Customer Solution Case Study
/ / Housing Firm Increases Sales and Efficiency with Move from Mainframe to Microsoft
Overview
Country or Region:United States
Industry:Retail
Customer Profile
Headquartered in California, Oakwood Worldwide is an international hospitality and real estate company with 3,500 employees. It provides extended-stay, furnished accommodations in the United States, United Kingdom, and Asia Pacific region.
Business Situation
Oakwood was using an HP 3000 mainframe–based environment that lacked easy access to data and was difficult to maintain.
Solution
Oakwood migrated its data to Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000 and deployed solutions from Siebel Systems. The company also implemented Microsoft BizTalk® Server 2004 to exchange data between internal applications and with customer systems.
Benefits
Business growth of 30 percent
Improved view into customer needs
Better decision making and increased efficiency
Easier system management
Quick application development / “We now have a 360-degree view of our customers…. That has allowed us to strategically target an increased penetration not only into current companies…but also new companies in those same markets.”
Ric Villarreal, Senior Vice President and Special Assistant to the Chairman, Oakwood Worldwide
Ric Villarreal, Senior Vice President and Special Assistant to the Chairman, Oakwood Worldwide
Oakwood Worldwide, a leader in the corporate housing market, used HP 3000 mainframe–based systems for business functions such as managing reservations, sales opportunities, and housing services. However, the company’s salesforce had difficulty accessing and tracking sales information. Workers needed help from the IT staff to create customized reports, and the systems were time-consuming to maintain. In addition, a changing customer base was demanding more information about Oakwood services and more ways to access that information. To improve operations and customer service, Oakwood moved to Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000, implemented Microsoft BizTalk® Server 2004, and deployed solutions from Siebel Systems. The new environment has helped increase sales, improve efficiency, and ease system management. Aided by the technology, Oakwood achieved business growth of 30 percent in 2004.
Situation
Founded in 1960, California-based Oakwood Worldwide is a corporate housing and multifamily property management firm. With more than 30,000 residential units and 3,500 employees around the world, Oakwood provides a range of housing services for multinational corporations and other business travelers. The company uses the brand names Oakwood Corporate Housing, Oakwood Premier, Oakwood Residences, and Oakwood Apartments for 50 complexes located worldwide. More than 80 percent of Fortune 500 corporations in the United States and the 1,000 largest worldwide businesses (ranked by BusinessWeek Magazine) use Oakwood corporate housing in some capacity.
For more than two decades, Oakwood centered its operations on HP 3000 mainframe–based systems, which the company used for managing reservations, contacts, and sales opportunities, as well as other business functions such as billing and housing services. However, Oakwood employees had difficulty accessing the data and were unable to make quick business decisions based on that information.
Oakwood salespeople found it challenging to track sales opportunities with the mainframe environment. Instead, they managed most leads using spreadsheets, day planners, and notebooks. Then they manually converted those leads into reservations.
With the mainframe systems, Oakwood business workers needed help from the IT staff to create customized reports. “Reporting was a very painful process,” says Vinnie Le, Vice President of Information Systems at Oakwood Worldwide. “We had to maintain a lot of tools and technical resources to extract the data for the users. And then, once we had the data, we would import that into a text file or a spreadsheet.” The IT staff members also could not easily relate different types of data to each other. “In many cases, they actually had to go around interviewing all the different developers to figure out how to get to the piece of information that they wanted,” Le says.
The mainframe-based systems were also time-consuming to maintain. Over nearly three decades of development, the environment grew to include 4.5 million lines of COBOL code that was not well documented. “I can’t tell you how many times in the last 10 years we’d have to call some developer who left here 15 years ago to find out how he put something together,” says Ric Villarreal, Senior Vice President and Special Assistant to the Chairman at Oakwood Worldwide. In addition, developers could not easily integrate the environment with other systems, such as those in customer companies.
In the late 1990s, the Oakwood customer base also began to change. The company shifted from serving mainly one-time customers (executives who were relocating) to frequent visitors (consultants, trainers, and workers on long-term business assignments). Customers also demanded more information about Oakwood services and more ways to get that information. For example, they wanted easier ways to book their housing stays, and they wanted invoices in their company’s preferred format. “We recognized that there was a variety of markets out there that needed something different from us, and we needed to create different options for them,” says Villarreal.
Internally, Oakwood also made a commitment to become customer-centric and to improve its customer service. “We have to provide world-class service not only in terms of the people we hire and the interactions we have with our customers, but also our technology needs to be world-class,” says Robbie Gluckson, Vice President of Marketing at Oakwood Worldwide.
Oakwood quickly realized that its goals could not be accomplished with the existing IT environment. The company wanted to implement a new solution that was easier to use, simpler to manage, and flexible enough to adapt to changing business and customer needs.
Solution
Consultants recommended that Oakwood switch to a new solution by rewriting all 4.5 million lines of code. The company also considered replacing its code in phases. Oakwood chose a third option: migrating to an environment that would incorporate legacy applications while supporting new off-the-shelf products and custom applications. In 2000, the company began a major Oracle implementation, which included database and business management solutions. However, changes in the economy led Oakwood to abandon the large, expensive project in September 2001, when the company was more than halfway through the implementation.
In 2002, Oakwood analyzed a solution based on Microsoft® Windows Server System™ integrated server software. As part of that analysis, Microsoft tested the scalability of Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000, showing that it could easily handle 7,000 users—four times the current 1,700 computer users at Oakwood. “Microsoft proved to us that its technology was scalable,” says Villarreal. “Microsoft proposed a lot of different solutions and wanted to understand our business. We made the decision to go with Microsoft not just as a technology partner, but also as a true business partner.”
In addition, Le says Oakwood wanted to use SQL Server 2000 because the database is easier to deploy than Oracle. And although the company uses Java for some development, it chose to work mainly with the Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 and the Microsoft Visual Studio® .NET 2003 development system because they offered a shorter time-to-market. Partner Extreme Logic aided Oakwood with the development. Another partner, Neudesic, helped Oakwood create the solution strategy and architecture.
Oakwood used BridgeWare from Quest Software and Taurus Software to move data from the mainframe database to SQL Server 2000, running on the Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003 operating system. Most of the SQL Server databases operate in a cluster with active-passive failover.
For customer relationship management (CRM), Oakwood deployed Siebel Sales and SiebelCallCenter running on SQL Server. “Siebel CRM solutions are the best-of-breed from our perspective,” Villarreal says. “We also chose Siebel because of its relationship with Microsoft. The integration of Siebel into our new environment was almost flawless.” With help from Siebel Global Services, Oakwood implemented the Siebel solutions in only 60 working days.
Oakwood deployed Microsoft BizTalk® Server 2002 and, later, BizTalk Server 2004 to exchange data between all of its internal applications and with customer systems. “BizTalk is a critical part of the solution because it has made it possible for us to route information from our customers into Siebel or one of our other systems,” says Le.
Now, when a customer contacts an Oakwood call center to make a reservation, the Oakwood representative creates an opportunity and a contact within Siebel. Through an Oakwood offering called eConnectivity, customer corporations can link their internal systems with Oakwood over the Internet to make reservations, pay bills, and monitor residency. For example, when the customer requests a reservation, the Oakwood system responds to that request and creates an opportunity in Siebel. Then the system sends that information to the appropriate Oakwood salesperson.
With the Siebel solutions, Oakwood salespeople and call center representatives can quickly access key information about customers and the services they are requesting. They can view the history of customer interactions, track sales trends, and forecast business.
Oakwood has built many other applications in the new environment. With the secure eOakwood portal, customer companies can view pending reservations and other information about their use of Oakwood services. Oakwood is currently designing a system to add online invoicing, advanced reporting capabilities, and forecasting tools to eOakwood. Another portal, called MyOakwood, will launch in 2005. With this customized portal, individual guests will be able to get directions to Oakwood properties, find neighborhood amenities such as grocery stores, and make service requests.
In 2005, Oakwood also plans to deploy a global reservation system. If a customer contacts an Oakwood call center in Los Angeles, for example, the customer will be able to make a reservation for housing in Boston. “We will be able to book a unit directly without having to refer that lead to Boston,” Villarreal says. “We will never have to put customers on hold or have somebody call them back. We will be able to understand their needs and find the best solution for their needs immediately on the phone.”
Benefits
With the new Microsoft-based applications, Oakwood now has better insight into its customers and can provide a wide range of advanced services. The company has experienced significant business growth and has improved operational efficiency.
“We are light-years ahead of where we were two years ago,” Villarreal says. “Now we’re asking customers the question that we were afraid to ask before, ‘What else can we do for you?’”
Business Growth of 30 Percent
Oakwood business has grown by more than 30 percent in the last year, and the company expects growth of more than 20 percent in 2005. The company credits the new Microsoft-based systems with helping it achieve that growth.
“In many cases, technology plays a very important role in the sales stage,” says Eric Nathanson, Application Architect at Oakwood. Salespeople report that the company’s eConnectivity and eOakwood solutions have resulted in increased reservations. “The reporting alone that we’re giving to our customers is a big differentiator with our competitors, and it has allowed our sales team to close a number of deals,” Nathanson says. In addition, the Siebel solutions have helped the company’s 300-member salesforce identify key accounts and sell more effectively.
Oakwood.com, the company’s primary distribution channel, has also brought in new business. The number of visitors to the Web site increased by 15 to 20 percent in the first two months after the redesigned site was launched (in December 2004) with new features, such as more advanced property searching and enhanced reservation booking. “The transformation of Oakwood.com would not have been possible without the technology behind it driving the business,” says Gluckson.
Improved View into Customer Needs
With Siebel Sales and SiebelCallCenter, Oakwood has gained a comprehensive view of its customers and their needs. As a result, the company is able to provide better service and implement effective sales efforts. “We now have a 360-degree view of our customers, the market they’re in, and why they use us,” Villarreal says. “That has allowed us to strategically target an increased penetration not only into current companies that do a lot of business with us, but also new companies in those same markets.”
Better Decision Making
With the Microsoft-based systems, Oakwood can now track business operations and make adjustments when necessary. “We can access the metrics and dashboards we need to drive the business when we’re on the road, in the office, or in the middle of the night,” Gluckson says. “We’re constantly measuring and fine-tuning. We did not have those tools in place before.”
Increased Operational Efficiency
The new systems have increased worker productivity. With the previous environment, Oakwood needed one employee for every 16 transactions. Now, a single employee can handle more than 20 transactions. When the global reservation system is in place, the company expects that number to grow to 26 transactions.
One of the new applications, a .NET Framework–based solution, automates paperwork involved in the housing move-in process. Instead of rekeying information into various documents and spreadsheets, Oakwood employees enter information into the application only once. Then the application generates all the required move-in paperwork.
The eConnectivity solution has streamlined and eliminated processes for both Oakwood and its customers. A national account director estimates that she has been able to reduce the time spent on her work by 20 to 25 percent. Oakwood customers are also pleased with the eConnectivity solution. “Systems integration with Microsoft technologies has helped our customers save time and effort and increase accuracy,” Villarreal says. “Now, doing business with Oakwood is easier and faster.”
Easier System Management
Villarreal says Microsoft software has provided a reliable environment that is simpler to manage. The systems are achieving 99.9 percent uptime. “It has cost me less to maintain these systems because they’re more reliable, more of our people understand them, and they’re easy to work with,” says Villarreal.
Quick Development and Return on Investment
By using Microsoft software, Oakwood has been able to build and implement new applications quickly. “When we develop applications with the .NET Framework, we don’t have to start from scratch,” Le says. “We can reuse a lot of the code from other applications.” Oakwood has also saved deployment time and costs by hosting client applications on central servers with Terminal Services in Windows Server 2003, instead of running the applications on workstations. “Terminal Services has made it so much easier to implement so many new initiatives (about 15 a year) without having to go out to the field and upgrade software and hardware,” Villarreal says.
Oakwood has developed more than 30 applications using Microsoft technology. The return on investment for most of those applications has been less than a year.
Future Plans
Oakwood expects to move additional applications to the new Microsoft environment and to develop more solutions that differentiate it from the competition. Future plans also include deploying other Siebel solutions, such as Siebel Marketing for managing marketing campaigns, and expanding the company’s use of SQL Server. With help from Hitachi Consulting, Oakwood has recently begun a project to replace its Crystal Reports solution with SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services and SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services. In addition, the company will eventually move to a data warehouse based on SQL Server, and it is looking into upgrading to SQL Server 2005.
“The great thing about Microsoft technology is that we can migrate applications and add functionality as the business needs change,” Villarreal says.
Microsoft Windows Server System
Microsoft Windows Server System integrated server infrastructure software is designed to support end-to-end solutions built on the Windows Server operating system. Windows Server System creates an infrastructure based on integrated innovation, Microsoft's holistic approach to building products and solutions that are intrinsically designed to work together and interact seamlessly with other data and applications across your IT environment. This helps you reduce the costs of ongoing operations, deliver a more secure and reliable IT infrastructure, and drive valuable new capabilities for the future growth of your business.
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