Taking business to the next level.NET live

Series 2

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

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© 2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

1

CONTENTS .NET live

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

Financial ServicesEgg ........................................................................................ 9Equinox ................................................................................ 16Pershing ............................................................................... 23

Retail ServicesVirgin ................................................................................... 29

Entertainment and MediaWilliamsF1 ........................................................................... 35

IndustryInchcape .............................................................................. 41M35 ..................................................................................... 45Pinsent Curtis Biddle ............................................................. 50Trondent .............................................................................. 54

Public SectorThree Rivers District Council ................................................. 61

2

Q: How would you describe .NET? Is .NET

web services? Or is it something more?

A: There is a fair chance you will have heard

about Microsoft® .NET sometime during the past

three years and at the highest level you’ll already

appreciate that it represents the R&D strategy for

Microsoft for the coming decade. We, like the rest

of industry, recognise that the world of business is

changing and that means our software needs to

change too, and that is the reason for this invest-

ment in .NET.

The Internet has left a lasting legacy and the

final piece in the jigsaw to turn it into the key busi-

ness utility of the future has emerged – XML Web

Services. .NET is our implementation of XML Web

Services – our strategy to ensure that our products

connect better together, and better with others,

and enable business to connect to business.

At the same time the need to deliver greater

developer productivity across the board has never

been more important, no matter what computing

architecture you employ. To this end .NET delivers

the capability to build powerful, rich Windows

applications, high-performance web applications as

well as XML Web Services more cost effectively

than ever. Anecdotally, our customers and partners

are quoting a 30 to 40 per cent improvement in

developer productivity for

projects of all types.

Q: Many companies

claim a very good

return on investment

from their .NET proj-

ects. What is so differ-

ent about .NET,

compared to what was

available before?

A: The saving is coming from two primary

areas – efficiencies in the core development and

the ability to integrate the solution easily with exit-

ing systems. Both of which combine to deliver a

solution in less time and at less cost. Nationwide

needed to generate new revenue by finding new

customers and improving the efficiency of its IT

development process to meet urgent regulatory

changes. A Rapid Economic Justification analysis

was conducted by KPMG Consulting to assess the

business value that Nationwide could expect from

using Visual Studio® .NET and Web Services based

on Microsoft .NET technologies to develop propri-

etary applications for its mortgage lending opera-

tions. As a result of migrating to Visual Studio .NET,

Nationwide’s IT group was able to retire 96 per

cent of existing custom code, enabling greater effi-

Kenny MacIver, editor of Information Age magazine, recently put his questions aboutMicrosoft .NET to Mark Greatorex, Director .NET Developer Group, Microsoft Ltd.

■ Q&A

Mark GreatorexDirector .NET DeveloperGroup, Microsoft Ltd

3

ciency and productivity and 80 per cent fewer IT

support requests from users and channel partners.

Q: The press often says that there is a bat-

tle going on between .NET and J2EE. In your

opinion, is this battle a real one?

A: Is there competition is the market, yes

absolutely. But let’s be clear, the competition is

between multiple companies – IBM, Microsoft,

BEA, Oracle, etc. So rather than a religious battle

between .NET and J2EE it is normal market dynam-

ics at play, creating customer choice.

Q: There is a widespread view that com-

puting is gradually migrating towards a servic-

es-based model. Microsoft has endorsed at

least some of this. How do you see this? How

does it relate to the use of .NET?

A: In the long term we see software evolving

to much more of a service offering. The technology

we see as XML Web Services lays down much of

the infrastructure for that to happen, but don’t

expect it to happen over night – there are techno-

logical and cultural barriers to be overcome. As a

result, expect a gradual and subtle introduction of

services into the value proposition. For example,

Microsoft Windows® XP Update is proving hugely

popular in the consumer market – Windows XP

fundamentally remains a product lead proposition,

but the value is being augmented through service.

Q: Some organisations worry about

becoming too dependent on one vendor,

whether it is Microsoft, or Oracle, or IBM, or

someone else. What does Microsoft say to peo-

ple who are worried about this?

A: Web Services go a long way to addressing

this concern. At the end of the day if you become

dissatisfied with a supplier then the key issue is “How

will the stuff I already have work with the new stuff”.

Historically the solution has been complex integration

projects that drain resources and budget. By design-

ing to a common architecture that is vendor neutral

you achieve interoperability between vendor offerings

without sacrificing functionality. You don’t have to

choose the lowest common denominator or become

locked into a single vendor.

Q: Given the difficulties that many organi-

sations experienced with their Internet busi-

ness initiatives – and especially the

over-investment in some areas – do you find

that there is a high degree of resistance to

new ideas such as web services?

A: There is an overhang, and you’re right it

does create some resistance, however, it would be

negligent to be dismissive of emerging technology

that otherwise may offer genuine and lasting busi-

ness returns. Web Services are the missing link for

the Internet – they turn it into a truly useful busi-

ness utility. The Internet we were all promised five

or six years ago. Yet like all Internet related technol-

ogy its impact inside the organisation will be just as

great – in fact during 2002 the majority of Web

Services deployments were within the organisation

driving a better ROI from their IT spend.

Q: Microsoft has always had a good rela-

tionship with its resellers and with a rather

technical group of developers. Should business

managers leave .NET to them, or is this an area

that non-technical managers should get

involved with?

A: If XML is to have the type of business

impact envisioned for it then it must be made avail-

able in a form that is accessible beyond the devel-

oper. Office 11 will have a huge impact here; it has

4

a completely new XML-based document model. For

end users it turns the Office applications into edi-

tors for the underlying XML documents, the bene-

fits of which are, the user, without any retraining,

will use familiar tools, manipulate and share infor-

mation otherwise locked up in back-office systems

that now expose information via Web Services. But

key to making this vision a reality is that Office 11

also represents a WYSIWYG design tool for the IT

professional, allowing them to easily create the

XSLT templates that render the data within the

XML document for the applications. Previously this

part of the deployment was the domain of the

developer, creating a bottleneck. The developer can

now concentrate on defining the core XML

schema(s). This linkage between the developer, the

IT professional and the end user will allow organi-

sations to rapidly scale their use of XML to improve

information flow across the organisation.

Q: Where do you think .NET is going in the

medium to long term?

A: It’s been a year since we released our .NET

development tools and runtimes – the cornerstones

of .NET. During this time we’ve seen great traction

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 appli-

cations, and eXtensible Mark-up Language (XML)

Web Services. It provides a highly productive, stan-

dards-based, multi-language environment for inte-

grating existing investments with next-generation

applications and services, as well as the agility to

solve the challenges of deployment and operation

of Internet-scale applications. The .NET Framework

consists of two main parts: the Common Language

Runtime and a hierarchical set of unified class

libraries that includes a componentised version of

ASP .NET, a loosely coupled data access subsystem

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

Windows-based applications (Windows Forms).

For more information, go to:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework

Microsoft Visual Studio .NET is the rapid applica-

tion development (RAD) tool for building next-gen-

eration Web applications and XML Web services.

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 programming languages and

automatically handling many common program-

ming tasks, freeing developers to rapidly create

Web applications using their language of choice.

Visual Studio .NET includes a single IDE with RAD

features for building Web applications and middle-

tier business logic, and RAD XML designers for

working with data.

For information, go to: http://www.visualstudio.net

Microsoft technologies explained

5

with over 200 reference deployments now published

worldwide, many of these from the UK. So we think

we’ll reach critical mass during this coming year

where .NET is the default choice for many customers

and partners building solutions. At the same time,

2003 sees further impact of .NET within our own

product line. I’ve already talked about Microsoft

Office 11 and the changes there, but the forthcom-

ing betas of Microsoft SQL Server™, Microsoft

Exchange and other server products see re-engineer-

ing of those products around .NET. In the longer

term, there is a huge amount that needs to be done

in driving knowledge worker productivity. To this end

you’ll see further work within the underlying operat-

ing system, user interface and necessary advance-

ments in storage.

Q: Where is electronic business going?

A: It is going to be fascinating to see how cus-

tomers use this final shift to the information age to

competitive advantage. I don’t think we yet fully

understand the impact that this will have. Yes, we

can cite benefits, but the long-term changes to the

structure and nature of business are only just

emerging. ■

Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server provides rock-

solid messaging and collaboration 24 hours a day,

seven days a week-with low total cost of owner-

ship. Designed with mission-critical performance in

mind, Exchange enables access to the people and

information you want, anytime and from any-

where. Combining industry-leading reliability and

scalability with unmatched ease of management,

Exchange 2000 seamlessly integrates with the

Microsoft Windows 2000 operating system and

takes advantage of the full power of the Windows

2000 Microsoft Active Directory® service and secu-

rity features. With Exchange 2000, businesses can

further leverage their messaging infrastructure

with value-added collaborative solutions. Exchange

2000 is part of Microsoft’s .NET Enterprise Server

family for building, deploying, and managing next-

generation integrated web experiences.

For more information, go to:

http://microsoft.com/exchange

Microsoft BizTalk® Server 2000 is for orches-

trating business processes within and between

organisations. It enables an organisation to build

dynamic business processes, easily integrate appli-

cations and business partners, and ensure interop-

erability using public standards.

Microsoft Windows 2000 Server is the server

operating system for line-of-business applications

and e-commerce. It provides you with the oppor-

tunity to Internet-enable your business, gain

advanced manageability and take advantage of

the best new devices.

For more information, go to:

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/servers

6

Microsoft, in conjunction with Infoconomy, publisher of Information Age magazine,recently quizzed more than 300 senior-level IT managers about their attitudes andintentions with regard to web services. Here is what they said.

■ Web services – whatyou really think

7

Financial Services.NET live

Online Bank Increases DeveloperProductivity and Improves Performanceby Switching from Sun/UNIX to .NET

9

Overview

Customer ProfileEgg plc is one of Europe’sleading online financialservices providers, offeringbanking, insurance,investments, mortgages, anda shopping portal through itsInternet site and otherdistribution channels. Egg isdedicated to providing itscustomers with the bestonline banking experiencepossible.

Business ChallengeEgg was considering newdevelopment environmentswith the goal of moving to aplatform that would allow itto develop the best possiblesolutions as quickly aspossible.

SolutionEgg had been building itsweb applications primarily onthe Sun/UNIX platform. Forthe rebuilding of its Egg Cardwebsite, Egg chose Microsoft.NET. Using Microsoft VisualStudio .NET, the .NETFramework, and ContentManagement Server 2002,Egg has now successfullybuilt the card brochurewareand deployed the newversion of the Egg Cardwebsite.

As one of Europe’s leading online banking providers, Egg plc is

dedicated to providing its customers with the best available online

banking experience. To improve the banking experience it offers its

customers, it continually explores new technologies. Recently, Egg

decided to undertake a project to rebuild its Egg Card website

replacing the existing Sun/UNIX site with an entirely new site built

using Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, the .NET Framework, and

Content Management Server2002. In just three months and with

just three developers, Egg built the card brochureware. Egg is now

moving toward a larger migration to .NET across the entire Egg

website.

BACKGROUND

Egg plc is an e-commerce company created by Prudential (the UK-based

financial services company) and is one of Europe’s leading digital financial

services providers, offering a variety of banking services through its

Internet site and other distribution channels.

Egg, launched in 1998, was listed on the London Stock Exchange by

June of 2000 and has already gained over 2 million customers. In 2001

Egg generated revenues of $132 million, almost ten times as much as in

its first full year of operation. The company is planning on continued

growth at a similar or even greater rate in the years to come.

The bank offers products and services from four main areas: banking,

investments, insurance, and online shopping. However, it is committed to

expanding into any area where it feels it can offer a great service and real

value for customers. With more than 2,000 employees, Egg is the world’s

leading online bank, currently attracting 1 million unique visitors per month.

Microsoft. NET Customer SolutionFinancial Services

Egg is committed to providing its users with the best online banking

experience available and constantly evaluates and considers new

technologies. Recognising the importance of offering state-of-the-art

technologies to an ever-increasing number of users, Egg wanted to make

sure that it was positioned to produce new, valuable features for its

customers as quickly as possible.

The company also wanted to establish a clear strategy for future

growth that would not only allow Egg to meet increasing demand, but

also contain costs as its customer base grew.

SOLUTION

One of the services that Egg offers its users is an online credit application

service. The Egg Card website allows customers to securely and quickly

apply for a credit account.

In the past, Egg primarily

built its website’s

applications on the

Sun/UNIX platform but

recently decided to undertake a proof of concept to rebuild the Egg Card

section of its website using the Microsoft Visual Studio .NET development

system and the Microsoft .NET Framework.

Egg’s intention was not only to improve the Egg Card section, but also to

evaluate the capabilities of, and begin a larger migration to, Microsoft .NET.

”The ASP.NETperformanceresults we areexperiencing aredramatic and holdreal benefits forEgg and ourcustomers.”

CAROL MOSELEYTECHNICAL CHANGEMANAGEREGG PLC

FAST FACTS

Number of developers to build application 3

Number of months to build application 3

Number of unique visitors per month 1 million

The new Egg Card website was built using Visual Studio .NET and

takes advantage of the .NET Framework’s class library, common language

runtime, and Windows-based application server technologies.

Another key component in the new version of Egg Card is Microsoft

Content Management Server 2002. One of the Microsoft .NET Enterprise

Servers, Content Management Server 2002, is used to deliver information

about Egg and the Egg Card as requested by the user.

BENEFITS

For Egg the ability to quickly produce new applications and services is

critical. Producing the new version of the Egg Card brochureware website

took three developers just three months to complete.

It is also important that Egg’s websites offer a high level of

performance in order to satisfy and retain customers. Microsoft .NET has

provided a platform upon which Egg is confident it can meet the evolving

demands of a leading online bank. “Egg is dynamic, and we really need

to work on a platform that is capable of delivering functionality to our

customers effectively, quickly, and with the best possible quality that we

can,” says David Fellows, Development Manager, Egg plc. “With

Microsoft .NET, we believe we can do that.”

DEVELOPER PRODUCTIVITY

In developing the new Egg Card website, Egg discovered that using .NET

has provided its developers with new tools and capabilities that promote

a high level of productivity. Egg attributes this productivity largely to the

Visual Studio .NET integrated development environment (IDE) for all

languages. Designed to help developers build their solutions faster, the

single, shared IDE presents windows and tools with less clutter and easy

accessibility from within any of the languages in the Microsoft Visual

Studio development system.

“We estimate that developing the new Egg Card website using Visual

Studio .NET took half as long as it would have taken on other, comparable

platforms,” says Styles.

A feature of the Visual Studio .NET IDE that has proved to be of

particular benefit to Egg is the online help available. “The Visual Studio

.NET online Help is absolutely exceptional,” says Styles. “It’s probably the

best that we have ever seen in any product. It talks not only about

specifics, but also about wider issues and architectures. So, ramp-up time 11

Benefits• Increased developerproductivity (producing morefeatures and applicationswithout increasing staff)• Easily adapted to newlanguage and developmentenvironment• Faster time to market• Developers write less codein producing features andapplications• Improved websiteperformance• Simplified design method

Products and ServicesMicrosoft Visual Studio .NETMicrosoft .NET FrameworkMicrosoft Visual C#T .NETMicrosoft ContentManagement Server 2002Microsoft Windows(r) 2000Advanced Server

Microsoft. NET Customer SolutionFinancial Services

based on the tools that we can use to help us has been very good.”

Another feature of .NET that is helping Egg realise a high level of

productivity is the use of Microsoft Visual C#T .NET, the object-oriented

programming language that exploits the power of XML Web Services on

the .NET platform. The language allows C and C++ developers to use

their existing skills to quickly and easily build XML-based .NET

applications.

Egg has found that the adoption of the new language has been very

easy, but it is also impressed with the new capabilities that its developers

have gained with Visual C#.

“Learning Visual C# has been very easy because everything’s very

similar to previous languages. It has come quite naturally to us,” says

Styles. “With Visual C#, automatic documentation is a great feature. We

can now click one button, if we put the comments in the right place, and

we instantly have a website that we can use, and it automatically gets

updated. That’s a killer feature for us, and it saves a huge amount of time.

In just minutes, we can now produce a site that would have previously

taken us hours, or even days.”

IMPROVED PERFORMANCE

With ASP.NET, Egg has not only improved its time to market but also

enhanced the performance of the website. ASP.NET is a Windows-based

application server technology inherent in the .NET Framework. It offers

developers a set of ready-to-use technologies for building web

applications and XML Web Services, allowing developers to build web

pages with far less code, and advanced compilation and caching features

that improve performance – a particularly important feature for Egg.

“ASP.NET gives us access to the whole of the .NET Framework,” says

Fellows. “There’s a lot of functionality already built-in for us that prevents

us from having to reinvent the wheel and saves us time. That’s not the

only advantage. Since ASP.NET is compiled, it gives us much better

performance than scripted languages do. The performance of ASP.NET is

fantastic. “

This high performance is evident in a successful proof of concept trial

held in December 2002 at the Intel Lab in Reading. Simulating 1,000

concurrent users the site delivered an average load time of just 1.6

seconds for the Egg Card application page, whilst serving over 300,000

pages in 24 minutes – equating to over 18.5 million pages in 24 hours. 12

“Because theplatform makes iteasier and quickerto develop, wehave more time toanalyse and tuneour work, andmore time topursue innovationsthat will set usapart from otheronline banks.Microsoft .NETbrings a lot ofthings to ourmarket and to ourenterprise that wecouldn’t dobefore.”

ROB STYLESPROGRAM ARCHITECT EGG PLC

Like ASP.NET, Microsoft Content Management Server 2002 is another

key component of the Egg Card website that is helping enhance

performance. Content Management Server 2001 provides a flexible and

scalable way to manage and deliver large quantities of content across

enterprise websites.

An important performance-enhancing feature of Content

Management Server 2002 for the Egg Card website is object caching,

ensuring that the assembly and serving of dynamic pages is fast.

Beyond the Egg Card website, Egg hopes to use ASP.NET and Content

Management Server 2002 across the entire Egg.com website. ASP.NET

allows Egg to quickly and easily produce high performance websites.

Content Management Server 2002 manages large quantities of content

and delivers it to those sites.

With these Microsoft .NET technologies, Egg is confident that it has

found a solution that will allow it to continue attracting new customers

and improving user satisfaction.

“One of the main benefits to us is the ability to cache content,” says

Styles. “We are producing a number of server-side controls that serve up

the content for the site, and using ASP.NET has certainly assisted in

creating a great development environment for these, plus a great end-

user experience.” 13

Microsoft. NET Customer SolutionFinancial Services

Egg Cardwebsite

UserInterface Egg

CustomerDatabase

CustomerAgreement

ContentManagement

Server

BrochurewareInformation about Egg,

about the Egg Card, terms,etc. (legacy app)

CreditScoringEngine(legacy

app)

CreditApplication

Address service and other featuresto simplify applications process

Data from creditreport agencies;regular updatesInformation sent to

legacy applications

SIMPLIFYING DESIGN

Egg is utilising Visual Studio .NET Enterprise Architect to design,

specify, and communicate application architecture and functionality. With

Visual Studio .NET Enterprise Architect, Egg is able to use a complete set

of modeling capabilities based on the Microsoft Visio modelling

capabilities drawing and diagramming software to create and

communicate application architecture, business requirements, database

design, and business processes.

“As an architect, I think the Visual Studio .NET integration with Visio

is fantastic,” says Styles. “The ability to draw diagrams in Visio, click a

button, and have Visual Studio .NET instantly generate all of the Visual

C#-based code that I need is fantastic.”

For Egg, the goal was to increase developer productivity, speed up the

delivery of new features and applications, enhance the performance of

the website, and ultimately improve the user experience.

“Because the platform makes it easier and quicker to develop, we

have more time to analyse and tune our work, and more time to pursue

innovations that will set us apart from other online banks. Microsoft .NET

brings a lot of things to our market and to our enterprise that we couldn’t

do before.” ■

For more information about Egg plc products and services, from the UK call (01268)

298 807, from overseas call (44) (1268) 298 807, or visit the Web site at:

http://www.egg.com/

“As an architect, Ithink the VisualStudio .NETintegration withVisio is fantastic.”

ROB STYLESPROGRAM ARCHITECT EGG PLC

16

“We needed a newsystem that wouldenable us to dealwith complianceand regulatoryrequirements aswell as recordingdetails of tradesand positions.”

PHILIP BROWNHEAD OF ITEQUINOX

Hedge Fund Implements New Compliance Solution and Receives ROIAfter Only Two Months

A leading UK hedge fund is using a solution from Misys Eagleye and

Microsoft for global compliance. The solution, which uses .NET technology,

is enabling fund managers to model investment decisions while the strategy

is checked for breaches of local and global regulatory requirements. It also

enables risk managers to ensure both pre and post-trade compliance as they

are alerted to breached trades in real time.

BACKGROUND

Equinox is a leading hedge fund based in London, UK. Its clients range

from high net-worth individuals to companies seeking to raise venture

capital. With the increased transparency achieved through the

implementation of the new compliance regime, Equinox expect to extend

its client base to large pension funds and institutional investors.

Equinox has three main divisions – hedge funds, private equity finance

and strategic marketing – and was founded in 1998. The firm structures

funds for companies prepared to take a higher than average risk on their

investments in stock markets in return for expected higher returns.

Hedge fund management companies are often lean organisations set

up by expert traders, supported by staff experienced in banking or fund

management administration. The companies are frequently cost-

conscious, tightly run ships where leveraging investment in hardware and

software is vital.

Philip Brown, Head of IT, Equinox, says: “Successful investing is all

about spotting opportunities in the marketplace, backed up by discipline

and compliance. We needed a new system that would enable us to deal

with compliance and regulatory requirements as well as recording details

of trades and positions.”

Equinox also needed to improve communication between traders and

with prime brokers, as well as enable back-office administration staff to

record the profit/loss on each trade and account and generate monthly

client reports.

Brown says: “Hedge funds have always been regarded as offering

higher risks but higher rewards than other exchange-traded investments

and in today’s economic climate, more corporate institutions and fund

holders are considering them. It is essential that we can demonstrate to

regulators and clients that we have acted in their best interests at every

stage in the investment trading and settlement process, particularly as we

are operating in a global economy and have to meet the regulatory

requirements of many countries.”

SOLUTION

Equinox invited Misys Eagleye, which supplies compliance software to the

asset management industry, to implement its eagleye system. Equinox

was already using Microsoft technology such as Microsoft XP and

Microsoft Excel across the organisation as well as an expensive-to-support

Oracle database system to record the history of trades.

Brown says: “The fund managers and traders were using Excel to

model and store details of their trades, which worked well when we had

a limited number of clients but expansion of business meant that use of

the spreadsheets was being pushed to the limit. We felt that our

Microsoft infrastructure could be leveraged to support a new system.”

Brown says that he was looking for a system that could offer

interoperability, flexibility, ease of integration, was web-enabled, and

could give access to diverse sites with remote support.

The eagleye enterprise-wide compliance system fitted the bill.

Margaret Wilson, Director of Business Development, Misys Eagleye, says:

“By using a flexible rules-based system designed to handle any rule and

to comply with any exchange and regulatory requirements, fund

managers have the opportunity to drastically reduce costs as non-

compliant trades can be spotted and refined, preventing trades that

would breach being sent to the traders or prime broker.”

The use of Microsoft .NET technology provides a future proof solution

with a familiar look and feel that is easier and faster to implement. Data

integrity and quality can be automatically controlled through XML rules-

based integration. 17

Overview

Customer ProfileEquinox is a leading hedgefund based in London. Itsclients range from largepension funds to companiesseeking to raise venturecapital.

Business ChallengeTraders relied on standalonespreadsheets to record detailsof trades, Equinox needed anintegrated, web-enabledsolution that would enable itto deal with compliance andregulatory requirements, aswell as record details oftrades and positions.

SolutionThe eagleye system offerstraders and risk managers ahost of features to ensurethat they can meet internaland external statutory,regulatory and clientrequirements.

Benefits• Improved reporting times• Reduced operating costs• Automate globalcompliance and regulatoryrequirements• Recognise breaches ofcompliance that are about tooccur• Refine trades in real time• Generate an audit trail ofall trades, all breaches andthe history of how they werehandled• Access the eagleye systemfrom remote locations• Reduced support costs

Microsoft. NET Customer SolutionFinancial Services

eagleye was written in Microsoft Visual C# .NET, a modern language

that is part of the Visual C#.NET and .NET Framework development

environment for creating standards-based XML Web Services and

Microsoft .NET-connected applications for Microsoft Windows and the

Internet.

C# is component-based and object-oriented, enabling the

development team to generate new source code rapidly and efficiently.

An advanced inheritance model enables developers to reuse their code

from any programming language that supports .NET. This is vital in the

world of finance, frequently supported by a spaghetti-like structure of

disparate applications and platforms.

Misys Eagleye discussed Equinox’s requirements in September 2002

and decided to implement the project in three phases. It implemented

Phase One in October, just five weeks after the start of the project. Brown

says: “ We were delighted with the ease and the high speed with which

the first phase of the project was implemented.”

PHASE ONE

October 2002: Middle office – Pre and Post-Trade Compliance

The eagleye system has been implemented in the middle office. All

compliance rules have been specified, including those relating to asset

“By implementingeagleye our wholeinvestment processhas been refinedand streamlined,allowing us toreduce operatingcosts by 10 percent.”

PHILIP BROWNHEAD OF ITEQUINOX

allocation, exposure, inclusion/exclusion, credit rating, and absolute

amounts. Staff with the right permissions can enter the rules into the

system themselves and, once entered, every rule is monitored

continuously to ensure trades meet statutory, corporate and client-specific

compliance criteria.

eagleye now provides Equinox with true real-time compliance

monitoring. All portfolios and securities are monitored for breaches.

Reports display current breaches categorised by portfolio, manager,

director, client or other relevant grouping. New breaches are highlighted

in the system and appear in the compliance breach report.

Brown says: “By implementing eagleye our whole investment process

has been refined and streamlined, allowing us to reduce operating costs

by 10 per cent.

Risk managers now receive automatic limit warnings. For each

compliance rule entered, the user is able to specify a warning level that

will alert the user when the rule is close to being breached.

Equinox is able to view complete details of all breaches and actions taken.

History of breaches and individual breach analysis is available as well as a

report that graphically illustrates the compliance performance of

individual funds and fund managers.

PHASE TWO

November 2002: Front Office – Real-Time Valuation

This module enables the Equinox traders to model their investment

strategies across all asset classes and deliver an aggregated net asset value

(NAV) for each client’s fund as requested.

Further integration with the accounting system will result in increased

efficiency in the administration of the funds and accelerate reporting

particularly in the area of Profit & Loss.

PHASE THREE

The Future: Global Account Aggregation of the Fund of Funds Business

In the future, Equinox plans to aggregate every single fund it invests in a

single Microsoft SQL Server 2000 database. This will offer transparency to

fund managers so that they can see exactly where a company’s funds are

invested and inform clients whenever they request information. If desired,

the fund manager can also give access to customers so that they can

check their fund manager’s performance. 19

Products and ServicesMicrosoft SQL Server 2000Microsoft Visual C# .NET Microsoft Windows 2000Advanced ServerMicrosoft Windows 2000DatacenterMicrosoft ExcelMicrosoft XP

Partners MISYS Eagleye

Microsoft. NET Customer SolutionFinancial Services

Microsoft SQL Server is a complete database and analysis offering for

rapidly delivering the next generation of scalable e-commerce, line-of-

business and data warehousing solutions. It dramatically reduces the time

required to bring these applications to market while offering the

scalability needed for the most demanding environments.

Brown says: “The eagleye system will enable us to capitalise on

opportunities. The volume of transactions we are dealing with is

increasing and we place hundreds of deals a day. It was essential that we

found an integrated system that could handle a high volume of trades

and enable us to pull off information from a centralised database for

generating reports and documentation. eagleye hit all those

requirements.”

He says the system is likely to get a good response from regulators.

“eagleye is an independent, third-party solution that has been developed

to meet compliance needs. By using it to support our own hedge funds,

we demonstrate that we are using a proven, documented solution. We

can go out to large investors and prove that we have an impartial

compliance solution, showcasing our credibility to the marketplace.”

Brown is also delighted that eagleye has been developed within the C#

.NET development environment. “By using a rules and standards-based

“It was essentialthat we found anintegrated systemthat could handle ahigh volume oftrades and enableus to pull offinformation from acentraliseddatabase.”

PHILIP BROWNHEAD OF ITEQUINOX

development environment, eagleye has the flexibility and interoperability

to enable rapid development of new code and solutions. This is vital in a

fast-moving marketplace.”

BENEFITS

Equinox achieved a return on investment for the license of the system

within the first two months of implementation. Recovery of the cost of

implementation is expected to be achieved within six months. “eagleye

has been a catalyst to change much of our processes and procedures,”

says Brown.

Today, the eagleye system enables traders and risk managers to follow

client instructions at all times – even if they are based at remote sites but

all working on the same global account. The web-enabled eagleye system

enables connectivity between clients, traders and risk managers wherever

they are based on a 24 hours-a-day, seven days-a-week basis.

Brown says: “Say, for example, that a client doesn’t want more than

10 per cent of their funds invested in tech stocks. There may be lots of

different fund managers working on the same account who need comply

with this rule. A single rule can be input into the web-based eagleye

system that can monitor any fund manager with the right permissions

working on the account wherever they are based in the world.”

REDUCED REPORTING TIMES

The FSA in the UK insists that reports detailing the net asset value of funds

invested are sent to clients each month. Equinox is now sending out

reports two days after month end. In the past, it took six weeks. This is

an improvement of 83 per cent. Equinox has also been able to reduce its

operating costs.

By using eagleye and Microsoft SQL Server to consolidate information,

Equinox has automated the compliance process so that it can issue real-

time warnings and alerts when breaches of regulations are about to

occur. A transparent but detailed audit trail allows risk managers, fund

managers/traders to pin-point the precise reasons for potential breaches.

Investments are then refined to comply with regulations and are re-

entered into the system, preventing breaches. Fund managers, traders

and risk managers can also see a complete and detailed history of all

actions taken on all trades. In the past, the information was held in a

spaghetti of disparate systems and applications. 21

Microsoft. NET Customer SolutionFinancial Services

For more information aboutMisys Eagleye products orservices, call +44 (0)20 72516666. To access information viathe World Wide Web, go to:www.misysams.com/products/eagleye

Today, the traders and risk managers at Equinox are all working from

the same pool of information in a central database where business rules

are kept in a central place.

REDUCED OPERATING COSTS AND OPERATIONAL RISK

By preventing trades that are not compliant entering the marketplace,

Equinox is not exposed to unwinding costly breaches that can damage

reputation. Transparency of the control process gives comfort to investors

and competitive advantage when marketing to new investors.

REDUCED ROLL-OUT COSTS

Equinox assessed other technology and compliance solutions on the

marketplace and discovered that the Misys Eagleye solution had cheaper

hardware and software costs. Its analysis revealed that the software and

hardware would be cheaper to roll out in comparison with other

technology and compliance solutions, and would result in lower

operating costs and support costs.

REDUCED SUPPORT AND MAINTENANCE COSTS

Prior to using the eagleye system, Equinox was using an Oracle database

system to record the history of trades but it was expensive to support. This

technology often demands specialist skills that are not always available.

By adopting technology that is commonly used, Equinox benefits from

consolidation of maintenance fees. The technology has a familiar look-

and-feel, which offers developers ease of use and is, therefore, cheaper

and easier to implement.

Brown says: “We expect to reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO)

support costs by 10 per cent. The eagleye system is cost-effective to

implement, manage and maintain. This should increase our profit

margins.”

ANYTIME, ANYWHERE, SCALABLE ACCESS

The ability to implement a scalable, global system with future-proof

technology is a big benefit for Equinox as there are unlikely to be any

replacement costs.

Furthermore, the company can roll out the system across many

different funds in a ‘fund of funds’ structure while still maintaining levels

of transparency, control and detailed audit trails. ■22

“We expect toreduce the totalcost of ownership(TCO) support costsby 10 per cent. Theeagleye system iscost-effective toimplement,manage andmaintain. Thisshould increase ourprofit margins.”

PHILIP BROWNHEAD OF ITEQUINOX

Mission Critical Trading and SettlementService Built with Microsoft .NET WebServices

23

Overview

Customer ProfilePershing in the UK (PershingUK) provides bespoketrading, clearing, settlement,and nominee services tomore than 90 financialinstitutions. In London itprocesses the majority of theUK outsourced market.

Business ChallengeThe architecture of itsNucleus solution meant thatPershing UK couldn’t react asquickly as desired tocustomer requirements.

SolutionUsing the Microsoft .NETFramework, Pershing UK wasable to deliver a WebServices-based solution thatintegrates with an optimiseddatabase and data centreenvironment.

Benefits• Growth potential for newmarkets and services• Ease of maintenance andupgrade deployment• Future-proof architecture• Basis for furtherdevelopment of innovativeWeb Services

Pershing in the UK (Pershing UK), a leading financial markets service

provider, has built a mission-critical trading environment using

Microsoft .NET development technologies, which exposes

mainframe functionality to its Nexus broker workstation via a range

of channels. The solution provides execution and portfolio

management to its correspondents and is tightly integrated with its

clearing and settlement engine. Pershing UK’s new future-proof

architecture enables it to reduce the cost of maintaining and

upgrading services to its correspondents, and to expand quickly into

new markets.

BACKGROUND

Pershing in the UK (Pershing UK), part of the Credit Suisse Group of

companies, is a leader in providing bespoke trading, clearing, settlement,

and custody services for more than 90 financial institutions.

Pershing UK, through its two FSA regulated companies, Pershing Ltd

and Pershing Securities Ltd, handles the majority of the UK outsourced

market, making it the clear leader in wholesale clearing and settlement

services.

Pershing UK’s correspondents are mainly small to medium-sized buy-

side firms. For execution and portfolio management, most

correspondents use Nucleus, a Microsoft Windows-based workstation

that provides straight-through processing and enables front-office access

to Pershing UK’s trading engine and settlement systems.

In 2000, Pershing UK realised that although its Nucleus product was a

high quality outsourcing solution, its architecture was constraining its

organisational agility. The main limitation was time to market – Pershing

Microsoft. NET Customer SolutionFinancial Services

UK realised it couldn’t introduce new functionality quickly enough for its

user base.

“We’re extraordinarily responsive to our customer needs,” says Alpesh

Patel, Director, IT Development, Pershing UK. “We were getting

significant demands and suggestions for new functionality. We knew we

had to lay some solid plans to build a platform for the future.”

This platform for the future would be built on the reliable and

scaleable Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server and Microsoft SQL

Server 2000, but first Pershing UK needed to examine its business

requirements and select a development environment that would

maximise the benefits of this robust back-end infrastructure.

Besides a more streamlined deployment process, Pershing UK also

wanted to maximise the value of its investment in its clearing and

settlement engine. It wanted any new front end to open up the

functionality of the engine and put in a single interface with a much

better presentation layer that supports multi-channel delivery.

Any replacement for Nucleus also needed to be open enough to talk

to other external systems as part of providing extra services to

correspondents, or for products Pershing UK itself wanted to use. In short,

the solution needed to be open, scaleable, and future proof.

In September 2000, Pershing UK began investigating options for an

architecture that would enable it to deliver its services to correspondents

“.NET offered us anew way ofthinking abouthow to deliver ourinfrastructure.Planning for thefuture, we areexpecting greatervolume throughour systems andwe wanted asolution capable ofbeing extended interms of volumeand also newtechnologies.”

LLOYD WILLIAMSONCIOPERSHING UK

over a wide range of client devices and give it the flexibility to easily

upgrade and add new services.

Nucleus was built entirely on Microsoft technology and when it

launched, it was among the first products to be built around Microsoft

Transaction Server (MTS) middleware. Having achieved success with new

Microsoft technology before, Pershing UK looked to Microsoft Consulting

Services for advice on architecture and new technology that would

support its vision for the future.

SOLUTION

Pershing UK designed a new architecture based around the first beta

release of the Microsoft .Net Framework. Once the proof of concept

framework was developed, Microsoft confirmed that the architecture

Pershing UK had planned was viable, Pershing UK committed to the full-

scale development in February 2001, still utilising beta 1 of the .NET

Framework. The .NET Framework and Microsoft Visual Studio .NET

development environment, with their support for XML and Web Services,

would form the basis for Pershing UK’s replacement for Nucleus – a

product called Nexus.

But before the coding began, the back-end infrastructure needed to

be optimised to deliver Nexus as an application based on Web Services.

“We had to rethink our database architecture. We wanted it to be able

to scale up or out, so we designed a fully distributed database solution,”

says Patel.

Pershing UK implemented the Datacenter Server clusters at its two

secure computer centres. This approach will enable hot failover between

Unisys ES 7000 servers installed at both sites.

At the same time, the IT Development Department used SQL Server

2000 to develop a new distributed database that it could scale up and out

incrementally to any level required. In order to share data between this

relational database and the flat file database of Global Clear, Pershing’s

clearing and settlement engine, the department created a staging area for

data cleaning and conversion. From here, data is replicated across SQL

Server 2000 installations.

“We decided on Windows 2000 Datacenter Server because it offers

reliability, rapid scalability, and centralised management,” explains Patel.

“But it can also scale incrementally to meet expanding needs through

building upon, rather than replacing, the initial foundation.” 25

Products and ServicesMicrosoft Windows 2000ProfessionalMicrosoft SQL Server 2000Microsoft Visual Studio .NET Microsoft .NET FrameworkMicrosoft Windows 2000Datacenter ServerMicrosoft OperationsManager 2000 Microsoft Application Centre2000Microsoft Consulting ServicesUnisys ES7000 ServersEMC Data Storage Solution

Microsoft. NET Customer SolutionFinancial Services

As soon as Microsoft released the first beta for the .NET Framework,

Pershing UK began training its in-house Microsoft Visual Basic experts on

the new code and building a development framework that would be used

for the Nexus project.

Microsoft worked very closely with Pershing UK from the early beta

versions of the .NET Framework right through to the final public release

in early 2002. As a result, Pershing UK was able to build upon its previous

experience with XML and Microsoft development environments to make

the most of the Web Services capabilities in the .NET Framework.

“We wanted all the functionality of Global Clear, to be available

through Nexus in the browser, or any other channel, but we didn’t have

the time or resources to translate each of the existing 1500 screens into

individual browser pages,” says Patel. “So we needed something generic

to dynamically build the pages with data coming from the Global Clear

system. This was a major challenge, and we achieved success using the

.NET Framework.”

“We decided onWindows 2000Datacenter Serverbecause it offersreliability, rapidscalability, andcentralisedmanagement.”

ALPESH PATELDEVELOPMENTDIRECTORPERSHING UK

BENEFITS

Nexus was launched in June 2002 and Pershing UK is in the process of

migrating its correspondents over to the new platform. According to

Patel, the early decision to start building its next-generation trading

environment with the .NET Framework will pay off.

“We need to be innovative in our use of technology. If we see a valid

business case to exploit new technology, we will use it,” he says. “This

has been the case with Microsoft products and services. This solution can

support new business opportunities much more rapidly than before. We

can reach the client base far more easily and there are fewer operational

constraints on us. It is a much more effective model moving forward.”

Using Web Services and the .NET Framework, Pershing UK has made

its underlying technology transparent to its correspondents. Its Web

Services technology means it is able to easily access the functionality of its

legacy investments in clearing and settlement, whilst providing value

added services to any client device.

As soon as any changes are made in Pershing UK’s core systems,

whether it’s business changes or functional enhancements, the

correspondent will benefit immediately.

Pershing UK’s programming employees have previously demonstrated

their speed and appetite for mastering new technologies and have now

added the .NET Framework to their portfolio. The company continues to

be well placed to deliver innovative services built on the latest technology.

“.NET Framework offered us a new way of thinking about how to

deliver our infrastructure. Planning for the future, we are expecting

greater volume through our systems and we wanted a solution capable

of being extended in terms of volume and also new technologies,” says

Lloyd Williamson, Chief Information Officer at Pershing UK. “We wanted

the solution to grow with us rather than having to examine it every two

years, and .NET [the .NET Framework] delivers this.”

Building Nexus with the .NET Framework has also opened up new

business opportunities for Pershing UK, enabling it to be more agile in

meeting customer needs and reacting to industry trends. “In the past,

under the old architecture, we just weren’t open enough,” adds

Williamson. “But now we can pursue complementary business lines and

offer extra services that leverage off this investment.” ■

For more information about Pershing UK products and services, e-mail

info@pershing.co.uk or visit the website at: http:// www.pershing.co.uk/ 27

Microsoft. NET Customer SolutionFinancial Services

Retail Services.NET live

Virgin.com Website Traffic Increases ByAlmost 50 Per Cent with Help FromMicrosoft .NET

29

Overview

Customer ProfileThe Virgin Group is a globalbrand with businesses such asVirgin Megastores, VirginAtlantic and Virgin Money. Itsinformation portal,Virgin.com, gives consumersaccess to any of thecompanies in the group.

Business ChallengeVirgin.com wanted to boostawareness of the Virginbrand and drive traffic to itswebsite. With a tightdeadline of just three monthsthey needed to implementthe Winathon marketingcampaign..

SolutionCassium designed, built andimplemented a campaignmanagement system usingMicrosoft Visual C#,Microsoft Visual Studio .NETdevelopment environmentand the Microsoft .NETFramework.

Virgin is celebrating after a Winathon campaign to increase the use

of its Virgin.com website clocked up more than a million entries. The

Virgin marketing team ran a series of competitions offering airline

tickets and other goodies on the website every hour, every day in

September 2002. Competition entrants registered by filling in a

questionnaire asking them for details such as hobbies and interests.

With such a high-profile campaign, Virgin needed a stable, scalable

website offering high availability and the scalability to meet peaks in

demand. In just three months, long-term IT partner Cassium built an

interface to the existing Virgin.com website using the Microsoft .NET

Framework. Today, the Virgin marketing team is improving

productivity by delivering targeted marketing campaigns that

connect businesses, customers, systems, and services.

BACKGROUND

The Virgin Group was founded by entrepreneur Richard Branson in the

1970s. Since then it has grown into a global brand with businesses such

as Virgin Megastores, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Money as well as less

familiar operations such as Virgin Blue, an Australian low-cost travel

service, and Virgin Limobike, a motorbike version of a mini-cab service.

Virgin.com is an information portal that gives consumers online access to

any of the companies in the group.

Knowing who your customers are and offering targeted products and

services is vital in a world where users are bombarded with spam every

day. Virgin.com recognises that a one-size-fits-all policy does not meet the

needs of its customers. It is keen not to waste their time by offering them

products and services they will not be interested in.

Microsoft. NET Customer SolutionRetail

The company wanted to boost brand awareness, drive traffic to its

Virgin.com website, and collect key customer data, including details of

hobbies and interests, which could be used for targeted marketing.

Ashley Stockwell, the company’s Group Marketing Director, says: “We

already had a website but we needed it upgraded so that we could drive

more traffic to it.”

SOLUTION

The Virgin team launched a promotional campaign called the Winathon

with different competitions run on Virgin.com on an hourly basis, 24

hours-a-day, seven days-a-week, throughout September 2002. It was

essential that the website had the flexibility to support a high volume of

entrants as Virgin.com offered customers and prospects 740

opportunities to enter a competition during that month.

Competitors registered to take part in a competition by providing

personal details and filling-in a questionnaire that included questions

about hobbies and interests. The winners received Virgin-related prizes

such as Virgin Atlantic airline tickets. It enabled Virgin.com to offer

connected experiences and deeper customer connections.

The customer relationship management (CRM) information is now

being used by marketing staff at Virgin.com to deliver targeted offers to

“This was a bigproject that had tobe delivered to atight timescale. Butwith the Microsoft.NET Framework, itwas a painlessprocess.”ß

ASHLEY STOCKWELLGROUP MARKETINGDIRECTORVIRGIN.COM

customers. It is helping them to increase their productivity as they are now

sending out offers to customers who have already indicated an interest in

particular areas.

Stockwell says: “By capturing customer data from our website, we

expanded our database and found out more about what consumers want

and need.”

Virgin.com set the immovable launch date for Winathon of September

1 2002, and invited IT provider Cassium, which has been working with

Virgin for several years, to implement a solution. Cassium had already

implemented Microsoft Windows 2000 and Microsoft SQL Server to

support the Virgin.com website a year earlier, so it was the ideal partner

to extend the functionality of the site.

Ul-Ghani, a Partner at IT provider Cassium, says: “The three-month

deadline from the beginning of the project to launch was tight but with

our experience of the Microsoft .NET Framework, we were confident we

could do this.”

Cassium designed, built and implemented a campaign management

system using Microsoft Visual C# .NET, the Microsoft Visual Studio.NET

development environment and the .NET Framework.

It also built a tool that enabled the data collected to be reused in other

campaigns. The .NET Framework allows applications to share data over

the Internet as XML Web Services and enables developers to assemble

applications from new and existing code, regardless of platform,

programming language, or object model.

The Cassium solution used XML, Simple Object Access Protocol

(SOAP), Active Server Pages.NET (ASP.NET) and HTTP. Ul-Ghani says:

“SOAP is rapidly becoming used as the industry standard for building

connections to different applications.”

Stockwell says: “The .NET Framework and .NET technologies were a

very, very quick and efficient way of making changes to the Virgin.com

website as well as moving forwards. “

Ul-Ghani was enthusiastic about the ease of development of the

solution. He says: “We knew that we had to meet the deadline of

September 1 2002. Our programmers have said that .NET is very intuitive

and has enabled them to build applications 20 to 30 per cent faster than

with Microsoft Visual Basic.” Stockwell agrees: “This was a big project

that had to be delivered to a tight timescale. But with the .NET

Framework, it was a painless process.” 31

For more information aboutCassium products and services,visit the Web site at: http://http://www.cassium.com

Benefits• A high availability websitesupporting one to twomillion hits at peak times• Ability to generatetargeted strategy andmarketing campaigns basedon up-to-date, personaliseddata• Volume of traffic towebsite increased by 50 percent • Rapid design, test andbuild of code through pre-built libraries• The scalability to supportmultiple platforms andmobile devices if desired

Products and ServicesMicrosoft Windows 2000ServerMicrosoft SQL Server 2000Microsoft C# .NETMicrosoft .NET FrameworkMicrosoft Visual Studio .NETXML Web Services

Partners Cassium

Microsoft. NET Customer SolutionRetail

Developers can use any programming language and integrate

applications written in different programming languages. This is because

C# is modular, component-based and object-oriented, enabling staff to

develop new source code rapidly and efficiently. An advanced inheritance

model enables developers to reuse code from any programming language

that supports .NET. This is vital for consumer-based businesses such as

Virgin that need to frequently launch new products and services to avoid

customers losing interest.

Ul-Ghani says: “We have used other languages in the past such as Java

to build web-based systems but we were able to design, build, test, and

implement a solution much faster than before by using C# and the .NET

Framework.”

BENEFITS

Since installing the new system, Virgin.com has increased the volume of

traffic to the website by about 50 per cent. Ul-Ghani says there are now

65,000 regular users to the site.

“We needed the confidence of knowing that we could rapidly

upgrade the website and provide the stability and scalability required.

During the Winathon, traffic from the site reached between half a million

to over one million hits at peak times.”

This has also enabled Virgin.com to significantly increase the number

of customer profiles on its database. The number of new people entering

the competitions grew by 55,000.

Ul-Ghani continues: “The solution had the scalability and resilience to

meet a surge in demand. If we hadn’t been able to do that, it would have

been a disaster, given the high-profile nature of the campaign and the

huge increase in traffic.”

Stockwell agrees: “It would have reflected very badly on us if there

had been any downtime in the middle of such a high-profile campaign.”

Ul-Ghani says: “We found that the pre-built functionality meant that

there were far fewer bugs and the developers were more productive. They

particularly liked being able to reuse objects to create code. The .NET

Framework is a true development environment.”

XML delivers interoperability so that applications created using Web

Services can be used across multiple platforms and multiple devices. In the

future, consumers may be able to enter Virgin.com competitions using

personal digital assistants (PDAs) or mobile phones. ■32

We found that thepre-builtfunctionality meantthat there were farfewer bugs and thedevelopers weremore productive.They particularlyliked being able toreuse objects tocreate code. The.NET Framework isa truedevelopmentenvironment.

UL-GHANIPARTNERCASSIUM

Entertainment and Media.NET live

Williams, the Formula One Racing Giant,Speeds Up Web Downloads UsingMicrosoft .NET

35

Overview

Customer ProfileWilliamsF1 is a companydedicated to motor racing. Itsdrivers regularly compete inBMW cars at high-profileevents in Monte Carlo,Hockenheim, and Silverstone.

Business ChallengeWilliamsF1 wanted toupgrade its website so thatfans and sponsorsthroughout the world coulddownload news stories,features, driver details, andmore in their own language.They also wanted sponsors tobenefit from a private areaof the website so that themarketing department coulddeliver details about strategy,branding, and licensinginformation securely.

SolutionMicrosoft Gold Partner CIBERSolution Partners (CIBER)developed a solution basedon the Microsoft .NETFramework, Microsoft VisualStudio .NET and XML WebServices. This enablesdevelopers to createapplications from new andexisting code, regardless ofplatform, programminglanguage, or object model.

In the fast-moving world of motor racing, accuracy and speed of

reaction are everything. Fans of The BMW WilliamsF1 Team can now

download multilingual news stories, features, driver details, and

more in less than a second. This is 50 per cent faster than an earlier

version of the website. Microsoft Gold Partner CIBER Solution

Partners (CIBER) developed the solution based on the Microsoft .NET

Framework, Microsoft Visual Studio .NET and XML Web Services. It

also created a private area of the website for sponsors, enabling the

WilliamsF1 marketing department to deliver strategy, branding, and

licensing details securely. The upgrade connects businesses,

customers, systems, and services.

BACKGROUND

WilliamsF1 is a company dedicated to motor racing. Its drivers regularly

compete in Formula One cars at high-profile events in Monte Carlo,

Hockenheim, and Silverstone.

The company is based in Grove, Oxfordshire and its 460 employees

range from designers, model makers and tunnel technicians to mechanics

and marketing staff.

Formula One is a sport and industry that relies heavily on rapid

development and constant innovation, so the teams need to operate at

optimum efficiency to succeed. Branding, marketing and licensing are

key to the success of the company. And, as well as generating revenue

from race wins, the company raises funds by encouraging sponsorship

from firms.

Account managers ensure that sponsors receive a host of benefits

such as details of strategy, images not available on the public website,

Microsoft. NET Customer SolutionEntertainment and Media

test/race reports and interview requests. They also look after the sponsors’

guests at a Grand Prix or the WilliamsF1 Conference Centre in Grove,

Oxfordshire.

It is vital that all systems are maintained to the highest standard and

good IT support is key. Race weekends are clearly the worst time for

technical problems to hit a team, so support staff attend each race and

test run to provide backup. WilliamsF1 wanted to improve its existing

website by setting up a private area of the website for sponsors and

creating multilingual access for supporters.

SOLUTION

WilliamsF1 invited CIBER Solution Partners (CIBER), a Microsoft Gold

Partner based in Oxford, to fulfil the brief. CIBER created a private area of

the website for sponsors where they could input a username and

password to access customised content and value-added services, such as

access to images and logos not available to the public.

“ Visual Studio.NET provides asingle developmentenvironment inwhich we cantranslate andmanipulate datafrom severalsources.”

BARRY ALLISONMANAGINGCONSULTANTCIBER

CIBER upgraded the operating system to Microsoft Windows 2000

Server, Microsoft SQL Server 2000, and used XML Web Services to

integrate Windows 2000-based applications and programs using other

operating systems.

After discussing requirements in February 2002, CIBER set the site live

in August 2002. Its developers adhered to the Microsoft .NET Framework

and programming model to enable fans and sponsors to access the

website via personal digital assistant (PDA), laptop, or mobile phone as

well as through a desktop PC.

The Framework helps developers to build web-based applications,

smart client applications, and XML Web Services applications over a

network using standard protocols such as SOAP and HTTP. It offers them

standards-based interoperability, modular and reusable code, and multi-

language connections.

Applications share data over the Internet and developers assemble

applications from new and existing code, regardless of platform,

programming language, or object model. The developers also used

Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, which includes ADO.NET, to generate code

in a graphical environment.

Barry Allison, Managing Consultant at CIBER, was impressed with the

.NET Framework and Visual Studio .NET. He says: “The .NET Framework is

absolutely vast and offers object-oriented code from a huge variety of

objects and classes, which can be reused to develop new applications.

Developers can visually manage the code in Visual Studio.NET and can

generate code automatically simply by dragging and dropping objects

using the designers. This makes rapid development possible, particularly

as it also enables staff to create XML schemas that can be integrated with

a SQL Server database.”

XML schemas provide a means for defining the structure, content, and

semantics of XML documents. The schemas express a shared vocabulary

and allow machines to carry out rules made by people. Allison says: “In

the past, we had to use third-party tools written in different languages to

translate data. Visual Studio .NET provides a single development

environment in which we can translate and manipulate data from several

sources.”

BENEFITS

Since installing the new system, WilliamsF1 sponsors and fans are 37

Benefits• Web pages aredownloading up to 50-60 percent faster• Mobile device accessthrough a single code base• Rapidly add features to thewebsite such as Flash, videoclips, and images• Web pages are updated inreal time• Content editors review, subedit, and upload copy to thewebsite themselves• Rapid design, test andbuild of code throughreusable objects

Products and ServicesMicrosoft Windows 2000ServerMicrosoft SQL Server 2000Microsoft .NET FrameworkMicrosoft Visual Studio .NET XML Web Services

PartnerCIBER Solution Partners

Microsoft. NET Customer SolutionEntertainment and Media

accessing web pages such as race reports, performance tests, driver

details and images much more quickly than before.

Allison says: “The pages are downloading up to 50-60 per cent faster

than with the old system and we are confident that we have the

scalability and resilience to meet a huge surge in demand and deliver an

increased number of pages.”

RAPID DEVELOPMENT

Allison is impressed by the development environment offered within

Visual Studio .NET. He says: “Developers translate data from disparate

sources into XML code and view it in a graphical user interface (GUI). In

the past, we didn’t have a single environment that would enable us to do

this or manipulate the code visually. By working with a single

environment, we have rapidly speeded up development time.”

MOBILE DEVICE ACCESS THROUGH A SINGLE CODE BASE

In the past, WilliamsF1 developers would have had to write separate code

for each type of device to enable fans and sponsors to access the website.

Allison says: “But by using a single code base, our developers can give

access to fans and sponsors using PDAs, laptops, mobile phones, and PCs

“We are confidentthat we have thescalability andresilience to meet ahuge surge indemand anddeliver anincreased numberof pages.”

BARRY ALLISONMANAGINGCONSULTANTCIBER

without having to write any more code. This also means that the website

is easier to develop, support, and maintain.”

Sponsors, fans, and WilliamsF1 staff can access the website from any

web-based browser. And by using XML and the .NET Framework, CIBER

has also fulfilled its brief to provide multilingual services as the code can

be read by a standard translation program.

MORE FUNCTIONALITY

The flexibility of the code offers ease of integration with other programs.

Developers can rapidly add additional features to the website. Content

editors can provide additional content such as Flash, video clips, and

images. Web pages are updated in real time, for example, offering users

a dynamic site map.

Before a news story or article goes up on the website, content editors

at WilliamsF1 view the copy that has not yet appeared on the site, sub-

edit it and upload it themselves onto the website. They can also write

original copy in Word before getting it subbed and submitted to the site

in the usual way. ■

For more information about WilliamsF1, visit the website at:

http://www.bmwwilliamsf1.com

39

For more information aboutCiber products and services, visitthe website at:http://www.uk.ciber.com

Microsoft. NET Customer SolutionEntertainment and Media

Industry.NET live

Large Scale Microsoft .NET DeploymentDrives Efficiency for Major FleetManagement Organisation

41

Overview

Customer ProfileInchcape, as an internationalautomotive services group,provides qualityrepresentation for itsmanufacturer partners, achoice of channels to marketand products for its retailcustomers and a range ofbusiness services for itscorporate customers.

Business ChallengeInchcape saw a marketopportunity to streamline thevaluation, refurbishment,sale and transportationprocesses for ex-fleetvehicles. Its goals were tostreamline the supply chain,reduce depreciation and freecapital tied up.

SolutionA Microsoft .NET deploymentdeveloped using theMicrosoft .NET Framework,with additional functionalityfrom successive Web Servicesdeployments.

When Inchcape plc won a contract to manage the transportation

and resale of 25,000 fleet vehicles, it was faced with the pressing

need to share information effectively between disparate IT systems.

In order to achieve this, Inchcape implemented a solution based on

Microsoft .NET. The results are closer collaboration between

subsidiaries, partners and customers, the automation of routine

business processes, improved operational efficiency, faster re-sale of

ex-rental vehicles, and rapid return on investment.

BACKGROUND

Inchcape, as an international automotive services group, provides quality

representation for its manufacturer partners, a choice of channels to

market and products for its retail customers, and a range of business

services for its corporate customers.

Operating primarily in the UK, Greece, Belgium, Australia, Hong Kong,

and Singapore, the company’s key partners are Toyota, Subaru, Ferrari,

Jaguar, and Land Rover. Inchcape’s activities include exclusive Import,

Distribution and Retail, Business Services, automotive E-commerce, and

Financial Services

In order to extend its automotive services, Inchcape acquired Eurofleet,

a company that provides refurbishment, transportation, storage, and

other logistics services for fleet management.

It also established Inchcape Fleet Management (IFM) to manage, re-

market and resell ex-fleet vehicles through established and online sales

channels.

With this business infrastructure in place, Inchcape would be in a

position to offer end-to-end processes for refurbishing, transporting and

Microsoft. NET Customer SolutionIndustry

re-selling ex-fleet cars to key manufacturers and buyers across the motor

trade sector.

For IFM’s first customer, a major motor manufacturer, thousands of

cars pass through this system at any one time, generating high levels of

capital tied up in stock and loss of revenue through relatively young

vehicles depreciating in value while standing idle unnecessarily

throughout the sales cycle.

To succeed in the face of this challenge, Inchcape needed to reduce

the turnaround time for vehicle sales in order to reduce depreciation and

hence maximise the resale prices to customers.

As a first step towards achieving these goals, IFM created a central

database to manage and monitor each car from its initial sale to a rental

company through to the final delivery of the used vehicle to a dealer. The

system also manages a used-car inventory and provides daily statistics and

status reports across the whole supply chain.

In order to drive this improved efficiency across the entire resale

process, Inchcape needed to manage vehicle information effectively

between its wholly owned subsidiaries. Success would also depend on the

timely provision of order and sales information to third parties such as

manufacturers, dealers, and financing organisations.

SOLUTION

In order to achieve this kind of connectivity and information sharing,

Inchcape planned the implementation of an integrated and fully

synchronised fleet management and re-marketing system. Edenbrook,

Inchcape’s implementation partner, selected Microsoft .NET technology as

a basis for the solution.

.NET was chosen for its ability to integrate new and legacy systems

quickly and easily. In addition, Edenbrook believed that the complex

workflow functionality Inchcape required could simply not be delivered in

time on any other platform.

“The .NET Framework toolset allowed us to deliver complex

functionality by writing code at a much more abstract base level than

would be possible with any competitor platform,” says Ben Nicholson,

Architect at Edenbrook. “Microsoft Visual C#, one of the programming

languages at the heart of .NET, gave us the power and control we needed

to deploy the solution within Inchcape’s three-month timeframe, without

compromising on functionality.” 42

“The .NETFramework toolsetallowed us todeliver complexfunctionality bywriting code at amuch moreabstract base levelthan would bepossible with anycompetitorplatform.”

BEN NICHOLSONARCHITECTEDENBROOK

Although a J2EE-based integration approach was considered, it was

the selection of the highly connective XML-based Microsoft BizTalk Server

that proved critical to the success of the solution.

Edenbrook director Steve Anderson says, “Microsoft BizTalk Server is

one of the fastest growing integration servers on the market. It offers

unparalleled ease of use and integration capabilities. Not too long ago,

we would have had to develop complex interfaces for each different

system.

“Instead, the inherent flexibility of BizTalk enables organisations to

extend across any communications infrastructure and add applications at

any time.” As a result, Inchcape is able to take on additional customers

quickly and easily at any point in the future.

IFM’s central database now manages and monitors each car from its

initial sale to a rental company through to the final delivery of the used

vehicle to a dealer. It ensures that Eurofleet, Inchcape’s refurbishment and

logistics business, only accepts cars returned in time and in accordance

with original buy-back agreements.

The system coordinates the buy-back and refurbishment processes to

offer each car for sale at the earliest possible moment. It integrates with

financial organisations to ensure dealer credit limits are approved before

cars are released.

What’s more, it also ensures that Eurofleet delivers each car to its final

owner on time, and delivers status reports and other timely management

information.

BENEFITS

The .NET platform has enabled Edenbrook to deploy several highly

beneficial Web Services within the Inchcape solution.

Initially, a single sign-on service was created to give users from

different subsidiaries access to information across Inchcape’s extended

systems. This ensures that employees always have access to the

information they need to work effectively.

An additional Web Service was then created to give Inchcape better

visibility of its sales information across multiple channels. This generates a

unique sales ID for each vehicle and logs it in a central location, enabling

Inchcape to monitor the sale of all its vehicles effectively. It also automates

a number of steps in the resale process, such as requesting credit

clearance for buyers. 43

For more information aboutEdenbrook products andservices, visit the website at:http://www.edenbrook.co.uk

Benefits• Streamlined supply chainmanagement• Higher margins for onlinesales• Rapid return oninvestment• Automation of routinebusiness processes• Option to deployadditional Web Servicefunctionality rapidly asrequirements change

Products and ServicesMicrosoft Visual Basic .NETMicrosoft Visual Studio .NETMicrosoft BizTalk ServerMicrosoft SQL Server

Partners Edenbrook

Microsoft. NET Customer SolutionIndustry

Finally, a third Web Service was implemented to streamline the

transportation of vehicles to their point of sale. By making transportation

requests to Eurofleet’s legacy systems automatically, the service sets up

vehicle transportation schedules and enables IFM to track vehicles’

progress through the system.

By using this same Web Service, Eurofleet is now able to expose

vehicle information to its external customers, increasing the integration

and efficiency of its business processes still further.

Edenbrook was able to deliver all this functionality quickly and simply

thanks to the flexibility and openness of the .NET architecture. “We were

hugely impressed with the Edenbrook team, all of whom were senior

consultants with impressive track records,” says Peter Wilson, Group

Director of information systems.

IMPROVED OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY

The administration and tracking of vehicles can now take place with next

to no human intervention. Information is delivered automatically between

manufacturer, Eurofleet and IFM systems, driving operational efficiency

and reducing human error.

What’s more, this provides an opportunity for the fleet customer to

achieve higher prices for vehicles that are sold online, compared to

traditional marketing channels.

Wilson sums up the operational benefits of working with the new

system, saying: “Cars sold online tend to attract higher prices than those

sold at auction. They also spend less time in the supply chain, bringing

significant benefits to the fleet owner.”

A PLATFORM FOR TOMORROW

The flexibility of Inchcape’s .NET solution is already delivering significant

return on investment through improved efficiency and vastly reduced

administration costs. But the platform will also enable the company to

integrate additional Web Service functionality as its needs evolve,

ensuring that business processes continue to be as effective as possible.

In addition, the solution’s XML-based connectivity also positions

Inchcape to integrate with additional partners and customers in the

future, irrespective of their legacy systems.

Through these opportunities for collaborative working, Inchcape will

continue to improve operational efficiency and return on investment. ■44

“Cars sold onlinetend to attracthigher prices thanthose sold atauction. They alsospend less time inthe supply chain,bringing significantbenefits to thefleet owner."

PETER WILSONGROUP IS DIRECTORINCHCAPE

m35 creates the first .NET-based XMLWeb Service Application Server In LessThan Six Months

45

Overview

Customer ProfileLondon based m35 is a newcompany that providessoftware and deliverssolutions that integratesystems and applicationsacross multiple geographiclocations and platforms.

Business Challengem35 needed to choose astrategic development andrun-time platform in order tofulfil its core business goals.

Solutionm35 chose the Microsoft .NETFramework and MicrosoftVisual Studio .NET to createits entire product line;including its core productDataTrans – a rule drivenbusiness transactionapplication server.

The founding members of m35 needed to make a critical decision –

how were the technical designs they created to be implemented? In

order to fulfil their vision, m35 chose the Microsoft .NET Framework

to develop their XML Web Service-based systems integration

software products. In just six months m35 developed and launched

its product set, all written in C#, as well as implemented its first blue

chip client. As a result of this speed and low cost to market, m35 is

on track for profitability in its first year of operation.

BACKGROUND

m35 knows systems integration. The four co-founders have over 40 years

experience in working in complex, high availability, mission-critical

computing environments.

That, combined with nearly 50 years experience in the financial

services market, and they feel they have the right skills and experience to

create world class systems integration products.

m35 knows that the current, most popular choice to integrate

multiple different systems – middleware – is too cumbersome and

expensive for the majority of projects for which its used. Further to that,

middleware is becoming

the next legacy system;

tightly coupled to its

underlying host systems.

m35 believes that

application servers made

from flexible, agile, and distributable components that provide a

combination of data access ability and business logic, are the future of

Microsoft. NET Customer SolutionIndustry

FAST FACTS

Number of architects to design product set 3

Number of developers to build product set 1

Number of months to build product set 6

Implementation time for first project 2 weeks

List price difference from a leading competitor 91%

systems integration. Application servers can open new markets for

systems integration where middleware cannot compete.

The founders created m35 to combine their real-life experience to

create world-class systems integration products to deliver the promise of

distributed systems integration computing.

The main problem they faced was which platform they should choose

to build these products.

SOLUTION

The Microsoft .NET Framework combined with Microsoft Visual Studio

.NET integrated development environment (IDE) provides the ideal

development and run-time environment for m35.

The main design focus for m35 has always been on operational

prowess – how does the software run day in and day out. This includes

all its dependencies such as hardware costs, operating system, cost and

availability of support staff, etc.

As a result of its intensive pre-development examination of the various

development platforms and tools, the Microsoft .NET Framework was a

clear winner.

Not only does the .NET Framework provide rock solid operational

performance and stability, it also has the premier integrated development

environment in the world.

Writing in the C# language, m35 was able to design, develop,

‘productise’, and implement its software in six months. All at significantly

“The .NETFramework reducesthe total amountand complexity ofcode a developerwrites as well asincreases theconsistency of it –letting us focus onthe business issuesof writing productsthat integratesystems andapplications.”

RUSS THORNTONCO-FOUNDERM35

lower total cost to market that would have been possible with other

frameworks from competitors.

“Our philosophy all along has been on solving business problems,”

says Russ Thornton, co-founder of m35. “The .NET Framework reduces

the total amount and complexity of code a developer writes as well as

increases the consistency of it – letting us focus on the business issues of

writing products that integrate systems and applications. “

m35 has proved that smaller more highly qualified teams will out

perform larger groups, provided they have the tools to do so.

With the breath of the .NET Framework and the advent of XML Web

Services, those tools are now available, giving m35 the base it needed to

create its software business.

BENEFITS

Visual Studio .NET provided m35 with an integrated workbench for

developing applications against databases, existing code classes and

objects, MSMQ, and Web Services – all within the same IDE.

The Visual Studio .NET IDE allowed m35 to realise and debug an end-

to-end view of its applications; from the web server to the database. The

versatility of the cross-language debugger and multi-purpose integration

points dramatically reduced debugging and testing time.

Visual Studio .NET gave m35 a development framework that has

provided:

• Unprecedented performance and stability in an n-tier environment.

• Enhanced productivity and speed to market with fewer developers.

• The ability to integrate with diverse platforms and architectures.

• Comprehensive support of XML payload and related technologies

including Web Services.

These features have enabled m35 to create innovative, enterprise

applications all at a fraction of the cost of using any other framework

currently available.

THE END RESULT

In choosing the .NET Framework, m35 has been able to develop and

launch its enterprise systems integration product set in six months. The

core products consist of the following:

• DataTrans Application Server – A real-time, rule driven, business

transaction application server that is applicable across all industry sectors. 47

Benefits• DataTrans provides dataaccess ability combined withrules based business logic.• DataTrans highly leveragesWeb Services and is XMLmetadata based. • It has built in support forconnectivity to a multipleback-end host systems anddatabases• Offers multi-steptransactions with serial andparallel execution, robustlogging, and centralised anddistributed deploymentoptions

Products and ServicesMicrosoft Windows 2000Server / Advanced Server and.NET ServerMicrosoft .NET FrameworkMicrosoft InternetInformation ServerMicrosoft Visual Studio .NETMicrosoft SQL ServerMicrosoft Message QueueMicrosoft OfficeMicrosoft Host IntegrationServerMicrosoft Application CenterServer

Microsoft. NET Customer SolutionIndustry

It integrates existing legacy hosts and databases providing complex

business logic functionality. It leverages Web Services as its main interface

and distributed deployment mechanism.

• DataTrans Scheduler – An enterprise batch scheduling system that

provides off-line integration functionality. It uses DataTrans to execute

scheduled events, based on a robust calendaring system.

• WebTrans – An ASP.NET website development framework and run

time environment for the deployment of consistent content across

multiple delivery channels.

Jason du Preez, m35’s software architect, says, “We created the

products to provide Web Services enablement and systems integration

with unprecedented ease and reliability. Our design provides a simple

method using XML to abstract technical implementation issues from

business process and transaction choreography.”

They are now poised for growth into several different market verticals

and are already looking toward the future to expand their product set.

“We see the widespread adoption of technology standards driving a

new era in distributed computing,” says du Preez.

“This push is blurring the traditional distinctions between the Internet,

platforms, applications, and delivery channels. Applications servers such

as DataTrans will be critical to delivering the types of services business is

demanding,” he says.

MSMS DEPLOYS DATATRANS

Marlborough Stirling Mortgage Services (MSMS) is m35’s first production

This push isblurring thetraditionaldistinctionsbetween theInternet, platforms,applications, anddelivery channels.Applicationsservers such asDataTrans will becritical todelivering thetypes of servicesbusiness isdemanding.

JASON DU PREEZSOFTWARE ARCHITECT M35

software client. They have seen the value in Web Services for systems

integration and chose m35 to play a role in the provision of their services

to some of the largest mortgage lenders in the UK.

MSMS chose m35 to automate several functions of its data centre’s

daily operations by integrating several different systems, on various

platforms, using DataTrans and the DataTrans Scheduler. This installation

will now become the springboard for several other projects; both for

internal and external use.

Phil Robinson, Business Systems Manager at MSMS says, that “m35

has a unique blend of .NET technology and skills, which is placing MSMS

at the forefront of high value services to its clients”.

As financial institutions strive to lower costs and cope with upcoming

regulatory changes, MSMS recognises the enormous potential for growth

in outsourcing across all financial markets. They understand the

challenges of being able to accommodate different processes and

products for multiple institutions.

A key factor in providing a successful outsourcing service is a

combination of a flexible business process model with a generic product

engine. This allows the outsourcer to service financial products at a much

lower cost than an individual financial institution as well as to service

multiple clients.

Thornton says, “In the past, we’ve found that both business processes

and financial product definitions are not defined uniformly. This makes for

a natural migration to describing them both in XML. What we are aiming

to do with MSMS is to use our software to automate these business

processes based on their respective product descriptions.”

m35 and MSMS believe that Web Services and the .NET Framework

will play a key part in the complex systems integration and applications

exposure required by the business. Web Services will provide elegant,

future-proof and standards-based interfaces to internal and external

MSMS applications and business services. ■

For more information about m35 products and services, call +44 (0) 207-808-7344

or visit the website at: http://www.m35.net/ 49

Microsoft. NET Customer SolutionIndustry

50

“We chose a .NETsolution because itoffered high levelperformance,availability andscalability for thefuture.”

ALUN ROGERSCONSULTANTLYNX TECHNOLOGY

Microsoft and Lynx deliver highlyavailable solution leveraging MicrosoftExchange 2000

As a top-10 law firm, Pinsent Curtis Biddle constantly uses IT to deliver

business value and improve efficiencies. Following the migration to the

leading edge Microsoft .NET Framework, incorporating a Microsoft

Windows and Microsoft Exchange 2000 platform, Pinsent Curtis Biddle has

seen significant improvements in internal processes and systems. The

solution provides a dynamic and more reliable infrastructure to leverage

long-term business and IT strategy for further growth.

BACKGROUND

Pinsent Curtis Biddle is a fast growing law firm constantly striving to

deepen its service to clients while maintaining standards of the highest

quality. In the past 18 months the firm has responded to client demand,

doubling the size of its London office through the merger of Pinsent

Curtis and Biddle, and opening an office in Manchester. The firm has also

extended its international capabilities, including France, Germany, and

Sweden.

The firm is ranked in the top 10 and has also been ranked in the top

five nationally for client service by in-house lawyers in the UK. It was voted

the UK’s ‘Most Enterprising Law Firm’ in the Legal Business 2002 Awards.

With more than 160 partners, a full legal team of 550 people and a

total UK staff of 1,200, the firm acts extensively for UK and foreign-

controlled companies.

Pinsent Curtis Biddle is committed to strategic growth and aims to

achieve a leading position in the next three years in carefully selected

markets including technology and media, public companies, property and

financial institutions. It also wanted to build on its overseas experience

and nurture new longstanding relationships.

But in order to achieve this vision it became apparent to Pinsent Curtis

Biddle that its legacy system – a Lotus Notes environment – was

incapable of driving its business strategy.

The organisation formed a three to five-year plan that focused on

developing a Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange 2000

environment, to deliver a higher level of service to clients and provide

employees with enhanced operational efficiencies.

SOLUTION

While Pinsent Curtis Biddle could provide a full legal service, it didn’t have

the expertise to build and deploy the solution itself. The law firm invited

several IT solution providers to design a reliable infrastructure that would

deliver longevity for future strategies and growth.

After a rigorous selection programme, it awarded the business to Lynx

Technology, a Microsoft Gold Partner well known for building enterprise

server platforms.

“The Lynx team were awarded the contract based on a successful

exercise that defined how the solution would meet our requirements to

migrate from Lotus Notes to a more dynamic and innovative platform,

with minimal disruption to the business. The highly available solution

needed to run in parallel with our existing systems. Business continuance

was a key decision factor for us,” says Colin Smith, Director of

Information Technology, Pinsent Curtis Biddle.

“We had an existing relationship with Lynx, which spanned eight

years, so we felt confident that it would develop a Microsoft solution to

enhance business value and efficiencies,” he adds.

The solution was based on the core objective to migrate to a more

receptive Microsoft Windows and Exchange 2000 platform messaging

system. The Active Directory design and schema incorporated design

preparation for .NET Server features and functionality.

Lynx was responsible for the definition, design and implementation of

the solution to a 1,200-user environment. The skilled team designed a 51

Overview

Customer ProfilePinsent Curtis Biddle is one ofthe UK’s top 10 law firms

Business Challenge• To use IT to deliverbusiness value and improveefficiencies• To provide quality ITinfrastructure to leveragefuture strategies and growth• To enhance business valueand efficiencies• Business continuity

Solution• To migrate from LotusNotes to Microsoft .NETFramework incorporatingMicrosoft Windows andMicrosoft Exchange 2000platform• Implement a highlyresilient and availablemessaging infrastructure

Benefits• Minimise businessdisruption• Highly available solution• Co-existence with existingsystems• High-level performance,availability and scalability• Dynamic and reliableinfrastructure• Improved internalprocesses and systems.

Microsoft. NET Customer SolutionIndustry

parallel solution to co-exist with the current Windows NT environment

and act as a migration platform. Microsoft Exchange 2000 and Outlook

2000 were deployed to all users within the network in a phased migration

ensuring interoperability between the systems.

Lynx supports all Pinsent Curtis Biddle server and network

infrastructure across all five sites in the UK – Birmingham, Leeds,

Manchester and two sites in London.

The sites were mapped on to Microsoft Exchange 2000 and Active

Directory and took into consideration the company Wide Area Network

(WAN). Each site had a clustered Exchange environment and a dedicated

Microsoft Windows 2000 server running Active Directory and replication.

Lynx set up resilient Internet connections for e-mail outbound and

inbound, so Pinsent Curtis Biddle could afford for its WAN to fail and still

ensure that the e-mail service would continue to be delivered to users.

Alun Rogers, Consultant at Lynx Technology, adds: “We chose a .NET

solution because it offered high-level performance, availability and

scalability for the future. We engaged with Microsoft Consulting Services

(MCS) to define and ratify the custom migration strategy and design from

Lotus Notes to Exchange 2000.”

The Lynx consultant worked with a MCS consultant to produce a

migration document, which identified areas where we needed to rethink

the design of the infrastructure.

“We are delightedwith the endresults. Thesolution hasdramaticallyimproved ourinternal processes,procedures andsystems.”

COLIN SMITHDIRECTOR OF ITPINSENT CURTIS BIDDLE

53

For more information aboutLynx Technolgy’s products andservices, visit the Web site at: http://www.lynxtec.com

Products and Services• Microsoft .NET Framework• Microsoft Windows 2000Advanced Server• Microsoft Windows 2000• Microsoft InternetInformation Server • Microsoft Exchange 2000• Microsoft Active DirectoryServices

PartnerLynx Technology

Microsoft. NET Customer SolutionIndustry

“Following the recommendations, we made the changes and asked

MCS to verify and quality-assure the new Microsoft environment. It was

important to us that Pinsent Curtis Biddle felt comfortable that the

solution met its criteria for the organisation’s short and long-term vision.”

Lynx Technology utilised both the Microsoft Solution Framework (MSF)

and Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) to ensure the quality and

standard throughout implementation and ongoing management of the

environment. The new infrastructure was then formally handed over to

Pinsent Curtis Biddle including the delivery of business user workshops.

BENEFITS

The entire project took just six months to build. The Microsoft .NET

solution has been live for over four months. Once Lynx had developed the

solution, Pinsent Curtis Biddle rolled out Microsoft Exchange 2000, Active

Directory, and Outlook on to users desktops.

Pinsent Curtis Biddle has seen an increase in productivity and quality of

service delivered by the Microsoft .NET solution. “We are delighted with

the end results,” says Smith. “The solution has dramatically improved our

internal processes, procedures and systems. The solution delivered

significant application and service availability features to all business users.

We have a resilient platform that will act as the foundation to enable the

long-term business and IT strategy for the growth of our organisation.” ■

54

“Passport,providing singlesign-in, and otherservices make itmuch simpler forInfuzer to integrateand share datawith our partnerweb sites”

DAVID WOODPRESIDENT AND CEOTRONDENT

Move from Java to .NET helps Trondentbroaden appeal of calendar commerce

Infuzer is a software application, which is pioneering calendar

commerce and communication. It transfers time-sensitive

information – such as events and travel itineraries – directly into a

user's electronic calendar at the touch of an icon. Infuzer is easy for

websites to implement, requiring no new software to be installed on

their servers. All Infuzer-related processing takes place remotely, on

Infuzer servers.

BACKGROUND

Founded in 1994, Trondent Development Corp. is a leading provider of

software applications to the travel industry, specialising in product

development, programming, customer sales and marketing.

In 2002 Trondent announced that it had acquired the assets of on board

info’s product, Infuzer.

With the advent of the Internet came business use of calendaring

information and on board info wanted to develop its eCalendar

Companion, which works with email software and handheld devices,

enabling users to personalise sporting fixture lists, results and statistics.

Ray Eitel-Porter, former President of on board info, discovered that

business, that staged legal, sporting, or other types of events were more

interested in a tool that could raise their revenues by increasing the

numbers of people attending these events.

Ensuring such information found its way into the electronic calendars

of potential attendees – and finding a way to encourage people to

actually attend the event – was an open business opportunity.

By the mid-1990s many email users were becoming disenchanted with

the amount of junk they were receiving in their email inboxes, meaning

that much of the event information sent by email was disregarded. But

as handheld devices grew in popularity, it became clear that information

stored in electronic calendars – on both handheld devices and PCs – held

a much higher status. This is because the user makes a conscious choice

to save such information to their electronic calendar. It then becomes

what is known as ‘opt in’ data.

A survey conducted by Omnibus in April 2001 found that 93 per cent

of PDA users and 86 per cent of PC calendar users are “almost certain”

to read information that’s in their calendars – figures that far exceed

Internet-only data.

SOLUTION

The eCalendar Companion was marketed to readers of the Economist in

1996. Towards the end of the 1990s, however, Trondent discovered that

businesses operating in its target market had a need for even more

valuable applications for calendar commerce and communication using

the technology. They wanted to use the calendar to get more people to

attend their events and to build a one-to-one marketing dialogue based

on time-sensitive information.

With this new intelligence, Trondent took over the development of

Infuzer, a software application originally written in Java.

Infuzer is designed to sit on websites or in emails that contain event-

related information. At a single click, visitors to websites and recipients

of emails, which are Infuzer-enabled, can now transfer all the details of

an event into their own electronic calendar.

“The Infuzer server infrastructure has been designed to give access to

a user base in the millions,” says David Wood, President and CEO,

Trondent. “It processes millions of transactions a month.”

Users can also be notified automatically over the Internet of any

important changes connected with the event. Infuzer’s functionality is

offered at no cost to the end user. Instead, the website owner pays

Trondent a licence fee. 55

Overview

Customer ProfileTrondent Development Corp.is a leading provider ofsoftware applications to thetravel industry. In 2002 itacquired the assets of onboard info’s product Infuzer.

Challenge• To raise the status ofcalendar-specific data bymaking it easily available toelectronic calendar users • To enable updates tocalendar entries and a one-to-one dialogue betweenrecipient and originatoraround the event • To give businesses a tool toensure that details of theirevents and other time-sensitive information find aplace in the electroniccalendars of interestedparties

SolutionInfuzer, a calendaringsoftware infrastructureoriginally written in Java, isnow being ported into theMicrosoft® .NET environmentso that it can benefit from.NET My Services

Microsoft. NET Customer SolutionIndustry

The company has decided on a two-pronged strategy to embrace

Microsoft® .NET technology.

The existing Java application was modified to take advantage of

Microsoft .NET My Services. Thanks to the extensive use of open

standards within .NET, these modifications were relatively

straightforward. Also, Trondent migrated Infuzer over to native Microsoft

.NET C#™. This enables Infuzer to exploit the power of the .NET

Framework.

The Java J2EE programming language was used for the Infuzer server,

and Microsoft Visual C++® and Microsoft Foundation Class (MFC) for the

client side. The migration to the .NET architecture took the project team

only three months to complete

BENEFITS

Now, visitors to websites that are Infuzer-enabled can quickly insert details

of forthcoming events into their own electronic calendar with a single

“The Infuzer serverinfrastructure hasbeen designed togive access to auser base in themillions… itprocesses millionsof transactions amonth.”

DAVID WOODPRESIDENT AND CEOTRONDENT

57

Benefits• Updates users withchanges to event data • Enables users to pencilevent data into theirelectronic calendars with asingle click• Helps businesses increasethe numbers of peopleattending their events • Creates a one-to-onemarketing dialogue withrecipients of time-sensitiveinformation in their calendar • Includes URLs for relatedwebsites, products andservices within the calendarentry, generating cross-selling revenues • Provides substantiallybetter click through ratescompared with banneradvertising on the Internet • Easy for website toimplement• Downloads travel itineraryand similar data directly intoa user’s e-calendar

Products and ServicesMicrosoft .NET Passport Microsoft .NET Calendar Microsoft .NET Profile Microsoft .NET Alerts Microsoft Visual Studio® Microsoft SQL Server® 2000 Microsoft Windows® XP Microsoft Outlook Microsoft Visual C++®Microsoft C#™Microsoft Foundation Class(MFC)Microsoft Java J2EE

Microsoft. NET Customer SolutionIndustry

click. They will then be notified of any changes to the event.

But it’s not just the date of a particular event that a user can

download. Many event organisers, such as Carlson Wagonlit, the travel

agency, and the trainline.com, offer travellers complete details of their

itinerary, together with relevant reference numbers and contact phone

numbers, copied into their electronic calendar using Infuzer.

In addition to the end-user benefits, those available to businesses

using Infuzer are enormous. Trondent calculates that between 5 and 10

per cent of people who view Infuzer-enabled pages on an average

website will put details of one or more events into their calendar. This is

substantially more effective than the click-through rates achieved by

banner advertising on the Internet. In an article about the effectiveness of

such advertising, the Financial Times reported (March 2, 2001), that click

through rates for Internet advertising have fallen to as low as 0.5 per cent.

David Wood of Trondent says the key to the success of Infuzer is that

data contained in an electronic calendar commands a big “share of

eyeball”, compared with other forms of electronically communicated

information.

The company’s own research indicates that 58 per cent of electronic

calendar users check their calendars more than five times a day. “This is

due to the fact that people have control over what goes into their

electronic calendar and use it to guide their busy lives,” says Wood.

The other main benefit to businesses is the ease with which they can

implement Infuzer on their websites, a process that has become even

easier with Infuzer’s move to the Microsoft .NET environment. Wood is

quick to point out that it is not a prerequisite to be on the .NET

Framework to access Infuzer thanks to the use of .NET interoperable

protocols.

Infuzer is now so easy to install that the training requirements for

third-party websites are minimal. Trondent assigns an implementation

engineer who helps the client via telephone or email. Trondent is focused

on helping its clients to get the most out of Infuzer once it’s been

implemented.

FUTURE

The major change that is already taking place with Infuzer involves its

move to the .NET architecture where it works alongside Microsoft .NET

My Services.

Trondent is happy with the move. “.NET and .NET My Services provide

an ideal platform for third-parties to develop web-based services such as

Infuzer,” says Wood.

.NET My Services is well-suited to Infuzer as they both share the same

vision – a future in which web-based services work across multiple

platforms and third-party software plays a significant role.

There are two main benefits that come from Infuzer’s move to .NET.

The first is that it enables companies to Infuzer-enable their websites

more easily.

Second, the breadth of services offered by Infuzer is dramatically

increased through its partnership with .NET My Services. Trondent expects

to see itinerary services that dovetail all the individual elements of an

itinerary together for a totally user-centric, integrated experience.

The move to .NET was completely painless for Trondent. “.NET

technology has been easy for us to adopt and has increased our developer

productivity,” says Wood. “Passport, providing single sign-in, and other58

”.NET technologyhas been easy forus to adopt andhas increased ourdeveloperproductivity.”

DAVID WOODPRESIDENT AND CEOTRONDENT

shared core My Services make it much simpler for Infuzer to integrate and

share data with our partner websites.”

The company expects another huge development when mobile

phones carry electronic calendars as standard – a potential market that

Infuzer has also been designed to serve. ■

For more information about Trondent Development Corp or its products and

services, please visit the website at www.trondent.com

59

Microsoft. NET Customer SolutionIndustry

Public Sector.NET live

Microsoft .NET Powers Online ServiceDelivery Around the Clock for Three Rivers District Council

61

Overview

Customer ProfileThree Rivers District Council(TRDC) is located in SouthWest Hertfordshire, has apopulation of 83,000 andprovides a range of servicesto the local community.

Business ChallengeTRDC needed to provide alllocal authority services onlineby 2005, ease the pressure onthe TRDC call centre, andreduce admin and IT costs.

SolutionBuild a citizen self-servicefacility on the Internet toallow citizens to gain accessto council services withoutgoing through the callcentre.

Benefits• Robust and flexibleinfrastructure• Integration between legacysystems and front-end websolution• Fast and easy access toinformation online• Eased pressure on callcentre.

Widespread use of technology by local authorities gives citizens

easier access to municipal services. Parity Solutions has developed an

online solution enabling Three Rivers District Council to meet official

deadlines for e-government. The system, which is based on

Microsoft .NET, also enables the local community to access council

services around the clock, easing pressure on the call centre.

BACKGROUND

Three Rivers District Council (TRDC) is located in South West Hertfordshire

and has a population of 83,000. It offers the ideal mix of beautiful

countryside, excellent leisure facilities, good communications, historic

buildings, offices and parks.

TRDC was created in 1974 when the former urban districts of

Ricksmansworth and Chorleywood joined up with part of the rural district

of Watford. The council provides a wide range of services to the people

and businesses in the surrounding communities, including strategic

services, corporate resources, housing, environmental services, planning,

and leisure.

The government target is for all local authority services to be available

online by 2005. As a result, TRDC embarked on a campaign to make itself

accessible to the public through electronic service delivery. TRDC’s aim

was to create an environment that allowed citizens to access all council

services online – from planning applications to housing maintenance and

council tax payments.

One of the biggest difficulties facing the council was its legacy

systems, which were not year 2000 compliant so upgrading them was the

first priority. Then the council set up an integrated call centre to handle

Microsoft. NET Customer SolutionPublic Sector

enquiries from the public. It achieves resolution of at least 60 per cent of

citizens’ enquiries at the first point of contact.

Finally, the council decided to develop a website that would offer a

self-service approach to extend access further and in the longer term to

minimise the pressure on the call centre. TRDC required a solution that

would integrate existing back-office applications rapidly with its new

web-enabled front end, in order to make critical service-related

information available.

Phil King, Support Services Manager at TRDC, says: “The call centre

receives between 4,500 and 5,000 calls per week. We had always

planned to put our services on the web, but government guidelines made

it a priority. We were awarded £850,000 from the Department of

Transport, Local Government & The Regions (DTLR) to develop replicable

online solutions but we realised that we would be unable to achieve this

goal alone and put the project out to tender.”

SOLUTION

Parity Solutions was selected to help TRDC develop the web-enabled

system. “We wanted to build an effective, interactive site that the local

community could easily access 24 hours-a-day, seven days-a-week,”

explains Phil King.

“We chose Parity Solutions partly because of the company’s reputation

and successful track record of implementing similar solutions. We also felt

that Parity Solutions fully understood our specific needs and could tailor

the functionality of the website accordingly,” he says.

Parity Solutions went on to develop a pilot based Microsoft BizTalk

Server 2000 within the Microsoft .NET Framework. The Framework was

chosen for the full-scale implementation as a result of its proven flexibility

and ease of integration. It enables organisations to connect their new and

existing applications with software and services across platforms,

applications and programming languages.

As such, it was the ideal solution to help TRDC access important

information from its legacy infrastructure and export it to citizens via the

web-enabled front end.

Phil King of TRDC, says: “Our role was to design a platform which

would provide a ‘plug and play’ approach to building the functionality of

the website. The .NET Framework was the ideal solution because it

integrates TRDC’s disparate computer systems quickly and effectively.”62

“Parity Solutions,together withleading edgetechnology fromMicrosoft, hasgiven us a robustand flexibleframework wherewe can implementnew systemswithout having togo through a majorupgrade of thetechnicalinfrastructure.”

PHIL KINGSUPPORT SERVICESMANAGERTHREE RIVERS DISTRICTCOUNCIL

“In addition, the Framework development tools, including Microsoft

Visual Studio .NET and the programming language Microsoft Visual Basic

.NET, enabled us to develop the solution extremely rapidly, giving us

greater de-bugging capabilities, faster performance, and powerful

functionality with much less code to write.”

Andrew Rose, Partner Strategy Consultant for Microsoft Consulting

Services, says: “Microsoft .NET, in combination with Microsoft BizTalk

Server, enabled us to build a flexible architecture founded on XML. This is

future-proof because the Electronic Government Interoperability

Framework (eGIF) has endorsed XML, and more specifically the Govtalk

standard, to describe and represent its data. BizTalk, our .NET-enabled

integration engine, creates XML interfaces that enable connectivity

between TRDC’s disparate IT systems and the citizens they serve.”

This technology positions TRDC to integrate with other key

government departments and suppliers as its needs evolve.

Phil King says: “Microsoft .NET gives us the flexibility to connect to

other councils’ systems and the Government Gateway. All this can be

achieved without extensive technical development as the need arises.”

BENEFITS

When the full-scale implementation takes place, the interactive online

services will gradually reduce the number of calls to TRDC’s call centre and

will provide greater convenience for residents and others.

“The self-service environment which we are creating with the online

service will provide the public with a new means of accessing council

information,” says Phil King.

TRDC’s website will also interact with all council systems. As a result,

information from the call centre and back-office systems will be fully

integrated, reducing the administrative burden of handling enquiries by

telephone.

Phil King adds: “The website will enable us to make more efficient use

of our staff and, in time, reduce the workload on our call centre. We will

be in a position to deliver electronic access, which is much more

convenient for businesses and residents in the community.”

A FUTURE-PROOF SOLUTION

“Leading edge technology from Microsoft and excellent support from

Parity has delivered a robust and flexible IT infrastructure. Now, we can 63

Products and Services• Microsoft Windows 2000Server • Microsoft BizTalk Server2000• Microsoft .NET Framework• Microsoft Visual Studio.NET• Microsoft Visual Basic .NET• Microsoft EnterpriseServices

Partners Parity Solutions

Microsoft. NET Customer SolutionPublic Sector

For more information on ParitySolutions’ products or servicesvisit the website at:http://www.parity.net

implement new systems and services without having to go through major

upgrades or technology re-thinks,” says Phil King. “As the project

continues, additional services can be made available quickly and easily as

a result of the inherent flexibility of Microsoft .NET,” says Parity’s Jon King.

“Using existing software libraries, we can reduce the need for bespoke

programming and integrate future applications without re-writing code.

We also have the option to extend the system’s capabilities with Web

Services as TRDC’s needs change,” he adds.

By adopting a Microsoft .NET infrastructure, TRDC has positioned itself

to meet the government’s electronic service delivery targets in 2005. This

challenging project initially will make four services available through the

TRDC website. These are refuse and recycling operations, which will be

installed first, followed by council tax, environmental health, and electoral

registration in the first phase, which is due for completion at the end of

2002. Another five services will be added in phase two. ■

For more information about TRDC products and services, visit the website at:

http://www.3rivers.gov.uk

“The self-serviceenvironment whichwe are creatingwill provide thepublic with a newmeans of accessingcouncil informationand services.”

PHIL KINGSUPPORT SERVICESMANAGERTHREE RIVERS DISTRICTCOUNCIL

About .NET live

This is the second in a series of books highlighting successful .NETimplementations. The first book featured the following organisations:

■ Ascent Technology■ Bank of New York■ Bradford Hospitals NHS Trust■ BT Group■ Hogg Robinson■ IRN■ lastminute.com■ Nationwide Building Society■ Tesco.com■ The Commonwealth Games■ The Royal Mail Group■ World Rally Championship

If you would like to receive a copy of the first book,or would like to contribute to a future book, pleaseemail infoage@microsoft.com

More information

For more information about Microsoft products orservices, or about any of the case studies in thisbook, please email:infoage@microsoft.com

To access information about Microsoft products andservices via the World Wide Web go to:www.microsoft.com/uk

To access information about Web Services go to:www.microsoft.com/webservices

To access information about companies that haveused Microsoft technology go to:www.microsoft.com/uk/casestudies

To access information about the Microsoft .NETFramework go to: www.microsoft.com/.net

This is a Microsoft publication,designed and produced by

Infoconomy Ltd27 Maddox StreetLondon W1S 2QUEmail: info@infoconomy.comWeb: www.infoconomy.comTelephone: +44 (0) 20 7961 0500