Capgemini Migration Strategy Will Help TheTrainline to Reduce Maintenance by 25%
To meet increased demand for its services, TheTrainline needed to refresh its IT infrastructure, which was based on older technology and lacked the structure needed to meet the company’s long-term business needs.
- Country
- UK
- Alliance partner
- Microsoft
- Solution
- Application Development & Integration
- Infrastructure and Security
- IT Transformation - Strategy and Architecture
To meet increased demand for its services, TheTrainline needed to refresh its IT infrastructure, which was based on older technology and lacked the structure needed to meet the company’s long-term business needs. The Trainline’s development partner Capgemini has created a strategy to migrate its current system to a newer platform. The strategy will be based on the Microsoft .NET Framework running on Windows Server 2003. It will be underpinned by a ‘Services Architecture’, enabling changes to be made to sub-components without affecting the rest of the system and increasing the re-use of major subcomponents throughout. As part of this strategy TheTrainline will consolidate its server-count from 180 machines to around 100, enabling it to reduce system operation costs by an expected 25 per cent. Once the strategy is completed TheTrainline is confident that its IT infrastructure will scale with scale with its projected business growth.
Situation
All new companies hope to achieve success quickly. However, too much demand, too soon, can be as destructive to businesses as too little. This was an issue faced by many dotcom start-ups, many of which did not have a suitable business plan to deal with these challenges.
TheTrainline Web site was a child of the dotcom generation. Its parent company, TheTrainline was formed by Virgin Trains in 1997 to sell rail tickets to UK destinations over the phone. Virgin launched the Web site in 1999, having seen the potential of the Internet as a new channel for its services. The site also offers timetable information for journey planning, and rail tickets for sale. It was an immediate success, and the company had to add to its IT infrastructure to cope with demand. Further growth was required when TheTrainline began to supply services for several national rail companies such as Chiltern Railways, Southwest Trains, and National Rail Enquiries.
Each time there was increased demand for its services, changes to TheTrainline’s IT systems were made. But these were in response to the short-term business needs, rather than as part of a carefully planned strategy. This made the system more technically complex than it needed to be. The site is currently based on Windows® Distributed Internet Applications Architecture (DNA) and Windows NT4®. While this is proven, the older technology and complex design means that the various components cannot be easily altered without affecting other parts of the system. This makes it time consuming and expensive to effect changes and improvements.
Robert Parkinson, Development Director, TheTrainline, says: “We have grown very rapidly since the Web site’s beginning and have become hugely successful. However, this has caused us to effect changes in an organic rather than structured fashion, which caused costs to rise. These issues are as a result of our success so are nice problems to have, but from a technical perspective they are genuine headaches.”
Solution
Towards the end of 2002, TheTrainline turned to its development partner Capgemini who had originally created the Web site and continue to maintain it. This places the company in an ideal position to appreciate the long-term business needs of TheTrainline.
Capgemini developed a plan that would enable TheTrainline to migrate from its current technology, to a newer technology. This would fully support the expected growth of the company, lower maintenance costs, and facilitate easier site improvements.
To decide what technology would form the basis of the new platform, TheTrainline and Capgemini conducted a full review. Parkinson says: “Assisted by Capgemini, we engaged in an internal competitive technical evaluation including a modelling exercise. Our attitude was that there were no rules. We didn’t rush into a decision and looked at all the permutations.”
As part of its evaluation TheTrainline considered solutions from several suppliers including Microsoft®. To compare the alternatives, they re-evaluated changes that they had already made, imagining that these changes had been implemented with the newer technology. The results of these notional changes were then analysed to determine the most effective and cost-efficient and least risk. As a result of this comprehensive evaluation TheTrainline decided on Microsoft technology. The solution would be based on the Microsoft .NET
Parkinson says: “We chose this solution as it was worked out as the least risky and most cost- effective. It will enable us to transfer to the new platform gradually as we can neither afford nor countenance stopping our current system cold.”
This new strategy will deliver a Services Architecture that will enable the core sub-systems within the solution to be changed without affecting the other sub-systems, or the external appearance of the Web site. At the solution’s heart is Microsoft BizTalk® Server 2004. This acts as the message broker between the sub-components, with Microsoft Message Queuing and Web Services ensuring that communications between components occur at the correct time.
Benefits
A Solid Start
Before committing itself to the significant initial investment required, TheTrainline decided to submit the strategy document for external auditing. The plan was approved, which is a testament to both Capgemini’s understanding of the TheTrainline’s business needs, and its expertise in its field.
The plans for the technology refresh were finalised in June 2003, and work has already started on the new system. TheTrainline expects to gain from many of the key benefits soon. Parkinson says: “TheTrainline is pleased at how things are progressing. It will be about three years until we’ve completed the migration strategy, but most of the main changes will be done by the end of 2004.”
Delivering Cost Savings
By moving to a new technology platform TheTrainline is confident that it will realise greater productivity benefits. This will enable it to make cost savings and open up new avenues to extend its business. One of the key factors in this is the greater efficiency of the new platform. This will enable TheTrainline to reduce its server count from 180 to around 100, lowering system operation and maintenance costs. Additionally, the new system offers superior management facilities, improving bug-fixing and fault-handling.
Parkinson says: “With fewer servers the total cost of ownership will reduce, while with fewer points of failure there will be an increase in reliability. We’ll be winning on both counts. Even using conservative estimates we believe that there will be a 20-25 per cent saving over our current system. In some areas we expect it to be much greater than that.”
Protecting Past Investments
The beauty of the Capgemini migration strategy is that it provides a platform for future business growth while protecting TheTrainline’s investments in its existing infrastructure. The strategy will enable TheTrainline to seek new revenue streams for its services with the confidence that has the IT infrastructure to cope.
Sean McBreen, Lead Microsoft Solutions Architect, Capgemini, says: “The existing infrastructure is dependent on older technology and the availability of suitable support skills is becoming limited. This strategy presents a mechanism where the TheTrainline can continue to grow their business, without throwing away what TheTrainline already has. We will be able to upgrade the system while providing full ‘business-as-usual’ support for TheTrainline’s customers.”
Laying Tracks for the Future
TheTrainline demonstrates how the .NET Framework and Windows Server 2003 are the enabling business to move forward. Parkinson says: “If you’re a growing, forward-looking business you’ve got to consider your IT strategy. While NT4 has shown its worth I believe its time has come. If a company doesn’t have a plan to upgrade to Windows Server 2003, I’d suggest getting one soon. The .NET Framework offers so many advantages it makes business sense to get a plan in place and in a system such as ours it can’t happen overnight.”
David Brown, TheTrainline Engagement Manager, Capgemini, says: “The migration strategy is a long-term plan that has enabled TheTrainline to think more tactically and understand the implications of the technology it’s using. The plan will enable it to work out the how what it is doing today will impact on what it can do tomorrow.”
