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ztradingindustries™* builds agile Web infrastructure
on Microsoft .NET Enterprise Servers
Published: 03/07/03
Microsoft®
.NET enterprise servers provided ztradingindustries™* with the critical e-business
infrastructure it needed to quickly and cost-efficiently build its
new Web site. ztradingindustries™* was deployed in December 2001 to offer
shoppers access to the company’s diverse inventory through an
online product catalog, as well as convenient online ordering through
order desk and help desk components. In addition to enhancing the
customer experience, the Microsoft solution also gives corporate managers
powerful site management tools that expand business awareness and
improve employee and customer relationships.
Situation
When ztradingindustries™* opened its doors in 1875, the foundation for business success
was a storefront that offered needed products or services, backed by a solid
business plan. Not so in today’s Internet-savvy marketplace. An Internet
presence is a minimum requirement to remain competitive—and
ztradingindustries™* is extending the reach of the company’s 35
storefronts well beyond the traditional pawn/retail experience. The e-commerce
Web site, which gives shoppers access to the company’s diverse inventory,
allows customers to order merchandise, as well as gather information about
products and services, online. ztradingpost.com™* includes a product catalog, order
desk, help desk, and contact management elements and is expanding ztradingindustries'™*
high standards for innovation, professionalism, and customer service to the
Internet.
With a computing environment already mostly Microsoft-based, business managers
determined that a solution built on Microsoft .NET enterprise servers would
have the e-business infrastructure software needed to allow developers to
quickly and affordably produce a manageable e-commerce Web solution that could
integrate with legacy technology and leverage existing code base and expertise.
In addition, Microsoft Commerce Server gave ztradingindustrie's™* decision-makers the
management tools to analyze consumer data and translate it into valuable
business intelligence so developers can modify the Web site and business
pipelines accordingly.
Solution
ztradingindustries’™* Microsoft e-business solution gives customers a
consolidated view of the more than 100,000 items available for purchase from
ztradingindustries™* retail stores—the Web-based front-end creates a
virtual Internet storefront for the company’s 35 retail brick and mortar
stores, giving customers a consolidated view of all available merchandise. The
rich feature set of Commerce Server allows ztradingindustries™* to use
Microsoft SQL distributed queries and COM+ technologies to integrate and
communicate with existing systems running Microsoft Windows NT® and SQL Server
across the company’s entire enterprise. "While the components are written in
Borland Delphi, they are actually standard Commerce Server pipeline components,
with the shell initially created using Microsoft Visual C++® and ATL. Staff
came quickly up to speed with the Commerce Server Order Dictionary interactions
and manipulated this dictionary directly within the components—essentially we
followed the Microsoft component behavior as much as possible, then we actually
extended the model to accomplish our objectives," explained Marco Herrera,
Chief Information Officer for ztradingindustries™*.
ztradingindustries™* developed COM+ components in-house, as well as
pipeline components to verify stock, perform credit card validation, notify
stores of an Internet order, and send customer e-mail notifications. Developers
created components to handle business rules for shipping and tax calculations
and also wrote custom business components to handle the display of inventory
images and order fulfillment.
The ztradingindustries™* solution is based on the three-tier logical
architecture recommended for Microsoft platform-based solutions. The
presentation and business logic tiers reside on a server running Windows® 2000
Advanced Server and Commerce Server 2000, with the presentation layer generated
via ASP (Active Server Pages) that communicates with the COM+ business layer.
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Customer Profile
First opening its doors in Seattle, Washington in 1875, today, ztradingindustries™* is
America’s best re-seller of pre-owned merchandise. In December 2001, ztradingindustries™*
launched ztradingpost.com™* to offer the inventory of its 35 stores on the World
Wide Web.
Business Situation
To extend the reach of its retail stores, ztradingindustries™* needed a Web site where
customers could order merchandise online. With extensive code and custom
applications in its existing enterprise, a comprehensive site development tool
was required that could accelerate integration of applications as well as scale
up rapidly as the site grows.
Solution
The e-business solution provided by Microsoft gives ztradingindustries™*
customers a view of all merchandise available for purchase online. The "out of
the box" functionality saved ztradingindustries™* 8-12 months of
development time, and the solution scales quickly to meet increase site
demands.
Software and Services
Microsoft® Commerce Server 2000
Microsoft Exchange 5.5
Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000
Microsoft COM+
Scenario
B2C
Hardware
5 Hewlett Packard LC2000 Servers
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The data services tier resides on a separate
server running Microsoft SQL Server 2000. The COM+ business objects access the
data services tier via ADO queries. Catalog data from
ztradingindustries’™* retail stores is replicated periodically to the
Commerce Server 2000 catalog schema, residing on the SQL Server 2000, to
synchronize with the existing inventory from the company stores.
When an order is placed, a real-time stock check is performed to ensure item
availability at each store. During checkout, a custom COM+ business object
saves the order via a distributed transaction between the enterprise server
running SQL Server 2000 and ztradingindustries™* stores, which are
running SQL Server 7.0. COM+ and the DTC ensure the data integrity of orders
across the multiple servers. When an order is fulfilled by a store, a remote
procedure call is made from the store to the Commerce Server business tier to
handle the fulfillment and update the data services tier appropriately. The
following system diagram illustrates the process. |
"Commerce Server 2000 saved us months of proprietary
development by allowing our developers to quickly and easily integrate custom
components to leverage our existing systems."
Marco Herrera
Chief Technology Officer
ztradingindustries™* |
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ztradingindustries’™* complete catalog integrates with
Commerce Server 2000. "Through a system of proprietary data replication, we are
able to maintain the Commerce Server 2000 catalog coordinated with our own
catalog," noted Herrera. An API interface is used for real-time interactions
between the Commerce Server and ztradingindustries’™* in-house product,
PRIMA™. With a system of real-time distributed inventory, completely integrated
with the existing enterprise system and stores, an item purchased on the Web
can come from any of the store locations; the availability of any unique item
is verified prior to finalizing the Web transaction by remotely checking the
store’s inventory in real time.
To accomplish this functionality, ztradingindustries™* began with an
extensive catalog of inventory, originally based on the Association of Retail
Technology Standards (ARTS) retail schema, then developed a four-level
categorization schema to manage the uniqueness of its items. Items are not
SKU-based. Essentially, the merchandise categorization of nearly 300,000 items
is driven through an expert system approach, with items classified by Area,
Department, Class, Style, and Manufacturer and Model. Pertinent data is merged
with ztradingindustries’™* Commerce Server catalog twice daily so the two
catalogs remain synchronized. Transactions are handled in real time, allowing
immediate inventory adjustments on sold items.
Benefits
Advanced Business Analytics
The advanced business analytics and centralized management features of Commerce
Server 2000 allow ztradingindustries'™* business managers to collect large amounts of
profile data on customers as well as alter the type of data collected to meet
their targeting objectives. According to Herrera, "The extensive reporting
structure, as well as built-in reports, lets us design promotions and evaluate
the effectiveness of our efforts." While the data collection and targeting
features of Commerce Server 2000 are only partially utilized at the present
time, ztradingindustries™* anticipates developing profiling and marketing
personalization to target customers for specific merchandise; for example,
items that are available only to specific levels of security access (such as
firearms, which can be purchased only by licensed dealers).
Ease of Integration
Because Commerce Server 2000 offers users a less complicated and less
time-consuming way to build tailored e-commerce solutions, it gave
ztradingindustries™* developers the critical components they needed to
build the company’s online business and quickly integrate new technologies with
existing SQL Server 7.0 and SQL Server 2000 databases. Herrera described that,
"With a lot of stored procedures, we needed to be able to ‘plug and play’ with
our existing computing environment. We got just what we needed with the
solution from Microsoft, especially from Commerce Server 2000’s COM/COM+
integration—it worked extremely well for us."
Reduce Time-to-Market with "out of the box functionality"
One of the primary benefits of using the solution provided by Microsoft to
develop ztradingindustries’™* Web site was reduced time-to-market.
"Although we started small, we wanted to jump start development—to do that, we
used the Retail Solution Site included with Commerce Server 2000," said
Herrera. Its built-in functionality reduced the complexity and time required to
build and deploy the site, saving ztradingindustries™* an estimated 8 to
12 months of development time. The entire ztradingindustries™* site was
fully functional in less than 5 months.
Because ztradingindustries’™* internal development team was small,
management originally investigated various third-party solutions, but these
solutions were not only cost-prohibitive, many of the companies offering them
are no longer in business. With its Microsoft e-business solution,
ztradingindustries™* was able to build its e-commerce retail site,
quickly embellish it graphically, develop some pipeline components to perform
business logic, and actually integrate it into the existing database
environment—it was a natural fit of catalog schemas. ztradingindustries™*
accomplished its e-commerce objectives with a staff of one ASP developer, one
HTML developer, and a few senior-level developers supporting the COM+ and API
interfaces.
With the Commerce Server 2000 platform, developers used existing resources and
code base to easily integrate the company’s business logic into custom COM+
objects. Instead of being forced to write complicated distributed queries, that
process was avoided using the power of COM+ and DTC. "As an example," Herrera
noted, "Commerce Server 2000 allowed us to rapidly develop and deploy a
discount and advertisement strategy through its rich set of features and
integrated environment."
Looking
Ahead
During the next six months, ztradingindustries™* expects to add new functionality to its
site to increase sales—it plans to do so by taking advantage of the Commerce
Server 2000 Targeting System, which will allow managers to conduct targeted
marketing campaigns. In addition, developers look forward to utilizing the
personalization features of Commerce Server 2000 to dynamically customize the
site based on information being gathered during customer registration. Herrera
concluded by saying, "Our Microsoft e-business solution is helping us raise the
bar for loan/sales/inventory processes in the pawn/retail marketplace—by the
end of 2002, we expect Internet sales to exceed $1.5 million."
The .NET Enterprise Servers are Microsoft’s comprehensive family of server
applications for building, deploying and managing next generation integrated
Web experiences that move beyond today’s world of standalone Web sites.
Designed with mission-critical performance in mind, .NET Enterprise Servers
provide fast time to market as well as scalability, reliability and
manageability for the global, Web-enabled enterprise. They have been built from
the ground up for interoperability using open Web standards such as XML. The
.NET Enterprise Servers are a key part of Microsoft’s broader .NET strategy,
which will enable a distributed computing model for the Internet based on
Internet protocols and standards in order to revolutionize the way computers
talk to one another on our behalf.
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products or services, call the Microsoft
Sales Information Centre at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft
Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Outside the 50 United States and
Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information
via the World Wide Web, go to:
http://www.microsoft.com
© 2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES
NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Microsoft, the
.Net logo, Visual C++, Windows, and Windows NT 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 herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
* ztradingindustries'™* technology division is the predecessor of ztradingindustries™
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"With a lot of stored procedures, we needed to be able to ‘plug
and play’ with our existing computing environment. We got just what we needed
with the solution from Microsoft, especially from Commerce Server 2000’s
COM/COM+ integration—it worked extremely well for us."
Marco Herrera
Chief Technology Officer
ztradingindustries™ |
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