Diseño del experimento

Virgin Entertainment Group, North America: Gaining Advantage from Microsoft Software Assurance

Sponsored by: Microsoft Amy Konary August 2005

COMPANY BACKGROUND

The Virgin EntertainmentGroup (VEG) operates one of the largest media product retail chains in the world, with 20 Virgin Megastores in the United States and North America, as well as stores in Europe and Japan. LargerMegastores carry over 250,000 CDs and DVDs, and aisles of video games, books, and other products.
Virgin Entertainment Group, North America, purchased Software Assurance (SA) to help reduce costs, makecosts more predictable, and improve the capabilities of its knowledge workers.

M i c r o s o f t P r o d u c t s a n d S o l u t i o n

Robert Fort, director of IT at Virgin EntertainmentNorth America, leads a team of 15 professionals responsible for strategy and direction of all IT systems for Virgin’s retail stores in North America. Fort and his team built a business intelligencesolution based on Microsoft Windows Server System software and integrated the business intelligence solution using the Microsoft .NET Framework. The solution collects data from the company’s inventory,traffic, and point-of-sale systems for real-time data analysis. With the help of this solution, Virgin expects to raise store traffic and increase efficiency and revenue.

Specific Microsoft productsinvolved in this solution include:

Windows Server 2003
SQL Server 2000
BizTalk Server 2004
Exchange 2003
SharePoint Portal Server and .NET
Microsoft Office

Virgin Entertainmentacquired the Microsoft Server Products (SQL and BizTalk), Microsoft Office, Microsoft Exchange, and Microsoft SharePoint via volume licensing.

The company has an Enterprise Agreement through whichit has purchased License and Software Assurance (SA) for three years on all products listed.

Microsoft Software Assurance Purchase and Benefits

In order to make a pragmatic decision, Virgin...