Microsoft SQL AzureCustomer Solution Case Study

Software Vendor Offers Cloud-Based HR Management Solution, Lowers Costs by 77 Percent

OverviewCountry or Region: IrelandIndustry: Professional services—Software engineering

Customer ProfileHeadquartered in Cork, Ireland, HRLocker develops web-based human resources management software that is ideal for small and midsize businesses with a globally dispersed workforce.

Business SituationThe company sought a cloud services provider with a scalable relational database so that it could avoid capital investments while still offering customers reliable performance and a trustworthy reputation.

SolutionHRLocker migrated its prototype to the Windows Azure platform. Now commercially available, the human resources management solution uses the scalable and reliable Microsoft SQL Azure database service.

Benefits Improved application performance Minimized infrastructure investment Lowered costs for customers by 77

percent Streamlined development

“The transition from SQL Server to SQL Azure was easy and familiar. We already had a relational data structure in place … and used that same existing structure when we moved to SQL Azure.”

Eoin Hennessy, Chief Technology Officer, HRLocker

HRLocker creates human resources (HR) management software that eases the difficulty many companies face with managing a globally dispersed workforce. The business was founded with a mission to provide companies with an easy-to-use, low-cost solution in a market flooded with costly and complex HR applications. To that end, HRLocker decided to offer its solution as a web-based application and sought a cloud services platform that could offer scalability, reliable performance, and a security-enhanced infrastructure. The company chose to use the Windows Azure platform, as well as the Microsoft SQL Azure database service. As a result, HRLocker has improved its application’s performance by selecting Microsoft data centers located near its customers, minimized capital investments, and reduced costs for customers, all while enjoying a streamlined development process with familiar tools.

SituationHRLocker offers an easy-to-use human resources (HR) management software application that is designed for small and midsize companies with globally dispersed personnel. Founder and Chief Executive Officer John Dennehy, who had worked at such a company, created HRLocker in 2009 with a vision of providing a low-cost, easy-to-use alternative to the complicated and costly HR management applications already on the market. Like many of the customers it serves, HRLocker is small, with just four employees—three of whom are located in Ireland and the other in British Columbia, Canada.

To stand out in a market full of HR-related software, Dennehy wanted to design HRLocker as a web-based software application so that employees at multinational companies could have access to time sheets, leave information, and other HR-related data from any Internet browser. Plus, he wanted to ensure that customers could sign up and get right to work. “With many of the human resources applications that are available, companies have to go through a lengthy presales process, which is then followed by months of implementation and software rollout, not to mention the training required for users,” explains Dennehy. “We wanted a solution where customers could avoid the hassles and just get started quickly.”

At the same time, cost was a concern for HRLocker, both for the startup company and its potential customers. The company had a goal of offering one of the lowest-cost human-resources administration applications on the market. The company knew from experience that complex, HR software packages are cost-prohibitive for smaller companies and groups within larger companies—the primary target customers for HRLocker. Also, the newly founded

company needed to minimize its own capital investments and maximize development resources.

HRLocker built a prototype for its HR management solution by using the Microsoft .NET Framework 4 and Microsoft ASP.NET Model View Controller (MVC) 3. The application was based on Microsoft Internet Information Services 7.0 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 data management software. However, because the company wanted to avoid costly infrastructure investments, it decided to deploy HRLocker in the cloud by using a platform-as-a-service infrastructure—meaning that all maintenance and management of the infrastructure would be handled for it by a third party. HRLocker set out to find a cloud services provider that could meet three key criteria: reliable security, dependable performance, and high scalability.

Foremost, HRLocker wanted a cloud services provider that it could trust with sensitive and confidential customer information. “Security is essential, and we have to be confident that we are dealing with a company that will treat our customers’ employee data with the kind of sensitivity it deserves,” says Dennehy. In addition, the company is bound by European Union regulations. “We need complete transparency when it comes to knowing where our data is stored with any cloud services provider,” explains Dennehy. “And the data from customers located in the European Union must be stored at a data center also located in the European Union.”

The company wanted the ability to use not only a data center in Europe, but also multiple data centers across the globe, as a way to enhance application performance. When HRLocker demonstrated its

“HRLocker was funded in December 2009 with [U.S.]$400,000 in seed funding. If we had to build out our own infrastructure with that capital, we simply wouldn’t have any money left for development and other strategic efforts.”

John Dennehy, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, HRLocker

prototype for a potential customer in northern China, it took more than 20 seconds for a single page to load. “The performance lags were a result of accessing data from thousands of miles away in our Ireland location and navigating the firewalls into China,” explains Dennehy. “It made the product unusable for those potential customers, and so we needed a cloud services provider that offered globally dispersed data centers and the ability for us to know—and choose—where our data is stored.”

Finally, HRLocker wanted a cloud services provider whose platform would scale rapidly. HRLocker runs lean operations, so it needed an infrastructure that could grow with its business and scale to meet the demands of its global customers.

SolutionAfter evaluating cloud services providers against its criteria for security, performance, and scalability, HRLocker chose the Windows Azure platform from Microsoft. The platform includes the Windows Azure operating system—its development, service hosting, and service management environment. Windows Azure provides developers with on-demand compute and storage, and a content delivery network to host, scale, and manage web applications through Microsoft data centers. Hosting at Microsoft data centers was one critical factor in the company’s decision to use the Windows Azure platform. “The investment that Microsoft has made in security, and particularly when it comes to the Windows Azure platform, is industry-recognized and was key to our decision,” explains Dennehy. “We have to be 100 percent confident that data centers are physically secure, that data is encrypted with the highest in security standards, and that our data integrity is maintained. Microsoft data centers help us meet all of those requirements.”

The Windows Azure platform also includes Microsoft SQL Azure, a cloud-based, self-managed, relational database service built on SQL Server technologies and also hosted at Microsoft data centers. HRLocker was also drawn to SQL Azure based on its successful experience with SQL Server.

Familiar Development EnvironmentIn fact, HRLocker used the prototype application built on Internet Information Services and SQL Server as a jumping off point for development with the Windows Azure platform. Developers at the company ported the .NET-based application code to Windows Azure, and then added new features by using the familiar Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 development system. HRLocker also took advantage of language features in .NET Framework 4 to localize the solution for other countries, such as China.

The HRLocker application is hosted in web roles in Windows Azure, and uses worker roles to execute its back-end processes. The application uses Windows Azure Blob Storage to collect binary data, such as images, documents, and other files that employees can upload; it also uses Table Storage in Windows Azure to keep application session data and configuration data, including new feature configurations.

The company uses SQL Azure to store all employee data for customers, including names, email addresses, and benefit summary information, such as how much time off the employee has accrued. The company uses the same database schema and data structures in SQL Azure that it did in SQL Server. “The transition from SQL Server to SQL Azure was easy and familiar,” explains Eoin Hennessy, Chief Technology Officer at HRLocker. “We already had a relational data structure in place based on our prototype and used that same existing structure when we moved to SQL Azure.”

“Now, we have a data center that is located closer to those customers in China, it takes less than two seconds to load a page—it’s nearly instantaneous and a dramatic improvement that makes our product viable in that region.”Eoin Hennessy, Chief Technology Officer,

HRLocker

SQL Azure is deployed in a multitenant environment, so customers share the same database when using HRLocker, but their data is kept separate from each other’s, and it is encrypted, helping to ensure that employee data is protected and remains confidential.

Easy-to-Use, Scalable ApplicationBy using the Windows Azure platform, HRLocker can offer its HR management solution without requiring customers to set up a complex, costly, on-premises infrastructure. New customers can set up a new account in less than a minute and start using the solution immediately.

Through an Internet browser, customers can manage employee leave information, such as national holidays and vacations, and make that information available internally to ensure optimum planning and productivity—even with a globally dispersed workforce. Employees can fill out time sheets and record sick leave, and managers can easily create reports to track absences or plan for upcoming projects. Employees and managers can also exchange and sign HR-related documents through HRLocker.

Though HRLocker originally designed its application with small and midsize technology companies in mind, it was pleasantly surprised to find that larger companies, some with tens of thousands employees, as well as companies across a variety of industries, were interested in HRLocker because of its quick startup process, web-based access, and lower cost. As the company attracts more customers, it can quickly scale up its solution to handle any number of customers with any number of employees.

To address its need to minimize performance lags, HRLocker can deploy its

application to any of the Microsoft data centers, which are strategically positioned across the globe, to bring application data closer to a customer’s physical location. For instance, to address performance issues in northern China, the company provisioned an instance of HRLocker in the Microsoft Hong Kong data center—thousands of miles closer than the European data center. With its ability to choose which data centers it uses, combined with its ability to scale up to meet demand, HRLocker is poised for growth.

In fact, the company hopes to expand operations by partnering with payroll service providers in the future. Its Windows Azure–based HRLocker application could easily serve as a front end to existing payroll software systems.

BenefitsWith its choice of Windows Azure and SQL Azure, HRLocker has the scalable, security-enhanced, reliable infrastructure that it needed, and was able to quickly develop its HR management solution. By taking advantage of Microsoft data centers, including the ability to choose which data centers to use, HRLocker significantly improved application performance and minimized capital expenses that might have otherwise hindered the company’s initial success. At the same time, the company can offer a solution to customers that costs 77 percent less than competitors’ products.

Improved Application Performance By using the Windows Azure platform and its network of global Microsoft data centers, HRLocker improved the performance of its application. Unlike cloud services providers that do not specify data center locations or offer the ability to deploy an application to a region-specific data center, the Windows Azure platform gives HRLocker a choice of data centers to

“It’s more than just the cost of server hardware.… With SQL Azure and Windows Azure, none of those hidden costs are a factor—everything is taken care of, and that’s really the beauty of the platform.”

John Dennehy, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, HRLocker

which it can provision its HR management solution. For instance, the company provisioned an instance of HRLocker to the Microsoft Hong Kong data center to serve potential customers in northern China and reduced the performance issues that it previously experienced in that region.

“When we first demonstrated our prototype, which was hosted in Ireland, it took 20 seconds to load a page when we were in China,” explains Hennessy. “China is a region where we want to expand, but our product was virtually impossible to use when the data was stored thousands of miles away. Now, we have a data center that is located closer to those customers in China, it takes less than two seconds to load a page—it’s nearly instantaneous and a dramatic improvement that makes our product viable in that region.”

Minimized Infrastructure Investments

“The ability to reuse tools and knowledge that we’ve been using for years is really big for us. It means our development and deployment processes are familiar and fast—the Windows Azure platform is a dream come true.”Eoin Hennessy, Chief Technology Officer,

HRLockerBy hosting its application on the Windows Azure platform, HRLocker avoided the

costly capital investments required to build its own hosting infrastructure—capital that the startup company needed to grow its business. “HRLocker was funded in December 2009 with [U.S.]$400,000 in seed funding,” says Dennehy. “If we had to build out our own infrastructure with that capital, we simply wouldn’t have any money left for development and other strategic efforts.”

HRLocker was also able to avoid other costs associated with infrastructure investments, aside from hardware costs. “Using China as an example, there would have been massive costs involved to find a hosting partner with the reliability and security that we require,” explains Dennehy. “It’s more than just the cost of server hardware; you have to factor in research and do due diligence with finding the right partner. With SQL Azure and Windows Azure, none of those hidden costs are a factor—everything is taken care of, and that’s really the beauty of the platform.” Lowered Costs for Customers by 77 PercentIn addition to minimizing its own capital investments, HRLocker is also able to offer a lower-cost HR management solution to its customers as a result of using a cloud-based infrastructure. Whereas many HR-related software applications require costly servers and resources to manage and maintain the infrastructure, customers avoid those costs with HRLocker.

Plus, the company offers a competitive pricing package even compared to other cloud-based HR management solutions. “Our pricing is made possible, in part, because we take advantage of the pay-as-you-go, competitive pricing model that the Windows Azure platform offers,” says Dennehy. HRLocker estimates that the total cost of ownership of its solution is at least 77 percent less than any other competing

HR management application. “We estimate that it costs customers $18 per employee annually to run HRLocker. For competing products, it costs at least $80 per employee annually.”

Streamlined Development and Deployment Developers at HRLocker drew from their existing technical knowledge when they developed the cloud-based HR management solution, which helped to simplify the development and deployment process. Combined, they have decades of experience using the .NET Framework, working with Visual Studio, and building databases with SQL Server, so they were able to use those familiar tools and skill sets to develop HRLocker for Windows Azure and SQL Azure.

“The ability to reuse tools and knowledge that we’ve been using for years is really big for us,” says Hennessy. “It means our development and deployment processes are familiar and fast—the Windows Azure platform is a dream come true.”

Windows Azure PlatformThe Windows Azure platform provides developers the functionality to build applications that span from consumer to enterprise scenarios. The key components of the Windows Azure platform are:

Windows Azure. Windows Azure is the development, service hosting, and service management environment for the Windows Azure platform. It provides

developers with on-demand compute, storage, bandwidth, content delivery, middleware, and marketplace capabilities to build, host, and scale web applications through Microsoft data centers.

Microsoft SQL Azure. Microsoft SQL Azure is a self-managed, multitenant relational cloud database service built on Microsoft SQL Server technologies. It provides built-in high availability, fault tolerance, and scale-out database capabilities, as well as cloud-based data synchronization and reporting, to build custom enterprise and web applications and extend the reach of data assets.

To learn more, visit: www.windowsazure.comwww.sqlazure.com

For more information about Microsoft BizSpark, go to:www.microsoft.com/bizspark

For More InformationFor more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers in the United States and Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:www.microsoft.com

For more information about HRLocker products and services visit the website at: www.hrlocker.com

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published April 2011

Software and Services Windows Azure Platform− Microsoft SQL Azure− Windows Azure

Microsoft Visual Studio− Microsoft Visual Studio 2010

Professional

Services− Microsoft BizSpark

Technologies− Microsoft ASP.NET MVC 3− Microsoft .NET Framework 4