The client had been using a data processing framework built using Ab Initio Express>It. This resulted in millions of dollars spent on licensing and development costs to perform the ETL operations which were required to handle the complex configurations of its retail customers. Further, there were 700+ retailer codes in a legacy Syncsort system which added to the maintenance costs.

After analyzing the issues and gaps in data management that were impacting the efficiency and costs of the client’s processes, Marlabs proposed a Big Data Management POC to build a unified data ingestion engine. Trifacta Designer Cloud was chosen over a Python framework after a thorough evaluation.

Compared to Ab Initio Express>It and Syncsort, Trifacta is lightweight, budget-friendly, and user-friendly. It has a built-in AI-driven simulation that helps users choose the right transformation logic. With its rich UI/UX, Trifacta also enables end users to do most of the changes which were possible in Ab Initio Express>It only through coding. As part of the project, 1,400+ POS flows were migrated from Ab Initio Express>It and legacy Syncsort systems to the Trifacta environment.

Across five years of the engagement, Marlabs has attended 300+ daily scrum calls with the client’s US team, turned over 715 Data Feed Partners to the production team, converted 657 ACE and 740 Syncsort preps over to Trifecta, produced an extensive documentation library in OneNote, created a knowledge transfer curriculum with 30+ hours of training (for a new M&A team), loaded (and reloaded) countless volumes of back data, and, as the client observed in a communication to the Marlab’s team, “became an excellent partner to the numerous teams, especially the legacy DI Dev team.”