Dollar Rent A Car & Imperial Sugar Case #5 pg. 529

Ryan PlattAnthony PembertonKendra PlattDaisaku OkadaBryan GauthreauxJordan Thompson

Dollar Rent A Car Background

Founded in 1965 in Los Angeles, California Parent Company Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, Inc. Approx 400 worldwide locations in 26 countries, including

260 in the U.S. Service Areas: Australia, Canada, Caribbean, Central

America, Mexico, Philippines, Saipan, South America and the U.S.

Dollar Rent A Car offers mostly DaimlerChrysler vehicles Most revenues come from the Airport Market, Dollar is

located in over 50 of the top 75 airport markets. Gary L. Paxton, President and CEO Stock – DTG $26.91 Employees = 5,900

Kendra

Dollar Rent A Car M & A

In August 1990, Dollar was acquired by Chrysler and became part of the Pentastar Group which consists of:

Thrifty Car Rental, Snappy in Tulsa, and General Rent A Car.

General was closed in January 1993, and non-duplicating car rental locations merged with Dollar.

Kendra

Dollar Rent A Car Financial Report

Year 2000 2001 2002 2003

Rental Revenue $844,668 $821,834 $897,384 $1,014,121

Rental Revenue

$0$200,000$400,000$600,000$800,000

$1,000,000$1,200,000

2000 2001 2002 2003

(thousands)

Daisaku

Dollar Rent A Car Financial ReportAvg Revenue per day

$35.00$36.00$37.00$38.00$39.00$40.00$41.00$42.00$43.00$44.00

(thousands)

Monthly Avg Revenue per Vehicle

$850

$900

$950

$1,000

$1,050

$1,100

$1,150

(thousands)

Daisaku

Dollar Competitor - Enterprise

Enterprise is piloting and deploying a solution based on Microsoft Windows Server 2003. Branch offices use Windows CE–based thin clients to access Microsoft Office programs and internally developed car rental applications through a farm of servers running Microsoft Terminal Services, part of Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition.

Enhanced end user experience Centrally managed system Reliable and scalable solution that supports tens of

thousands of users

Bryan

Dollar Competitor - Budget

Budget Group, Inc. entered a five-year global technology partnership with Computer Sciences Corporation. The agreement calls for CSC to combine its outsourcing and business transformation skills to help streamline and consolidate Budget Group's Information Technology (I/T) operations.

As part of the agreement, all of Budget Group's global I/T operations including data centers, networks, user support, applications and maintenance. In addition, an estimated 130 Budget Group employees in locations spanning Chicago, Indianapolis, Orlando, Dallas and the U.K. will be offered jobs with CSC as a result of Computer Sciences Corporation.

Bryan

Dollar Competitor - Hertz

Orbital Sciences Corporation along with its Magellan Corporation subsidiary will form an exclusive $50 million joint venture with Hertz Corporation to oversee the expansion and operation of Hertz' popular Never Lost vehicle navigation system in rental cars throughout the U.S., Europe and Canada.

The Hertz Never Lost system utilizes Magellan's satellite-based vehicle navigation technology. These systems use the "next-generation" satellite navigation technology. The joint venture will also install, maintain, market, advertise and set pricing for the new vehicle navigation systems globally.

To use the Never Lost system, customers simply input a local street address or may choose from a range of destinations including hotels, airports, restaurants and other points of interest. The new user-friendly route guidance systems will provide easier and more detailed turn-by-turn driving directions with increased data base coverage. Also, each unit will be equipped with an Emergency Location Button, which immediately displays the vehicle's exact location on the screen.

Bryan

Dollar Technology

Dollar wanted to provide partners with direct access into its reservation system known as Quick Keys.

To make this happen, Dollar had to create a re-usable link into Quick Keys that could be accessed over the Internet.

Requirementsprovide a real-time direct connection, deliver the solution quickly with a minimum of complexity, and ensure that the technology selected would provide long-term viability.

Ryan

Dollar Technology

Dollar initially used an internally-developed EDI interface consisting of flat files that were FTPed on a daily basis.

Dollar.com was built in 1997 using Windows NT Server, CGI, Perl, and an Oracle database. Dollar was the first car rental Web site to provide real-time reservation capabilities.

Later using Microsoft’s NET, Dollar Rent A Car created an XML Web services interface to expose its existing mainframe-based reservation system for access by existing and potential business partners.

Ryan

Concerns about XML

There were a number of technical concerns, one being the fact that XML uses text-based tags to describe fields - a characteristic Dollar was afraid would enlarge each message and impact its transfer time.

Another concern was that a Web-based solution might not be able to handle the proposed transaction volumes.

The final issue was the newness XML Web services - some people at Dollar were uncomfortable transitioning to a new technology.

Ryan

Dollar Technology Advantages

Allows customers to book car reservations with Dollar through partnerships with other companies such as Southwest - resulting in millions of dollars in additional revenue.

Dollar’s infrastructure provides a simple, re-usable, and flexible interface that would provide the ability for any system written in any language to access the mainframe and place reservations.

This portability allows Dollar to avoid per-transaction fees by integrating directly with partners.

Ryan

Imperial Sugar Background

In 1843 the first sugar mill was commissioned in what later became Sugar Land when Samuel May Williams' sugar crop on the Oakland Plantation was large enough to justify the installation of a commercial raw sugar grinding mill.

Imperial Sugar Company is the producer of products under the labels of Imperial, Dixie Crystals, Wholesome Sweeteners, Spreckels, Pioneer and Holly.

Imperial sells more than one-quarter of the sugar in the U.S. Imperial Sugar products are sold in most grocery stores and to

industrial and foodservice customers. Robert A. Peiser - President and CEO since April 2002. Stock – IPSU = $12.20 2003 Employees = 1,200

Kendra

Imperial Sugar History

In April of 1907, the Imperial Sugar Company was incorporated.

In 1926, as the need for pre-packaged sugar became clear, sugar was sold in pre-packed cotton sugar bags under the Imperial Sugar brand name for the first time.

In 2001 Imperial filed and emerged from Ch 11 bankruptcy.

Kendra

Imperial Sugar M & A

In 1988 acquired Holly Sugar Corporation, a beet processor headquartered in Colorado Springs. With that acquisition, Imperial Sugar more than doubled in size and became a marketer of both cane and beet sugar.

In 1996, acquired Spreckels Sugar Company of California, a West Coast beet sugar company.

In 1997 Savannah Foods & Industries, the second largest sugar refiner in the industry, was acquired, the Company again more than doubled in size, becoming the largest processor and refiner of sugar in the U.S.

Lehman Brothers owns approx 33% of Imperial

Daisaku

Imperial Sugar Financial Report

(thousands)

Year 2001 2002 2003

Net Sales $114,934 $1,104,904 $1,110,811

Net Income ($6,464) $16,417 $76,657

Daisaku

Imperial Sugar Financial ReportNet Sales

$0$200,000$400,000$600,000$800,000

$1,000,000$1,200,000

2001 2002 2003

(thousands)

Net Income

($20,000)$0

$20,000$40,000

$60,000$80,000

$100,000

2001 2002 2003

(thousands)

Daisaku

Imperial Technology

Imperial Sugar’s traditional business model used a mainframe-based order management system based on a COBOL application developed and maintained by Imperial Sugar’s IT staff.

The application processes 12,000 orders per month entered via EDI transactions, or manually entered by Imperial Sugar’s customer service representatives.

Imperial Sugar used Novell exteNd Composer to XML-enable SalesTrak's key transactions and port them to the extranet.

Ryan

Imperial Technology Advantages

Imperial Sugar’s customers have 24-hour access to the extranet from any Web browser to place orders and check the status of shipments, which helps them better plan their production.

This real-time, Web-services model allows for a truly collaborative business relationship with customers, enabling Imperial Sugar to maintain appropriate supplies and more accurately forecast demand.

More than 500 customers, including many of the company's largest accounts, are actively using the extranet, which has significantly reduced call volumes, increased productivity, increased efficiency, and lowered costs.

Ryan

1. What is the purpose and business value of Web services?

Purpose- to expose and link key functions within applications (ie. Linking the ability to see checking account balance to other applications that need them to complete business process

Business Value- Dollar Rent a Car uses web services to link their car reservation systems to airlines, travel agencies, and wireless phones/PDA’s. This makes is more convenient for customers to reserve cars. Imperial Sugar- uses web-services software by SilverStream that allows customers to find “real-time” information on their orders. These leads to higher customer satisfaction!

Anthony

2.What is delaying the implementation of Web service at many companies?

Security- intruders could gain access as a supplier and could use that improper authentication to invade systems of the supplier’s customers.

Anthony

3. What can companies do now to implement Web services? Visit the Web services websites of BEA, IBM, and Microsoft to help you answer.

BEA- WebLogic Platform 8.1 Delivers Faster Time-to-Value. By seamlessly converging the process of application development and application integration into a single, simplified approach, BEA allows customers to realize significantly faster time-to-value on their mission-critical business integration projects.

IBM- Implementation is designed for specific types of business. Their proven industry-tailored solutions help you meet the challenges of today's demanding global environment.

Anthony

3. What can companies do now to implement Web services? Visit the Web services websites of BEA, IBM, and Microsoft to help you answer. (Continued)

Microsoft- Indigo Lingo: Digging into Channel Types Yasser Shohoud discusses the Indigo channel types and shows you how to build one-way, duplex, request/reply, and reliable messaging applications. The programs below allow for web services integration.

.NET Framework ASP.NET Security Visual Basic Visual C# Visual C++ Visual J# Visual Studio Web Services Windows Server 2003

Anthony