San Diego Zoo Enhances Visitor Experience, Improves Operations

OverviewCountry or Region: United StatesIndustry: Tourism

Customer ProfileThe San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Wild Animal Park attract nearly 6 million visitors a year to its world-class animal exhibits, educational programs, and conservation facilities.

Business SituationThe zoo wanted to provide a rich visitor experience—both online and at the park—while leveraging visitor data to improve zoo operations and visitor services.

SolutionThe zoo collaborated with Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner InterKnowlogy to create iZoofari, an interactive multimedia solution that relies on Windows Server® 2008, Microsoft SQL Server® 2008, and Microsoft Visual Studio® 2008 Professional Edition.

Benefits Faster delivery time Easier management and

maintenance Deeper understanding of visitor

needs

“Every department in the zoo, from food service, to merchandise, to animal care, to animal behavior, is going to get value out of the data from iZoofari.”Robert Erhardt, Chief Technology Officer, San Diego Zoo

Each year, nearly 6 million people visit the San Diego Zoo and its companion property, the San Diego Wild Animal Park. With over 200 active exhibits at the zoo, visitors were often unsure how to plan their trip. Zoo leaders wanted to give visitors a better experience and gather valuable data about visitor patterns and preferences. To address these needs, the zoo created iZoofari, an online visitor planning tool with data analysis and reporting capabilities. iZoofari was developed using Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2008 Professional Edition, and relies on Windows Server® 2008 and Microsoft SQL Server® 2008 to provide the Web and database platforms to serve rich content to users. The zoo now has the business intelligence capabilities to improve operations, and visitors can experience more of the zoo while building a greater appreciation for the animals and conservation programs.

SituationThe San Diego Zoo and its companion property, the San Diego Wild Animal Park, are regarded as world leaders in animal exhibit, education, and conservation facilities, attracting nearly 6 million visitors each year.

With 100 acres and more than 200 active exhibits at the zoo, visitors found it difficult to plan their route, often standing in long lines to experience the most popular animal exhibits. “A typical first-time visitor might spend a good part of their time, as much as 30 to 40 percent, just trying to figure out how to get around in this huge facility,” explains Robert Erhardt, the Chief Technology Officer for the San Diego Zoo.

The zoo was also missing an opportunity to gather valuable data about visitor traffic patterns and preferences. Says Erhardt, “When people walk in that front gate, they take their map and go off in a thousand different directions, and we didn’t have any information about how they visited.”

Finally, the zoo’s educators and interpretive staff were limited in their ability to teach visitors about the animals and the zoo’s conservation programs. The staff knew that visitors could not experience the full impact of the zoo’s efforts by wandering the grounds with little more than a printed map to guide them. The staff needed a way to educate more visitors about the importance of animal conservation.

SolutionErhardt envisioned a solution that would address the San Diego Zoo’s needs and enhance the visitor experience. He described his vision to Tim Huckaby, CEO of Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner InterKnowlogy and a frequent visitor to the zoo.

“iZoofari is going to deliver an experience that our guests can get nowhere else in the world.”Robert Erhardt, Chief Technology Officer, San Diego Zoo

Fast FactsNumber of developers

2 developers

Estimated time to complete

2 weeks to first prototype

Developer tools

Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5

Microsoft Silverlight™ 2

Server products

Windows Server 2008

Microsoft SQL

Together, InterKnowlogy and the zoo created iZoofari, an interactive multimedia application that uses the latest Microsoft software and technology. iZoofari, shown in Figure 1, enhances and extends the visitor experience with unprecedented planning tools and rich, interactive media content. iZoofari also gives zoo managers the ability to track visitor interests and manage operations with visitor needs in mind.

Developing iZoofariA combined team from InterKnowlogy and the San Diego Zoo developed iZoofari using the Microsoft Visual Studio® 2008 Professional Edition development system and the Microsoft Silverlight™ 2 cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in. iZoofari runs on Windows Server® 2008 with Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0, a security-enhanced, easy-to-manage platform for developing and reliably hosting Web applications and services. Using the business intelligence features of Microsoft SQL Server® 2008, iZoofari provides visitors customized trip planning and access to extensive information about zoo exhibits and activities.

Enhancing the Visitor ExperienceiZoofari is a Web-based application that reaches visitors even before they arrive at the zoo. The tool enables visitors to plan their trip from their home computer and provides useful information about exhibit schedules, zoo activities, and availability of services and concessions.

Before arrival, visitors can print out a map of their proposed route through the zoo and a schedule of highlighted activities. If they want to change their plans during their visit, kiosks are available throughout the zoo property. The kiosk reads a barcode on the printout to locate a visitor’s planned itinerary and enables them to make changes and print a new route and schedule. “My goal is to give a one-time visitor the depth of experience and understanding that they’d get from visiting the zoo every day,” explains Erhardt.

In addition to online trip planning, iZoofari provides a community site that features a rich user interface and enables people to share their experience with other visitors.

“We want to be able to extend the zoo experience as far out into people’s social networks as we possibly can so that people understand that this is more than just a zoo. This is more than just a wild animal park; it’s an experience,” Erhardt says.

Improving Zoo OperationsBefore iZoofari, the zoo didn’t have a way to capture and track visitor patterns and interests.

As a powerful platform for business intelligence, SQL Server 2008 met the zoo’s need for insight into visitor patterns. “With iZoofari and the kiosks on site, we’ll be able to start collecting that data and storing it in SQL Server 2008. We can get business intelligence about our visitors and as a result, plan our

Figure 1. iZoofari is an interactive multimedia application.

operations more effectively,” says Erhardt. “Every department in the zoo, from food service, to merchandise, to animal care, to animal behavior, is going to get value out of the data from iZoofari.”

Promoting Animal ConservationiZoofari also provides a channel through which zoo conservators and interpreters can educate the public about animal diversity and conservation.

In addition to the staff-led interpretative talks, users can access online content about the animals and conservation programs. Says Erhardt, “Our challenge is to give more information to every visitor who comes in so that they go away with a much richer experience and make connections with the animals in our collection. Because in the final analysis, you will only save what you care about.”BenefitsThe use of the latest Microsoft technologies results in immediate and ongoing benefits for the San Diego Zoo and visitors alike. The business intelligence capabilities of SQL Server 2008 help the zoo gain a better understanding of visitor needs and ultimately create a more enjoyable visitor experience. Microsoft technologies also made it possible to deliver a rich application in a fraction of the time it would have taken on another technology platform. Long term, the use of Microsoft technologies will enable the zoo to efficiently initiate and manage

changes in the application and infrastructure.

Faster Delivery TimeThe newest Microsoft technologies enabled InterKnowlogy developers to create the iZoofari application in a fraction of the time that other technology platforms and development tools would have required.

“There’s a great developer productivity story here. What we get in developer productivity in Visual Studio 2008, the .NET Framework 3.5, and Microsoft Silverlight 2 enabled us to build an application like this in a matter of weeks, as opposed to a matter of months. Five years ago, that would have been unheard of,” says Huckaby.

“My goal is to give a one-time visitor the depth of experience and understanding that they’d get from visiting the zoo every day.”Robert Erhardt, Chief Technology Officer, San Diego Zoo

Easier Management and MaintenanceThe San Diego Zoo relies on Windows Server 2008 with IIS 7.0. The modularity of Windows Server 2008 enables the zoo’s IT department to deploy the iZoofari application on a server that only runs IIS 7.0, which simplifies the infrastructure and reduces management costs for the zoo.

“We use IIS 7.0 because it gives us the ability to quickly deploy this application when we make changes,” says Huckaby.

Deeper Understanding of Visitor NeedsThe database capabilities and business intelligence tools provided by SQL Server 2008 serve the zoo’s goals to learn more about visitors and ultimately enable the zoo to respond to visitor needs and interests.

“iZoofari delivers the business intelligence tools with the visitor preference and trip itinerary data we need,” says Erhardt. “Acting on that information, we can better administer and adjust zoo operations to improve guest services and experiences. iZoofari is going to deliver an experience that our guests can get nowhere else in the world.”

Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, and Visual Studio 2008Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, and Visual Studio 2008 provide a secure and trusted foundation for creating and running your most demanding applications.

Combined, the products offer advanced security technology, developer support for the latest platforms, improved management and Web tools, flexible virtualization technology to optimize your infrastructure, and access to relevant information throughout your organization.

For more information about Windows Server 2008, go to:www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008

For more information about SQL Server 2008, go to:www.microsoft.com/sql/2008/default.mspx

For more information about Visual Studio 2008, go to:www.msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio

For More InformationFor more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com

For more information about San Diego Zoo products and services, call (619) 234-3153 or visit the Web site at:www.sandiegozoo.org

For more information about InterKnowlogy products and services, call (760) 930-0075 or visit the Web site at:www.interknowlogy.com

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published March 2008

Software and Services Microsoft Visual Studio

− Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition

Microsoft Server Product Portfolio− Microsoft SQL Server 2008− Windows Server 2008

Technologies− Internet Information Services

7.0− Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5− Microsoft Silverlight 2

Partners InterKnowlogy