Key Takeaways

  • A leading global restaurant chain worked with Effectual on a year-long digital transformation, moving off a global network of physical data centers.
  • Deployment time for new infrastructure dropped from 60-120 days to minutes, with cloud automation enabling same-day deployments for some workloads.
  • Deploying resources across AWS regions closer to end customers improved application performance and reduced latency worldwide.
  • Next-generation customer-engagement and data-warehouse deployments saw a 20-50% cost reduction versus traditional infrastructure models.
  • Internal bill-back of AWS costs to specific projects and teams gave the company better financial visibility while still benefiting from cloud economies of scale.

A year long digital transformation from a global network of physical data centers used to run company systems and applications.

One of the world’s largest restaurant chains offers technology services to its stores and franchisees that perform functions as diverse as POS systems, store management systems, data analysis and predictive analytics, digital advertisement and e-commerce and customer engagement platforms.

Their IT organization uses a small core staff with limited resources supported by a network of service providers and partners to fulfill key IT roles. Traditionally, the company used a global network of physical data centers to run their applications.

The company engaged with members of our team on key digital transformation initiatives

  • Need to build environments faster and with more flexibility than what traditional infrastructure in a data center could provide
  • Need to decouple scale up / out decisions from development cycles to speed the development process (get new apps and update apps faster)
  • Address local needs while maintaining global standards
  • Reduce CapEx to increase financial flexibility and agility
  • Lack of internal expertise in implementing and managing a global, enterprise public Cloud environment
  • Need to tie costs to specific internal projects and teams while benefiting from economies of scale

Following the completion of this engagement a prominent financial analyst commented: “The company is establishing a first-mover advantage with digital that can drive sustainable share gains in late 2017 and beyond.”

The Results

  • Reduced time to deploy infrastructure from 60- 120 days to minutes
  • Implemented Cloud automation for some workloads to enable same day deployments
  • Enabled global deployment of resources in AWS regions close to end customers / users to increase performance and decrease latency
  • 20-50% cost reduction on next generation deployments for customer engagement and data warehouse projects vs. traditional models
  • Enabled internal bill back of resources in AWS to specific projects and teams

Following the completion of this engagement a prominent financial analyst commented: “company is establishing a first-mover advantage with digital that can drive sustainable share gains in late 2017 and beyond.”

Frequently Asked Questions

What was the scope of this digital transformation?

A year-long initiative moving one of the world's largest restaurant chains off a global network of physical data centers that ran its POS, store management, analytics, digital advertising, and customer engagement systems.

What challenges was the company trying to solve?

They needed to build environments faster and more flexibly than traditional data-center infrastructure allowed, decouple scaling decisions from development cycles, balance local needs with global standards, reduce capital expenditure, and address a lack of internal expertise in managing a global public cloud environment.

How much faster is infrastructure deployment now?

Deployment time dropped from 60-120 days to minutes, and cloud automation enabled same-day deployments for some workloads.

What cost savings resulted from the transformation?

Next-generation deployments for customer engagement and data warehouse projects saw a 20-50% cost reduction compared to traditional infrastructure models.

How does the company track cloud spending internally?

The new environment enables internal bill-back of AWS resource costs to specific projects and teams, while still benefiting from cloud economies of scale.