime)

allowed the new XML Web Services to work seamlessly with existing

Tesco.com business objects created using COM+ and Visual Basic. They

could also interact with SQL Servers in the existing system’s data layer, and

Windows 2000 Web servers in the presentation layer. On the user side,

the XML Web Services interact with existing and new on- and off-line

clients. They can also be quickly adapted to serve WAP phones, palmtops

and set-top boxes when customer demand requires.

The development team saved more time when linking with its supply

partners. With Web Services communicating via SOAP (Simple Object

Access Protocol) running over HTTP, it is straightforward to integrate with

any Internet-connected system anywhere.

Working with Tesco’s in house team, IVIS began its .NET migration

project by creating XML Web Services to work with eight key business

functions in Tesco.com. These were the Home page (the welcome page of

the Tesco.com website); Log-in service (authenticates customers’ identi-

ties); Product file (a full list of products available at the customer’s local 41


“Speed and ease ofdevelopment,scalability andreturn oninvestment are allgood with .NET.Developers like theC# language andthe .NETFramework givesthem powerfultools and makes iteasier to managelarger numbers ofbusiness objects.”

JON HIGGINSHEAD OF E-COMMERCEDEVELOPMENTTESCO

store); Product search (lets customers search for particular products);

Basket service (lets shoppers select and view their purchases); Favourites

(lets shoppers compile a list of favourite products); Promotions (shows

customers products on promotion); Checkout (where customers pay for

goods using their credit cards).

The services were coded using Visual Studio.NET, in particular the new

Microsoft C# language. This combines the precision of C++ with the pro-

ductivity of Visual Basic, allowing the XML Web Services to be produced

quickly. The Services are autonomous, but can interoperate freely with

each other and other systems removing the need to duplicate data and

functions. “The .NET framework and C# gave us a fully integrated and

productive toolset suited to large-scale applications,” said Qusai Sarraf,

Chief Executive at the IVIS Group. “The assemblies available in .NET

libraries also provide wide-ranging functionality together with a high-level

of refinement, and we have been able to re-use these and our own cod-

ing extensively during the development.”

IMPROVING THE CUSTOMER SERVICE

In addition to Web Services for existing business objects, Tesco is adding

two new services. These are both developed by Microsoft to make life easi-

er for customers. Microsoft Passport provides an alternative sign-on option

that outsources authentication to the Passport site, making sign on simply

a matter of inputting an e-mail address and personal password. Once this

is done, making payments is a one-click operation. Tesco also intends to

implement the Microsoft .NET Alerts service early in 2002. This will be used

to send order confirmations to customers automatically and, for instance,

notify them when there is a special offer on products they buy regularly.

While the Tesco IT team was working with IVIS on Web Services, it

appointed the DAT Group, a Microsoft Solution Provider Partner, to pro-

duce the new off-line client. DAT’s brief was to combine the rich experi-

ence enjoyed by online customers with all the benefits of shopping off-

line. This had to be done without the added complication of a CD-ROM.

The software, developed in just three months, is a proprietary solution

that provides a robust user experience and a fast search capability within a

product range of 25,000 items. The captive browser Active X component

seamlessly integrates with the online web site to utilise the existing check-

out process, preserving business logic without duplication and providing

the maximum degree of upgradability. 42

For more information go towww.datgroup.com

For more information go to www.ivisgroup.comNash BangarSenior Business ManagerIVIS Group– Mission Critical XMLCP House 97-107 Uxbridge RdEaling, London W5 5TLTel +44 (0)20 8579 3335Fax +44 (0)20 8579 [email protected]

DAT’s design process has ensured the maximum extensibility and low-

est maintenance overhead for software. New functionality, as well as pre-

sentational changes, can be made without any impact on the end user’s

PC, which is an important consideration for home users.

DAT also worked with IVIS and Tesco on specifying the XML Web

Services to ensure these interacted as efficiently as possible with their off-

line counterparts. To exchange XML data with the Web Services and pro-

vide a familiar, well proven user interface DAT used the latest version of

Internet Explorer. The first release of the off-line client has the look and

feel of the new Windows XP, but will also run on Windows 98 and

Windows 2000. It also meets the requirements of the Designed for

Windows XP logo programme and is featured in the catalogue that users

access via the Windows XP start menu.

CURRENT AND FUTURE BENEFITS

In practice, building XML Web Services using the .NET platform has been

highly productive. The development team was able to create core func-

tionality for eight Web Services within a month.

Having established Web Services linked to its business logic, Tesco’s

next step is to roll out .NET technology through its business logic layer.

COM components will be recreated to the new standard and any new

business objects will be built on the .NET platform. The company will also

use the flexibility given by Web Services to link with new partners and

open new sales channels.

DAT has already proved the concept of running a Tesco shopping

client on Compaq iPaq and other smart handheld devices using the

Microsoft CE operating system. It is also studying the potential of new

features in Windows XP. Among these is the new My Services facility,

which offers one-click access from PCs to shopping services such as

Tesco.com. Automatically inserting delivery dates in the customer’s My

Calendar could also make scheduling deliveries much easier.

To orchestrate its new services, Tesco is considering the use of BizTalk

Server to complement its Windows 2000 and SQL servers. Further ahead,

as services supporting WAP phones are introduced, the company may add

Microsoft Mobile Information Servers.

Jon Higgins sees the route forward provided by the portfolio of new

Microsoft technologies providing the freedom Tesco needs to grow its on-

line business with healthy profits. ■ 43


“With MyAlerts,Virgin.comcustomers couldrequest immediatenotification ofdates, venues andthen order ticketsas soon as theinformation isavailable.”

ASHLEY STOCKWELLGROUP BRAND MARKETINGDIRECTORVIRGIN.COM

Connecting with customers using .NET

Virgin.com is continually looking for opportunities to deliver bet-

ter, fresher and more valuable goods and services to its customers.

It is taking full advantage of Microsoft’s .NET platform to deliver

truly personalised, intelligent and interactive web services across

channels and devices.

BACKGROUND

The Virgin Group, which encompasses Virgin.com, was founded by

entrepreneur Richard Branson in the 1970s. Since then it has grown into

a global brand including famous businesses such as Virgin Megastores,

Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Mobile. Virgin.com is the group portal giving

access to all of the companies on-line.

Virgin.com is constantly aware of the need to make the user’s experi-

ence as fast and compelling as possible. In particular it was keen to elimi-

nate any factors that were holding back customers from shopping online.

Cathy Wilson, brand manager, Virgin.com explains: “Research

shows that a significant number of customers give up half-way through

a transaction. They often have to fill in a lot of forms and simply lose

interest and exit the transaction – even if they have put goods in their

shopping cart.”

THE .NET VISION

Virgin.com was quick to see the potential of Passport Services, a key

component of Microsoft’s .NET initiative which enables companies to


provide superior customer service by connecting with customers, wher-

ever they might be and through whatever device they are using. With

Passport Services, users provide personal details only once when they

first register for the service. They are given a username and password,

and details such as credit cards and billing address are stored centrally.

Each time they log-on, the service authenticates their identity.

MYALERTS – DELIVERING A CUSTOMER-CENTRIC EXPERIENCE

Future developments at Virgin.com may include the addition of

MyAlerts or Notifications.

MyAlerts is an opt-in service in which users sign up to receive alerts

from a specific provider, so that they can quickly be notified of impor-

tant events and act on that information via desktop, cellular phone,

mobile device, or e-mail address—all based on the user's preferences.

An example of how Virgin.com may use MyAlerts is described by

Ashley Stockwell, Group Brand Marketing Director. “Let’s say you’re a

U2 fan. If the band announces a concert, in most cases it will be sold

out in a day or less. With MyAlerts, Virgin.com customers could request

immediate notification of dates, venues and then order tickets as soon

as the information is available. And of course you can be notified when

a new single is released and receive other relevant information.”

.NET – THE PLATFORM OF THE FUTURE

Thanks to .NET, Virgin.com now has the technology platform and the

tools to become a truly agile business. As competition increases and the

fight for online market share intensifies, the company has the business

resources to react with lightning speed to new market opportunities

ahead of the competition.

Customers will benefit from a more intelligent, interactive and

dynamic relationship with the brand. Stockwell expects they will stay

online longer, make more purchases and feel a stronger affinity with

Virgin.com. He says: “We’ve always had a clear idea of the way that the

Internet should be used to deliver truly personalised services that focus

on the specific requirements of each customer.” ■

45

Overview

Customer ProfileVirgin.com is the website forthe Virgin Group, founded byentrepreneur RichardBranson in the 1970s. As aglobal brand, its businessesinclude Virgin Megastores,Virgin Atlantic and VirginMobile etc.

Business Challenges• Encourage more customersto complete purchases onlineinstead of logging offhalfway through• Improve customer serviceby delivering targeted, per-sonalised information

SolutionSingle log-on to Virgin.com

Benefits• Increased efficiency asVirgin.com expects more cus-tomers to stay online to com-plete their purchase• Improved connection withcustomers through a richer,personalised and fluid experi-ence• Reduced development costs• Rapid time to market

Products and ServicesMicrosoft Windows 2000Microsoft SQL Server 2000

Industry.NET live

Ascent elevates customisation and lowers code management costs

47

Overview

Customer ProfileAscent markets and developsa range of relationship man-agement applications, basedon Microsoft technology. Itspecialises in solutions formedium and small enterpris-es and has more that 500 cus-tomers worldwide. Based inLeicester, UK, the companyhas 250 employees.

Business ChallengeTo make it easier for enter-prise users and software part-ners to customise the busi-ness logic of Ascent productswhile retaining a single, easi-ly manageable core codebase

Solution• Develop .NET version ofAscent software• Embed VSA (Visual Studiofor Applications) in the soft-ware so that partners andend user companies canquickly modify the businesslogic in its middle tier • Use Microsoft’s PSfD(Premier Services forDevelopers) to complementin-house skills, expertise andtesting resources during thedevelopment and supportthe .NET/VSA applications

Benefits• Ascent software partners

Microsoft Premier Services for Developers and Visual Studio for

Applications help Ascent Technology offer more options while keep-

ing its software intelligent and intuitive.

BACKGROUND

Ascent Technology, a company of 250 people based in Leicester, UK, has

specialised in IT solutions for small and medium enterprises since 1982.

Its current range of enterprise-wide relationship management products,

based on the Microsoft n-tier model, was launched in 1995.

In the fiscal year 2000, the company had annual revenues of $40

million generated by its two divisions. One of these, the Ascent

Software Division, is responsible for the development and marketing of

applications through an international partner channel. The other divi-

sion, Ascent Solutions, handles sales, implementation and support of

end user systems as well as providing sales and implementation

resources for channel partners.

Ascent built the business logic tier of its n-tier software with com-

ponent object model (COM+) components created using the Visual

Studio toolset, in particular Visual C++. For the data tier, it used

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and the presentation tier was designed for

Win32 clients.

To allow for customisation, the development team embedded Visual

Basic for Applications (VBA) in their software. This provides Ascent’s

software partners with a facility to develop and tailor its software for

niche markets or incorporate it into their own solutions. IT departments

in end-user organisations also use the embedded VBA to adapt the soft-

ware to their own rules and business processes, and set-up links with

other systems.

Microsoft. NET Customer SolutionIndustry

“The Microsoftplatform enabledus to build highlyfunctional softwareat a price thatsmall and mediumenterprises, as wellas large companies,could afford.”

DAVID ROBINSON,SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENTMANAGERASCENT

“The Microsoft platform enabled us to build highly functional soft-

ware at a price that small and medium enterprises, as well as large com-

panies, could afford,” says David Robinson, software development man-

ager at Ascent. “Embedded VBA has been a key factor in its success,

providing a quick, easy way for users and partners to automate, extend

and customise systems exactly as they want.”

Throughout development of its current product range, Ascent

worked closely with Microsoft, making use of the company’s portfolio of

developer support services. It also applied to get Windows 2000 logo

accreditation for its customer relationship management (CRM) applica-

tion and, as part of the accreditation process, company developers

spent a week at Microsoft’s logo labs.

During this time they tested performance and reliability aspects of

the software, working closely with Microsoft specialists in these areas.

Facilities were also provided for benchmarking and prototyping. As a

result of this work, the Ascent software was refined and improved to

the point where it became the first UK application, and one of the first

applications anywhere in the world, to be awarded with the Windows

2000 logo. The Windows 2000 logo helped Ascent become Microsoft’s

first Gold Partner ISV in the UK.

At the same time Ascent started to use Premier Services for

Developers (PSfD), which include specialist consultancy and access to

PSfD labs for scalability testing.

“Our close relationship with Microsoft really helped improve the

performance and scalability of our Windows 2000 products,” says

Robinson. “In addition to loaning us approximately $1 million worth of

hardware and software, the labs gave us access to expertise right across

the Microsoft organisation, so we could quickly find the best advice

whenever a new solution was needed.”

FAST MOVER

When Microsoft revealed its .NET concept in 2000, Ascent was quick to

see the potential benefits for its software. To maintain its lead and

expand the market for its products, the company wanted to make it

even easier to customise the business logic in its software.

At the same time, Robinson and his team wanted to simplify inte-

gration of the products with different types of client and third-party

applications, including those for enterprise resource planning (ERP) and48

Benefits (contd)and end user IT departmentscan quickly customise busi-ness logic as well as screenpresentation using fewer skillresources than with previousversions of the product • The new version ofAscent’s software is easier tointegrate with other applica-tions• The new software wasbrought to market quicklyusing the highly productive.NET environment• The performance and scal-ability of the software wasfully tested using the com-prehensive facilities ofMicrosoft Labs• New channels for accessingthe applications’ businesslogic can be added quicklywith very low developmentcosts

Products and Services• Microsoft® Windows 2000• Microsoft® SQL Server• Microsoft® .NETFramework• Microsoft® VisualStudio.NET• Microsoft®Visual Studiofor Applications • C#• Microsoft® VisualBasic.NET• Microsoft® Runtime Scriptfor the .NET Framework• Microsoft® COM+ • Microsoft® Visual Basicand Visual Basic forApplications• XML Services• PSfD• The Microsoft Labs• Consultancy• Premier Incidents Service

e-business. The demand to integrate relationship management with

such applications was clearly growing and any means to make this easi-

er would reap benefits in the marketplace.

“Our aim is to offer end users and software partners the highest

level platform possible without compromising what they can do to cus-

tomise it to their individual needs,” says Robinson. “.NET enabled us to

make the business logic of our software much more accessible both to

other systems and customisation tools. Equally important, it allowed us

to do this without having multiple code sets or an excessively large and

cumbersome code base.”

IMPROVING WITH .NET

The team started working with Microsoft to assess the potential for

.NET developments at the end of 2000. Serious work with .NET began

when pre-release versions of the .NET Framework, Visual Studio .NET

and Visual Studio for Applications (VSA) became available in spring

2001. These provided powerful means to develop a .NET dimension for

Ascent products.

At the same time, VSA could be embedded to give partners and

end users a fast, simple way to customise the new .NET applications.

Ascent developers adapted quickly to the C# language that forms

part of Visual Studio .NET. This combines the simplicity and ease-of-use

of Visual Basic with the power and precision of C++.

Using C#, the team was able to ‘wrap’ the existing COM+ compo-

nents that form the software’s business logic tier within a higher level

.NET layer. This layer allows the components’ functionality to be

exposed to other applications and client devices with a minimum of

extra coding.

The .NET enhancements also enable the COM+ business compo-

nents to host a light weight, royalty-free embedded VSA script engine.

When the component is loaded, the system will also load and run the

runtime customisation code that is relevant to the current users.

During the course of the .NET project, Ascent developers benefited

from code samples and answers to questions provided by their PSfD

support contacts. These assisted and accelerated in the process of inte-

grating VSA with the software in the most efficient way. The team also

made full use of PSfD design review services to verify and improve their

.NET software design choices. Since Ascent subscribed to PSfD, all its 49


“.NET enabled usto make thebusiness logic ofour software muchmore accessibleboth to othersystems andcustomisationtools. Equallyimportant, itallowed us to dothis withouthaving multiplecode sets or anexcessively largeand cumbersomecode base.”

DAVID ROBINSONSOFTWARE DEVELOPMENTMANAGERASCENT

consultancy and support for VSA was obtained via this route. As an

alternative, it could have used services provided by Summit Software.

Now that the development project is complete, Ascent, its software

partners or end user customers have all the facilities of VSA at their dis-

posal. These include use of the Integrated Development Environment

(VSA IDE) to produce runtime script for the .NET Framework.

To do this, they can use VB.NET.the customisation code they pro-

duce is then saved in an application code store and loaded to Windows

2000 Server whenever the associated business component is instantiat-

ed. The customisation code runs on a self contained script engine, so it

does not interfere with the scalability of the application. The functionali-

ty it provides is also immediately available to any clients or third party

applications accessing the components via XML Web Services.

Because the VSA customisation code is separated from the core

software and only invoked when it is needed, managing the code base

is relatively simple. Even if there are hundreds of users of the software

each with their own customisation, whatever the extent of the changes

they make using VSA, their core software will remain standard. As a

result support, maintenance and upgrades are all much simpler.

Importantly, the server handles all the customisation, so there is no

need to distribute new client software, as is usual when using VBA.

With VSA, significant changes to application logic in the middle tier can

be made relying on the server to provide the modified functionality to

the client.

“Visual Studio .NET and VSA let us build on the existing COM+

structure and provide important user benefits without a massive re-cod-

ing project,” said David Robinson. “With the assistance of PSfD, we

Products and Services(contd)• TechNet

completed the first of many .NET enhancements of our software more

quickly than we expected.”

BENEFITS

Using the VSA-enabled applications, Ascent users can support multiple

levels of customisation. For instance, they can tailor an application at

company, division, department and user-specific levels. Since VSA is

delivered as an integral part of the product, users can do this without

the extra expense of buying separate development tools. At the same

time, they can make further savings by using highly productive and easi-

ly available Visual Basic skills for their customisation projects.

Programmers are able to use their skills to best effect using VSA

visual environment based on Visual Studio .NET. This includes an intelli-

gent editor, intuitive and familiar user interfaces, remote debugging

capabilities and other features that save time and avoid unproductive

effort.

The lightweight run-time engine, a free-threaded programming

model and security based on the .NET Framework ensure developers can

write secure customisations that scale with the application. In addition,

because VSA is built on top of the .NET Framework, developers can eas-

ily access services such as standards-based Extensible Markup Language

(XML) and Web Services.

Business logic customised with VSA can also be accessed from mul-

tiple delivery channels. With Ascent software, these currently include

Windows-based clients and a read-only browser client. However, other

options are under evaluation including an interactive browser client,

mobile devices and others.

“With VSA, our applications are a complete development platform

that is adaptable to customers' specific, ever-changing needs,” says

David Robinson. “Committing to it early and making full use of

Microsoft’s enormous technical resources enabled us to get further

ahead of the competition and open up some very interesting possibili-

ties for subsequent development.”

CUSTOMER COMMENTS

Len Palmer, managing director of SharpOwl International

“Functional and robust relationship management software that is

adapted to the needs of our customers' businesses is vital in our mar- 51


“Visual Studio .NETand VSA let usbuild on theexisting COM+structure andprovide importantuser benefitswithout a massivere-coding project,”

DAVID ROBINSONSOFTWARE DEVELOPMENTMANAGERASCENT

ketplace. Ascent combines highly functional core software, an extensive

configuration capability and easy, low cost customisation and integra-

tion through its deployment of Microsoft VBA and VSA.”

About SharpOwl: SharpOWL is Europe's market leading Author for

Professional Services Automation (PSA) solutions and has an OEM part-

nership with Ascent, incorporating Ascent Software into its own solu-

tions. PSA tools are focused on maximising the efficiency of a skills

based organisation or department within an enterprise, delivering the

vital information such companies require to maintain profitability, client

satisfaction, and ultimately their competitive edge.

Naz Sarkar, senior business development manager,

Lloyds TSB Registrars

“Ascent offered us three big benefits, thanks to its state of the art

Microsoft architecture. Firstly, using the forms designer facility, the look

and feel of the product could be customised to give us the specific

forms we needed, such as fee contract, and Ascent used the data dic-

tionary to adapt the fields on the form to suit our needs.”

“Secondly, Ascent features an extendible data model, which

allowed us to define our own entities within the database and create

multiple relationships between them, something that is particularly

important in our operation. For example, we can link a contact to a

company, any associates, sales opportunity, events or other activities.

And a company can be linked to multiple corporate contacts, advisors,

events and other activities, its LTSBR support team and fee contracts. So

the Ascent system enables any user to quickly see anyone or anything

related to a particular customer.”

“Thirdly, whilst the core Ascent product was able to handle the

structure and detail of our products and pricing, we needed something

special to allow a quotation to be built, taking into account required

volumes and time span. Here the Ascent team made use of the

Microsoft VBA component of the product to enhance the user interface

and functionality of our solution. This was the only tailored develop-

ment required to adapt the Ascent software to our needs.”

About LLoyds TSB Registrars: Lloyds TSB Registrars (LTSBR), part of the

Lloyds TSB Group, is the leading provider of share registration services in

the UK. It has five offices at Worthing, where it is headquartered, and

three additional sites at London, Birmingham and Edinburgh. ■52

BT Group cuts website costs with .NET

53

Overview

Customer ProfileBT Group plc is the holdingcompany for the BT Group ofcompanies. BT is one of theworld's leading providers oftelecommunications services

Business Challenge• Reduced website manage-ment costs • Need to improve produc-tivity of page authors• Re-organise and re-brand6,000 pages• Need to improve qualitycontrol and ensure pages areup-to-date

Solution• Used .NET to create a newwebsite management system • Enables BT staff anywhereto access it via PC browsers• Integrates workflow andautomation in the systems • UniTech was used for alldevelopment work and pro-vided application servicesincluding support and hostedhardware

Benefits• Lower cost of ownershipfor servers and PCs• Three people re-design6,000 pages in a week • Development costs estimat-ed 30 per cent less than Javasolution

When the BT Group plc de-merged its mobile business in

November 2001, it had to re-organise and re-brand 6,000-pages

of its corporate website, www.groupbt.com. Using an innovative

new website management system based on Microsoft’s .NET tech-

nology, three people were able to transform the site in just one

week. This enabled the management team to hit tight deadlines

without the high cost of bringing in a team of extra staff

BACKGROUND

BT Group plc is the holding company for the BT Group of companies. It

is one of the world's leading providers of telecommunications services

and one of the largest private sector companies in Europe. Its principal

activities include local, long distance and international telecommunica-

tion services, Internet services and IT solutions. In the UK, BT serves

more than 28 million exchange lines as well as providing network servic-

es to other licensed operators.

As a global leader in the supply of Internet services, BT cannot com-

promise on the quality and performance of its own website. As a result,

the company is constantly looking for better ways to edit and manage

its 15,000 pages of site content.

By June 2001, it was clear that a new management and page pub-

lishing system was needed quickly to meet a range of challenges. The

site was expanding fast and, together with the need to continually

improve quality, this was putting pressure on page authors, checkers

and support staff.

BT also wanted to open up its site for easy access by people with

widely different needs. These included visually impaired users and those

using the new generation of mobile devices such as personal digital

assistants, (PDAs).


“After three weekswe had anoperational systemthat automatedmuch of the workin revising the site.In the end, it tookthree people just aweek to change6,000 pages andwe had three daysleft for final testingbefore thedeadline.”

DAVID BLACK,COMMUNICATIONSSOLUTIONS TECHNICALDIRECTORBT GROUP

With traditional methods for producing and managing pages, satis-

fying these needs would be very time consuming and expensive.

The final incentive to adopt a new website management system

came when BT’s mobile division was de-merged to become mmO2 plc.

This meant all the pages and links with mobile references had to be

removed from the BT Group site, and the remaining pages given new

branding.

ELEGANT SOLUTION

When it was decided to de-merge mmO2, BT Group was already work-

ing with its supplier, The Universal Information Technology Group,

(UniTech) on a new website management system. UniTech had won the

contract against competition from both custom and shrink-wrap prod-

uct suppliers, having submitted a tender complete with a working

mock-up of its innovative solution. This mock-up was developed in just

two days.

The technology that enabled UniTech to respond so quickly was

Microsoft’s new .NET platform. Using this, the company developed a

two-stage site management system that separated the creation and

modification of pages from their publication on BT web servers.

The solution uses development servers standing between the PCs

used by page authors and the servers used to make the pages available

to the public.

• Improved web supportteam productivity

Products and Services• Microsoft Windows® 2000with Internet IntegrationServer (IIS)• Microsoft Internet Explorer5.5 with Microsoft HTML editor• Microsoft.NET Frameworkand class libraries• Microsoft .NET Remoting• Microsoft VisualStudio®.NET (including C#)• Microsoft ASP.NET• Web Forms • Dynamic Hypertext Mark-up Language (DHTML)• JScript• Microsoft VSA.NET (VisualStudio for Applications .NET)• eXtensible Mark-upLanguage (XML)• Simple Object AccessProtocol (SOAP)• Microsoft SQL Server• Unitech Win/NT Web Store

PartnerUniTech

When pages have been authorised for publication, they are loaded

from the development servers to BT web servers throughout the UK.

Each page is complete with all content and can be viewed instantly,

unlike most dynamic pages that need to be individually produced by the

web server whenever a site visitor requests them.

“The approach has advantages both for BT site visitors and the

team who create and update page content,” says Steven Marshall who

headed the development work for UniTech. “And, because .NET allows

all the sophistication to be confined to the development servers, savings

can be made in other parts of the system.”

Among these savings are the costs of buying and managing web

servers, which run relatively simple software requiring less powerful

hardware and less maintenance. Cost savings are also made in support-

ing the team’s PCs since these no longer run special editing software.

Page authors and checkers are able to work on web pages stored

on the development servers using standard Internet Explorer (version

5.5+) software on their PCs.

With Microsoft Internet Explorer’s built-in editor they can create and

edit content as with a word processor. This works so well with files and

software on the central computers that users feel the whole system is

on their PCs.

With PCs and servers connected via an ISDN line, or even a dial-up

connection, the .NET-based system has proved fast and responsive

enough to satisfy page authors and editors. If greater speed is needed

in the future, BT will provide team members working from remote loca-

tions, such as their homes, with digital subscriber lines.

Text and pictures are positioned on web pages using templates.

With the new .NET system, these templates automatically adapt to suit

different BT brands and browser types. For instance, graphics are

removed from pages sent to browsers for visually impaired users so that

text-to-voice software can easily convert the text into spoken words.

Workflow software, produced using .NET and running on the devel-

opment servers, routes new or modified pages from their creators to

checkers. The checkers then review pages in different browser formats

and either authorise them for publication or return them for further

editing. Similarly, alerts are sent out automatically when pages are

scheduled for updating.

Rather than buy the software outright, BT Group wanted to access 55


“All this adds up toa better experiencefor site visitors andlower costs for us.Even hit rates upto 100,000 an hourdon’t slow thesystem appreciably,and the money wesave on hardwarepays for the newmanagementsoftware.”

DAVID BLACKCOMMUNICATIONSSOLUTIONS TECHNICALDIRECTORBT GROUP

it as an application service. This would allow it to spread the develop-

ment cost, through monthly payments that also cover maintenance and

support. UniTech was able to meet this requirement since it has a secure

web hosting facility at its Edinburgh headquarters together with all the

in-house expertise needed to support and maintain the software.

FASTER RESPONSE

In October 2001, when it was known that BT’s mobile operation would

be de-merged and the corporate site would therefore need major

updates, the content management system project was only six weeks

old. Despite this, the company could see the new system would be of

huge value in reworking groupbt.com. So, David Black, communication

solutions technical director in charge of the project, asked UniTech to

accelerate development of the core system.

“After three weeks we had an operational system that automated

much of the work in revising the site,” says Black. “In the end, it took

three people just a week to change 6,000 pages and we had three days

left for final testing before the deadline.

”The system makes it quick and easy for us to deal with many dif-

ferent formats and handle presentation changes affecting the whole

site,” he adds. “Our goal is to be able to re-publish the entire current

content of the site in 30 minutes.”

Once the new templates were complete, re-branded pages could be

created by simply pasting-in existing content saving hours of manual

effort. This has enabled BT to meet its targets for supporting disability

browsers and browsers for smart devices at much lower cost.

SAVING HOURS

Authors and editorial teams are also pleased with their browser-based

page editing and management system. It provides all the facilities they

need, is easy to use and requires very little training.


In operation, it is saving them hours every week by generating dif-

ferent browser formats automatically for immediate review. In addition,

the new workflow facilities and automatic alerts help users schedule

work more effectively.

“It’s quite possible to forget that the software and page content

you’re working with may be hundreds of miles away,” comments Black.

“New team members, ranging from design agency staff to home-based

copywriters, can start working with the powerful, easy-to-use facility

immediately.”

The ability to view content in any browser format with a single click

is improving the productivity of page checkers, making their quality con-

trol task less labour intensive. Added to this, the quality of information

on the site has also been improved by automatic escalation of timed-out

pages and publication of pages with updated content at specified times.

ENHANCED EXPERIENCE AT LOWER COST

Visitors to the BT Group site enjoy other benefits as well. It gives them

information quickly and reliably and ensures that printing is successful.

Equally important, this fast response is maintained even when the site is

very heavily loaded.

The good news for BT Group is that this is achieved with less expen-

sive hardware. In addition, since most of the software is on the develop-

ment servers, savings are being made in the ownership costs of both

the web servers and the web team’s PC systems.

Development of the software with .NET was important in saving

time as far less new code was required. UniTech estimates coding in

.NET improved efficiency over previously accepted methods, such as

Java, by 30 per cent. This was possible primarily because most of the

components for the new system were available out-of-the-box.

“All this adds up to a better experience for site visitors and lower

costs for us,” says Black. “Even hit rates up to 100,000 an hour don’t

slow the system appreciably, and the money we save on hardware pays

for the new management software.

“The .NET implementation also makes it practical to use the new

software as an application service,” he adds. “The convenience and cost

spreading of this approach were key factors in our choice of UniTech as

a supplier.” ■

57

For more information onUniTech products or servicesvisit their website at:http://www.unitech.net

For more information on BTGroup plc’s products orservices visit their website at:http://www.groupbt.com

58

“With the highlyproductive .NETplatform, we canbuild, test anddeploy systemsfaster than everbefore, and thiswill let us makethe business moreresponsive –quickly addingvalue to existingservices andintroducing newones as customerdemand emerges.”

PETER DAWSONSENIOR IT RESEARCHERTHE ROYAL MAIL GROUP

Royal Mail Group adopts Microsoft’s.NET platform for system development

The Royal Mail Group’s Business Systems Department is now using

the Microsoft .NET Framework and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET to

sharpen the company’s competitive edge. Its first application, sup-

porting The Royal Mail Group’s Local Collect facility, lets online

stores improve customer service and also demonstrates that web

service based systems can be developed quickly and economically.

BACKGROUND

The Royal Mail Group plc is a UK-based national and international distri-

bution business. Formerly the Post Office Group, The Royal Mail Group

was formed in March 2001. Through Royal Mail, Parcelforce Worldwide,

around 17,500 Post Office branches and a score of other subsidiaries

worldwide, it handles millions of transactions every working day.

The company provides daily deliveries to 27 million addresses in the

UK. It is also the market leader in online fulfilment services and Britain’s

largest distribution company, delivering around 770 million packages a

year. In the year 2000/1, these operations and others generated rev-

enues exceeding £8.1 billion.

Since the Internet became a factor in home shopping and business

applications, The Royal Mail Group’s 2,500-strong business systems

department has had a growing team of web developers. Where new

technologies are involved, these developers are supported by the com-

pany’s Research and Consultancy Services Department based in

Chesterfield. This includes a group of 40 IT specialists who assess and

develop new means to improve efficiency and customer service.

To meet demand for web-based systems, The Royal Mail Group

makes extensive use of Microsoft’s Component Object Model (COM+),

for software development. This allows software components to be cre-

ated separately and joined together within a framework. In this way,


59

Overview

Customer ProfileThe Royal Mail Group, for-merly the Post Office Group,is the holding company forRoyal Mail, ParcelforceWorldwide and the networkof Post Office branches

Business Challenge• Use Web Services to extendand improve customer service• Cut the time and cost ofdeveloping Internet solutions• Build a web service to giveonline shopping companiesand The Royal Mail Groupdepots easy access to infor-mation on outlets offeringnew Local Collect service

SolutionThe Royal Mail Group’sBusiness Systems Departmentis now using the Microsoft.NET Framework andMicrosoft Visual Studio .NETto sharpen the company’scompetitive edge.

Benefits• Fast customer access to TheRoyal Mail Group informa-tion and systems, addingvalue to its distribution serv-ices • Local Collect Web Servicesaves time for The Royal MailGroup and its customers, andensures information aboutoutlets is always up-to-date

complete systems can be assembled quickly with new or existing com-

ponents, giving important gains in development teams’ productivity.

However, Research and Consultancy Services constantly look to future

requirements. By mid 2001, the department foresaw a trend towards the

use of Web Services. These could, for instance, be used to provide online

shopping and mail order businesses with information and software to

maximise the benefits from The Royal Mail Group distribution services.

Web Services offered an opportunity to gain a competitive advan-

tage but, to capitalise on this, developers needed to produce the services

quickly and efficiently. Illustrating this need, there was an urgent require-

ment to improve the distribution of information on the 16,000 Post

Office branches operating the Post Office’s new Local Collect service.

Details of the addresses and opening hours of local outlets where

packets can be collected were being circulated to customers on a week-

ly-updated electronically distributed file. This enabled the customers to

load the data to their systems, but The Royal Mail Group had no control

over how regularly this was done. Distributing information electronically

also required customers to maintain both the data and the software for

searching to find the nearest outlet.

As well as making the information more easily available to cus-

tomers, The Royal Mail Group wanted to provide its own postal depots

with fast access. When postmen are unable to deliver packages, the

database will let depots give recipients details of local Post Office

branches where the packages can be sent for collection.

To meet these needs, The Royal Mail Group decided to develop a

Web Service giving partners web sites and in-house systems direct

access to the database of Local Collect outlets. The challenge for the

Research and Consultancy Services Department was to find the quickest

way to develop this service, and others like it, without having to recruit

more developers.

NEXT GENERATION TOOLS

The Royal Mail Group considered several options for rapid development

of Web Services. Among these was the new Microsoft .NET platform, a

beta-test version of which was available in late 2001. Since the platform

promised considerable advantages over COM+ and competitive systems,

the Research and Consultancy Services Department decided to try it for

the Local Collect requirement.

“Since so much ofthe technicalInfrastructure forweb applications Isready made In.NET, ourdevelopers canconcentrate on thebusiness logic.”

PETER DAWSONSENIOR IT RESEARCHERTHE ROYAL MAIL GROUP

A core team of two developers, led by senior IT researcher, Peter

Dawson, was assigned to the project. Their task was to establish a

knowledge base and standard approaches for the use of .NET, and use

these to create a Web Service giving customers site access to the Local

Collect database.

The core team was assisted on a part time basis by other members

of the department and Microsoft personnel, who provided training and

support. Preparation for the first .NET project included developers’

workshops and a detailed planning phase. As this was one of the first

UK .NET applications, Microsoft provided input for both these activities.

“There are both similarities and differences between .NET and our

established COM+ platform, and we wanted to understand these fully

as we embarked on the Local Collect development,” says Dawson. “It

was important to find the best way of using the power of the new plat-

form and appreciate any ramifications it may have within The Royal Mail

Group and for our customers.”

.NET is compatible with COM+ and the development team had the

option to continue using the Visual Basic language with the new plat-

form. However, having studied the Visual Studio tool set provided with

.NET, The Royal Mail Group decided to use the C# language. This is similar

to Visual Basic but has important additional facilities to increase program-

ming productivity. Although the language was new to them, the develop-

ment team was able to learn it and become productive within a few days.

Information on the Local Collect outlets is held in a Microsoft SQL

Server 2000 database, which saved time in developing the Web Service

interface. This interface will also enable other Web Services that may be

subsequently developed to access the database.

During the project, The Royal Mail Group worked with one of its

home shopping customers to make the new Web Service seamless in

operation. The development team provided software enabling the cus-

tomer’s systems to retrieve the information from the database in a form

that could be easily displayed on their web pages.

To do this, they used the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)

toolkit, which is designed to let different computers interact via the

Internet even when their software is incompatible. Information was

exchanged between systems in the industry standard eXtensible Markup

Language (XML) format that can be easily manipulated to suit the needs

of any website. In this way, site users are provided with the address and60

Benefits (continued)• Use Web S• The Royal Mail Groupdevelopers are more produc-tive • Web-based applicationsare more easily interconnect-ed and consolidated• Web-based applicationsare quicker and easier todeploy

Products and services• Microsoft .NET Framework• Microsoft Visual Studio®.NET (including C# language)• ASP .NET • Microsoft SQL Server 2000• Microsoft Windows® 2000• XML (eXtensible MarkupLanguage)• SOAP (simple object accessprotocol)

opening hours of their nearest Local Collect outlet, without ever being

aware the information was supplied from The Royal Mail Group by the

Web Service. The reliability and robustness of this process was assured

by an extensive test programme. This was assisted by automated test

procedures implemented using another new Microsoft technology,

Active Server Pages.NET (ASP.NET).

ADDED CONVENIENCE

Commenting on this first Web Service and the .NET platform, Dawson

says: “Consumers can immediately see the nearest collection point for

their goods and online stores can provide this valuable facility simply by

exchanging messages with our database. The Royal Mail Group, in turn,

avoids the need to distribute electronic files and is certain its customers

are always provided with up-to-the-minute information.”

Dawson adds, “Our solutions architects also like the new .NET plat-

form and are now using it to define systems to produce high quality

results quickly.”

Including the learning process, the first Web Service was completed

within a four-month period that included the Christmas holidays. During

the project, the near universal acceptance of XML and SOAP as a means

of interaction between systems saved time when working with cus-

tomers and developers to maximise the benefits of the Web Service.

Experience gained and approaches defined in this first project will

make future developments much faster, and Dawson is confident it will

give important productivity gains over existing methods.

“Since so much of the technical infrastructure for web applications

is ready made in .NET, our developers can concentrate on the business

logic,” says Dawson. “Once a Web Service has been developed, it can

be very quickly used by new applications and different types of user

device – for instance personal digital assistants (PDA’s) and WAP phones.

”With the highly productive .NET platform, we can build, test and

deploy systems faster than ever before,” Dawson adds. “And this will

let us make the business more responsive – quickly adding value to

existing services and introducing new ones as customer demand

emerges.” ■

For more information on The Royal Mail Group products or services visit

their website at: http://www.royalmail.com 61


Public Sector.NET live

Mobile e-procurement system cuts timeand costs for Bradford Hospitals NHS Trust

63

Overview

Customer ProfileBradford Hospitals NHS Trustis committed to improvingefficiency and divertingadministrative costs topatient care.

Business ChallengeExisting procurement systemswere identified by AtosKPMG Consulting as an areafor improvement, as part of asupply chain project.

SolutionAtos KPMG Consulting imple-mented the WANDER™mobile e-procurement solu-tion pilot. Staff can procureany item while on the move– any time day or night –using only the approved cat-alogue.

Benefits• Significant reduction intime spent by nurses onadminstration• Annual cost savings fromthe improved supply chainand a one-off inventory saving• Stronger partnerships• Reduction in clinical risk• Increased accuracy oforders, stock monitoring andaccounts

PartnerAtos KPMG Consulting www.atoskpmgconsulting.co.uk

Bradford Hospitals NHS Trust is a high-performing organisation,

which has been awarded three stars by the NHS. It is committed to

raising standards and improving efficiency, in line with government

objectives, and implementing the changes in behaviour needed to

achieve this.

BACKGROUND

Like many Trusts, Bradford was using a manual procurement process,

which created problems of over- and under-ordering. Handwriting could

be mis-read and ad hoc ordering of non-standard items wasted money

and created clincal risk. It also undermined the Trust’s objective of devel-

oping strategic relationships with suppliers.

SOLUTION

Atos KPMG Consulting was commissioned to undertake a Trust-wide

supply chain improvement programme. Cost saving initiatives were iden-

tified with the Trust, including the adoption of a groundbreaking mobile

e-procurement system, WANDER™.

WANDER™ is a robust, secure and safe wireless system for use by

healthcare professionals wherever they are – in a ward, theatre, office or

even at home. It contains Bradford Hospitals NHS Trust’s approved cata-

logue and allows users to order supplies and check on the progress and

location of ordered goods.

It is part of an overall integrated e-procurement system – from req-

uisitioning to payment.

Atos KPMG Consulting worked with Microsoft, HP and the Trust

itself to create WANDER™. The solution was developed by this alliance

Microsoft. NET Customer SolutionPublic Sector

“WANDER™ is asimple, practicaltool that lets usget on with the jobwe joined the NHSto do – caring forpatients. It is agreat example ofhow technologyhelps us cutadministration anddo our jobs better.The greatestbenefit we haveseen from thesupply chainproject is inmanaging ourclinical risk. We areseeing real clinicalbenefits byfocusing on astandard range ofcore products.”

ROSE STEPHENS CHIEF NURSE/DIRECTORHOSPITAL SERVICES

of partners, with the key elements of the software written by Atos

KPMG Consulting software engineers.

BENEFITS

The benefits of the solution are

• Compliance with the Trust catalogue has reduced clinical risk and cat-

alogue standardisation has helped to free considerable resources

• Clinical nurses at Bradford Hospitals NHS Trust are now able to spend

more of their time caring for patients and not on administration – a

paper-based requisition that used to take 15 to 20 minutes now takes

two to three minutes to complete electronically

• The creation of a scaleable mobile infrastructure means that the Trust

is well-positioned for future initiatives

• The reduction of wastage

• The elimination of errors and ‘re-work’ typically associated with paper-

based requisitions

• The development of strategic relationships with suppliers

• Quicker delivery of priority items – under a manual system, it can take

up to 32 days from order to delivery(1)

GOVERNMENT PRAISE

Lord Hunt, Minister of State for Health was guest of honour at the offi-

cial WANDER™ launch at Bradford Royal Infirmary and was unequivocal

in his support for what WANDER™ has achieved.

“It is a big step but the NHS has to take that step if we are going to

deliver on the NHS plan – faster access to high quality services. We have

to use the latest technology. Bradford has shown that we can do it and

we need to learn the lessons, because where Bradford has led I want

the rest of the NHS to follow.”

“WANDER™ is a simple, practical tool that lets us get on with the

job we joined the NHS to do – caring for patients. It is a great example

of how technology helps us cut administration and do our jobs better.

The greatest benefit we have seen from the supply chain project is in

managing our clinical risk. We are seeing real clinical benefits by focus-

ing on a standard range of core products,” says Rose Stephens, chief

nurse/director of hospital services. ■

(1) Purchasing And Supplies Authority (PASA) data64

More information

For more information about Microsoft products orservices, or about any of the case studies in thisbook, please email [email protected]

To access information via the World Wide Web, go to: http://www.microsoft.com/uk

This is a Microsoft publication,designed and produced by

Infoconomy Ltd27 Maddox StreetLondon W12 2QUEmail: [email protected]: www.infoconomy.comTelephone: 020 7961 0500

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