Customer Solution Case Study
/ / Albertson's Prepares E-Commerce Rollout, Powered by Microsoft .NET Enterprise Servers
Overview
Country: United States
Industry: Retail
Customer Profile
Albertson's, Inc. is one of the world's largest food and drug retailers. The Company operates more than 2,500 retail stores in 36 states under banners including Albertson's, Jewel-Osco, Acme, Sav-on Drugs, Max Foods, Super Saver and Seessel’s by Albertson’s.
Business Situation
Albertson's needed to develop a single solution that would support business-to-consumer sales for two different storefronts and three different fulfillment models.
Solution
Albertson’s e-commerce solution is built on the Microsoft® platform, enabling a scalable and integrated solution that supports multiple storefronts and fulfillment models preparing the company for a phased rollout of e-commerce functionality. / "Customers are the single most important thing to Albertson's, and Microsoft has shown time and time again that they feel the same way about us. They’re willing to do whatever it takes to ensure that we can meet the needs of our customers by making sure that our needs are met.”
Matt Muta, Vice President, Web Technologies, Albertson's, Inc.
Using the Microsoft® platform, Albertson’s, Inc. developed a scalable and integrated solution to support multiple storefronts and fulfilment models. With the new platform, the company is well-positioned to begin a phased rollout of Albertsons.com, the company’s online grocery store, and Savon.com, the company’s online drugstore and pharmacy.
Situation
Albertson’s needed a platform that would enable building an integrated Web solution—one that could support a wide range of business and technical requirements. Although the company would initially limit its e-commerce efforts to selected locations, it was important to select a platform and build a solution that was readily scalable to support a phased, large-scale rollout.
In order to simplify maintenance and minimize support costs, Albertson’s wanted a single application and database model that could support both the Albertsons.com and Savon.com storefronts. The solution needed to enable blending of the two storefronts to support cross-selling items between sites. The solution also had to handle different product and pricing mixes for diverse market regions to ensure that the user’s Web experience would be consistent with their local retail store. The platform also had to support the three slightly different fulfillment models for groceries, prescription drugs, and non-prescription drugstore items.
Another system requirement was connectivity with Albertson’s legacy systems. To synchronize the product and pricing mix with the region-specific offerings of its bricks and mortar stores, the Web site solution needed to tie to Albertson’s IBM mainframe-based pricing application. It also had to integrate with Albertson’s warehouse management system to correctly manage inventory.
Solution
Partnering with Microsoft Consulting Services at strategic points in the development cycle, Albertson’s designed and implemented an e-commerce solution that met the company’s complex business requirements. Based on the Microsoft platform and the n-tier architecture it supports, the solution uses Microsoft Windows® 2000 Server with Internet Information Services 5.0, Site Server 3.0 Commerce Edition (SSCE), and SQL Server™ 2000 to support both the Albertsons.com and Savon.com sites.
The presentation tier consists of load-balanced dual-processor Web servers running Windows 2000 Server with Internet Information Services 5.0. Active Server Pages (ASP), which specify presentation and enable server-side scripting, were used to dynamically generate region-specific storefronts based on the customer’s zip code. The ASP pages were created using the Visual InterDev® Web development system, a component of the Visual Studio® development system. The Visual SourceSafe® version control system, another component of Visual Studio, provided version control and source code management.
The business logic tier resides on the same physical servers as the presentation tier, with much of the functionality provided by SSCE. Orders are managed using the SSCE commerce pipeline, which provides Albertsons.com with a framework for modeling and executing its commerce processes. Where additional functionality was required, Albertson’s relied on third-party solutions designed to easily integrate with the commerce pipeline. These include “plug-ins” from CyberSource for electronic payment processing and TaxWare International for tax calculation. Where custom business logic was required, Albertson’s created custom Component Object Model (COM) components using the Visual Basic® development system, another component of Visual Studio.
The database tier of the solution consists of an 8-way server running Windows 2000 Server and SQL Server 2000. Albertson’s developed a single data model that supports its market region implementation, as well as both the Albertsons.com and Savon.com storefronts and all three fulfillment models. Product and pricing data for each market region is synchronized with the company’s mainframe-based pricing applications on a regular basis. Inventory data, also residing on the mainframe, is synchronized daily.
Once an order is finalized, a separate server running SQL Server 2000 uses transactional and merge replication to send the order to an administrative system located at the Albertson’s corporate headquarters. The administrative system handles the fulfillment of orders and also runs several call center and workflow applications that support the company’s e-commerce efforts. This system is also a three-tiered solution, and uses the same Microsoft products as the company’s public system.
Once received by the administrative system, orders are managed in a number of different ways, depending on the type of order. Orders for non-pharmacy drugstore items are routed to the company’s centralized fulfillment facility. Grocery orders are routed to a retail store located close to the customer’s delivery point, where they are filled by E-Shoppers using a wireless handheld fulfillment system developed by Albertson’s that interfaces directly to the retail Point-of-Sale system. After the order is filled, it is prepared for delivery or stored for pickup, depending on the customer’s preference. For customers choosing home delivery, logistical routing is enhanced using UPS Logistic Group’s Roadnet 5000 v7.1 system.
Pharmacy orders are handled in a slightly different manner. After reaching the administrative server, orders are sent via MSMQ to a team of customer service agents. Each order is then reviewed and routed to the appropriate pharmacy for processing using Astute’s PowerCenter eCRM system integrated with Avaya’s CRM Central 2000 communication platform. At the pharmacy, orders are accessed via the Web and filled by the pharmacist. A custom component running on the UNIX-based pharmacy system notifies the administrative server when the order is filled, closing the loop on the transaction. Customers can choose to pick up their orders in person for same-day access, or have their prescriptions shipped to them directly from their local pharmacy.
Why Albertson’s Chose Microsoft
Albertson's decision to use the Microsoft platform was based on the superior reliability and scalability of Microsoft products, along with Microsoft’s proven service and support.
“We decided to implement our e-commerce strategy on the Microsoft platform for a number of reasons, including the fact that Albertson’s and Microsoft have enjoyed a great working relationship for a number of years,” said Joyce Smith, director of Web Technologies for Albertson’s. “Microsoft provided a single platform that met all of our needs. This simplifies vendor management and enables us to enjoy a single source of support—one that provides best-of-breed answers based on Microsoft’s extensive experience with other customers. Using a single platform also means that our developers can stay current with a focused skill-set, taking advantage of Microsoft’s broad offering of conferences, technical information, and training courses.”
“Developing our solution on the Microsoft platform offered many technical benefits,” said Marla Johnson, Manager of Web Technologies Support for Albertson’s. “Visual Studio provided an integrated development environment for the entire solution, from ASP pages to SQL stored procedures, and it enabled us to easily extend the platform’s functionality where needed. The Microsoft Transaction Server environment contributed to scalability and enabled us to re-use the business logic components we developed in-house, and the level of integration between the platform’s pre-built components enabled rapid time-to-market.”
“We’ve been a Microsoft shop from the start,” said Matt Muta, vice president of Web Technology for Albertson’s. “In addition to the technical merits of the platform, its overall value and time-to-market advantages are reasons we continue to stay with Microsoft. We have a great, proven relationship with Microsoft, and we’re comfortable with their ability and willingness to provide assistance whenever we need them. Customers are the single most important thing to Albertson's, and Microsoft has shown time and time again that they feel the same way about us. They’re willing to do whatever it takes to ensure that we can meet the needs of our customers by making sure that our needs are met.”
Moving Forward with Microsoft
“We’re happy with the performance and reliability of our existing systems,” said Smith. “We’re also looking toward the future, and are working to prepare for it even as we roll out our current solution. We’ve seen some great performance improvements running Windows 2000 Server and SQL Server 2000. We’re experimenting in our labs with the many new features and capabilities of Microsoft’s .Net platform, and look forward to taking advantage of this exciting technology. “
Microsoft .NET
Microsoft .NET is software that connects people, information, systems, and devices through the use of Web services. Web services are a combination of protocols that enable computers to work together by exchanging messages. Web services are based on the standard protocols of XML, SOAP, and WSDL, which allow them to interoperate across platforms and programming languages.
.NET is integrated across Microsoft products and services, providing the ability to quickly build, deploy, manage, and use connected, secure solutions with Web services. These solutions provide agile business integration and the promise of information anytime, anywhere, on any device.
For more information about Microsoft .NETand Web services, please visit these Web sites:
www.microsoft.com/net
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