REDMOND, Wash., April 4, 2002 — Microsoft Corp. today announced that its Xbox (TM) video game system business unit, a leading player in the competitive $18 billion-per-year electronic game industry, has implemented Microsoft®
Content Management Server 2001 as a strategic solution for building, managing and deploying the business unit’s Xbox.com Web site. Xbox.com, the definitive online source for Xbox-related games, consoles and accessories, withstood 4.9 million page views and supported more than 223,000 unique users the day the site was launched in conjunction with the release of the new Xbox game console. The Xbox business unit joins Ford Motor Co. and Jelly Belly as one of the businesses that has recently turned to Content Management Server to manage large, business-critical corporate Web sites.
“The ability to keep the site fresh with new content about Xbox is key to drawing new and repeat visitors to Xbox.com. Content Management Server makes this process extremely efficient and quick because the content producers publish their own content,” said Don Hall, director of Xbox.com at Microsoft. “Our developers now spend up to 75 percent less time on content publishing and can focus on creating new features and functionality for the site.”
With real-time content updates, the Xbox team has found that customer interaction time on the site has doubled and anticipates that more than 3 million unique users will access the Web site monthly now that Xbox has been launched in 19 countries around the world. Despite the demands that will be placed on both the Xbox business unit staff and the site itself as content load and Web site visitors increase, based on operational costs alone, a return on investment is expected in fewer than four months.
“Xbox.com is one of the primary vehicles through which the Xbox organization communicates with its customers,” said Betsy Frost, director of e-business marketing at Microsoft. “We’re delighted that Content Management Server is being used to build and manage one of the video game industry’s most popular sites and that Content Management Server is enabling Xbox to enhance the user experience at Xbox.com.”
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