PLAYMOBIL

Success Story

PLAYMOBIL runs its homepage on Demandware* eCommerce software, running on SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server and hosted by T-Systems. The solution provides instant and practically unlimited scalability, enabling PLAYMOBIL to serve visitors effectively during times of peak demand, with a pay-per-use model that keeps costs low during periods of lower demand.

Overview

PLAYMOBIL is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of plastic toys for children, with approximately 2,500 employees generating sales of €379 million in 2006. The company’s state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Dietenhofen, Germany, produces almost 1 billion individual components each year and employs 800 people, and a further 500 staff work in the Zirndorf headquarters.

Challenge

The PLAYMOBIL Web site experiences enormous seasonal variations in demand from consumers, with December visitor numbers peaking far beyond the typical monthly average. As a toy manufacturer, the organisation also experiences smaller peaks in demand throughout the year, in response to new marketing campaigns. The changing load on the Web site is not easy to predict, since marketing is not an exact science. Equally, sudden spikes in demand may result from events beyond PLAYMOBIL’s control – for example, if a particular toy is featured in a popular television programme.

The company needed to maintain excellent response times during peak times – however high the demand on its Web servers – but without over-investing in capacity that would sit idle at other times. Unless PLAYMOBIL’s Web infrastructure could scale up instantly to meet demand, the fleeting opportunities to capitalise on sudden market trends might be lost.

Novell Solution

"We run the Demandware software on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server grids offering ultra-high availability and performance. This helps us to serve PLAYMOBIL’s global visitors and customers effectively 24x7."

Hendrik Hoppe
Leader eBusiness Excellence Team
T-Systems Multimedia Solutions GmbH

Rather than attempting to build up its own internal infrastructure, PLAYMOBIL looked for an external partner to run its Web servers. The aim was to take advantage of the economies of scale that an external specialist could provide, while maintaining the internal focus on the core business: creating and marketing toys.

PLAYMOBIL selected a solution based on Demandware eCommerce software, running on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, fully hosted and managed by T-Systems Multimedia Solutions GmbH. The Demandware solution offers on-demand e-commerce services, with pricing based on sales volumes. As demand rises on PLAYMOBIL’s Web site, the Demandware Grid Architecture automatically and seamlessly assigns new computing resources to the grid, ensuring that response times remain within agreed limits.

“PLAYMOBIL wanted its Web site to be as easy as getting electricity from a power socket, and the Demandware software-as-a-service model was the ideal solution,” said Hendrik Hoppe, Leader eBusiness Excellence Team, T-Systems Multimedia Solutions GmbH. “We run the Demandware software on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server grids, offering ultra-high availability and performance. This helps us to serve PLAYMOBIL’s global visitors effectively 24x7.”

“Children want our Web site to be wild and colourful, while adults look for good service and easily obtainable information,” said Michael Konzmann, Head of e-Commerce at PLAYMOBIL. “To give all our clients – whether young or old – precisely what they want, we chose the flexible Demandware solution based on SUSE Linux Enterprise. “

“A Linux* solution gives PLAYMOBIL an easy-to-manage homepage without the cost and risk of owning the infrastructure,” said Hoppe. “T-Systems has the resources to scale up the service almost without limit, and our pricing varies according to the total load – so PLAYMOBIL gets all the spare capacity it needs without needing to pay for it during off-peak times.”

PLAYMOBIL’s service contract with T-Systems includes ongoing development of the infrastructure, with at least four updates per year. Whether a move to more powerful hardware or a software upgrade, these enhancements are transparent and non-disruptive for PLAYMOBIL, which simply experiences improvements in performance without needing to make any changes to its processes.

Results

"With SUSE Linux Enterprise Server as the strategic platform for our on-demand services, we can provide highly robust, easily scalable and cost-effective Web solutions for retailers."

Wayne Whitcomb
VP Engineering
Demandware Inc.

By selecting a Demandware solution that runs on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, and is hosted and fully managed by T-Systems, PLAYMOBIL has gained a responsive, stable and secure Web site with low cost of ownership.

“If a marketing campaign or a service offer is more successful than anticipated, that should be a good surprise – not a bad one because of limited IT resources,” said Hoppe. “With the Demandware solution on SUSE Linux Enterprise, T-Systems can rapidly scale up the capacity of PLAYMOBIL’s homepage to ensure excellent response times no matter how high the demand. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is the ideal platform for PLAYMOBIL’s Web site, combining flexibility, performance and scalability.”

The solution has given PLAYMOBIL ample capacity to meet seasonal and marketing-driven peaks in demand for its products and service, without the cost and inefficiency of maintaining that capacity throughout the year.

“With SUSE Linux Enterprise Server as the strategic platform for our on-demand services, we can provide highly robust, easily scalable and cost-effective Web solutions for retailers,” said Wayne Whitcomb, VP Engineering at Demandware. “SUSE Linux Enterprise is also easy to manage, helping us to keep our pricing competitive.”