Kimberly-Clark wanted to integrate its MyKleenexTissue.com site with the rest of its infrastructure to lower costs and boost marketing. The company redeveloped the site using Microsoft® Silverlight™, Microsoft Commerce Server 2007, and the Microsoft .NET Framework. Kimberly-Clark expects to save up to 40 percent annually in IT costs and develop stronger customer connections with a Web environment that can flex to meet future needs.
 

Business Needs

Kimberly-Clark, maker of Kleenex, Scott, and Huggies brands, as well as other well-known consumer paper products, employs nearly 53,000 people worldwide. Its products are used by 1.3 billion people in 150 countries each day.

To market one of its leading brands, Kleenex Tissues, Kimberly-Clark created MyKleenexTissue.com, an interactive Web site where users can customize oval-shaped Kleenex Tissue cartons with personal photos, artwork, messages, and background designs. Through the site, Kimberly-Clark hopes to connect to a group of consumers who are starting new households. “Kleenex is a powerful brand,” says Jim Schuh, Global Digital Manager for Kimberly-Clark, “yet there are always younger consumers entering the marketplace who are less familiar with the brand. We’re always looking to expand our reach.”

The interactive site was based on the Linux operating system and managed by an external hosting partner. “The consumer experience was sufficient,” says Schuh, “but we wanted to integrate the site infrastructure with our overall IT environment.” The company’s IT infrastructure is based on an integrated set of Microsoft® products and technologies. To manage and analyze customer information gained through its consumer sites, Kimberly-Clark uses Microsoft SQL Server® 2005 database technology and third-party Webtrends analytics software. “The ‘My Kleenex Tissue’ site used proprietary software that didn’t connect well with what we were using to manage information across the enterprise,” says Schuh. “This limited our understanding of consumer behavior on the site.”

And because the site was hosted externally, Kimberly-Clark didn’t have the seamless access it needed to be able to easily apply Webtrends tools for monitoring customers’ online behavior. “We need to be able to understand, across all of our brands, the behavior and needs of our customers,” says Schuh. “Maintaining a separate system for MyKleenexTissue.com was not conducive to broad customer insight.” Finally, Kimberly-Clark wanted to save costs by hosting and managing the Web site in-house.

Solution

Kimberly-Clark worked with Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Rosetta, an interactive agency, to redevelop its MyKleenexTissue.com site on a Microsoft-based infrastructure. Rosetta helped Kimberly-Clark design a site architecture that takes advantage of integrated Microsoft tools and technologies for creating and optimizing online customer experiences. “With the Microsoft toolset, we were confident that we could design a platform that would allow Kimberly-Clark to easily expand its consumer marketing initiatives,” says Jamie Payne, Director, Solution Evangelist, Rosetta.

The Microsoft-based Web platform will give our international IT organizations a much higher comfort level. It’s important that we deploy new solutions based on technology from a trusted partner. Jim Schuh Global Digital Manager, Kimberly-Clark

From the MyKleenexTissue.com site, a customer selects options from a catalog of text, photos, and imagery to customize a Kleenex Tissue carton. These digital assets are stored in Microsoft Commerce Server 2007, which runs on the Windows Server® 2008 operating system; catalog browsing is enabled by an application built on the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5. The customer can also upload personal photos or scans to apply to their design. After selecting the base images, the customer can manipulate the position of the images on the carton. For instance, photos can be rotated right or left or moved to the foreground or background. This functionality is enabled by the Microsoft Silverlight™ browser plug-in. To save a design and add it to a shopping cart, the customer is asked to complete an account registration process. The registration and purchase transaction is also managed by Commerce Server 2007.

The site also includes integrated third-party technologies such as the Adobe Flash Player browser plug-in, which delivers animation on the home page of the site and some of the design process animation, and Papervision3D, an open-source library that enables simulation of three-dimensional environments through Flash Player. “The Microsoft solution allowed us to easily integrate third-party technologies,” says Payne. MyKleenexTissue.com is currently hosted and maintained by Rosetta, but Kimberly-Clark plans to assume hosting and administration of the site in the near future.

Benefits

Using integrated Microsoft tools and technologies, Kimberly-Clark has transformed MyKleenexTissue.com into an environment that integrates well with the rest of its infrastructure. The company expects lower IT costs, and the site gives it an online environment that it can expand to meet future needs.

Homogeneous Infrastructure

“The alignment of the Microsoft-based MyKleenexTissue.com site with the rest of our infrastructure has been key,” says Schuh. With all of its consumer-oriented sites running on integrated Microsoft technologies, Kimberly-Clark can apply the same tools it uses for analyzing customer behavior and managing customer information on its other consumer sites to MyKleenexTissue.com. “Soon, our IT group will apply Webtrends tagging and conduct maintenance on the site in-house, as we do with the rest of our sites,” says Schuh. 

Lower Development and Maintenance Costs

The Microsoft solution enabled Rosetta to take advantage of existing development expertise. “We were able to use our .NET developers to do all of the development with Commerce Server 2007 and Silverlight,” says Payne. “This was a huge advantage for us because it didn’t require additional investment in development resources.”

And once Kimberly-Clark begins to manage the MyKleenexTissue.com site itself, Schuh estimates that the company can realize significant maintenance cost savings. “When we manage the site in-house, alongside the rest of our Microsoft-based systems, we’ll be able to save up to 40 percent annually.”

Platform for Growth

Its new Web site solution enables Kimberly-Clark to expand its online consumer marketing programs with confidence. “As we look at opportunities to expand the MyKleenexTissue program to regions outside of North America,” explains Schuh, “the Microsoft-based Web platform will give our international IT organizations a much higher comfort level. It’s important that we deploy new solutions based on technology from a trusted partner.”