This talk was given by Leigh Ashton, Virgin Holidays, at Magnolia Conference 2015 in Basel, Switzerland. As part of a large business investment, Virgin Holidays are undertaking a major e-commerce program to increase web sales and profitability. The initiative will see new business tools, new business processes, and new application and infrastructure architectures. Virgin Holidays have chosen Magnolia CMS , deployed in the cloud, to help consolidate and underpin their websites whilst empowering business users to make changes rapidly without IT involvement. This session will explore the technology and business complexities facing Virgin Holidays and the solutions they have embraced to meet those challenges – both with and without Magnolia.

1. An
E-­‐Commerce
Journey
Leigh
Ashton
–
Solu8on
Architect
-­‐
Virgin

2. Places
to
Visit
Today
Places
to
Visit
Today
Places
We’ll
Visit
Today
o Where
we’re
trying
to
get
o The
journey
so
far
o Why
we
chose
Magnolia
CMS
o Demo
o Tips
for
your
journey
o Ques8ons

3. Places
to
Visit
Today
Places
to
Visit
Today
Ø Intro
to
Virgin
Holidays
Ø Where
we’ve
come
from
Ø Our
des8na8on
Ø The
journey
so
far
Ø Why
we
chose
Magnolia
Ø Sneak
preview
Ø Tips
Ø Ques8ons
o Worldwide
holiday
des8na8ons
o Largest,
most
successful
transatlan8c
tour
operator
o Market
leader
for
travel
to
the
USA
and
the
Caribbean
o Cruises,
beach,
city,
tours,
ski…………
o Retail
shops,
call
centre

4. Places
to
Visit
Today
Places
to
Visit
Today
Ø Intro
to
Virgin
Holidays
Ø Where
we’ve
come
from
Ø Our
des8na8on
Ø The
journey
so
far
Ø Why
we
chose
Magnolia
Ø Sneak
preview
Ø Tips
Ø Ques8ons
o 25%
of
sales
o aiming
much
higher
o 200,000
user
visits
per
day
o 350,000
product
searches
per
day
E-­‐Commerce
is
cri8cal

5. Places
to
Visit
Today
Places
to
Visit
Today
Ø Intro
to
Virgin
Holidays
Ø Where
we’ve
come
from
Ø Our
des8na8on
Ø The
journey
so
far
Ø Why
we
chose
Magnolia
Ø Sneak
preview
Ø Tips
Ø Ques8ons
Places
We’ll
Visit
Today
Depar8ng
From
o 11
sites
/
brands
o 11
CMS
/
tools
o Inflexible
o Manual
processes
o Desktop
PC
based
UX
design
o M
site
“transcoding”

6. Places
to
Visit
Today
Places
to
Visit
Today
Ø Intro
to
Virgin
Holidays
Ø Where
we’ve
come
from
Ø Our
des8na8on
Ø The
journey
so
far
Ø Why
we
chose
Magnolia
Ø Sneak
preview
Ø Tips
Ø Ques8ons
Places
We’ll
Visit
Today
The
Des8na8on
o Mobile
first
o Responsive
o Increase
%
of
sales
o More
product
on-­‐line
o Reduc8on
in
sites
o Reduc8on
in
suppliers
o Simplify
architecture
o Improve
speed-­‐to-­‐market

7. Places
to
Visit
Today
Places
to
Visit
Today
Ø Intro
to
Virgin
Holidays
Ø Where
we’ve
come
from
Ø Our
des8na8on
Ø The
journey
so
far
Ø Why
we
chose
Magnolia
Ø Sneak
preview
Ø Tips
Ø Ques8ons
The
Journey
o Scrum
/
Agile
o Con8nuous
Delivery
o Cloud
o Automa8on
o Itera8ve
o Test
and
learn

8. Places
to
Visit
Today
Places
to
Visit
Today
Ø Intro
to
Virgin
Holidays
Ø Where
we’ve
come
from
Ø Our
des8na8on
Ø The
journey
so
far
Ø Why
we
chose
Magnolia
Ø Sneak
preview
Ø Tips
Ø Ques8ons
Current
Loca8on
o Virginatlan8ctravelplus.com
o Virginholidays.co.uk
o Hawaii
page
o Home
page
coming
soon

9. Places
to
Visit
Today
Places
to
Visit
Today
Ø Intro
to
Virgin
Holidays
Ø Where
we’ve
come
from
Ø Our
des8na8on
Ø The
journey
so
far
Ø Why
we
chose
Magnolia
Ø Sneak
preview
Ø Tips
Ø Ques8ons
What’s
Underneath
o Magnolia
5
(Enterprise
edi8on)
o Services
/
integra8on
layer
o Java
/
J2EE
o Elas8cSearch
NoSQL
o Bootstrap
o Thymeleaf
o Single
Page
Applica8on

10. Places
to
Visit
Today
Places
to
Visit
Today
Ø Intro
to
Virgin
Holidays
Ø Where
we’ve
come
from
Ø Our
des8na8on
Ø The
journey
so
far
Ø Why
we
chose
Magnolia
Ø Sneak
preview
Ø Tips
Ø Ques8ons
Why
We
Chose
Magnolia
CMS
o Open,
flexible,
extensible
o Excellent
integra8on
o Cost
o Technical
fit
o Good
supplier
support

11. Places
to
Visit
Today
Places
to
Visit
Today
Ø Intro
to
Virgin
Holidays
Ø Where
we’ve
come
from
Ø Our
des8na8on
Ø The
journey
so
far
Ø Why
we
chose
Magnolia
Ø Sneak
preview
Ø Tips
Ø Ques8ons
• Top
secret
A
look
at
what
we’ve
built

12. Places
to
Visit
Today
Places
to
Visit
Today
Ø Intro
to
Virgin
Holidays
Ø Where
we’ve
come
from
Ø Our
des8na8on
Ø The
journey
so
far
Ø Why
we
chose
Magnolia
Ø Sneak
preview
Ø Tips
Ø Ques8ons
o Learning
curve
o Business
engagement
o Role
of
stakeholders
o Who
leads
the
design?
o Mul8-­‐device
tes8ng
Some8mes
it’s
a
bumpy
journey

13. Places
to
Visit
Today
Places
to
Visit
Today
Ø Intro
to
Virgin
Holidays
Ø Where
we’ve
come
from
Ø Our
des8na8on
Ø The
journey
so
far
Ø Why
we
chose
Magnolia
Ø Sneak
preview
Ø Tips
Ø Ques8ons
Tips
for
your
journey
o Embrace
the
CMS!
o Learn
to
extend
it
o Stay
in
touch
with
Magnolia’s
roadmap
o Magnolia
isn’t
always
the
right
tool
for
every
job
o Use
the
support
team

14. Places
to
Visit
Today
Places
to
Visit
Today
Ø Intro
to
Virgin
Holidays
Ø Where
we’ve
come
from
Ø Our
des8na8on
Ø The
journey
so
far
Ø Why
we
chose
Magnolia
Ø Sneak
preview
Ø Tips
Ø Ques8ons
Ques8ons
Leigh.Ashton@virginholidays.com
www.virginholidays.co.uk