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Delaware North Case Studies

Company Overview

Delaware North Companies (http://www.delawarenorth.com/) is one of the world's leading hospitality and food service providers. Their family of companies includes Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts, Delaware North Companies Gaming & Entertainment, Delaware North Companies Travel Hospitality Services, Delaware North Companies Sportservice, Delaware North Companies International, TD Banknorth Garden, and American Park 'n Swap. Delaware North Companies is one of the largest privately held companies in the United States with annual revenues approaching $2 billion and 40,000 associates serving half a billion customers in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.

Challenge

To support its vast network of companies, Delaware North maintains 35 different Web sites. The main challenge for the Delaware North eBusiness department was managing Web sites that were all developed on different platforms and in disparate ways. Consequently, the sites had traditionally been maintained through different methods, from internal resources using Dreamweaver to outsourced vendors who worked directly for each individual business unit. The only systematic and centralized tool available was an internal application that provided tickler notices when Web pages were out-of-date.

This approach was problematic for Delaware North from both a technical and business perspective. Without a user-friendly content management system (CMS), the company's business owners were unable to update its individual company's Web site without the assistance of technical staff who had knowledge of HTML.

Kelli Schimpfhauser, Manager of eBusiness for Delaware North, recognized the issues presented by this challenge. "From a technical perspective, we want to be on a common architectural platform and have one CMS application for all of our web sites. And given that these sites need to be updated on a regular basis in order for them to create stickiness and drive revenue-generating traffic, it was only logical to pursue purchasing a CMS."

Solution

With the overarching goal of migrating to one standard platform, Delaware North's eBusiness department knew what requirements it wanted in a content management system. Ease of use was a primary concern, according to Schimpfhauser. “We have operations people out in field offices, such as Yosemite National Park, so it might be the rafting manager updating the rafting schedule. He doesn't know anything about the Web; he just needs to update the rafting schedule.”

Price was also a checklist item for Delaware North. The compnay was looking for an affordable system, in the low- to mid-price point range, which could be used to update all 35 web sites. The final requirement for its new system was that it be easy to administer. As Schimpfhauser shares, "I have a small staff and I use outsourced vendors for any programming we need. So I was looking for a CMS that was not overly complex from an administrator point of view."

To find the right vendor, Delaware North researched 13 different content management systems. "Some of the systems that we looked at were very confusing and almost too robust, with too much functionality that we just didn't see a business need for," explains Schimpfhauser. "And the low-end systems didn't have enough functionality, nor the scalabity, that we needed."

RedDot Solutions was able to fulfill all three priorities for Delaware North: cost, functionality, and ease-of-use. RedDot also had a substantial client list, which distinguished it from its competitors and assured Schimpfhauser that RedDot was a financially stable and successful company.

Delaware North chose James Tower to implement the RedDot solution. As a RedDot Premium Partner – one of only two in the country – James Tower is first to receive product updates and enhancements, and, at times, is afforded the opportunity to review and test updates before they are released. This partner status ensures James Tower has trained RedDot implementers on staff and gives them unlimited technical support.

The main implementation challenge with Delaware North was developing a library of RedDot content templates and application codes to support the six initial Parks and Resorts sites and the more than 30 others for the future. James Tower worked with Delaware North’s marketing and I.T. departments to develop the custom applications that would apply to all Parks and Resorts Web properties without limiting individual style or navigation requirements. It found a way to integrate Delaware North’s legacy online booking engine. James Tower also worked with Delaware North’s advertising agency to balance the technical needs of James Tower with the creative needs of the agency.

Results

Delaware North's initial plan for their RedDot CMS implementation would start with its premium travel and destination sites. After doing research on how Web visitors purchased travel services online, Delaware North created a standard information architecture in RedDot CMS that can be re-purposed repeatedly. This template, which was developed over the course of a couple months by James Tower, is called "Web in a Box."

As Schimpfhauser explained, "Think of it like a house - the frame of the house is always the same and we can just put a new coat of paint on it for each of our companies' Web sites. Each site has a different look and feel because we have properties like Yosemite and Sequoia National Park that have their own unique beauty. This beauty is captured in the look and feel of the web site, and underneath, the templated information architecture is the same for each site. We're capitalizing on RedDot CMS by creating one template and then we just simply clone it for each subsequent site, with simply a new look and feel over the top."

Currently, five of the destination sites have been completed and launched (Tenaya Lodge, Harrison Hot Springs Resort and Spa, Sequoia National Park, Asilomar Conference Grounds, and The Balsams Grand Resort Hotel), with Yosemite National Park going live in August of 2006.

One of the best features of RedDot CMS, according to Schimpfhauser, is the ramp up time from a training perspective and the system's ease of use. "With RedDot CMS, you can teach someone in a matter of minutes to update their own Web site. It's very easy for people to understand what they're updating, since they are able to see the webpage as they update it. They just click on the Red Dot, make their change, and submit it to work flow. The users that have been trained were able to become proficient after only two to four hours of training."

With the "Web in a Box" approach, Delaware North is saving money on programming costs. "We're not a Web site development company, so it doesn't make sense for me to staff programmers," says Schimpfhauser. "With 35 Web sites and only four people on staff, I couldn't possibly keep up with all the requests that we have. RedDot CMS has changed the model of how we're doing business by partnering with Web development vendors and placing the day-to-day content updates in the hands of our business units. It decreases my staff overhead, allowing the staff I have to focus more on analysis and project management."

After rolling out the Web site for Harrison Hot Springs – a resort property in Canada – Roy Azevedo, Systems Manager for that property, commented to Schimpfhauser, "We really love RedDot - it's really working for our users. It's fantastic." This was extremely valuable – and rewarding – feedback for Schimpfhauser, since she was the decision maker behind purchasing RedDot for each business unit.

As Schimpfhauser concludes, "RedDot CMS is a great application for companies who need an easy-to-use interface that their employees can just jump in, get started easily, and be able to maintain over the long term, even with staff turnover. RedDot CMS is as easy-to-use as Microsoft Word, so over the long term, it's a good application for consistency, cost savings, and productivity."

Facts and Figures

Customer: Delaware North Companies, Inc. (http://www.delawarenorth.com/)

URLs: http://www.tenayalodge.com/; http://www.harrisonresort.com/; http://www.visitsequoia.com/; http://www.visitasilomar.com/; http://www.thebalsams.com/; an Intranet, plus another site currently in development

Users: 49 (end users and programmers)

Pages per site: 50 – 75 for the public sites; 20 for the Intranet

Project duration: 4 months per public site, including 2 months of full creative design

Greatest challenge: A common CMS platform for all 35 Delaware North sites; ease of use

Launch dates: Tenaya Lodge - June 2005; Harrison Hot Springs Resort & Spa - October 2005, Sequoia - February 2006, Asilomar - April 2006, and The Balsams - April 2006

Servers: Win Server 2003 OS on a VMWare Server ESX 2.5, SQL Server 2000

Integration: User accounts are integrated with Active Directory

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