Demers says it was easy for the TV Guide Online development team to take advantage of WLBS because it is a standard feature of Windows NT Server Enterprise Edition, a product that's very familiar to the company's programmers. To build the site, the development team used the Microsoft Visual C++® development system, Microsoft Visual InterDev® Web development system, and Microsoft Visual Basic® scripting tools, all part of the Microsoft Visual Studio® suite of development applications. The site's channel listings and editorial content database was designed with Microsoft Component Object Model (COM) and distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) technology, and Microsoft Active Server Pages (ASP) technology was used across the entire Web site.
The Personalization feature of Microsoft Site Server Commerce Edition was used to offer a customizable experience for visitors. For example, the site provides customized TV listings based on a visitor's ZIP code, and can generate timely information on local shows. Future plans call for extensive personalization based on a user's preferences for specific shows and actors.
The site runs on an array of Compaq ProLiant servers. These include 10 quad-Pentium Pro processor-based ProLiant 5500s that operate as the Web server cluster. An additional five ProLiant 5500s host Microsoft SQL ServerTM data. Other Compaq servers provide functions such as mail and LDAP services along with video encoding and video streaming. The site's video streaming is done with Microsoft Windows Media Technologies, a component of Windows NT Server that provides streaming media tools and functionality.
"The Windows NT architecture is making our lives a lot easier," says Carr. "The scalability of the site is much better than what we had before, and it's easy to add or remove servers from the site without any interruption in service. Our team consists of just four people, and now it's a lot easier to do more with the same number of employees. It's allowed us to do more with less while giving our customers a great online experience.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Windows NT Load Balancing Service Helps Build Robust Site
The Microsoft Windows NT Load Balancing Service is designed to merge the resources of two or more servers running Windows NT Server 4.0, Enterprise Edition into a single front-end cluster for Web sites, FTP, proxy, and other services. It installs as a standard Windows NT networking driver and runs on any existing local area network (LAN). Once installed, it operates in a fully transparent manner to both server applications and to TCP/IP clients. Clients can access the cluster as if it were a single computer by using one IP address.
Under normal operations, WLBS automatically balances the networking traffic between the clustered computers, scaling the performance of one server to any level required. When a computer fails or goes offline, WLBS automatically reconfigures the cluster to direct the client connections to the remaining computers. The offline computer can transparently rejoin the cluster and regain its share of the workload. This contrasts with other load balancing solutions, which typically introduce single points of failure or performance bottlenecks and cost significantly more.
Robert Kelly, vice president of product development for TV Guide Online, says this new feature of Windows NT Server is essential to the Web site, which needs to handle a large volume of client requests without creating any unwanted delays.
"The orchestration of our content on the site gets very complicated because we have a set of editors who are constantly pushing materials onto the site throughout the day," Kelly says. "We have to be able to access all of the data in our database and then make it available for customers around the clock. With the Microsoft technology, we've been able to build a high-performance, very dynamic database structure that allows us to serve huge numbers of customers."
Tim Demers, manager of product development, adds that Windows NT Server with WLBS has made it easy to move servers in and out of online activity. "As we continue to roll features onto the Web site, it's really easy to take servers out of commission temporarily and conduct some testing. When we feel a feature set is ready, we roll the server right back into the live site. Users never know the difference, and it lets us take advantage of all the servers that we have on the site." The TV Guide Online development team plans to add a new server to the cluster if the workload exceeds a certain level-the threshold is an average CPU
Under normal operations, WLBS automatically balances the networking traffic between the clustered computers, scaling the performance of one server to any level required. When a computer fails or goes offline, WLBS automatically reconfigures the cluster to direct the client connections to the remaining computers. The offline computer can transparently rejoin the cluster and regain its share of the workload. This contrasts with other load balancing solutions, which typically introduce single points of failure or performance bottlenecks and cost significantly more.
Robert Kelly, vice president of product development for TV Guide Online, says this new feature of Windows NT Server is essential to the Web site, which needs to handle a large volume of client requests without creating any unwanted delays.
"The orchestration of our content on the site gets very complicated because we have a set of editors who are constantly pushing materials onto the site throughout the day," Kelly says. "We have to be able to access all of the data in our database and then make it available for customers around the clock. With the Microsoft technology, we've been able to build a high-performance, very dynamic database structure that allows us to serve huge numbers of customers."
Tim Demers, manager of product development, adds that Windows NT Server with WLBS has made it easy to move servers in and out of online activity. "As we continue to roll features onto the Web site, it's really easy to take servers out of commission temporarily and conduct some testing. When we feel a feature set is ready, we roll the server right back into the live site. Users never know the difference, and it lets us take advantage of all the servers that we have on the site." The TV Guide Online development team plans to add a new server to the cluster if the workload exceeds a certain level-the threshold is an average CPU
Better Technology to Fit the New Web Site
TV Guide Online resulted from the merger of two former sites, Prevue Online and the TV Guide Entertainment Network. The job of the new site's staff was to build a Web presence that would complement TV Guide magazine and its broadcast counterpart, the TV Guide Channel.
In planning the site, TV Guide Online staff had to make a number of critical technology decisions that would affect the viability of the new project. Key criteria included the ability to provide continuous, transparent access for customers even when there was a technical problem with the site; the ability to scale quickly as the site grew in popularity; and enough flexibility to create personalized visits.
These features were on the requirement list because of the staff's experience with previous systems, including UNIX on the TV Guide Entertainment Network and Prevue Online's Windows NT Server farm, which employed round-robin DNS-based connection requests for user queries. UNIX would have been too expensive to deploy and administer for what was needed, Carr says, while the performance of the Windows NT Server DNS design was not conducive to failure recovery on a 24 X 7 site.
"When we looked at the requirements for launching the new site, we took a fresh look at the technology available that would provide us with better scalability and performance," Carr says. He says TV Guide Online was already committed to the Microsoft platform because of the previous positive experience with Windows NT Server and the development staff's familiarity with Microsoft development tools.
In planning the site, TV Guide Online staff had to make a number of critical technology decisions that would affect the viability of the new project. Key criteria included the ability to provide continuous, transparent access for customers even when there was a technical problem with the site; the ability to scale quickly as the site grew in popularity; and enough flexibility to create personalized visits.
These features were on the requirement list because of the staff's experience with previous systems, including UNIX on the TV Guide Entertainment Network and Prevue Online's Windows NT Server farm, which employed round-robin DNS-based connection requests for user queries. UNIX would have been too expensive to deploy and administer for what was needed, Carr says, while the performance of the Windows NT Server DNS design was not conducive to failure recovery on a 24 X 7 site.
"When we looked at the requirements for launching the new site, we took a fresh look at the technology available that would provide us with better scalability and performance," Carr says. He says TV Guide Online was already committed to the Microsoft platform because of the previous positive experience with Windows NT Server and the development staff's familiarity with Microsoft development tools.
TV Guide Online Provides Phenomenal Performance
Fortunately, the site's developers could draw on a large pool of talent for the content. To ensure its reliability and to give the company room for growth, they turned to Microsoft. Using the Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0, Enterprise Edition operating system with its new Windows NT Load Balancing Service (WLBS), along with other Microsoft products such as Site Server Commerce Edition, with its personalization capabilities, and the Microsoft Visual Studio® development suite, TVGuide.com has already blossomed into an immensely popular Web venue that complements the parent company's weekly magazine.
"The performance has been phenomenal," says Scott Carr, director of product support at the site's headquarters in Tulsa, Oklahoma. "We went online just days before the nationally televised TV Guide Awards show, and it spiked at six million hits just hours after the show started. Since then, we're garnering an average of 8 million to 10 million hits a day, without any downtime to speak of on the 10 Web servers we currently have in operation. Windows NT Server and the other Microsoft products have enabled us to create a Web site that is extremely reliable. It's highly scalable so it can grow as we do, and it is easy to customize for our audience."
"The performance has been phenomenal," says Scott Carr, director of product support at the site's headquarters in Tulsa, Oklahoma. "We went online just days before the nationally televised TV Guide Awards show, and it spiked at six million hits just hours after the show started. Since then, we're garnering an average of 8 million to 10 million hits a day, without any downtime to speak of on the 10 Web servers we currently have in operation. Windows NT Server and the other Microsoft products have enabled us to create a Web site that is extremely reliable. It's highly scalable so it can grow as we do, and it is easy to customize for our audience."
A Win-Win Program
The initial implementation of SHOPP/Ariba has been well received by users, business managers, and VISA's purchasing professionals. Employees have better visibility into the order process and can track the progress of their orders through the system. In addition, goods and services are received significantly faster. For example, during VISA's pilot program, purchases of computer hardware that previously took three days to process were completed in as little as 32 minutes. Further, managers have found it easy to access the system and review items needing their approval. They also like the fact that there is no paper to keep track of.
Equally impressive are the cost savings. By automating the procurement process from selection through payment, VISA reduced its administrative costs by an average of $100 per order—a 50% to 90% reduction depending on type of order.
Purchasing professionals are among the most enthusiastic advocates for the program. "SHOPP/Ariba is a win-win program because it enables and empowers our procurement specialists by shifting their focus to strategic initiatives as opposed to paper-shuffling processes," says Hall.
SHOPP/Ariba also makes information more readily available to VISA's procurement organization and cost center managers. With the reporting capabilities in SHOPP/Ariba, buyers can readily track purchasing patterns, analyze purchasing practices, and determine how well vendors are meeting their service-level agreements. The software also creates a solid base of information on which to negotiate better prices in future contracts.
Equally impressive are the cost savings. By automating the procurement process from selection through payment, VISA reduced its administrative costs by an average of $100 per order—a 50% to 90% reduction depending on type of order.
Purchasing professionals are among the most enthusiastic advocates for the program. "SHOPP/Ariba is a win-win program because it enables and empowers our procurement specialists by shifting their focus to strategic initiatives as opposed to paper-shuffling processes," says Hall.
SHOPP/Ariba also makes information more readily available to VISA's procurement organization and cost center managers. With the reporting capabilities in SHOPP/Ariba, buyers can readily track purchasing patterns, analyze purchasing practices, and determine how well vendors are meeting their service-level agreements. The software also creates a solid base of information on which to negotiate better prices in future contracts.
Making the Process Visible
VISA initiated its ORM project after conducting in-depth interviews with 25 Fortune 200 companies. VISA found that companies had three critical needs: they want solutions that provide a great deal of relevant information, help to lower administrative costs, and enable more effective supplier relationship management. After a comprehensive survey of available software, VISA determined that Ariba ORMS was, according to Schoch, "the right solution for VISA to use in automating the process of acquiring our operating resources and expanding our Purchasing card program."
VISA initially implemented Ariba ORMS in its Foster City, California, and Denver, Colorado, offices. Ariba ORMS offers users an easy-to-use, reliable interface that, in Schoch's words, "makes the whole purchasing process visible and puts information right at your fingertips."
The solution, known as the "Strategic Hub for Operational Processes and Purchasing," or "SHOPP/Ariba," is now deployed to 2,000 users. All 4,000 U.S. employees are scheduled to be on the system by October 1999, with select international deployment soon to follow.
Based On Microsoft PlatformSHOPP/Ariba integrates seamlessly with VISA's existing Microsoft-based IT infrastructure from the desktop to the back end. The system runs on Microsoft Windows NT® Server, stores data in Microsoft SQL Server™, and uses the Microsoft Internet Information Server component of Windows NT Server to upload the Ariba Java applet onto Microsoft Internet Explorer browser software. SHOPP/Ariba is configured to use the Microsoft Exchange Server directory as the main source of user profile data, and also integrates with Exchange Server for sending both Microsoft Outlook® e-mail messages to internal users and faxes bound for suppliers to VISA's central faxing system.
One of VISA's criteria for selecting its ORM solution was that it had to preserve VISA's single user password infrastructure. Ariba ORMS comes pre-packaged to integrate the Internet Authentication Server component of Windows NT Server, allowing users to simply enter their normal system user name and password into the Ariba logon screen.
VISA initially implemented Ariba ORMS in its Foster City, California, and Denver, Colorado, offices. Ariba ORMS offers users an easy-to-use, reliable interface that, in Schoch's words, "makes the whole purchasing process visible and puts information right at your fingertips."
The solution, known as the "Strategic Hub for Operational Processes and Purchasing," or "SHOPP/Ariba," is now deployed to 2,000 users. All 4,000 U.S. employees are scheduled to be on the system by October 1999, with select international deployment soon to follow.
Based On Microsoft PlatformSHOPP/Ariba integrates seamlessly with VISA's existing Microsoft-based IT infrastructure from the desktop to the back end. The system runs on Microsoft Windows NT® Server, stores data in Microsoft SQL Server™, and uses the Microsoft Internet Information Server component of Windows NT Server to upload the Ariba Java applet onto Microsoft Internet Explorer browser software. SHOPP/Ariba is configured to use the Microsoft Exchange Server directory as the main source of user profile data, and also integrates with Exchange Server for sending both Microsoft Outlook® e-mail messages to internal users and faxes bound for suppliers to VISA's central faxing system.
One of VISA's criteria for selecting its ORM solution was that it had to preserve VISA's single user password infrastructure. Ariba ORMS comes pre-packaged to integrate the Internet Authentication Server component of Windows NT Server, allowing users to simply enter their normal system user name and password into the Ariba logon screen.
VISA International
VISA International thrives on making purchases easy to pay for. Long recognized as a global leader in the payment card industry, it is not surprising to find VISA at the forefront of what Forbes Magazine calls "the last frontier" of business automation, Internet, and intranet-based electronic purchasing.
In fact, using the BackOffice family and Ariba Operating Resource Management System (Ariba ORMS), from Ariba, Inc., VISA is moving beyond simple electronic purchasing to Operating Resource Management (ORM). Its sophisticated new ORM solution is not only a natural fit with VISA's Purchasing card program and other payment services, but a significant source of savings as well.
Crying for EfficiencyFrom computers to cubicle partitions, most companies today use manual methods to buy nearly all of their operating resources. For these organizations, acquiring goods and services is a cumbersome and costly process that's "crying for efficiency," according to William Schoch, director of VISA Purchasing.
"In a paper-based environment, purchasing is time-consuming, frustrating, mistake-prone, and expensive," Schoch says. "If a requisition gets hung up somewhere in the approval or ordering cycle, the person who initiated the request is in the dark and has no way of knowing where the problem is." ORM takes advantage of the Internet and corporate intranets to consolidate and automate traditional methods of acquiring operating resources, from selecting items, obtaining necessary approvals, and placing orders to generating payments and receiving the ordered goods
In fact, using the BackOffice family and Ariba Operating Resource Management System (Ariba ORMS), from Ariba, Inc., VISA is moving beyond simple electronic purchasing to Operating Resource Management (ORM). Its sophisticated new ORM solution is not only a natural fit with VISA's Purchasing card program and other payment services, but a significant source of savings as well.
Crying for EfficiencyFrom computers to cubicle partitions, most companies today use manual methods to buy nearly all of their operating resources. For these organizations, acquiring goods and services is a cumbersome and costly process that's "crying for efficiency," according to William Schoch, director of VISA Purchasing.
"In a paper-based environment, purchasing is time-consuming, frustrating, mistake-prone, and expensive," Schoch says. "If a requisition gets hung up somewhere in the approval or ordering cycle, the person who initiated the request is in the dark and has no way of knowing where the problem is." ORM takes advantage of the Internet and corporate intranets to consolidate and automate traditional methods of acquiring operating resources, from selecting items, obtaining necessary approvals, and placing orders to generating payments and receiving the ordered goods
Savings, Efficiency, and Reporting
Used now by 750 people, Clarus E-Procurement will eventually be rolled out to 2,300 users at MasterCard. It's already proving to be a big hit. "The users love it," says Cullinan. "We were such a manual operation before. Now, if a person goes on Clarus by 3 o'clock in the afternoon, they will have that item on their desktop by noon the next day. You can't really get any better than that."
MasterCard's suppliers are fans of the new system as well. "The vendors who are on it absolutely love it," reports Cullinan. "This makes the transaction on their end much easier." In addition, Clarus E-Procurement reduces the number of incomplete or incorrect orders that suppliers receive while simultaneously increasing their overall order volume by reducing "maverick" buying.
To date, Clarus E-Procurement has allowed MasterCard to slash the average time required to fill a purchase order from 3.98 days to 1.24, and to cut the average cost of processing a purchase order from $125 to $40. And there are bigger savings to come: the company was already saving an estimated $10,000 per month on office supplies, computer hardware, and computer software alone during an early pilot phase with just 250 users.
"It's certainly saving us a lot of time, and that equals manpower," says Cullinan. "It really allows the user groups to work on their job, and allows my group to be more strategic and aggressive. It's giving us a much smoother flow of requisition to order to vendor, so we've become much more efficient and have been able to process a whole lot more without adding staff."
Such efficiencies add up. "My guess, based on how it has reduced processing time, ended maverick purchasing, and allowed us to negotiate better with our vendors, is that it has probably lowered costs somewhere around 15%."
Meanwhile, in addition to all those savings, Clarus E-Procurement is also delivering a wealth of valuable reporting data to MasterCard's managers.
"They are really getting much more information than ever before," says Cullinan. "For example, looking at office supplies, what does the average person spend a month on office supplies? How does that vary from department to department? We can drill down all different kinds of ways, and the users can go in and get this information whenever they want. We're learning a lot."
MasterCard's suppliers are fans of the new system as well. "The vendors who are on it absolutely love it," reports Cullinan. "This makes the transaction on their end much easier." In addition, Clarus E-Procurement reduces the number of incomplete or incorrect orders that suppliers receive while simultaneously increasing their overall order volume by reducing "maverick" buying.
To date, Clarus E-Procurement has allowed MasterCard to slash the average time required to fill a purchase order from 3.98 days to 1.24, and to cut the average cost of processing a purchase order from $125 to $40. And there are bigger savings to come: the company was already saving an estimated $10,000 per month on office supplies, computer hardware, and computer software alone during an early pilot phase with just 250 users.
"It's certainly saving us a lot of time, and that equals manpower," says Cullinan. "It really allows the user groups to work on their job, and allows my group to be more strategic and aggressive. It's giving us a much smoother flow of requisition to order to vendor, so we've become much more efficient and have been able to process a whole lot more without adding staff."
Such efficiencies add up. "My guess, based on how it has reduced processing time, ended maverick purchasing, and allowed us to negotiate better with our vendors, is that it has probably lowered costs somewhere around 15%."
Meanwhile, in addition to all those savings, Clarus E-Procurement is also delivering a wealth of valuable reporting data to MasterCard's managers.
"They are really getting much more information than ever before," says Cullinan. "For example, looking at office supplies, what does the average person spend a month on office supplies? How does that vary from department to department? We can drill down all different kinds of ways, and the users can go in and get this information whenever they want. We're learning a lot."
Thinking Strategically
A Lot of Great TechnologyAn extensive search of electronic-procurement products ultimately led Cullinan and MasterCard to Clarus.
"We did evaluations of who had product out there, and more importantly who had product that was actually working," says Cullinan. "Clarus was a company that was very aligned with our strategy, very willing to work with us. They were committed to our project, and it was as important for them for this to be a success as it was for us."
The decision to run Clarus E-Procurement under Microsoft Internet and server technologies was in keeping with MasterCard's strategic direction. "We are standardized on Microsoft products, including Microsoft Windows NT® and Microsoft SQL Server™," says Cullinan. "That was a corporate initiative. Our internal technology folks did research a number of years ago and made that decision."
Automated and OnlinePowered by Windows NT Server and its built-in Web server, Microsoft Internet Information Server, as well as SQL Server, MasterCard's Clarus solution runs on a Hewlett Packard Kayak 3000 server. Together, those technologies have formed a remarkably reliable combination. "We haven't had one system outage," says Cullinan.
Through MasterCard's corporate intranet, Clarus E-Procurement solution enables users (running Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 and Windows NT Workstation 4.0 on their desktop computers) to comparison shop from a cross-supplier product index containing more than 10,000 items. Clarus E-Procurement made building the catalog an easy process, allowing suppliers to submit data in almost any form, from CD-ROM to Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. The system uses a collaborative approach, storing catalog content in a local database, with links to supplier Web pages that allow access to extended descriptions and pictures of products.
When the user makes a selection, the system automatically creates requisitions, routes them for approval, and submits them electronically to the relevant supplier. Buyers pay for products online as well, using the MasterCard Corporate Purchasing Card.
"We did evaluations of who had product out there, and more importantly who had product that was actually working," says Cullinan. "Clarus was a company that was very aligned with our strategy, very willing to work with us. They were committed to our project, and it was as important for them for this to be a success as it was for us."
The decision to run Clarus E-Procurement under Microsoft Internet and server technologies was in keeping with MasterCard's strategic direction. "We are standardized on Microsoft products, including Microsoft Windows NT® and Microsoft SQL Server™," says Cullinan. "That was a corporate initiative. Our internal technology folks did research a number of years ago and made that decision."
Automated and OnlinePowered by Windows NT Server and its built-in Web server, Microsoft Internet Information Server, as well as SQL Server, MasterCard's Clarus solution runs on a Hewlett Packard Kayak 3000 server. Together, those technologies have formed a remarkably reliable combination. "We haven't had one system outage," says Cullinan.
Through MasterCard's corporate intranet, Clarus E-Procurement solution enables users (running Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 and Windows NT Workstation 4.0 on their desktop computers) to comparison shop from a cross-supplier product index containing more than 10,000 items. Clarus E-Procurement made building the catalog an easy process, allowing suppliers to submit data in almost any form, from CD-ROM to Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. The system uses a collaborative approach, storing catalog content in a local database, with links to supplier Web pages that allow access to extended descriptions and pictures of products.
When the user makes a selection, the system automatically creates requisitions, routes them for approval, and submits them electronically to the relevant supplier. Buyers pay for products online as well, using the MasterCard Corporate Purchasing Card.
MasterCard International
MasterCard International and Clarus Corporation have a lot in common: Both companies are dedicated to making purchasing more convenient for their customers.
Perhaps that shared commitment has something to do with the reason that Clarus, a Microsoft Certified Solution Provider, has been so effective in helping MasterCard automate its procurement process. With Clarus' help, MasterCard is rolling out an enterprise corporate-purchasing solution based on Clarus E-Procurement and Microsoft BackOffice technologies that has already slashed the average time required to fill purchase orders by some 70 percent and cut the cost of processing purchase orders by approximately 68 percent.
Thinking StrategicallyJim Cullinan, MasterCard's vice president of Global Purchasing, has been the driving force behind the electronic procurement project. "When I came in three years ago, everything was manual," Cullinan recalls. "Filing, processing, everything was a piece of paper that needed to be moved around."
Cullinan saw that by eliminating all of that paperwork and automating the purchasing workflow, a corporate-purchasing application would not only reduce expenses and speed delivery, but leave buyers more time for studying purchasing patterns, evaluating suppliers, and exploring new ideas.
"The goal was to move away from being a procurement group that is transaction-based to one that is more strategically oriented," explains Cullinan. "If you can set up an electronic process where the catalog is on the desktop, it really keeps the buyer out of the transaction itself and positions them to play a more strategic role."
Perhaps that shared commitment has something to do with the reason that Clarus, a Microsoft Certified Solution Provider, has been so effective in helping MasterCard automate its procurement process. With Clarus' help, MasterCard is rolling out an enterprise corporate-purchasing solution based on Clarus E-Procurement and Microsoft BackOffice technologies that has already slashed the average time required to fill purchase orders by some 70 percent and cut the cost of processing purchase orders by approximately 68 percent.
Thinking StrategicallyJim Cullinan, MasterCard's vice president of Global Purchasing, has been the driving force behind the electronic procurement project. "When I came in three years ago, everything was manual," Cullinan recalls. "Filing, processing, everything was a piece of paper that needed to be moved around."
Cullinan saw that by eliminating all of that paperwork and automating the purchasing workflow, a corporate-purchasing application would not only reduce expenses and speed delivery, but leave buyers more time for studying purchasing patterns, evaluating suppliers, and exploring new ideas.
"The goal was to move away from being a procurement group that is transaction-based to one that is more strategically oriented," explains Cullinan. "If you can set up an electronic process where the catalog is on the desktop, it really keeps the buyer out of the transaction itself and positions them to play a more strategic role."
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