Case Study: Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group achieves $135,000 annual cost savings and improved Rate Engine performance with Avanade

Auto group drives down costs with database migration and increases performance

Dollar Thrifty Auto Group, which operates the Dollar and Thrifty car rental brands, faced a critical IT challenge: its Rate Engine—responsible for returning online rental rates—was running on an aging Oracle 10g setup with no automatic failover. Summer 2009 performance degradations and time-outs threatened sales and exposed high ongoing costs for hardware and Oracle licensing, prompting DTAG to seek a more reliable, cost‑effective platform.

Working with Avanade, DTAG migrated the Rate Engine to Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 in four months, implementing a redundant clustered configuration, tuning queries and infrastructure, and completing a seamless cutover. The result: response times improved from 4.8s to 1.25s, scalability and failover were strengthened, the company achieved a 100% ROI within a year, and ongoing maintenance savings of about $135,000 annually (with larger upfront savings from eliminated hardware and Oracle license costs).

Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group

Rick Morris

Chief Information Officer, Dollar Thrifty Auto Group