Travel Center Operator Accelerates Access to Data and Insights

Addressing the company’s demand for fast access to store-level inventory data

This travel center operator serves millions of road warriors across the country each day, with a mission to make the road experience the best it can be.

The company must optimize the inventory in each of its locations to satisfy everyone, from the professional truck driver to the family traveler.

That’s why the data-driven organization teamed with Wavicle Data Solutions to modernize its store-level reporting. Together, we built new batch and real-time reporting solutions using Amazon Web Services (AWS), which today provides store managers with the most updated information possible to track and manage store inventory and ensure the right products are available when they are needed.

Slow data detours store managers

The client processes 33 different types of transactional files from point of sale (POS) systems at gas pumps, restaurants, and markets across more than 1,000 locations every day.

Each night, this data would be consolidated in an on-premises data warehouse so store-level reports could be sent back to store managers the next day. They need this data to identify store trends, understand supply and demand, and make shelf-stocking decisions.

But this system was slow, and store managers wouldn’t receive their reports until the middle of the next day. By this time, they would already have done a manual assessment of inventory.

The company attempted a cloud-based workaround to get data from the on-prem data warehouse to store managers faster, but this solution couldn’t scale across all stores, resulting in ongoing reporting delays and sometimes no reporting at all. Additionally, it was a costly solution to maintain.

The journey from on-premises to AWS; AWS Glue powers fast data integration

This client knew that an AWS infrastructure would deliver the scalability and speed it was looking for, but they needed expert assistance to architect and migrate to a new solution.

The travel center operator teamed with Wavicle, an AWS Advanced Tier Consulting Partner with a focus on cloud data and analytics solutions.

Wavicle worked with the client to architect a “future-proof,” two-pronged solution built in the cloud from the ground up, giving store managers fast access to daily batch reports as well as real-time insights.

The solution leverages an Amazon Aurora database along with AWS Glue, Amazon Kinesis, AWS Lambda, and Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), which aid in real-time processing and self-service insights.

A key component of this solution is AWS Glue, a serverless data integration service, that enables the solution to quickly ingest the varied types of transactional data from the company’s many store locations, so it is available for analysis by store managers within minutes.

Results

This new solution accelerates the client’s access to data and insights for decision-making and provides the scalability the retail oil and gas company needs to easily bring new stores into the environment.

Store managers now have two ways of managing store inventory and operations. A daily batch reporting solution provides inventory data within just 20 minutes of store closing time. In addition, a dashboard solution provides real-time, self-service insights about store sales so managers can identify trends and anomalies quickly.

Using AWS Glue a fully managed ETL service that provides a serverless Apache Spark environment, the company minimizes the maintenance demands and cost of the solution.

ABOUT WAVICLE DATA SOLUTIONS

Wavicle Data Solutions specializes in rapid delivery of data and analytics solutions. We help clients leverage cloud-native technologies to capture, analyze, and share growing volumes of data for advanced analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. Our mission is to enable fast access to data by combining automation with deep technical expertise, strong industry knowledge, and flexibility. Our value is helping enterprises imagine new ways to manage costs, increase sales, and become more efficient.