Intergamma: Increasing performance by 99.99% in one try with Google Cloud
About Intergamma
Founded in 1971, Intergamma is the largest do-it-yourself (DIY) retailer in Benelux, a European economic region that consists of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Headquartered in Leusden and Antwerp, it operates 381 stores across the Netherlands and Belgium that are popular sources for tools and materials used for home and garden remodeling, building additions, and construction.
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Contact usIntergamma’s data analytics was a black box that was blocking innovation. So it took control by moving to Snowflake on Google Cloud, and its query time dropped from 1.5 hours to 0.8 seconds.
Google Cloud results
- Reduced query times by 99.99 percent
- Migrated on-premises Netezza to Snowflake on Google Cloud
- Upgraded from overnight batch reporting into live query
Intergamma thinks outside the black box and reaps the benefits of data warehousing in the cloud
With 381 popular stores across the Netherlands and Belgium, Intergama is sitting on a goldmine of customer data that it needs to analyze for promotions, pricing, and predictions and to increase customer profiles by 200%. But a major hurdle was keeping it from using that data. Its data warehouse, Netezza, and its ETL, Pentaho, were on-premises in a multi-tenant infrastructure managed by a data partner, creating a big black box. So, after a thorough search and evaluation, Intergamma gained better control of its data by migrating its Netezza platform to Snowflake on Google Cloud.
The result? Intergamma gained a massive performance increase, while simplifying data processes, using serverless technology to simplify complex infrastructure management, and operating as sustainably as possible. "We got the partnership, sustainability, and simplicity we wanted without making any sacrifices–and we saw query time reduction of almost 100%," says Intergamma Head of Analytics Hitesh Chellaney.
Gaining better control of data warehousing and analytics
Intergamma’s data infrastructure was mostly out of its reach while it was being managed by the data partner. Intergamma analysts could not query the data themselves but instead received reports from the partner. The reason they were given was that direct queries would disrupt other tenants in the partner’s infrastructure. So, Integramma analysts waited for day-old reporting in SAP Business Objects, which was scheduled and updated every night, overnight, in batches. This lack of transparency combined with very little scalability was affecting its future plans.
"We want to be the best omnichannel retailer in Benelux," says Chellaney. For Intergamma to accomplish that lofty goal, it was time to gain better control of its data access and querying with a data warehouse on the cloud.
"We want to be the best omnichannel retailer in Benelux. Nobody else but Google could deliver the data ecosystem we need to accomplish our mission."
—Hitesh Chellaney, Head of Analytics, IntergammaThe road to Intergamma’s perfect infrastructure leads to Snowflake and Google Cloud
The search for the right data warehousing solution and the right cloud was thorough and comprehensive because Integamma had lofty goals. It wanted to work with an industry leader in data, consumer insights, and innovation. For the cloud data warehouse, it chose Snowflake, which has the largest market share and the experience and flexibility to meet its requirements.
For its cloud infrastructure, a partnership with a global cloud leader, sustainability, and simplicity were a must. Therefore, the retailer put cloud vendors to the test. For example, it consulted an environmental impact study of Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Cloud and learned that it is by far the most sustainable cloud with the smallest carbon footprint (96% smaller than AWS and 90% smaller than Microsoft’s) and the best carbon neutral and renewable energy plans and deadlines. In terms of simplicity, Google’s serverless technology, which abstracts away the complexity of infrastructure management, was exactly what Intergamma needed to focus on value creation.
Intergamma had found its cloud partner. Along with Google Cloud, Intergamma selected Google Cloud Storage and Cloud Data Fusion. "Google has years of experience with collecting data, so it knows what we need for our omnichannel goals," said Chellaney. "Nobody else but Google could deliver the data ecosystem we need to accomplish our mission."
Time for migration with a human side–and amazing early results!
With the decision made to switch to Snowflake and partner with Google Cloud, it was time to plan and execute the migration. Because its end-game is pushing personalized, relevant engagement and promotions to customers, it’s a significant undertaking. Intergamma wants to replace most of what is on-premises with new tools and services, implement product recommender systems, optimize pricing, and build a loyalty program. Therefore, it decided to take a phased approach to the move.
The first phase is a lift and shift of Netezza, Pentaho, and SAP Business Objects to Snowflake and the Google Cloud. At present, it is about 90-95% complete, including the full migration of Netezza to Snowflake. The analytics team at Intergamma appreciates the human side of Google Cloud as they work through the phase. "In Europe, when we think of Google, it is technology that comes to mind. But we have learned that Google Cloud also provides outstanding service and support, and that has really made a difference. Google puts humans first."
The Google Cloud team has invested a great deal of time and shared knowledge with Intergamma throughout the lift and shift. The Google Cloud team took the time to understand the technological challenges that Intergamma faced and is providing the support and people needed to help Intergamma in its journey. It continues to remain very involved in the whole initiative. "Google Cloud is proud to support an important Benelux brand like Intergamma. Our work together is the kind of collaboration that can drive growth and benefits for both companies," said Sean Eyles, enterprise account executive at Google Cloud.
Because of the spirit of cooperation and collaboration between the two companies, Intergamma has recorded the following improvements in processes and performance.
"When we ran the test on the infrastructure a second time with the query stored in memory, it took 0.8 seconds. On Netezza it took 1.5 hours again."
—Hitesh Chellaney, Head of Analytics, IntergammaHoming in on major improvements like more efficient ETL, live queries, and increased scalability
Intergamma is using Pentaho on Google Cloud to orchestrate the SQL transformations in Snowflake instead of Netezza. It is also using Tableau as its business intelligence platform. As a result, Intergamma analysts can query the data themselves and not hear any objections from a data partner.
More importantly, the queries can be live, a requirement for ThoughtSpot, which Intergamma intends to use for augmented analytics. Another improvement is in scalability. With Snowflake on Google Cloud, the Intergamma analysts can work in different virtual warehouses. The analytics team can deploy a separate virtual warehouse for each use case, effectively isolating any performance consequences or impact from other use cases.
Querying at lightning speed–from over an hour to less than a second
After deploying Snowflake on Google Cloud, Intergamma ran a test in production—a query with 40 columns, six-and-a-half million rows, and seven joins. The Intergamma analytics team ran the query simultaneously with Netezza. In the same amount of time, Snowflake on Google Cloud had fetched all the rows whereas Netezza had only fetched 200.
The team estimated that if they kept running the query on Netezza, it would have taken 1.5 hours to complete. On the new infrastructure, it only took a fraction of that time. "When we ran the test on the infrastructure with the query stored in memory, it took 0.8 seconds," said Chellaney. "On Netezza it took 1.5 hours again."
What’s next for Intergamma and Google
The query testing was one of the first project milestones—to verify how the new infrastructure and Snowflake ran in production. Once the entire lift and shift deployment is completed later in 2022, there will be more tests. Intergamma is expecting these tests to show even more tangible benefits of the migration and optimization. After that, they will progress to the second phase of the migration–which is to modernize and streamline more processes and use data warehousing more effectively to grow customer profiles. In other words, they will be well on their way to omnichannel retailing.
"In Europe, when we think of Google, it is technology that comes to mind. But we have learned Google Cloud also provides outstanding service and support, and that has made a difference. Google puts humans first."
—Hitesh Chellaney, Head of Analytics, IntergammaTell us your challenge. We're here to help.
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About Intergamma
Founded in 1971, Intergamma is the largest do-it-yourself (DIY) retailer in Benelux, a European economic region that consists of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Headquartered in Leusden and Antwerp, it operates 381 stores across the Netherlands and Belgium that are popular sources for tools and materials used for home and garden remodeling, building additions, and construction.