How are you optimizing the costs of your data strategy?
During times of economic uncertainty and downturn, leaders across organizations feel pressure to reduce costs. Common reactions to this macro environment are to deprioritize digital transformation, shut down experimentation and decrease the use of new technologies. But digital transformation and, in particular, advanced data analysis, is precisely what will help companies reduce costs now and for the long term.
Whether optimizing supply chains to reduce waste or getting a 360 view of customers to better target promotions, organizations are using analytics, machine learning, and advanced IoT to find efficiencies that drive cost savings.
Using data insights to lower marketing costs
Many businesses rely on loyalty programs to encourage customer loyalty. However, administering these programs can be costly. Wyndham Hotels & Resorts increased revenue by $2.5 million and decreased paid media costs by 35 percent by using data to get a better grasp on its customers. "Leveraging data to make our guest experiences better is a key strategy for Wyndham," says Michael Mahar, SVP, Head of Technology & Digital Products. But with approximately 9,100 hotels globally, the company needed easy access to its customer data to expand its reach, grow its business, and optimize ad spend.
"We had an antiquated back-end Data Loyalty Platform that relied on manual controls," Mahar explains. "We launched a project to re-platform Loyalty processing on the cloud (AWS) to drive the strategic targeted improvements."
Working with AWS, Wyndham created a data foundation and data warehouse to house all its data in one place and created consolidated feeds for a single record of truth. Now, the company has faster point updates on stays, which means more point redemptions for guests, more accurate point processing eliminating manual processes, and stronger data insights to assist in marketing programs and customer experience enhancements. The company also experiences less errors and audits through improved data quality.
Insights from ML find cost-saving efficiencies in operations
Heineken, the 150-year-old Dutch brewing company, is saving operational costs thanks to a digital retrofit of its breweries. Heineken worked with AWS to introduce ML and IoT into its operations, which allowed the company to gather data-driven insights on its brewing process. Now, employees are using data to identify inefficiencies in the brewing process and make automatic adjustments through purpose-built applications.
Heineken also expects to see significant savings from the AWS ML technology they've put in place to make intelligent scheduling predictions for things like equipment cleaning and maintenance. And, in the packaging process, ML helps optimize the speed of machines to ensure that a steady stream of product flows down the line.
After finding data-driven insights to drive efficiencies and cost savings, companies with advanced data strategies can discover new opportunities—and realize additional cost savings as they develop those ideas. "In the cloud, you can create sandboxes to try out new ideas," says Mark Schwartz, Director, Enterprise Strategy, AWS. "And you can let new ideas prove themselves out before you commit resources to them. That reduces risk and saves money on IT initiatives, and also makes it easier to try out innovative ideas for reducing costs across the enterprise."
Learn more about how AWS is helping customers find cost management strategies with data