“You buy one piece of software and it’s all there—integration, analysis, and reporting, with a consistent GUI. It lets me sync with our Exchange Server so our reports go out daily to stakeholders who need them.”

Tim Lum, Head of Business Intelligence, Kelkoo

The previous business intelligence tool used by Kelkoo prevented its decision makers from getting all the information they needed to run the company. After considering MySQL and Oracle alternatives, Kelkoo selected Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 data management software because it included reporting and analysis tools, as well as core database functionality. It also represented the best value choice. The business-critical application copes with huge volumes of data—Kelkoo is now storing nearly twice as much data—giving the company’s decision makers powerful business insight.

Business NeedsKelkoo is one of Europe’s largest e-commerce websites, with 6.5 million offers listed from more than 1,000 online merchants. With 10 million unique visitors a month, keeping track of what people do on the site is both essential and demanding. In fact, it’s “at the very heart of our business,” says Tim Lum, Head of Business Intelligence at Kelkoo.

The company was using a hosted business intelligence solution that was becoming difficult to manage. And because of expensive data storage charges, the system held only 13 months’ worth of data at any time, making year-on-year comparisons difficult.

Kelkoo was already generating the maximum amount of data that could be stored each year under the existing contract. Adding more capacity would have been prohibitively expensive—as would the time-consuming process of adding new reports.Kelkoo needed a new system that would help it store a higher volume of historical data without limits on updates. It also needed to be able ‘slice and dice’ the data and produce reports on demand. Price was

an important factor but it also had to be sure that any replacement was scalable.

SolutionLike many dot-com companies, Kelkoo uses a lot of open source software, such as MySQL, and Lum considered this as an alternative. The problem was that “it is definitely limited in terms of what you can develop reporting-wise.” And while the initial software was free, the cost of adding reporting and analysis functionality was high because it required third-party products and in-house development resources. These costs, over time, negated the fact that there was no initial cost for the software.

Lum also looked at Oracle, but this option proved more expensive than open-source software—and the Microsoft alternative—and lacked built-in reporting capabilities.

The compelling choice was Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server Reporting Services. Lum explains the logic behind the selection: “You buy one piece of software and it’s all there—integration, analysis, and reporting, with a consistent GUI. It also lets me sync with our Exchange Server so our reports go out daily to stakeholders who need them.” The costs were far more

Customer: KelkooWebsite: www.kelkoo.co.uk Customer Size: 100+Country or Region: United KingdomIndustry: e-commercePartner: Contemporary

Customer ProfileKelkoo is a one-stop shopping service that helps shoppers find, research, and buy products online with confidence. As Europe's largest e-commerce advertising platform and third-largest e-commerce website, it lists 6.5 million offers from more than 1,000 online merchants, and attracts around 10 million unique users per month.

Software and Services Microsoft Server Product Portfolio− Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2

For more information about other Microsoft customer successes, please visit: www.microsoft.com/casestudies

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2Customer Solution Case Study

E-Commerce Platform Improves Business Insight with New Business Intelligence Tool

competitive than the incumbent solution, cheaper to buy than Oracle, and cheaper to maintain than MySQL.

Lum approached Contemporary, a business intelligence specialist, to help with consultancy, specifying the system, and sizing the server to support the database. It also replicated the existing functionality on the new system, providing Kelkoo with a foundation on which to build and expand in future. “A very, very professional outfit,” says Lum.

BenefitsThe Kelkoo new business intelligence system is already delivering valuable benefits in four main areas:

Scalability. The company already had 1.8 terabytes of data, but its new servers are scaled for at least 3.6 terabytes—enough for a couple of years’ worth of data. This makes it easy to compare different time series. The system, running in the Kelkoo data centre, has the capacity for further growth—it’s not limited like the previous solution. Removing this restriction also allows Kelkoo to bring new data sources into the data warehouse—such as commercial information—and integrate it with site traffic analysis.

Dependability. This is a business-critical database on which Kelkoo can rely. It doesn’t put artificial restrictions on how and when employees can upload data, so Lum’s team can, if required, upload data the same day if there are any issues with the previous upload. The reliability and capacity of SQL Server reduces the company’s data architecture exposure to the complexities in the rest of its architecture, whereas the previous solution succumbed to these complexities.

Business insight. By combining business intelligence, reporting, and data management in one package, SQL Server 2008 R2 eliminates the need for additional software or expensive developers. “My analysts can pull the data and build basic reports themselves,” says Lum. More importantly, it gives stakeholders the reports they need on a regular basis. It integrates with Microsoft Exchange Server so that these reports arrive punctually by email. “It empowers people to focus on their trends and then

act on them,” says Lum, “giving managers the information they need to make critical decisions and gain a competitive advantage.”

Value for money. If Kelkoo had stuck with its existing system it would have faced a choice between limits on data volumes or a higher bill. As it is, Kelkoo has swapped a monthly recurring fee for a one-off cost to buy the new servers and software. In the first year alone, says Lum, the saving could pay for a full-time database developer.

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published August 2011