Architecting an Enterprise Kiosk System Serving 8 Million Customers Across 6 Countries
From 2007 to 2015, I served as the System Architect for dm-drogeriemarkt’s iTerminal project—a groundbreaking loyalty program platform that deployed 1,200 interactive kiosks across six European countries. This enterprise-scale system processed millions of loyalty card transactions, delivered personalized coupons, and engaged customers through interactive games and promotions.
The Vision
dm-drogeriemarkt, one of Europe’s largest drugstore chains, needed a customer engagement platform that could:
- Serve millions of loyalty cardholders across Austria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia, and Slovakia
- Provide instant coupon printing and personalized offers at the point of decision
- Scale to handle 1,200 concurrent kiosk terminals
- Support monthly interactive games and lotteries
- Integrate with backend systems for real-time campaign management
- Deliver analytics on customer engagement and campaign effectiveness
The Solution: A Distributed Enterprise Architecture
I designed and developed a sophisticated multi-tier system that balanced performance, reliability, and scalability across international operations.
Technical Architecture
Load-Balanced Cluster Infrastructure Deployed a 12-node Apache Tomcat cluster with intelligent load distribution, ensuring high availability and seamless failover. The architecture included multiple staging environments for thorough testing before production deployment.
Customer Engagement at Scale
- 1,200 kiosk terminals deployed across 6 countries
- 8 million loyalty cardholders actively using the system
- Real-time coupon generation based on customer purchase history and preferences
- Interactive monthly games and lottery systems driving customer engagement
Enterprise Integration Built comprehensive middleware using Hibernate ORM to manage complex interactions between kiosks, loyalty systems, campaign management, and analytics platforms.
Email Marketing Infrastructure Integrated Listserv Maestro for mass email campaigns, supporting up to 10 million emails monthly with sophisticated segmentation and personalization.
Analytics & Intelligence Implemented Piwik (now Matomo) web analytics server to track customer interactions, kiosk usage patterns, and campaign effectiveness across all locations.
Key Contributions
Kiosk Application Development Designed and developed the full-stack web application powering the iTerminal kiosks, creating an intuitive touch-screen interface for customers while managing complex backend operations.
Database Architecture Implemented highly optimized Hibernate middleware and Oracle database connection pools capable of handling millions of concurrent transactions across the distributed network.
Dynamic Campaign Management Built a backend system enabling marketing teams to create, deploy, and manage promotional coupons across the entire kiosk network in real-time.
Monthly Interactive Programs Developed engaging monthly games and lotteries that increased customer participation and loyalty program enrollment.
Call Center Integration Created a specialized Java desktop application for call center agents, enabling efficient customer data collection and request management.
Performance Engineering Utilized Apache JMeter for comprehensive stress testing and performance optimization, ensuring the system could handle peak loads during promotional campaigns.
Infrastructure Management Took full ownership of hardware procurement, configuration, and deployment across multiple countries, working with NetApp storage systems and enterprise infrastructure.
Technology Stack
The platform was built on a robust enterprise technology foundation:
- Backend: Java, J2EE/EJB, JBoss, Hibernate ORM
- Web Layer: JSF/JSP, Struts Framework, jQuery
- Services: SOAP/REST Web Services
- Application Server: Apache Tomcat (12-node cluster)
- Web Server: Apache HTTP Server
- Search: Apache Solr
- Database: Oracle Database (clustered)
- Testing: Apache JMeter
- Email Marketing: Listserv Maestro
- Analytics: Piwik (Matomo)
- Project Management: Jira, Confluence
- Storage: NetApp Enterprise Storage
- Infrastructure: Linux
Impact & Results
Over eight years, the iTerminal platform became a cornerstone of dm-drogeriemarkt’s customer loyalty strategy across Central and Eastern Europe. The system:
- Successfully processed millions of loyalty transactions daily
- Delivered personalized experiences to 8 million cardholders
- Maintained high availability across 1,200 distributed kiosks
- Enabled sophisticated multi-country marketing campaigns
- Provided valuable customer insights through comprehensive analytics
This project showcased the ability to architect and deliver enterprise-scale solutions that operate reliably across international boundaries while maintaining the performance and user experience customers expect from modern digital platforms.
Duration: 2007 – 2015 (8 years) Role: Software & System Architect Location: Austria Client: dm-drogeriemarkt / Cards & Systems Scale: 1,200 kiosks across 6 countries, 8 million customers
