Quickflix Builds a New Business – With Speed, Safety and Room to Grow Microsoft Customer Solution Case study and Grow and Grow

“One of the reasons for our Convincing consumers to change the habits of a lifetime is a success is the speed and quality big undertaking. In creating its online DVD rental business, of .NET as the development Quickflix needed to persuade Australia’s home entertainment platform. We looked at Java and market that it was simply better to hire movies, music and TV J2EE options but the costs were series over the Internet than it was from a local video store. too high. .NET was the shining Critical to success was security, performance and speed – both star from the beginning. It was in developing its service and getting product to customers. just so obvious.” Quickflix found all this and more with Microsoft .NET technology Ian Vink and Microsoft® Business Solutions CRM. Working with solutions Chief Technology Officer integrator and Microsoft Partner, Change Corporation, Quickflix Quickflix has established Australia’s leading online DVD rental service. With an original time budget of 16 weeks, the Web site and the e-commerce engine that supports it were completed within six. They now form the heart of a nimble business that is scalable and growing rapidly. With ambitious expansion plans for the future, Quickflix believes it is only a matter of time before it becomes a national brand in home entertainment.

CUSTOMER PROFILE BUSINESS SITUATION SOLUTION BENEFITS

Quickflix is a home Quickflix wanted an online DV D Microsoft Certified Partner, § Enhanced online experience entertainment business that rental catalogue with all the Change Corporation used the for customers. delivers DVDs of movies, music trimmings: customer Microsoft .NET Framework to § Flexible and scalable solution. and TV series for rent direct to registration and maintenance, develop a portal and back-end § Speedy development. homes throughout Australia. credit card verification and systems such as online billing, Based in Perth, it is the fastest- billing, multiple category CRM, inventory management, § Solid security for user details and credit card payments. growing independent online indexes and links to content procurement, and content DVD rental service in Australia, such as reviews and trailers. management. The system’s § Easy integration. with more than 8,000 titles. The Web site also had to have technology and security § Faster ROI. a compelling design, user- architecture allow for rapid § Extra kudos with partners. friendly navigation, detailed deployment of new features to § Better knowledge of data analysis and reporting to respond to Quickflix’s customers. track customer behavior. expanding business.

“The Web site interface is only the tip of the iceberg,” says Quickflix Chief “We have been able to get our Consumer interest in DVDs has exploded Operating Officer, Simon Hodge. “How core platform up and running in Australia in recent years, with about 50 we deal with the operating functions behind the site is what makes this business quickly. It has been robust, we per cent of households now owning a DVD work and technology helps us knit these have had very little downtime, player. Online DVD rental service, together.” and the consumer has enjoyed Quickflix, was established to tap into this growing market, setting up fulfillment a quality service.” “There are myriad considerations behind centers in Perth and Sydney. the scenes we have to resolve. How much Simon Hodge stock do we buy? How do we match our Chief Operati ng Officer Quickflix wanted to build a compelling, Quickflix content-rich Web site that included an stock to the orders? How do we handle extensive DVD catalogue – with indexes – returns? There are many different, and and intuitive site navigation to features some unique, business functions involved.” such as trailers and reviews. It had to be Convincing people to use a Web site and supported by a reliable network that could mail delivery to rent DVDs requires a big accept online registration, credit card shift in user habits. The Web site and verification and billing, and ship DVDs supporting systems need to build consumer around the country from multiple confidence and create an easier way for warehouses. The Web site also needed to people to get movie content. Done well, provide detailed data analysis and the technology sits very much in the reporting to track customer behavior. background. The technology behind the site had to be Quickflix met the challenge of integrating extendable, be able to plug into inventory logistics, fulfillment, and customer management and customer relationship relationship management. It has become a management solutions, and connect easily fine example of how to combine an to different business partners. integrated portal with operational systems . The Quickflix business model works like a local book library: for a monthly subscription of about A$37, members can ‘borrow’ as many DVDs from the Using the Microsoft .NET Framework, Quickflix catalogue as they wish, with a Microsoft Certified Partner, Change ma ximum loan of three titles at a time. Corporation helped Quickflix identify its There are no due return dates, no late fees key business processes and develop Web and no delivery charges. Members make Services to support them. Change Corp their selction from the Quicklflix Web site delivered all stages of the project – and the DVDs are sent through the post in business analysis , technical specifications, specially designed packs with a replied software development, implementation and paid envelope for their return. maintenance. It developed the Quickflix While Australia has embraced the idea of portal and major network systems , renting DVDs online, Quickflix does not including online billing, customer have the territory to itself. There are six relationship management, inventory other players in the Australian market, so management, procure ment, and content. Quickflix tries to differentiate itself by Quickflix was one of the early adopters of offering a better customer experience the Microsoft Business Solutions CRM through an easy-to-use Web site and software in Australia. Quickflix says it hassle-free fulfillment. chose Microsoft CRM because it integrates well with its Microsoft .NET technology, is membership and attract new partners. well priced, can be implemented quickly, Hodge says the business is humming. and provides a familiar Microsoft “We have had no hiccups,” he says, “and Windows® interface for users. we have been able to maintain the rollout “We are now one of the leaders “One of the reasons for our success is the of our business without having to wait for in this market. The technology speed and quality of .NET as the technical catch-up. Technology is an platform has been critical in development platform,” says Quickflix integral part of our business and it’s how getting Quickflix into that Chief Technology Officer, Ian Vink. “Five we can maintain an innovative edge.” position. It has helped us align years ago, you needed at least twice the ourselves with major partners, development staff. But it was still slow and Faster ROI such as Optus, and establish a prone to errors. .NET has made it possible Faced with rapidly moving business national business from Perth.” to create a much better product with a lot scenarios, Quickflix has a stream of less money and much less fuss. We looked development priorities at any one time. It Chris Davis at Java and J2EE options but the costs were is constantly changing both the visible Project Director Quickflix too high. .NET was the shining star from aspects of its business – the Web site – and the beginning. It was just so obvious. its back-end processes to enhance the customer experience and improve its “We have the outward facing customer service. With Microsoft .NET as its Web site and the internal tools , both built platform, the Quickflix team says it can on a shared core in .NET. We also have implement changes faster, so it reaps the our inventory, allocation, customer service business benefits quicker. and emailing tools integrated. They have different interfaces and user bases but it all Ian Vink says the combination of security, works seamlessly. It was built as one.” performance and speed to development in itself represents real ROI. Whilst its business relies on the universal delivery standards of Australia Post, “The biggest thing is that we say yes to our Quickflix focuses on what it can control. business users more often than we say no,” When it receives orders, Quickflix delivers says Vink. “When our CEO says the as many as possible in the next ‘processing business needs feature X,Y or Z, we can window’. With daily dispatches it aims to say yes much faster. We are quite happy to meet all orders within 24-hours and spend the money because we know we will delivery times via Australia Post are get the money back.” typically one to two days. Says Robert Evans, the Director of Change Quickflix has opened distribution centers Corporation: “The system’s state-of-the-art in Perth and Sydney. It will improve its technology and security architecture allow coverage of one-day delivery by opening for rapid deployment of new features to centers in Melbourne, Brisbane and respond to Quickflix’s expanding Adelaide, at which time, all Australia’s membership base effectively in real-time.” large population centers will be supplied Tighter Security: Close r Partners from local warehouses. Another concern for the Quickflix team was security, especially since it wanted to keep customer details, take payments and link to other business partners. Quickflix went live in December 2003 “Microsoft .NET technology offers a after several months of testing. The service robust security model,” says Vink, “so we has had few technical issues , allowing are confident in the security of our systems Quickflix to continually grow its and data. We need to be because we are

billing customers over the Internet and they “Flexibility is critical to us,” says Hodge. are using their credit cards to pay. “It keeps us ahead of the competition. Our ability to differentiate ourselves from the “.NET is the ecosystem we live in. Yes, we opposition and to make enhancements at have bought into the Microsoft speed are major benefits.” environment, but it has paid us back richly. Microsoft is a successful company because Quickflix Project Director, Chris Davis , it creates stuff that works.” says Quickflix can adapt its Web site, registration or payment plans to meet And it has helped Quickflix attract big specific marketing promotions that may be partners. Quickflix has entered marketing running at any particular time. Its system alliances with Australia’s second-largest can also scale as the business grows. telco, Optus, and media giant, Fairfax, to promote online DVD rental to Australian “We wanted the platform to support households. Optus integrates Quickflix into hundreds of thousands of users ,” says its dial-up and broadband portals. With the Davis. “Already, our code can handle that. click of a button, movie watchers select As we grow and get another 100,000 from thousands of titles. An integrated subscribers, we’ll just add another server.” version of the Quickflix service will be launched by Fairfax later this year. Gaining New Kudos One of the other unintended benefits for “Using Web services in the .NET Quickflix is that it has grown in stature as a Framework and Visual Studio® company because its technology platform environment allows us to push and pull is based on best of breed tools . data quickly and robustly,” says Vink. “For example, one of our partners runs on a “This has given us some great kudos and J2EE platform, yet we interact with their confidence amongst some of our larger customers. They send us customer data, partners,” says Hodge. “They are fully encrypted, using Web services impressed when they look at how our Web security. We deal with it, sign up the sites and systems are built and run. It customer and send information back to makes us look good. We have been both them and the partner. These are just pleasantly surprised how that has given us some of the things we are able to do. We additional credibility.” are aligned with Australia’s largest online Vink says the Microsoft .NET Framework affiliate network, Commission Monster, makes him reminisce on a career spent in which has links to our site from hundreds dotcoms . of other sites. It has all been managed very “I’ve been doing this since the early 90s easily. We are able to track referrals and it with many companies that don’t exist any is important how we are able to interact more because they ran out of money,” he with those partners.” says. “Looking back, I can see that if we ’d Flexibility and Scalability only had this kind of environment we Quickflix employs various ways to track would have been able to stretch the budget how people enter and navigate its site. It further. uses this information to enhance specific “These days there are plenty of great ideas functions to make its service more and the right people behind them. They had intuitive, personal, and beneficial. It also the right people. So all you need is the provides Quickflix with mechanisms to technology to make it all work. And that’s customize content and promote specific what we have here. We’ve got the vision, material, such as new movie titles. we’ve got the will to move and we’ve got the technology.”

Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003 Microsoft® ASP .NET Microsoft Business Solutions CRM

Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000 Microsoft Visual Studio .NET

Hardware 2 Intel® based Web servers, fully load balanced to run as a web farm and expandable to 32 servers 2 Intel based database servers 1 Intel based server to support Microsoft CRM application and Microsoft Exchange 1 Intel based database server to run Microsoft CRM application database and Microsoft Active Directory Externally hosted Internet connection Full development and testing environments supported by Change Corporation infrastructure

Partners Change Corporation http://www.changecorporation.com.au/

Software for the Agile Business

For more information in Australia, call the For more information about Quickflix © 2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft Information Centre on 13 20 58. To call 1300 138 644 or visit the Web site This case study is for informational purposes only. access information using the World Wide Web, at: http://www.quickflix.com.au/ MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR go to: IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. http://www.microsoft.com/resources/casestudies/ For more information about Change Microsoft, the Microsoft logo, SQL Server, Visual Studio, Corporation call (08) 9213-2727 or Windows and Windows Server are either registered For more information about Microsoft Business visit the Web site at: trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the Solutions in Australia go to: http://www.changecorporation.com.au/ United States and/or other countries. The names of actual http://www.microsoft.com.au/mbs/ companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Date Published: June 2004