Business data analysis platform for 300+ centers operation

The client company is the largest bowling operator in the United States, managing a network of over 300 bowling centers nationwide. Known for its extensive reach and popularity, the company provides recreational and competitive bowling experiences across various locations, catering to a diverse audience. Each center operates independently, generating vast amounts of data on daily operations, customer interactions, and financial performance. However, this data had previously been stored across multiple, disparate systems, leading to challenges in gaining a unified view of overall performance.

The largest US bowling operator, managing over 300 centers nationwide, faced significant challenges due to fragmented data systems. Their data was distributed across multiple clouds and databases, including MS-SQL servers, custom on-disk databases, third-party vendor APIs, and numerous Excel spreadsheets. This fragmentation led to data duplication and collisions, making it difficult to obtain a unified and accurate view of their operations. The lack of integrated data hindered their ability to detect performance deviations at individual centers promptly. Without a centralized platform, making strategic, data-driven decisions for business expansion was nearly impossible. The complexity lay in consolidating diverse data sources with varying formats and ensuring data integrity while eliminating redundancies. The client needed a solution that would seamlessly integrate all data into a single platform and provide real-time insights into each center's performance.

Apophis Consulting delivered a comprehensive data platform equipped with extensive visualization tools, revolutionizing the client's operational approach to a data-driven model. The integration of disparate data sources into a unified platform allowed the client to detect performance deviations at each center early, enabling timely interventions and strategic adjustments. The data-driven insights facilitated informed decision-making regarding business expansion and resource allocation. The implementation led to an approximate optimization of 4.6% in operational costs, a significant reduction for an enterprise of their scale. Year-over-year analyses and cross-center performance comparisons became streamlined processes, providing deeper insights into business trends and opportunities. The platform's robust visualization capabilities empowered stakeholders at all levels to access and interpret critical data effortlessly. Overall, the project significantly enhanced operational efficiency, reduced costs, and positioned the client for sustained growth.

To tackle the client's complex data landscape, Apophis Consulting built a robust data lake architecture utilizing AWS Redshift and S3, creating a centralized repository for all data assets. Multiple ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) and ELT (Extract, Load, Transform) pipelines were developed to gather, cleanse, and enrich data from various sources. Custom connectors were implemented using Golang to interface with each vendor and data source, including third-party APIs, MS-SQL databases, custom on-disk databases, and Excel spreadsheets. Kafka was deployed as the central transport layer, efficiently handling real-time data streaming and ensuring reliable data ingestion across the platform.

A dedicated Data Science team of five engineers developed advanced models to calculate center performance by correlating key metrics. These models facilitated year-over-year analyses, detection of data deviations, and benchmarking against other centers. The data pipelines were designed to eliminate duplications and resolve data collisions through sophisticated data matching and deduplication algorithms.

Two backend engineers focused on building scalable services and APIs to support data processing and integration. Meanwhile, two DevOps engineers managed the cloud infrastructure, ensuring high availability, security, and optimal performance of the platform over the 24-month project duration.

For data visualization, Apophis Consulting integrated Amazon QuickSight and Tableau, providing interactive dashboards and reports. These tools enabled users to visualize complex data trends and make informed decisions quickly. The visualizations were customized to highlight key performance indicators relevant to different stakeholder groups within the organization.

Throughout the project, Apophis Consulting employed agile methodologies to adapt to evolving requirements and ensure timely delivery of features. The collaborative efforts resulted in a solution that not only addressed the immediate data challenges but also provided a scalable foundation for future analytics initiatives. The successful integration and analysis of the data empowered the client to transform their operations, reduce costs, and drive strategic growth.

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