Case Studies
Ntirety Shores Up Blue Dolphin Database
Blue Dolphin Inc. is one of the first database marketing companies to target online magazine subscriptions. Founded in 1993, the try-before-you-buy web site, located in Sudbury, Massachusetts, has grown rapidly, attracting an enviable 1,000,000 + active, unique members. Central to Blue Dolphin's marketing strategy is a free, voluntary service that lets consumers sample, purchase and manage magazine subscriptions to over 1,000 of American's best-known magazines, including Time, Fortune, Consumer Reports, Men's Health, Prevention and Cooking Light. To help consumers choose the magazines that are right for them, the one-stop magazine manager creates personalized emails containing notable and useful tips extrapolated from these magazines. Blue Dolphin's marketing strategy focuses on sending customized information to the consumer, rather than relying on the more traditional advertising specials that are geared to a general market.
The unique relationship between the consumer, Blue Dolphin and magazine publishers guarantees low subscription rates and puts the burden of managing each person's subscriptions - from renewals to change of address to arranging for gift subscriptions - on Blue Dolphin.
"Our database is the core of our business and with the elevated risk of down time it was apparent that something had to be done."
Jeff Cordeiro – Senior VP of Technology and Operations
By early 2001, Blue Dolphin was sending out between five and six million unique emails a week when problems with their large database began to escalate. Their informational reporting system was slowing down and becoming ineffective. They had an outsourced monitoring service, which was proving less than satisfactory. Long waiting periods for responses that often were inadequate only increased stress levels. The situation was further compounded when Blue Dolphin's database administrator left the company. At that point they decided to bring in-house, the management of all previously outsourced systems. Blue Dolphin's management knew that the continual expansion and modification of the database increased the likelihood of significant down time. Senior VP of Technology and Operations Jeff Cordeiro describes the period as "Stressful." "Our database is the core of our business and with the elevated risk of down time it was apparent that something had to be done."
Ntirety Inc. Steps In – Establishing Trust
While Blue Dolphin knew they needed outside help, company officials harbored a sense of protection about the information in their database that bordered on the extreme. Lee Jordan, Senior Systems Administrator, matter-of-factly described their feeling as "Paranoid."
"Security is extremely high here. We don't like other people to have access to our systems. We also had the experience of working with consultants who were not very knowledgeable and that made us very nervous about letting someone we didn't know at all start mucking around with the innards of our database."
Paying special attention to their concerns about competency and trust, Blue Dolphin made the decision to bring in Ntirety in 2001. Ntirety had a reputation as an IT Consulting and solutions development firm, specializing in Oracle Remote Database Administration. Their consultants had extensive functional and industry related experience. After one visit the Blue Dolphin staff was reassured by Ntirety's expertise and focus on customer satisfaction, as well as addressing the security concerns and gave Ntirety a contract.
Jordan was one of Ntirety's earliest and biggest fans. Put off by consultants with "An attitude," she was immediately impressed with Ntirety's consulting approach.
"A lot of the consultants I've worked with would feel put out when I watched what they were doing. I really was just trying to learn what they were doing as well as to keep track of the changes they were making to our system. The Ntirety folks understood that. Their approach was 'well, of course you would want to double check my work - it's your database. It's important to you. Let me show you what I am doing.' There was just none of the arrogance or attitude."
The issue of distrust evaporated quickly too.
"For me building trust was as simple as working with the Ntirety consultants and seeing that they didn't break anything and at the same time seeing that everything they gave me for advice was right," Jordan said. "They established a track record with us. I no longer feel uncomfortable knowing they have access to our database. I can trust them and that's a really big deal."
Blessing the Past and Planning the Future
In the first few months the Ntirety consultants performed a number of services for Blue Dolphin. They assessed and made adjustments to the application side of Blue Dolphin's database. They helped Lee reconfigure her database making it more efficient. "Their blessing," as Cordeiro termed their evaluation "took tremendous pressure off of the Blue Dolphin staff." The Ntirety team then looked at the system from development point of view. They helped Blue Dolphin make adjustments to the database that would let them plan for and accommodate future growth. Dave Henry, Director of Data Center Operations, describes the company's position. "We had nothing in place that would let us look at what we should be doing to make sure our system would run next week. We also had no plan to handle, for example the doubling of our customers. We didn't know what changes were needed to be able to perform at the same level if this happened. Part of what Ntirety did was providing maintenance, but part of what they provided was to ensure that as we went through changes we could remain stable. They performed code reviews for these scenarios and suggested ways to reconfigure and set up the database."
Remote Automatic Monitoring
One of the most critical functions Ntirety provided for Blue Dolphin was 24-7 remote monitoring of Blue Dolphin's database. Henry explained why it was essential to keep the database system up and running at all times.
"They established a track record with us. I no longer feel uncomfortable knowing they have access to our database. I can trust them and that's a really big deal."
Lee Jordan – Senior Systems Administrator
"We get hits 24 hours a day. If you look at our orders, they peak at different times. They peak at 11 in the morning. They peak again at 11 at night, when a lot of orders from the West Coast come in. Then the number of orders goes down around 2, 3, and 4 in the morning, but still, we're getting orders even then. In addition, we're looking at generating brand awareness, so we really can't afford to have down time ever."
Ntirety installed software agents that put in place remote automatic monitoring designed to ensure proper database functionality, predict imminent failures and communicate any database errors, warnings, or alerts. This warning system let Blue Dolphin become pro-active when dealing with problems in their database. If a particular table space was beginning to fill, for example, Blue Dolphin would receive an advance warning. Having a second set of eyes increased the comfort level of the work environment at Blue Dolphin immeasurably Jordan contrasted the difference.
"We're able to make adjustments to our database at our own rate now. We will receive an email, for example at 4 in the morning saying that sometime in the next 24 hours, we need to expand such and such. Before Ntirety set up the remote monitoring, we could get paged at 4 in the morning with the message that something was broken and we had to get up and fix it immediately."
Ntirety went one step further to ensure the smooth functioning of Blue Dolphin's database. They tutored Jordan in setting up the company's own monitoring system, thus providing the company with double monitoring. If problems do occur, Jordan and Ntirety are both paged. Together they discuss the best way to fix the problem, or if it's an emergency and Lee is not around, Ntirety will fix it and let Lee know what they did.
Knowledge-Transfer
Keeping Jordan and Blue Dolphin informed and educated about everything they do has been one of the best aspects of working with the Ntirety team. Earlier consultants often made changes to the company's database without telling or explaining what they did.
"Ntirety only does something in an emergency and even then they email you and tell you what they did. They don't just go in and do it. This is really important because if changes are made in off-hours we need to know what was done."
Ntirety consultants are different from many of the other database consultants in another important way. Many guard their knowledge as a form of job security. Ntirety consultants, on the other hand, not only explain the work they perform, but have provided Blue Dolphin staff with a valuable help desk function and conduct a scheduled weekly phone call with each of their clients to enhance communications. While Ntirety consultants regularly suggest relevant sources of database management state-of-the-art documentation, they also are available to answer questions throughout the day. Cordeiro recalled past consultants:
"Knowledge transfer has been the most surprising benefit Ntirety has offered based on my past experience with consultants. Ntirety considers helping Lee to become a full-fledged DBA as part of their job. This has improved our situation because Lee now understands what they are doing, and is in a position to work with them." Jordan echoes the sentiment, recalling a recent task to rebuild the staging database.
"I had never done this before, so I was emailing Ntirety every 10 minutes asking what to do. Even when it got to be 7 o'clock in the evening - the time our consulting time with Ntirety ends each day - the consultant offered to continue helping me. The other consultants have just never been like that."
"I've also been impressed with the fact that the Ntirety consultants - the entire team that works with Blue Dolphin - have a lot of knowledge they can offer right off the top of their head. I'm used to asking a consultant for help and waiting while they look it up."
Night and Weekend Worries Are Put to Rest
Ntirety's timely corrections of potentially devastating situations involving the core of Blue Dolphin's business has resulted in a company that is stronger than ever and ready to meet its exciting growth expectations. By outsourcing key database functions, Blue Dolphin now has access to Ntirety's team of highly skilled and experienced DBA's at a fraction of the cost it would have taken to provide those skills in-house. The arrangement has let Blue Dolphin work more efficiently and accurately with a much greater level of comfort. Combined with Ntirety's regular monitoring and support, Blue Dolphin has been able to create an infrastructure that guarantees that their database - the heart of their business - will stay up and running. "That's very big, Cordeiro smiles, adding "It's not what I worry about at night or on weekends anymore."