As the hospitality and tourism industry was especially struck-up after the pandemic, the champions in the sector dived into the complex process of digitalization paths, which meant the implementation of innovative approaches and better integration of various enterprise systems departments.
To streamline operations, enhance customer experiences, and enable data-driven decision-making, our client embarked on developing an integrated data system. This system leverages Kafka Connect, Kafka topics, migrator microservices and source/sink connectors to handle data from various sources such as reservation systems, customer feedback platforms, web interfaces and loyalty programs.
Our client wanted to avoid and/or eradicate some of the industry-unwanted occurrences such as:
- Complex or non-digitized guest journey
- Inability to deliver guest value promptly
- Employees with limited guest knowledge or call-center agents unable to provide proper information
- Lower direct sales
- Soiled platforms and data
- High integration and maintenance cost
As a regional market leader, they wanted to consult a company with proven industry expertise, and that is the reason why you are reading this.
After completing the first joint project with Serengeti, our client's dedicated in-house digitalization team decided that we should deepen our cooperation. So, we stepped into a new project focused on the integration of all systems within the company. At the beginning, four Serengeti developers (two leads & two juniors) were onboarded and accustomed to a new set of daily procedures. Maintenance, improvement, and implementation of new functionalities are the daily tasks they work on. Kafka’s cross-service integration is one of the components used in a client’s central data warehouse.
Some of the biggest challenges our client faced were related to:
- Data Silos: Our client faced the challenge of fragmented data storage and management of data across various systems and applications within their organization, as their data was scattered across different systems. This hindered their ability to gain a comprehensive view of their operations and customer interactions.
- Real-time Data Processing: Real-time data processing was crucial for our client to gain insights into customer preferences, identify trends and provide personalized experiences.
- Data Integration: Integrating data from diverse sources such as reservation systems, web interfaces, customer feedback platforms and loyalty programs required a scalable and reliable solution.
- Data Migration: Migrating data from legacy systems to a unified data platform while ensuring data consistency and integrity was a critical aspect of the project's success.
- Scalability and Performance: Our client anticipated the solution's need to handle a large volume of data efficiently and scale seamlessly as their business expanded.