1. Windows AzureCustomer Solution Case Study00German Retail Solutions Firm Gains New Customers with Cloud Computing Solution <br />OverviewCountry or Region: GermanyIndustry: Retail and consumer goodsCustomer Profilehöltl Retail Solutions offers innovative products for optimizing retail processes for the clothing and nonfood industries. Headquartered in Bad Hersfeld, Germany, the company has 85 employees.Business SituationWhen customers upgraded or installed a new höltl POSFlow point-of-sale system, the company’s technicians had to travel onsite to configure it, which increased costs and wasted customers’ time.SolutionThe company moved POSFlow to Windows Azure and designed the interface using Microsoft Silverlight 3 so that customers could set up the solution themselves in just minutes.BenefitsSaves customers time with self-service setupReduces costs, opens new business opportunitiesOffers flexible, scalable operation, minimizes impact of outages“By basing our POSFlow software on Windows Azure and Silverlight, customers can implement this key retail solution quickly and by themselves. It’s now easy to use and financially viable even for the smallest retailer.”Johannes Schick, CEO, höltl Retail SolutionsPOSFlow from höltl Retail Solutions, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, is the point-of-sale (POS) system of choice for more than 50,000 users in several European countries and is especially popular with midsize retailers. To enlarge the product’s customer base and make POSFlow a cost-effective option for smaller businesses, höltl migrated the software to the Windows Azure platform. The company also designed an easy-to-use interface by using Microsoft Silverlight 3. Before, a höltl technician needed four hours to set up POSFlow onsite and to train the customer in how to use it; now, even the smallest retail customers can set it up themselves in just four minutes. The efficient cloud-based infrastructure further contains costs, and its flexibility, scalability, and reliability will make POSFlow a suitable POS choice for large retail chains as well. <br />Situation<br />From its small beginnings as a three-person company in 1972, höltl Retail Solutions has grown into a strong retail-systems provider with more than 85 employees and is on track for even greater expansion. The company’s recipe for success includes creating innovative and practical solutions for customers in the nonfood and clothing retail sectors. <br />“Set it up, download, and sell. Within minutes, retailers can start using our up-to-date POS solution running on Windows Azure.”Johannes Schick, CEO, höltl Retail Solutions <br />Each year, höltl delivers more than 1,500 cutting-edge cash registers and other front-end and mobile point-of-sale (POS) products. The company’s solutions support key retail requirements, such as payment and discount processing, multiclient capacity, accepting different forms of payment, support for multiple cashiers and salespeople, customized register layout, and mixed online and offline operation. <br />True to the höltl motto, “Understanding from day one,” the company strives to make POS solutions that not only exactly reflect customers’ business processes but are also easy to use. The most popular of these is the POSFlow chain solution for midsize retailers, which has more than 50,000 users throughout Europe. POSFlow software is usually shipped along with cash registers and other support hardware. It works with the 50 best-selling POS peripherals on the international market, including specialized printers and bar-code scanners, and it can be integrated with these devices without any special configuration. The software is available in several different languages, and it supports each country’s different standards for electronic funds transfer and tax regulations. <br />However, for POSFlow to be an ideal solution for small retail stores, höltl needed to make a less expensive version of it. “Unfortunately, up to now, our POSFlow product had significant costs that we had to pass on to the customer,” explains Johannes Schick, CEO of höltl Retail Solutions. “For upgraded or new installations, we had to send a technician onsite to set up, install, and configure the system and to brief employees on how to use it. That usually took three or four hours, plus travel time.” <br />The company sought a way to reduce deployment time and effort and make the product a more compelling choice for small businesses. <br />Solution<br />To minimize the labor, training, and maintenance requirements of POSFlow and their related costs, höltl migrated the solution to the Windows Azure platform, an Internet-scale cloud services platform that is hosted in Microsoft data centers (Figure 1). The company selected Windows Azure because it supports easily deployed, highly available, and scalable Web sites, Web services, and Web-based applications—like POSFlow—in Microsoft data centers, which reduces IT investment overhead.<br />In migrating POSFlow to the new technology, höltl took advantage of the Windows Azure platform AppFabric as part of a Microsoft Community Technology Preview. AppFabric provides more secure connectivity as a service to help höltl developers bridge the cloud, on-premises, and hosted deployments. The company also used Microsoft SQL Azure to support POSFlow with a highly available relational database in the cloud. <br />höltl developed the new version of POSFlow with the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 using the Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Suite and Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Foundation Server development systems. höltl chose Microsoft Visual C# as the programming language. To drive the POSFlow visual interface, the company used Microsoft Silverlight 3, a browser plug-in powered by the .NET Framework, which is compatible across multiple browsers, devices, and operating systems.<br /> <br />With the migration complete, the company expects an enthusiastic market reaction as it introduces the new version of its solution to small businesses.<br />Benefits<br />Because POSFlow runs in the cloud on the Windows Azure platform, customers can now handle routine setup and upgrades themselves, minimizing costs and saving time. The flexibility and scalability of the platform make POSFlow appropriate for retailers of all sizes and helps minimize the impact on customers when network outages occur. <br />Saves Customers Time with Self-Service Setup<br />Today, customers no longer have to wait for a technician to set up POSFlow, because they receive the cash register shipped via express delivery and connect it to the Internet themselves. In a pinch, it can even be started on a personal computer, without the cash register hardware. After starting the system and entering the provided URL in a browser, customers are ready to ring up their first sale. <br />Figure 1. The new POSFlow solution takes advantage of the Windows Azure platform to deliver cloud-based POS services.The time from unpacking the register to using it now takes customers about four minutes, versus about four hours before. Schick summarizes the process as, “Set it up, download, and sell. Within minutes, retailers can start using our up-to-date POS solution running on Windows Azure.” Also, the quick setup applies to customers worldwide because POSFlow uses language settings from the Windows Internet Explorer browser to localize the software instantly.<br />Reduces Costs, Opens New Business Opportunities<br />The savings in technician time translates directly into lower costs. Combining this savings with the cost-effective infrastructure model that Windows Azure supports enables höltl to target POSFlow at a new market—small retail stores. The solution’s subscription fees are low enough to make the company’s cutting-edge POS system attractive to this segment. <br />Small businesses also have access to customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning capabilities that are normally available only to much larger businesses. höltl can provide these services as needed through its powerful POS back office. <br />Additionally, with the Microsoft Silverlight–based interface, POSFlow is easier and more intuitive than ever, and this ease of use offers a competitive advantage against better-known but more complicated enterprise resource planning systems (Figure 2). Schick says, “By basing our POSFlow software on Windows Azure and Silverlight, customers can implement this key retail solution quickly and by themselves. It’s now easy to use and financially viable even for the smallest retailer. Using these Microsoft technologies, we’re moving much closer to our goal of reducing costs and completely eliminating the need for a customer briefing on how to use POSFlow.”<br />Offers Flexible, Scalable Operation, Minimizes Impact of Outages <br />“The high scalability of Windows Azure services and the built-in protection against outages make our high-tech solutions especially appealing to large chains and purchasing associations.”Johannes Schick, CEO, höltl Retail Solutions<br />Schick explains how the flexibility of the Windows Azure platform helps the company’s POS systems continue to work seamlessly even during prolonged network outages. “The high scalability of Windows Azure services and the built-in protection against outages make our high-tech solutions especially appealing to large chains and purchasing associations, since we can combine communications streams from several thousand registers.” Additionally, during start up, key functionality and a minimum dataset are downloaded from the cloud into the cash register. Schick continues, “This means that the register can work offline for a longer period if the Internet connection fails, unlike a purely online solution, which doesn’t allow for ringing up sales when the network connection is down.” <br />Figure 2. Built using Silverlight, the POSFlow interface is attractive and easy for employees to use.Another advantage of the cloud-based approach is that all master and transaction data and configuration settings are immediately available for downloading when stores set up new or replacement cash registers. Similarly, höltl no longer needs to worry about the operating system updates that retailers have installed because, from the solution provider’s point of view, it doesn’t matter which Windows operating system or hardware is used at the register itself.<br />Schick concludes, “Supported by Windows Azure, we’re sure that our high-end solution, with its excellent human factors, will attract many customers, and as a result, höltl Retail Solutions will continue to grow.” <br />Software and ServicesWindows Azure PlatformWindows AzureMicrosoft SQL AzureWindows Azure Platform AppFabric Microsoft Visual StudioMicrosoft Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team SuiteMicrosoft Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Foundation ServerTechnologiesMicrosoft .NET Framework 3.5Microsoft Silverlight 3Microsoft Visual C#This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.Document published June 2010For More InformationFor more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers in the United States and Canada who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to:www.microsoft.comFor more information about höltl Retail Solutions, call +49 (0) 6621 92 00 0 or visit the Web site at:www.hoeltl.com orhttp://rentapos.comWindows Azure Platform<br />The Windows Azure platform provides an excellent foundation for expanding online product and service offerings. The main components include:<br />Windows Azure. Windows Azure is the development, service hosting, and service management environment for the Windows Azure platform. Windows Azure provides developers with on-demand and storage to host, scale, and manage Web applications on the Internet through Microsoft data centers.<br />Microsoft SQL Azure. Microsoft SQL Azure offers the first cloud-based relational and self-managed database service built on Microsoft SQL Server 2008 technologies.<br />Windows Azure platform AppFabric. With Windows Azure platform AppFabric, developers can build and manage applications more easily both on-premises and in the cloud.<br />AppFabric Service Bus connects services and applications across network boundaries to help developers build distributed applications.<br />AppFabric Access Control provides federated, claims-based access control for REST Web services.<br />Microsoft quot;
Dallas.quot;
Developers and information workers can use the new service code-named Dallas to easily discover, purchase, and manage premium data subscriptions in the Windows Azure platform.<br />To learn more about the Windows Azure platform, visit: www.windowsazure.com<br />