SPECIAL REPORT CASE STUDY: Just because few small businesses can afford to buy the leading edge in technology, that does not mean their need for it is any less than their larger counterparts. Indeed, for businesses whose operations are primarily conducted online, buying the right technology at the beginning can be the difference between success and failure.
Hence it was fortunate for Webjet that when the startup business came to develop its online travel booking service three years ago that it was able to receive a strong helping hand from its technology supplier and business partners.
Webjet was the first company selected by Microsoft to participate in its Solutions Development Centre (SDC), a concept first run in the UK in 1999, which brings together resources from Microsoft and its solutions partners to work closely on a client project.
According to Webjet’s managing director and co-founder, David Clarke, Webjet had developed a vision of a web-based booking system that acted as a travel service aggregator (TSA), able to link into travel product booking engines regardless of the system on which they resided.
Previous online systems had relied heavily on extensions to legacy airline booking systems, some of which had histories stretching back over 30 years. Many discount airlines, such as Jetstar and Virgin Blue, as well as many hotel chains, had chosen to take themselves out of the airline booking systems altogether due to their expense, and build their own booking engines to go direct to consumers.
Webjet also sought to create a secure consumer payment facility that was independent of that used natively by other booking services.
Clarke says Webjet needed to develop a solution that was massively scalable, and where the add-on modules to connect to more suppliers could all be effectively hooked-up on a plug-and-play basis. He says Webjet also needed the processing capacity that would be equivalent to a small airline.
"We needed a completely different construction, and it had to be a product which could be maintained at the user interface level, cheaply, efficiently and easily, without digging into the code base," Clarke says. "We needed to be able to process vast numbers of individual transactions, and the best booking engine that existed in Australia at that time was probably capable of only a couple of hundred concurrent users. We needed to have 10 times that at least."
That requirement led Webjet to consider Microsoft’s .NET environment — at the time a relatively new and untried technology.
Microsoft was also looking for a project in Australia that suited the SDC concept. According to Microsoft’s small and medium business director for Australia, Pip Marlow, the SDC model allows companies like Webjet to utilise new technology more rapidly and with more confidence.
"Microsoft brings technology expertise into the SDC, while our partners bring specialist delivery and design skills," Marlow says. "When combined, this allows customers like Webjet to be more successful with Microsoft technology."
"Our goal with SDC is to enable thought leaders in every industry, such as Webjet, to rapidly and cost-effectively utilise Microsoft’s technology and expertise to quickly design and implement a solution that provides a great customer experience."
Some of Webjet’s staff subsequently relocated to the SDC, to work alongside Microsoft’s staff and project engineers and additional external resources. Clarke says the $1.85 million project, referred to as the TSA, absorbed resources from around the world.
"Microsoft wanted a major project that could put the process to test, and they wanted a product that had consumer recognition," Clarke says. "This project was effectively locked away for a year without commercial distraction. So it became like a development laboratory."
One of the partners involved in the development centre was Readify, a team of technical readiness specialists that consult and train around new and emerging Microsoft technologies. Readify has
since become a key strategic partner of Webjet as a result of the SDC engagement, staying on as the architecture manager for the application.
"Their role is to ensure that the architecture is not corrupted, and to ensure that more complex and sophisticated developments that we might be doing are being done in the most optimum manner," Clarke says.
The managing director of Readify, Graeme Armstrong, says the SDC is an effective way to bring new technologies to smaller organisations.
"The SDC is very much about showcase solutions, pushing new technology boundaries," Armstrong says. ".NET was the first major flagship product which we backed in that specialist capacity. And because TSA was one of the first major applications to be built on .NET, we had the capability to contribute meaningfully."
In January 2004, after just over 12 months in development, Webjet’s booking engine went live.
"It was exactly on time and exactly on budget, and it was utterly bullet proof," Clarke says. "In its first week of operation we had no down time or issues. The risk to all parties in this was enormous, but we haven’t had to call on Microsoft since we released it."
Now Webjet processes more than $14 million month in credit card transactions. The global electronic travel services company Galileo has now adopted Webjet’s core architecture and structure as the heart of their international leisure distribution project.
Marlow says Microsoft has several other large projects in development in the SDC environment, once again drawing partners and clients together with its own resources.
Readify has also continued its relationship with the SDC, working on a couple of current initiatives.
"It suits our model," Armstrong says. "As technical readiness specialists we are not a typical partner who will seek out outsourced development undertakings. So the SDC model is a great one for us because it really lets us embed out consults in these kinds of projects working alongside organisations with complementary skills to ours."
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