Microsoft Visual Studio .NET
Customer Solution Case Study
Developers Improve Reservation Process for
Resort Operator; Reduce Support Times
Overview
Country or Region: United States
Industry: Recreation
Customer Profile
Vail Resorts owns and operates six winter
and summer destination resorts in
Colorado, California/Nevada, and
Wyoming.
Business Situation
Vail Resorts wanted to offer better
customer service by improving the
reservations process and expanding travel
services offerings.
Solution
Working with Interlink Group, Vail Resorts
created an application that provides
access to both the company’s central
reservation system and an online airfare
service, from one interface.
Benefits
 Quick development and centralized
updating
 Improved access to system resources
 Reduced support times
“We are constantly incorporating new types of travelrelated business into our network, so having a system
that’s easy to support and scale is vital to our
success.”
Susan Rubin-Stewart, Director of Reservations and Travel, Vail Resorts
Vail Resorts owns and operates five popular ski resorts in Colorado
and California/Nevada, and one summer resort in Wyoming. The
company’s reservation agents were challenged by a central
reservation system that was difficult to use and almost impossible
to update. Vail Resorts found the answer to these troubles with the
help of Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner Interlink Group. Within six
months, the team created AirLink, a rich client application, using
the Microsoft Visual Studio® .NET 2003 development environment.
AirLink provides Vail Resorts’s reservation agents an easy-to-use
application that integrates the company’s central reservation
system with an online airfare service and allows the company to
scale its system efficiently to take advantage of new opportunities.
Developer Fast Facts
Number of
developers
6
Lines of code
93,000
Development
language
C#
Number of client
computers
86
Development
environment
Microsoft Visual
Studio .NET
2003
Situation
Vail Resorts, with popular destination
properties in scenic locations in
California/Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming,
is one of the leading resort operators in North
America, and is host to both winter and
summer vacationers from all over the world.
The company employs more than 15,000
people during the busiest seasons to meet
customer demand.
Vail Resorts’s reservation agents had been
using a custom-developed application that
connected them to the company’s central
reservation system and to the online airfare
service Galileo International. The central
reservation system is hosted on an IBM
AS400 server. Another server provided a
connection gateway to Galileo International,
which required propriety hardware to connect
to its network and limited the number of
simultaneous connections to 12.
While the custom-developed application was
functional, it was extremely difficult to use,
often requiring reservation agents to use
multiple application windows to complete a
single reservation. For example, in order to
check the rates of multiple vacation
packages, reservation agents needed to open
a separate application window for each of
these items.
The application also required constant
support from the Vail Resorts IT department
to prevent system crashes and server
downtimes, but could not be updated or
patched due to the proprietary nature of the
application’s source code.
“The original system was nearly impossible to
scale, and we were concerned that we
wouldn’t be able to handle the reservation
volume we were expecting during our busy
times,” says Mike Hibbs, Director of IT at Vail
Resorts.
Vail Resorts focused on building a new
application that would:
Integrate easily with the AS400 server and
GWS.
 Reduce overall support.
 Scale to meet new business and IT needs
at the company.
 Provide reservation agents with an easy-touse interface.

Solution
With the help of Microsoft® Gold Certified
Partner Interlink Group, Vail Resorts created
a new reservation application in six months.
The development team, which included four
developers from Interlink and two developers
from Vail Resorts, built the new application,
called AirLink, based on the Microsoft .NET
Framework—an integral component of the
Windows® operating system that provides a
programming model and runtime for Web
services, Web applications, and smart client
applications. The team used the Microsoft
Visual Studio® .NET 2003 development
system and the C# programming language.
The development team created the
application user interface using Windows
Forms controls in Visual Studio .NET 2003
and performed all tests and application
reviews in a Microsoft Virtual PC
environment. AirLink provides reservation
agents access to both Galileo Web Services
(GWS) airfare service and the Vail Resorts
central reservation system from one easy-touse interface.
How It Works
Through the Microsoft .NET–connected
AirLink application, reservation agents access
the central reservation system located on the
AS400 server. As soon as reservation agents
log into the Vail Resorts network, connection
to the AS400 server and GWS is made and
maintained throughout the session in a
client/server interaction that is transparent to
reservation agents. User credentials are
automatically verified against Active
Directory® directory service, based on the
reservation agent’s user name and password
needed to log on to a client computer running
AirLink.
Figure 1. The Vail Resorts central
reservation system
A Microsoft SQL ServerTM 2000 database
running on the Microsoft Windows ServerTM
2003 Standard Edition operating system
stores SQL Server configuration tables, which
provide AirLink a standard set of business
rules and processes the application uses to
complete reservation processes. Componentbased Scalable Logical Architecture (CSLA)
.NET, an open-source programming
framework, was used to manage the
separation of the business logic layer from
the presentation layer of the application.
The development team used the .NET
Framework to develop the architecture
required to connect to GWS. As seen in Figure
1, AirLink connects to GWS using the Simple
Object Access Protocol (SOAP) over Hypertext
Transfer Protocol (HTTP) through a Web
services Internet proxy created in Visual
Studio .NET 2003. Once connected,
reservation agents have access to updated
pricing and scheduling information. By
allowing AirLink to connect to this service
using Web services, an unlimited number of
users can be logged on to the service and no
proprietary hardware is required to maintain
those connections.
The development team used the Microsoft
Developer Network (MSDN®) developer
program to find useful resources during the
development process. The team turned to the
MSDN Web site to find technical resources
and support during the development process
for AirLink.
Deploying AirLink
After testing was completed, the
development team deployed AirLink to 86
client computers at Vail Resorts. Using
Microsoft Updater Application Block, the Vail
Resorts IT department can deploy updates to
the application from the server running
Windows Server 2003 and Internet
Information Services (IIS) 6.0; this server
contains the links to the AirLink update site.
“From a development standpoint, Visual
Studio [.NET] was great to work with. We were
able very quickly to create functional
application interfaces for testing and get the
comprehensive feedback we needed to make
an application that works for Vail reservation
agents,” says John McPherson, Managing
Consultant for Interlink Group.
Benefits
Visual Studio .NET 2003 and the .NET
Framework provided the development team
“With our previous
system, reservationists
would use four or five
different application
windows for what they
can now do in one.
AirLink effectively
connects the two
reservation systems into
one easy-to-use
interface.”
Susan Rubin-Stewart, Director of Reservations
and Travel , Vail Resorts
with the tools to quickly create an application
to meet the needs of Vail Resorts. With
AirLink, Vail Resorts now has an updated,
easy-to-use interface that helps enable
employees to deliver better customer service
by providing access to resources located both
inside and outside the Vail Resorts network.
In addition, the flexibility of technologies used
allows the company to take advantage of
future opportunities more easily.
Quick Development and Centralized
Updating
Using Windows Forms in Visual Studio .NET
2003, developers were able to quickly create
working prototypes of AirLink for Vail Resorts
reservation agents to test.
“We were able to take functional
specifications from Vail Resorts and quickly
create working user interfaces in Visual
Studio and Windows Forms, sometimes
within a couple hours of when the request
was made,” says McPherson. “Simulating a
work situation allowed us to easily get
feedback from multiple sources.”
AirLink also allows Vail Resorts to quickly
update client computers running the
application thanks to integrated support for
Windows-based updating services. Updates
to code or Web service connections can be
deployed centrally to client computers,
without physical intervention by IT personnel
or reservation agents.
Improved Access to System Resources
AirLink provides a single user interface for
reaching the resources that reservation
agents need to do their jobs. With access to
GWS and a constant connection to the AS400
reservation system, Vail Resorts reservation
agents now can complete the booking tasks
without losing connection because of user
limits. Reservation agents also find that
AirLink is comparatively effortless to use.
“With our previous system, reservation
agents would use four or five different
application windows for what they can now do
in one,” says Susan Rubin-Stewart, Director
of Reservations and Travel for Vail Resorts.
“AirLink effectively connects the two
reservation systems into one easy-to-use
interface.”
Reduced Support Times
Vail Resorts has eliminated the complicated
infrastructure used to maintain the previous
GWS connection. And, because AirLink is
easy to update, Vail Resorts expects a
dramatic reduction in support time required
by its central reservation department. Vail
Resorts no longer has to tend to the constant
network monitoring and support necessary to
sustain the previous application. This frees
the Vail Resorts to focus on developing new
line-of-business applications for the company.
AirLink and the .NET Framework are setting
the trend for how new applications are being
created and incorporated into the daily
business flow at Vail Resorts.
“We are constantly incorporating new types of
travel-related business into our network, so
having a system that’s easy to support and
scale is vital to our success,” says RubinStewart.
For More Information
Microsoft Visual Studio .NET
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Microsoft Visual Studio .NET is the rapid
application development (RAD) tool for
building next-generation Web applications
and Web services. Visual Studio .NET
empowers developers to rapidly design
broad-reach Web applications for any device
and any platform. In addition, Visual Studio
.NET is fully integrated with the Microsoft
.NET Framework, providing support for
multiple programming languages and
automatically handling many common
programming tasks, freeing developers to
rapidly create Web applications using their
language of choice. For more information, go
to:
msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio
For more information about Interlink Group
services, call (888) 533-1307 or visit the
Web site at:
www.interlinkgroup.com
For more information about Vail Resorts
products and services, call (970) 8452500 or visit the Web site at:
www.vailresorts.com
Acquire Visual Studio .NET at:
msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/howtobuy
For more information about MSDN
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msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions
The Microsoft .NET Framework is an integral
Windows component for building and running
the next generation of applications and Web
services. For more information, go to:
msdn.microsoft.com/netframework
Software and Services
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© 2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This case
study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO
WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
Microsoft, Active Directory, MSDN, the .NET logo, Visual Studio,
the Visual Studio logo, Windows, Windows Server, and Windows
Server System are either registered trademarks or trademarks
of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other
countries. The names of actual companies and products
mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective
owners.
Document published January 2005
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
Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003
Microsoft Windows Server System
− Microsoft Windows Server 2003
Standard Edition
− Microsoft SQL Server 2000
Microsoft Virtual PC
Internet Information Services 6.0
Services
− MSDN

Technologies
− Active Directory
− C#
− Microsoft .NET Framework
− Windows Forms
− Simple Object Access Protocol
− Web services
Partners

Interlink Group