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Customer: Multi-Systems, Inc.
Web Site: www.msisolutions.com
Customer Size: More than 200 employees
Country or Region: United States
Industry: Professional services
Customer Profile
Based in Phoenix, Arizona, Multi-Systems, Inc. (MSI) is a leading provider
of hotel technology and integrated property management solutions, with
more than 2,800 installations across North America.
Software and Services
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Microsoft Server Product Portfolio
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Microsoft SQL Server 2008
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Microsoft SQL Server 2005
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Services
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Microsoft Technology Centers (MTC)
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For more information about other Microsoft customer successes, please
visit: www.microsoft.com/casestudies |
Solution |
Software
Developer Increases Product
Scalability with Access to the
Right Resources
�Our MTC engagements helped us not
only make smart product-related decisions now but also improve the way
we�ll tackle other projects in the future.�
David Kantrud, Senior Vice President of Development,
Multi-Systems, Inc.
Multi-Systems, Inc. (MSI) wanted to improve the scalability
of its next-generation hotel property management system. The company attended
an Architecture Design Session and Proof-of-Concept Workshop at a Microsoft®
Technology Center, which gave MSI the knowledge needed to increase scalability
and improve its load-testing practices. The experience also boosted MSI�s
confidence in using new technologies and enhanced its relationship with
Microsoft.
Business Needs
Microsoft® Certified Partner Multi-Systems, Inc. (MSI) provides
the hospitality industry with a range of integrated technology solutions,
including sales, marketing, and catering systems; centralized corporate
services; and wireless check-in and check-out services. MSI sought to build
on the success of EnterprisePM, its property management system for hoteliers
with multiple properties or brands. The company wanted to increase the
scalability of the product in response to demand from customers.
�EnterprisePM has been well received by our diverse customer base, but
the growing and dynamic needs of larger hotels and resorts were taxing
the upper limits of MSI�s performance standards for the product,� says
David Kantrud, Senior Vice President of Development for MSI. �Changes were
needed to deliver the fullest range of EnterprisePM�s capabilities for
our customers, and choosing the best architecture to meet our scalability
and performance demands was a critical decision for us. We wanted to ensure
we would satisfy our own calculations and expectations for EnterprisePM
performance as well as fulfill customer expectations.�
MSI also was working to offer a centrally hosted version of EnterprisePM,
but it needed to get a sense of the hardware requirements for such a model.
As the company began to explore these and other issues, MSI approached
Microsoft."We wanted to know which hardware configurations would give us
the best performance,� says Kantrud. �And we also needed to identify our
hardware costs so that we could appropriately price the product.� |
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Microsoft suggested an engagement at a Microsoft Technology Center
(MTC). �I was extremely enthusiastic at the opportunity to confer with
people who had such a deep understanding of the technologies that make
our product run,� says Kantrud.
MSI visited the MTC in Irvine, California, in November 2007 for a one-day
Architecture Design Session (ADS). The three-member MSI team had an initial
conversation with the MTC architects about the hospitality industry and
its EnterprisePM application. MSI team members sketched out their architecture
plans for the upgraded and hosted versions of the product, and the MTC
architects introduced suggestions for improvements based on industry best
practices. �The MTC architects validated our solution architecture and
also suggested ways to optimize it,� says Kantrud. For instance, the architects
recommended that MSI implement Web services to enhance performance and
discussed the best way to share server-computer resources among separate
customers to maximize server utilization. They also helped MSI understand
the value of moving from the Microsoft SQL Server® 2005 database software
to SQL Server 2008 to improve its scale.
In January 2008, MSI returned to the Irvine MTC for a Proof-of-Concept
Workshop that involved ideas from the ADS. The five-member MSI team included
employees from the company�s development staff, quality-assurance team,
and support staff. �We wanted the people responsible for creating, testing,
and supporting our new hosted solution to see it in action,� says Kantrud.
MSI worked with MTC architects to benchmark the solution�s performance
as it supported the simulated daily operations and peak conditions of a
typical large hotel chain. The team conducted stress tests on a variety
of hardware makes, models, and configurations to see which combination
best met its needs. MSI found that with the changes it had made to EnterprisePM,
scalability was even better than it had hoped, and it released EnterprisePM
for production in February 2008.
Benefits
MSI used its MTC engagements to improve the scalability of its product
and increase its testing knowledge, thus providing applications that better
support the needs of the hospitality industry. �We invest so much in our
products, so we want to ensure that they�re the best that they can be,�
says Kantrud. �Our MTC engagements helped us not only make smart product-related
decisions now but also improve the way we�ll tackle other projects in the
future.�
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More scalable solution. As a result of the time spent at the MTC,
MSI improved the scalability of its application and now can show potential
customers real metrics to support its scalability claims. �We studied the
impact of a new processor and found that it helped us effectively double
the number of users that EnterprisePM could support, without compromising
performance,� says Kantrud. �Previously, we had to extrapolate our scalability
limits from the results of small tests, but now we know exactly how much
our product can handle.�
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Access to resources. MSI benefitted from its MTC experience because
it gained access to a greater set of hardware resources. �Working at the
MTC gave us a tremendous opportunity to test multiple scenarios under a
variety of conditions and configurations,� says Kantrud. �By validating
our capabilities using the MTC�s vast resources and wide array of hardware,
we can offer our customers more platform choices and better help them select
the most cost-effective, proven option for their property.�
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Improved technical knowledge. One of the most helpful elements of
the engagements for MSI was learning more about load testing. �As a result
of working with the benchmarking tools at the MTC, we realized there is
a �bell curve� distribution of acceptable and usable performance,� explains
Kantrud. �Typically this means there is a point prior to complete failure
where the product is still operating, but performance degrades substantially
and is unacceptable to us and our customers. This knowledge allowed us
to establish more exacting standards for true scalability rather than raw
functionality.�
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Stronger partner relationship. Although many MSI competitors use
non-Microsoft technologies for their systems, MSI feels as though the MTC
experience reaffirmed the value of working with Microsoft and its products.
�We saw that Microsoft technologies are just as scalable as those from
other vendors, and we experienced firsthand the high level of investment
that Microsoft makes as a company in the success of its partners,� says
Kantrud.
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