Data & Analytics Case Study
Azure Data Foundation Implementation for a Global Cruise Company
Client
The client is a leading global provider of cruise vacations, operating a vast fleet of ships across multiple brands. With over 100,000 employees worldwide, the company offers a wide range of travel experiences to destinations spanning the globe. Their operations are supported by headquarters in the United States, with additional offices and facilities in key locations internationally. Known for their commitment to delivering exceptional guest experiences, they have a long-standing reputation for innovation and excellence in the travel and leisure industry.
CLIENT PROFILE
EMPLOYEES: 100,000+
INDUSTRY: Travel/Hospitality
FOUNDED: 1972
Project Scope
Managing Yearslong Projects Without a Unified System
Our client’s CFO office was looking for a modern way to effectively manage their capital appropriation request process and manage the capital projects effectively. Their current process involved using Excel and Outlook which can create problems since the data is saved locally and it is difficult to implement governance around it. This can lead to issues later down the line when reports need to be made from this information. If the data isn’t clean or accurate, the reports won’t be either.
The company wanted a streamlined way to access, manage, and govern their project data with the added ability to easily visualize the information from start to end.
Key Challenges and Objectives
Easily and Quickly Access Clean Project Data
1. A major issue the client faced that the Smartbridge team needed to resolve was helping visualize their data so they could properly review and analyze projects that could take up to 2 years to complete. All of the client’s planning information was stored between multiple Excel files as well as their ERP system which made it difficult to easily look back at data points such as projected costs versus actual costs, deliverables, objectives, etc. They had to manually gather this information in order to tell a story about their project. This was resolved with the Smartbridge solution that was delivered.
2. One of the challenges the Smartbridge team encountered during the project was managing the quality of one of the data sources. For this project, there were three data sources, however, one of them did not have unique records, meaning there were a lot of duplications. The team was able to put in a mechanism to identify the duplicates in the load process and send out a notification to the users so they can look at the source and make the proper corrections.
The Smartbridge Solution
A Cloud-Based Foundation and Accurate Reporting
The entire project was a collaboration between the Smartbridge team and the client, with the client identifying the business opportunity, guiding Smartbridge through the internal policies and procedures, and Smartbridge providing the vision, methodology, strategy and executing the solution. We implemented a data foundation environment for the client in Azure and used Synapse as the data warehousing technology solution. The Smartbridge team also set up multiple environments for them to follow the standard development lifecycle (SDLC) process. This was an important factor for the client.
In addition to that, the data warehousing technology was built on industry standard best practices using the medallion architecture that is recommended by Microsoft. This is a multi-layered validation process to produce accurate and clean data. The terms bronze (raw), silver (validated), and gold (enriched) describe the quality of the data in each of these layers. Only the data that meets the right criteria will be used for downstream analytics.
Some other parts of the solution delivered included:
Technology Used
Value Delivered
A More Efficient Workflow and Basis for Future Innovation
The biggest value gained by the client is a shift in how they operate. The client no longer needs to use the manual process of looking through multiple sources to find the right data or having to manage and report their capital appropriation requests with Excel. There is no longer a concern that information is saved on someone’s local drive or there is inaccurate data being presented.
By implementing an Azure data foundation, the company can now pull information into one place and visualize it for easy consumption. They can look back to a point in the past to see what the plan was, what changes have been made, and where they are now. Now everyone has full visibility of the entire project, from planning to execution, all in one place. The time savings from the new process can be allocated to other high value delivery business tasks.
On top of this, now that governance and data validation are put in place, the company can start to look at more advanced analytics techniques and even artificial intelligence in the near future.
If you’re looking to lay the groundwork with Azure, don’t hesitant to book a consultation with our Azure experts.
Keep Reading: Azure Implementation for a National Construction Company
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