Tag Archive for: Case Study

Success in Fitness Franchising: A Comprehensive Technical Case Study on AWS Enablement

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Burn Boot Camp, a woman-owned, 400+-unit franchise, has been disrupting the fitness industry since 2012. With an emphasis on personalized fitness and nutritional programs, the brand relies heavily on technology to interface with members. The potential value of data gathered was not being fully realized due to the disparate systems, apps and sources that had been created as result of the brand’s explosive growth. 

So Burn Boot Camp leaders made yet another bold move, envisioning the gathering and analysis of data from numerous systems, and the delivery of actionable insights via a franchisee portal. Eager to make large strides on their cloud computing journey, they chose AWS and Ironside as their partners.

Integrating data that fuels valuable insights.

Ironside helped integrate data from Burn Boot Camp’s accounting system, CRM, POS, FranConnect™ and more, and leverage automation to streamline operations. Franchisees have welcomed more automated, streamlined processes that require less manual effort, along with new insights into their own performance versus that of other franchisees, and actionable insights that can lead to greater success. 

Both franchisees and Burn Boot Camp leadership benefit from insights into everything from membership and retail sales to comparative performance data. 

Data helps strike the balance between franchise independence and brand identity.

It’s the challenge every franchise faces — capitalizing on the strengths of individual franchisees while maintaining a strong brand. Hard data that demonstrates how supporting brand principles promotes success and where franchisee contributions are promoting strong membership adds up to insights that everyone can rally around. 

Ironside has helped put these kinds of insights within reach of all Burn Boot Camp franchise owners, by helping the company leverage a dynamic suite of cloud services.

  • AWS Lambdas: Engineered to perfection in Python, these 80+ serverless functions (and counting) seamlessly executed specific tasks in response to API requests. Meticulously crafted, each task was designed to comprehensively fulfill the gathered requirements, ensuring a tailored and responsive user experience.
  • AWS API Gateway: The gatekeeper facilitating a harmonious flow of requests across web platforms, phones, TVs and various fitness devices. It served as the connective tissue, ensuring a unified experience for Burn Boot Camp’s diverse community.
  • CloudFormation: The architect behind the scenes, deploying the entire infrastructure with precision. This AWS service provided a standardized and efficient way to manage and provision resources.
  • AWS CodePipelines: The conductor of the symphony, orchestrating Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines. It ensured the smooth maintenance and evolution of the fitness revolution.
  • AWS DynamoDB: The dynamic caching and storage system enhancing data accessibility and speed. DynamoDB played a pivotal role in optimizing Burn Boot Camp’s data management, providing a scalable and efficient solution to meet the demands of a thriving fitness community.
  • CloudWatch: The vigilant guardian overseeing logging and maintenance. With CloudWatch, Burn Boot Camp maintained a watchful eye on system performance, ensuring optimal operation and proactively addressing any issues the moment they are detected.

Integration and migration are the keys for a smooth transition to the cloud.

In parallel, seamless integration with legacy systems and a meticulous data migration strategy ensured a smooth transition for Burn Boot Camp.. The fitness ecosystem expanded its horizons with integrations like Snowflake, Shopify, Loopspark, Sweatbase, and more. This interoperability showcased the versatility of AWS, allowing Burn Boot Camp to leverage a diverse range of external tools and platforms, enriching the overall fitness experience. This bridging of old and new systems showcases the adaptability of the AWS ecosystem and its ability to seamlessly blend with established platforms, all under one (AWS) roof. 

Key takeaways from Burn Boot Camp’s AWS journey.

Navigating through Burn Boot Camp’s transformative journey with Amazon Web Services (AWS), has revealed key insights into  this fitness revolution.These key takeaways encapsulate the invaluable lessons learned, the strides made, and the blueprint for future innovation. 

  • Navigating Franchise Business Model with AWS: AWS not only streamlined Burn Boot Camp’s operations but also facilitated the intricate dance of managing a franchise business model. AWS played a crucial role in deploying standardized infrastructure, and navigating the complexities of the franchise model while maintaining efficiency and scalability.
  • Maintaining Brand and Standard Across Franchise Business Model with AWS: AWS provided Burn Boot Camp with the tools to uphold brand consistency and operational standards across its diverse franchise network. Through AWS Lambdas and API Gateway, a unified fitness experience was crafted, ensuring that each location seamlessly adheres to the brand’s identity and service quality.
  • Precise Requirement Gathering and System Design: The success of AWS integration relied on meticulous requirement gathering, ensuring that each AWS Lambda function was tailored to address specific needs. Burn Boot Camp’s commitment to precise requirement gathering became the cornerstone for the flawless execution of cloud code, providing a personalized and responsive fitness experience.
  • Testing and Maintenance – Keys to Flawless Cloud Code: Regular testing and proactive maintenance ensured the reliability and performance of the cloud code, creating a robust foundation for the entire fitness ecosystem emerging as a pivotal element in Burn Boot Camp’s strategy for continuous testing and maintenance.
  • Effective Communication as the Linchpin: Throughout the AWS enablement journey, effective communication emerged as the linchpin for success. Clear and open communication channels facilitated collaboration between Burn Boot Camp and AWS, ensuring that the implemented solutions aligned seamlessly with the overarching vision of the fitness franchise.

Forging franchising futures with AWS and Ironside.

Burn Boot Camp’s transformation is not just a case study; it’s a roadmap for leveraging AWS to drive innovation, resilience, and technological prowess and gain a significant competitive edge. If you’re considering your own cloud transformation journey, talk with the Ironside team about the best way to get started. 

Why an Incentive Compensation Health Check Matters

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Squeaky wheels usually don’t go away; they just get louder.

Imagine you purchase a new car. The car is shiny and runs great, but after a year maybe there are few things you wish were different – the seat design could be more comfortable or the road noise is louder than you expected. Maybe you just bought the standard model. Now you wish you researched a bit more or requested a few more accessories. Or maybe in reality you just need a quick tune up. Read more

Ironside Case Study: RSA Builds Sales Rep Trust with SPM

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In the age of cloud-based applications and anytime access across many devices, having digital security in place that’s smart, flexible, and reliable is essential. Every day, RSA sales reps help businesses meet these requirements with industry-leading security solutions, providing them with the peace of mind and confidence needed to be successful. RSA in turn wanted to give reps that same level of certainty about their compensation payouts so that they could move from deal to deal without having to worry about the accuracy of those numbers. Ironside’s Sales Performance Management (SPM) team partnered with RSA to help make this a reality. Read more

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Ironside Predictive Policing Makes IBM Award Finals

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For the second year in a row, Ironside has been named one of IBM’s Beacon Award finalists, this time in the category of Outstanding IBM Analytics Line-of-Business Solution. This recognition comes in honor of the compelling results that our IronShield predictive policing platform has generated.

About IronShield

IronShield Ironside predictive policing logo

IronShield provides turnkey predictive hot spots policing and analytics for law enforcement. It enables data-driven, evidence-based policing that stops crime before it happens and is customizable to the environment in which it’s implemented, going beyond its initial hot spots module to target each community’s needs. Our CEO Tim Kreytak recently highlighted the impact IronShield has had in Manchester, NH helping the city’s police department combat the heroin crisis. Read more

Ironside Case Study: Nova Biomedical Drives Sales Growth

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Medical devices save lives every day. You’d think a product with an upside like that would sell itself, but in reality it requires a knowledgeable, highly motivated sales force to deliver it where it’s needed most. Nova Biomedical, one of the leading manufacturers of blood analyzers, wanted to be certain they were giving their sales reps the support they needed to excel in their space. To accomplish this, they partnered with Ironside to establish a modern sales performance management (SPM) system and strategy that would be capable of providing the robust compensation and reporting assets needed to accelerate sales success. Read more

Industry Case Study: Modernizing the Data Warehouse for Finance IT

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As you’ve seen in some of our previous articles about the financial services industry, there’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes to enable financial services firms to gain new customers and provide accurate investment advice.  What matters most, though, is that the technology powering all the fund transactions, client correspondence, market analytics, and sales strategies remains reliable and responsive on a daily basis. Read more

Insight 2015 Recap: Real World Predictive Policing with Greg Bonnette

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This year at IBM Insight 2015, Ironside had the unique opportunity to tell one of our most compelling recent customer stories: how Manchester PD used Ironside’s IronShield predictive policing platform to implement some highly effective crime reduction strategies. Greg Bonnette, our VP of Strategy & Innovation, delivered the presentation on behalf of Manchester PD, who IBM had selected as a presenter, and highlighted the components of IronShield and the results that Manchester PD is getting out of it. Read more

Industry Case Study: How SPM Dashboards Power Financial Services Sales

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Selling financial services effectively requires a highly motivated, deeply knowledgeable team that can keep up with all the shifting recommendations, regulations, and investment options endemic to the industry. In this kind of a chaotic atmosphere where priorities change by the minute, it’s crucial to know with certainty that your sales organization is not only taking action to secure new customers but is also targeting that action and optimizing it to have the largest impact possible. One of the top mutual fund and financial services groups in the world engaged with Ironside to put this kind of transparency in place and establish strong sales performance management (SPM) strategies that would drive effective actions from the executive level down to the individual field reps. Read more

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Ironside Case Study: Manchester PD’s Predictive Policing Success

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Law enforcement is a place where data science and predictive analytics have the chance to truly change lives. These strategies and technologies can make a huge difference in crime prevention and public safety efforts, improving people’s wellbeing in communities of all sizes. The Manchester, NH Police Department wanted to make this kind of impact in their city, and chose to implement Ironside’s Predictive Policing platform to achieve their crime reduction goals. Read more

Ironside Case Study: Watts Water Achieves Analytics Success with Managed Services

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Powering business analytics evolution through targeted infrastructure support

Did you know there are over 326 million trillion gallons of water on Earth? Yes, you read that number right. It’s hard to even fathom (no pun intended) a number that large, let alone try and quantify it into consumable, actionable business analyses. Watts Water Technologies deals with the enormity of this vast natural resource every day, improving the global community’s comfort, safety, and quality of life through their industry-leading water regulation, purification, and reuse equipment solutions. Read more