Customer Solution Case Study
/ Italian Hypermarket Automates Customer Loyalty to Generate New Revenue Opportunities
Overview
Country or Region:Italy
Industry:Manufacturing, Consumer Goods, Retail, Distribution
Customer Profile
Bennet is a chain of Italian hypermarkets founded in 1964. Today, the company operates 48 commercial centres, employs 7,200 people, and has an annual turnover of €1,500 million (U.S.$1,801 million).
Business Situation
Bennet initiated a new project to automate the management of loyalty points. At the same time, it wanted a new solution to simplify the development of new application services.
Solution
After a thorough evaluation of Enterprise Application Integration technologies, Bennet rolled out a new system based on Microsoft® BizTalk® Server 2004 and the Microsoft .NET Framework.
Benefits
Automated loyalty points management.
Fast, effective application development.
Enhanced systems integration.
Revenue opportunities with new partners.
Streamlined operational processes. / "Management of loyalty points is now completely automatic and transparent. As a result, we’re able to deliver better customer service than ever before and enhance our competitive advantage.”
Adriano Visconti, Director of Information Systems, Bennet
Leading Italian hypermarket chain Bennet employs 7,200 people and generates annual turnover of €1,500 million (U.S.$1,801 million). The company wanted to automate management of its loyalty scheme to improve operational efficiency and customer service. To achieve this, and streamline new software development overall, it deployed Microsoft® BizTalk® Server 2004 and the Microsoft .NET Framework development environment. These technologies streamline new software creation with platform independent, object-oriented programming and reuse of application functions. Customer loyalty points management has now been fully automated. In addition, Shell customers can also use the system to collect points for use in Bennet stores. Because BizTalk Server 2004 supports effective systems integration, the new loyalty solution can be extended quickly to additional business partners.
Situation
Bennet is a chain of Italian hypermarkets founded in 1964. The company now has 48 commercial centres that offer customers quality products, reasonable prices, and excellent service. It employs 7,200 people and has an annual turnover of €1,500 million (U.S.$1,801 million). Bennet supports its business with a range of enterprise computing applications that draw on data stored in a consolidated IBM AS400 environment.
To increase operational efficiency, and enhance customer service, the company decided to develop new application functionality that would automate the management of its loyalty scheme. It also wanted to roll out a new environment for software development, simplify the creation of new applications, extend existing functionality to a range of internal and external systems, and eliminate problems previously associated with programming and integration.
Adriano Visconti, Director of Information Systems, Bennet, says: “The success of future application development depends on tools and methods that are not bound by specific languages and operating systems. That’s why we looked for an efficient object-oriented Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) system with a high-quality presentation layer."
The requirement for efficient EAI supports Bennet’s commercial policy of excellent value for consumers. One key goal was to create a partnership with Shell Oil and give Shell customers the chance to convert their ClubSmart loyalty points to Bennet points.
The Bennet management has always been satisfied with the coherence and reliability of legacy IBM AS400 computing systems. Even so, it decided that an open-standards–based development environment would provide increased flexibility, speed of development, and reuse of key functional components. The need to allocate and convert loyalty points more effectively provided an opportunity to define a stable EAI environment and migrate internal competencies to object-oriented programming languages.
Solution
During an in-depth technology evaluation, the Bennet IT department carefully analysed the characteristics of numerous EAI products. After this study, Microsoft® technology was selected as the most appropriate software available. Microsoft BizTalk® Server 2004 and the Microsoft .NET Framework development environment were chosen as the core of the new system based on their support for flexible development and fast database access.
Visconti says: "Java technology and the IBM WebSphere product family required considerable specialist technical skills and presented significant complexities in the implementation phase. In addition, Java requires an add-on for access to the IBM AS400 database and this came with the risk of reduced performance. Deploying Tibco technology could also have significantly increased the duration of the project."
Daniele Asnaghi, Project Leader for the Microsoft .NET Framework project at Bennet, says: “In comparison with competing technologies, the .NET Framework offered us the greatest flexibility during development. This was partly due to efficient native access to our existing AS400 database.
“The Microsoft tools for object-oriented programming made it easy for us to maintain the operability of legacy systems. While the application development methodology has changed, programmers can still use familiar sets of instructions from the legacy IBM environment."
Bennet deployed the new EAI system with support from Microsoft Certified Partner Brainforce. Together with the Bennet IT department, Brainforce specialists established logic for events that supports automatic processes on different operating systems. This was possible because of the integration functionality of BizTalk Server 2004.
ASNA Visual RPG for Microsoft Visual Studio®.NET, a suite of classes and methods delivered by Microsoft Partner International Software Solutions, was used to integrate existing applications with new, automated processes. New services developed with the Microsoft .NET Framework reuse code developed for the AS400 platform and integrate with the IBM environment, supporting rapid roll-out of high-performance applications. After the new system was deployed, Brainforce specialists trained Bennet staff to use the technology.
Benefits
Automation Enhances Efficiency and Customer Service
The new data flow supported by BizTalk Server 2004 has eliminated manual, paper-based loyalty point management processes for Bennet and Shell customers. In addition, the new system provides consumers with up-to-date information on their points and helps customers to view them using the Bennet Web portal. Visconti says: "Management of loyalty points is now completely automatic and transparent. As a result, we’re delivering better customer service than before and enhancing our competitive advantage in the marketplace.”
Fast, Effective Development Boosts Productivity
The skills acquired during the roll-out of the new loyalty points management application can now be harnessed to streamline future development projects. Visconti says: "We can use Microsoft .NET Framework developer tools to create new applications that access the AS400 database. The technology means we can acquire new code components at low cost and find competencies, solutions, and documentation quickly online. I don't think Java or other competing programming languages can demonstrate such a wide competency-sharing capability."
In addition, the integration of BizTalk Server 2004 and Microsoft Office Visio® 2003 means analysts and developers share the same operating interface. This has increased productivity during the implementation of new applications. Visconti says: "Analysts and developers are benefiting from object-oriented logic and reusable application components.”
The efficiency of EAI with BizTalk Server 2004 and the .NET Framework is supporting plans to integrate new business processes and application services at Bennet. Visconti says: “We are reusing business classes and logics to create new applications and focus development effort solely on the interface layer. This is important for increasing overall productivity in the IT department.”
Multi-Language Capabilities Support Effective Integration
The Bennet management team was impressed by the multi-language capabilities of the.NET Framework and Visual Studio.NET. Unlike the Java virtual machine, the .NET Framework Common Language Runtime offers a choice of 30 programming languages. Only Microsoft skills are required to achieve integration with any operating system.
Revenue Opportunities with New Business Partners
Management of the co-marketing initiative between Shell and Bennet can be extended to other commercial partners quickly and effectively, delivering a range of new benefits for customers. In addition, ease of integration with partner systems will also support enhanced supply chain operations. Visconti says: “We are planning to open up our intranet to 4,500 suppliers, helping them to check payment status and billing information online. This will significantly enhance operational efficiency by reducing administration for routine tasks.”
The flexibility of the new system supports the rapid integration of applications, such as the Bennet staff e-learning environment, which was initially developed in Java. It also provides new functionality, such as task alerts delivered using e-mail and SMS messages, to be deployed quickly and effectively.
Visconti says: “Using the new system, we will extend our application functionality. In doing so, we hope to streamline a number of operational processes, including planning, result checking, and the production of certification documents for the inspection authorities. We can do all this effectively by reusing application components across a range of programmes.”
Microsoft Windows Server System
Microsoft Windows Server System™ is a line of integrated and manageable server software designed to reduce the complexity and cost of IT. Windows Server System enables you to spend less time and budget on managing your systems so that you can focus your resources on other priorities for you and your business.
For more information about Windows Server System, go to: