Actian Helps Fast Growing U.S. Convenience Store Chain to Save Money and Take Action on Big Data
Customer Company Size
Large Corporate
Region
- America
Country
- United States
Product
- Vectorwise
Tech Stack
- ABF (Applications by Forms)
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Cost Savings
- Productivity Improvements
Technology Category
- Analytics & Modeling - Big Data Analytics
Applicable Industries
- Retail
Applicable Functions
- Sales & Marketing
- Business Operation
Use Cases
- Predictive Quality Analytics
- Retail Store Automation
Services
- Data Science Services
About The Customer
Sheetz is a family-owned convenience store chain based in Pennsylvania, United States. The company operates more than 406 locations across six states. For over fifty years, Sheetz's mission has been to meet the specific needs of customers on the go. As life has become faster and busier, customers expect the stores to be there when they are needed the most. To meet these needs, Sheetz performs extensive analysis on various types of data from multiple sources to optimize costs, maintain high quality, and ensure a positive and consistent customer experience.
The Challenge
Sheetz, a rapidly growing convenience store chain in the U.S., was facing the challenge of managing and analyzing increasing volumes of data from multiple sources. The company needed to optimize costs, maintain high quality, and ensure a positive customer experience. As data volumes continued to grow, Sheetz recognized the need to switch from a more expensive platform to a more cost-effective and efficient one that could handle the increasing data and provide actionable insights. The company was also looking to expand its data analysis from one year to two years, which equates to approximately three billion rows of data. Furthermore, Sheetz was anticipating its data to double over the next two to three years.
The Solution
Sheetz selected Vectorwise, a fast data analytics engine, to handle its growing data volumes and provide actionable insights. The initial project involved converting a character-based reporting application built in ABF (Applications by Forms) to use Vectorwise. The required application changes were minimal, with the most significant technical changes relating to 'singleton inserts' (row at a time data loading) and table storage structure (schema) definitions. Vectorwise enabled Sheetz to expand its data analysis from one year to two years and manage its anticipated growth. The convenience store chain was surprised at the ease with which new Vectorwise functionality was added to their environment.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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