Microsoft Services Customer & Partner Solution Brief Cinema Meets IT and Business Goals with the Help of Technology Experts Fast Facts “Relying on Microsoft Services lets us focus on Customer: Village Roadshow Greece strategic issues and projects that support company Web site: www.villagecinemas.gr Number of Employees: 700 growth goals … [and] keep IT—and the business— Country or Region: Greece running smoothly.” Industry: Media and Entertainment Mr. Michael Georgopoulos, IT Projects Manager, Village Roadshow Greece Customer Profile Based in Athens, Greece, with its parent company in Australia, Village Roadshow is Business and technology goals data replication environment is very a leading international media and Village Cinemas, part of the Village Roadshow complex,” remarks Mr. Vaggelis Skyvalakis, entertainment company. Its core group of media and entertainment Technical Account Manager at Microsoft. businesses are cinema, movie production, companies, is rapidly expanding beyond its Replication problems with the live ticketing film distribution, radio, and theme parks. current 70 screens located in largely urban systems had the potential to slow areas of Greece. Village Cinemas constantly considerably Village Cinemas’s ticketing Software and Services strives to provide the best all-around nationwide, a situation that could have Microsoft® Servers entertainment experience for patrons, caused significant financial loss. − Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 starting with the way they buy movie tickets. − Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000 Patrons had three convenient ways to Village Roadshow Greece IT Projects Manager Standard Edition purchase tickets: at the box office, by calling Mr. Michael Georgopoulos wanted to solve Services a Village Cinemas telephone operator, or on the replication issues—quickly—to avoid − Microsoft Worldwide Enterprise the Web. potential customer impact and lost revenue, Support Services but he did not have the resources on staff Technologies These ticketing systems share and store with the necessary technical knowledge. − Active Directory® information in a database running Microsoft® Village Cinemas also had a goal to make SQL Server™ 2000 Standard Edition, part of ticketing even more convenient for patrons Microsoft’s line of server software. Each of and more cost-effective for the company. nine distributed sites with two servers each (primary and backup) replicates to each of Solution the other sites—18 replication points total. Mr. Georgopoulos had heard of Microsoft Village uses transactional replication, a type Services and contacted Microsoft to obtain of replication provided by SQL Server 2000 the specialized transactional replication that allows data modifications to be expertise that Village Cinemas needed. propagated incrementally between servers in a distributed environment. Highly skilled Microsoft Services engineers are ready to travel to a customer site and “The number of live systems for which data is resolve issues. Mr. Holger Linke, SQL Server replicated, combined with the number of sites Replication Engineer at Microsoft, found the and servers, means that the Village Cinemas cause—inherent triggers in the replication needs to have a good understanding of all system—and resolved the problem. the parts and technologies in order to quickly isolate and resolve the issue." “Mr. Linke understood—very quickly—our very complicated environment and applied his “The Microsoft Services Premier Support knowledge of SQL Server replication to solve team imparted the critical knowledge we the problem in a very short time, to my great needed and as a result we reduced—by about relief,” remarks Mr. Georgopoulos. 90 percent—the overall time we spend managing the business-critical replication Based on that experience, Village Cinemas environment,” says Mr. Georgopoulos. engaged in a contract with Microsoft for Microsoft Services Premier Support. Timely Solution Microsoft Services has since helped Village “Solving the replication issues quickly was Cinemas migrate to and configure Microsoft critical, and Microsoft came through with a Exchange Server 2003 communication and solution quickly, as no one else could have,” collaboration server, as well as to connect remarks Mr. Georgopoulos. remote sites by using Active Directory® directory service. Since the Microsoft Services engagement and because of the knowledge transfer that Most recently, Village Cinemas selected occurred, Village Cinemas has only “The Microsoft Services Microsoft Services and a voice systems experienced two issues with SQL Server partner to create a voice ticketing service. replication (a major decrease, according to … team imparted the The new voice ticketing feature lets patrons Mr. Georgopoulos)—issues that Village critical knowledge we purchase tickets any time, day or night. The Cinemas IT staff were able to manage system uses natural language capabilities themselves. needed and as a result and makes use of the existing SQL Server we reduced—by about 90 2000 database and the replication Expertise for a Competitive Edge environment. “We have an incredibly talented team, but no percent—the overall time IT department has every skill needed, we spend managing the Benefits especially at the pace that technology By enlisting the expertise of Microsoft changes today,” remarks Mr. Georgopoulos. business-critical Services, Village Cinemas solved its Competition in Greece’s cinema industry is replication environment.” immediate data replication issues and gained increasing, and having expert IT help at-the- an important new voice ticketing feature that ready puts Village Cinemas one step ahead. extends the tickets-by-phone service to 24 Mr. Michael Georgopoulos, IT Projects Manager, hours a day at a significantly lower cost than “Microsoft Services extends the skills and Village Roadshow Greece live operators. capabilities of our IT department,” continues Mr. Georgopoulos. “Relying on Microsoft Transfer of Critical Knowledge Services lets us focus on strategic issues and "The voice ticketing application combines projects that support company growth goals. several SQL Server replication sub- We expect to turn to Microsoft Services for technologies and requires specific ongoing technical advice, future development configuration details, a fact that makes it one projects, and configuration and monitoring of of the most complicated replication systems systems to keep IT—and the business— in Europe,” remarks Mr. Linke. “If something running smoothly.” goes wrong, the Village Cinemas IT staff © 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY. Microsoft, Active Directory, and the Microsoft Services logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. Document published July 2006 .