Tesco.com Customers Gain Up-To-Date Views of Shopping ...



Overview

Country or Region: United Kingdom

Industry: Retail

Customer Profile

, which first trialled in 1996, understands that customers want a better and simpler online shopping experience. It also knows that this depends on having the right IT infrastructure that can be scaled up as customer demand grows.

Business Situation

The organisation continually monitors the performance of the site to make sure the level of service is consistently high. With more and more customers turning to , it needed to upgrade the existing IT infrastructure cost effectively to maintain service levels.

Solution

implemented Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2005 to improve the shopping experiences of visitors. As a result, shoppers can pass online baskets through virtual checkout more conveniently and efficiently.

Benefits

■ Up-to-date shopping information in a third of the time.

■ Consistently superior customer experience.

■ Better initial visits for new first time shoppers.

■ Greater potential for improving service delivery.

| | |“Using Microsoft SQL Server 2005, has rapidly decreased the time it takes to get information to customers and that helps us deliver a convenient and efficient online shopping experience.”

Jon Higgins, IT Director,

Jon Higgins, Head of IT,

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| | | |, the world’s largest online grocery retailer, is dedicated to ensuring a convenient and |

| | | |efficient shopping experience for customers. Since the first trial in 1996, the number of shoppers |

| | | |has increased rapidly. To give customers swift and easy access to products they want, when they want |

| | | |them, upgraded the IT infrastructure that supported the service. Working with Microsoft, |

| | | |the organisation implemented Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2005—a comprehensive database solution. Now, |

| | | | can improve service by keeping shoppers’ “favourites” lists updated with their latest |

| | | |purchases in a third of the time it previously took. List delivery also is extremely reliable, even |

| | | |during peak periods, and first-time users can access a favourites list within seconds of starting |

| | | |their initial visit. For regular customers, this means time saved when placing an order. |

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Situation

The reason for the success of is straightforward. Since the business first trialled in 1996, it has created value for customers wherever possible and worked hard to provide an efficient and easy to use online shopping experience.

The organisation is now the world’s most successful online grocery shop, with sales of £719 million (U.S.$1.25 billion) in the 2004 financial year. It has made Web-based shopping easier through an intelligent IT strategy that extracts the maximum customer benefit from technological investments. This furthers the ultimate objective of ensuring customers can access what they want on the site, when they want it, delivering an easy and enjoyable online shopping experience.

The company understands that delivering this improved shopping experience depends on having the right, supportive IT infrastructure—one that doesn’t require a huge investment, but can be scaled up as customer demand grows.

From launch, chose Microsoft as a technology partner and deployed Microsoft® SQL Server™ 7.0 at the core of its infrastructure. This was later upgraded to Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition. The database was used to process both in-store and online data across 280 stores as well as providing an information feed that would ensure customers had a more personalised experience for their online shopping.

The database solution has been central to the success of the Web site. It provides the technology behind the “My Favourites” section, which offers shoppers a detailed list of all purchases they have made in the previous six weeks. The lists are updated using online purchase information and purchases made in the physical stores.

Instead of having to rebuild a shopping list every time they visit, shoppers can pick and choose from a selection of items derived from their most recent purchases. They save time by not having to search through thousands of items, while new purchases are automatically added to the list.

Jon Higgins, IT Director, says: “Customers tell us that ‘My Favourites’ is a key element in ensuring they are satisfied with the Web site. This part of the service adds extra convenience for customers, and by the third visit nearly every customer is placing orders using their list. In fact, 90 per cent of all orders placed through the Web site include items from customers’ favourites lists. Being able to order from this list of past purchases really does make the site better.”

Solution

In 2005, with the popularity of the “My Favourites” section increasing, upgraded to Microsoft SQL Server 2005 to take advantage of its scalability and rich feature set. SQL Server 2005 is the most comprehensive database solution from Microsoft, providing enterprise-class data management with integrated business tools.

The new solution would ensure the further success of the section and improve the experience of customers using the service:

■ Delivering a class-leading database engine that processed purchases at advanced speeds, meaning customer orders could be processed more quickly.

■ Providing a robust, enterprise level, extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) tool to upgrade the delivery of the “My Favourites” section.

■ Ensuring that when high numbers of shoppers access their lists concurrently, processing continues uninterrupted—so customers get the same high quality level of service—irrespective of how many users are accessing the system at any one time.

To help take full advantage of SQL Server 2005, Microsoft organised a laboratory workshop where it re-designed the existing “My Favourites” area, using the new database solution. The workshop showed that SQL Server 2005 had the processing speed and scalability to ensure the lists remained constantly accessible as the popularity of the service increased.

Microsoft then built a test infrastructure for SQL Server 2005, and following a successful trial period, a new database environment for the favourites area went live in October 2005. It features two SQL Server 2005 systems, both running on the Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003 operating system.

SQL Server Integration Services

The new environment includes SQL Server Integration Services. This is the successor to Data Transformation Services (DTS). SQL Server Integration Services provides a data integration infrastructure for the non-developer to support easy-to-use tasks. It provides a robust object model to support the creation of custom tasks.

For , SQL Server Integration Services increases the speed of transferring information between different data sources. In addition, operational improvements brought by SQL Server Integration Services—such as improved error reporting and easier monitoring—deliver other business benefits. For example, SQL Server 2005 is quicker to deploy, faster to develop, and delivers increased data loading speeds.

Database Snapshots

With SQL Server 2005, it is possible to provide instant, read-only views of the database. This snapshot functionality delivers a clear view of the database without the time or storage overheads required to create a complete copy of the database.

This means that customers can access their lists while the “My Favorites” section is updating and it doesn’t interrupt the process.

Management Tools

SQL Server 2005 provides an integrated suite of tools that helps administrators ensure a reliable service to customers. The solution includes application programming interfaces (APIs) that deliver enterprise-class manageability for SQL Server deployments.

Benefits

Delivering Excellent Customer Service in a Third of the Time

With SQL Server 2005, can provide customers with the most up-to-date view of the “My Favourites” lists in a third of the time. The increase in processing speed is a result of the improved performance of SQL Server 2005 and services such as SQL SERVER INTEGRATION SERVICES. Higgins says: “Using Microsoft SQL Server 2005, has significantly decreased the time it takes to get information to customers and that helps us deliver a convenient and efficient online shopping experience.

“SQL Server 2005 means we can ensure that when customers access their lists in the ‘My Favourites’ section, they are getting the most up-to-date view of their shopping history.”

Ensuring a Consistently Superior Customer Experience

The delivery of the improved shopping experience is reliable, including during peak periods in Web site traffic. Administrators can complete the process of updating the favourites lists before the majority of shoppers visit the Web site. And because of the reduced time needed for updating, they have greater opportunity to carry out maintenance work on the database.

Retaining First-Time Shoppers Through a Great Initial Visit

Since the site was established in 1996, increasing numbers of customers have turned to as their preferred online shopping service. The organisation is committed to ensuring that the initial visit is an impressive introduction to the services offered by the site.

Using SQL Server 2005, can provide first-time shoppers with a list highlighting popular buys in seconds. Higgins says: “We want customers to gain an excellent experience from the first time they access the Web site. With the help of SQL Server 2005, the convenience and efficiency of our service is visible from day one.”

Using Improved Functionality to Drive Future Projects

The business has a simple philosophy when it comes to technology. It must deliver clear benefits to customers for it to be implemented. With the advantages that SQL Server 2005 is delivering to the “My Favourites” section, is studying how the solution can be extended to other areas of the business and better support the delivery of services to more shoppers.

The improved functionality of SQL Server 2005 includes an enhanced Transact-SQL, an extension to the SQL database programming language. By improving and simplifying query writing, Transact-SQL will help ’s developers enhance customer service even further.

Microsoft Windows Server System

Microsoft Windows Server System™ is a comprehensive, integrated, and interoperable server infrastructure that helps reduce the complexity and costs of building, deploying, connecting, and operating agile business solutions. Windows Server System helps customers create new value for their business through the strategic use of their IT assets. With the Windows Server operating system as its foundation, Windows Server System delivers dependable infrastructure for data management and analysis; enterprise integration; customer, partner, and employee portals; business process automation; communications and collaboration; and core IT operations including security, deployment, and systems management.

For more information about Windows Server System, go to:

windowsserversystem

About the Microsoft Smarter Retailing Initiative

The Microsoft Smarter Retailing Initiative helps retailers win today by leveraging current investments, and win tomorrow by easing delivery of new retail experiences. Consisting of Smarter Shopping, Smarter Selling and Smarter Operations, the Smarter Retailing Initiative is designed to close the loop between the retailer’s strategy, the in-store execution and familiar technologies already in the consumer’s hands.

For more information about the Microsoft Smarter Retailing Initiative, go to: smartretail

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| |Software and Services

■ Microsoft SQL Server 2005

■ Microsoft Windows Server 2003

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© 2006 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 Windows logo, Windows Server, and Windows Server S *+45;Mdl < P 0ºÎè

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Document published February 2006 | | |

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“We want customers to gain an excellent experience the first time they access the Web site. With the help of SQL Server 2005, the convenience and efficiency of our service is visible from day one.”

Jon Higgins, Director of IT,

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