Case Study: RedDotNet
RedDotNet's Multimedia Merchandising System is the first of its kind in the industry, enabling brick-and-mortar music and multimedia retailers like Barnes & Noble to improve their customers' shopping experience, while gaining valuable market & merchandise research data at the same time.
Each RedDotNet installation includes one or more Microsoft Windows® Powered NAS Servers known as "Content Servers", which support numerous Microsoft Windows® CE client devices known as "Dots".
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Company Overview
Today's consumer increasingly desires more information and pre-purchase knowledge during the buying process of multimedia goods, such as music CDs, video DVDs, and home entertainment equipment. Therefore, retailers seeking to meet this need are always looking for improved tools to provide their customers with an environment of self-empowered experience, where they can investigate and learn more about their prospective purchase at the point of sale.
Business Challenge
For many years, brick-and-mortar music retailers have addressed this need by allowing customers to open and listen to music prior to purchase. However, for obvious reasons, opening new product to be previewed by a customer, only to be refused, was not a viable and sustainable option, primarily due to the devaluation of the then-opened product. Additionally, with the advent of DVD retail options, the issues related to the manual previewing of product in the store became an insurmountable obstacle.
Another more recent method that many retailers such as Barnes & Noble have used to attempt to address this issue has been to install systems that allowed customers to preview a limited selection of pre-determined options. However, these systems required significant maintenance, experienced frequent service and performance issues, and most importantly, even the most robust of these systems only offered perhaps a few hundred listening options at any given time. As Mark Bruback, Music Department Manager at a Barnes & Noble store in Bellevue, Washington explained, "We have over 30,000 unique music CD items in stock at any given time. When there were only a few dozen choices for a customer to preview, the limitations quickly became obvious."
To address these issues, RedDotNet developed their Multimedia Merchandising System to empower both retailers and their customers to sample and experience any music CD they wanted to hear, without delay, and in a fun, easy, and intuitive manner. Today, over 1.7 Million music CDs, DVDs and other multimedia items are sampled each week on RedDotNet systems, and that number is expected to grow to over 2 Million samplings each week by the end of 2002.
Solution
The RedDotNet Multimedia Merchandising System combines one or more load-balanced server appliances called "Content Servers", with multiple client devices called "Dots". The systems are fully managed remotely by RedDotNet utilizing both Windows Powered NAS integrated web administration tools, as well as Microsoft NetMeeting, meaning that retailers never have to deal with managing the systems themselves. "It's incredible," said Terrance May, Music Department Manager of a Barnes & Noble in Seattle, Washington. "It never crashes, and the only time we ever touch the system, other than to show it to customers, is once a week when we pop in a new update DVD from RedDotNet. That's it - we just put the disk in the drive, and the system does the rest."
Each Content Server appliance utilizes the Microsoft Windows 2000 Server operating system and serves as both a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device as well as a centralized administration resource for managing the local system of Dots. "A single Content Server can support at least 35 Dots, and we have even successfully deployed systems with as many as 90 Dots per Server," explained Rice.
Each Dot, is an interactive touch-screen device built on Microsoft Windows CE, that a customer can use to scan the barcode of any item in the store to read more about that item, preview music clips or videos, and learn about other similar purchase items. It also contains a feature-rich search function, that a customer can use to lookup and preview virtually any music CD or DVD in print. These features give retailers the opportunity to allow customers to preview and special order their desired purchases, even though the retailer may not carry those items in stock.
"Once, shortly after the RedDotNet system was installed in our store, we had a gentleman come in who wanted to replace his old LP record collection with CDs. Using the system, he was able to search for and find all of the old records he loved," related Bruback. "I think he walked out of the store with about 50 CDs that day. That wouldn't have been possible with our old system."
Business Benefits
Getting to Market - Quickly, Affordably
As a young and growing company, RedDotNet needed to quickly and affordably develop and deliver their product to the market. Utilizing a team of eight developers to build on Microsoft Windows Powered technology, RedDotNet was able to build and deploy their system in only six months.
"Our biggest concerns were the costs to develop and manage our system, and the time it would take to bring our product to market," explained RedDotNet's Brad Rice. "We considered a number of platform options for our system, including Linux, but in the end Microsoft was clearly the best option for a number of reasons."
One such cost and time saving example was the fact that licenses for the Microsoft Windows CE operating system, which powers the client Dots, included a license for the Microsoft Windows Media® Player. This enabled RedDotNet to deploy their system without the additional burden and costs of either developing their own digital media player, or incurring additional licensing expenses from third party vendors. With over 5,000 Dots currently operating in retail locations around the country, and hundreds more being installed each month, the size of the cost savings benefit becomes clear.
Lower Cost of Ownership
Critical to the success of RedDotNet's business, was the fact that their systems needed to be affordably managed. Therefore, their systems needed to be incredibly stable, scalable, and easy to remotely manage. RedDotNet has found that their Windows Powered systems have been very reliable.
Since the Dots use the Windows CE embedded operating system, there are no physical parts to break down or to be maintained. Additionally, updates to the Dots can be easily and quickly deployed simply by updating the Windows Powered NAS device at the client location, which can be done remotely.
In the event that a problem does occur, RedDotNet is able to utilize Windows Powered NAS convenient web interfaces or Microsoft NetMeeting® conferencing software to remotely view, manage, and reboot each individual Dot or Content Server, as necessary.
"We rarely have to send anybody out on a service call once the systems are installed," explained Rice, "but when we do, it has been easy for us to find skilled technicians who are certified and familiar with Microsoft platforms and technologies."
Scalable and Flexible
Microsoft's Windows Powered NAS enables developers like RedDotNet to customize their server appliances to achieve their goals, while at the same time eliminating any unnecessary components that may not apply to the server appliance's dedicated task. As a result, system resources are dedicated solely to the task at hand, which improves performance and stability. For example, RedDotNet designed their server appliances to be easily and automatically scalable, anywhere from one to an unlimited number of Content Servers and Dots at any location.
"It's easy," said Rice. "If a client expands their department and needs more storage and usability, we just add another Content Server and more Dots."
Next Steps
That same scalability and flexibility of Microsoft Windows 2000 is allowing RedDotNet to expand its service to move beyond just CDs and DVDs. In the near future, you can expect to see Windows Powered RedDotNet systems providing you with comparative information about home entertainment equipment before you buy, or perhaps showing reviews and teasers for console games.
Conclusion
The RedDotNet Multimedia Merchandising System, with Windows Powered NAS and Windows CE allows retailers to provide their customers with instantaneous access to an unprecedented volume of multimedia previews and information, in a simple, scalable, easy to use package. All-digital, comprehensive, and always up-to-date, the RedDotNet system allows these retailers to sell more product and satisfy more customers, and will continue to do so, both today and as their businesses grow.
