The Customer
David Lloyd Leisure are Europe’s leading health, sport and leisure group, with 122 clubs, 99 in the UK (including 3 Harbour Clubs) and a further 23 across the Republic of Ireland and mainland Europe. Established in 1982, it provides family-orientated, high-quality fitness and leisure facilities, delivering an overall health and wellness experience that offers much more than just a first-rate gym, supported by a team of over 10,000.
VIDEO (Embed: „From Data to Decisions: How David Lloyd Leisure Unlock ‚Golden Data‘ with Hitachi Solutions“)
The Challenge
In 2018, David Lloyd Leisure approached Hitachi Solutions with several business problems. The group had a mix of different internal systems for reporting on business performance, which all provided different numbers and made it extremely difficult for management decisions to be made. Reporting was largely static, and there was significant demand for ad hoc data extracts from the business intelligence team so users could create their own reporting in Microsoft Excel. As with many businesses, this „off-system“ analysis created multiple versions of the truth, often with different logic used to calculate KPIs.
The group wanted all of its data in one place, with one set of data owners, so it could have confidence the data was accurate and could be trusted. This would liberate the business, and especially club managers, to make smarter, quicker and more accurate decisions about their clubs‘ performance. David Lloyd Leisure also wanted to get more value from its data, establishing a data science team to tackle some of the more complex analyses the business needed.
The Solution
With Hitachi Solutions, David Lloyd Leisure has been able to build a data culture across the organisation through a set of reliable and easy-to-use, data-driven solutions. Hitachi Solutions ran an initial analytics assessment to recommend a data strategy and roadmap, looking at governance processes, organisational structure and technology to give a holistic view of where enhancements could be made. By baselining and then regularly measuring organisational data maturity, the team created a roadmap delivering both tactical and strategic benefits, made up of:
- Data Strategy: a comprehensive strategy covering processes, organisational structure and technology, designed first to establish control over data and manage data risks, before delivering value
- Data Roadmap: an iterative approach prioritising a list of business needs and quick wins to bring the business on a journey of using data better
- ‚Golden Data‘: a single version of the truth, trusted, understood and accepted across the business, delivered one domain at a time
- Power BI: easy-to-use, interactive KPI dashboards that allow the business to self-serve its reporting needs
- Modern Data Platform: more forensic analysis across member count, revenue, food and beverage, mobile app engagement and Leisure bookings, on Azure
- Data Science: data-lake access for the data science team to solve complex problems and innovate rapidly
We’ve allowed the decision makers in our business to make good decisions using data. We’re now able to look at much more refined levels of membership and make much more precise and detailed decisions as a result.
Why Hitachi Solutions
David Lloyd Leisure needed more than a technology build. It needed a partner that could assess data maturity holistically, set a clear strategy and roadmap, and embed a lasting data culture. Hitachi Solutions delivered iteratively, focusing on quick wins to bring the business along, and freed the in-house team to focus on innovative analysis rather than fielding ad hoc data requests.
The Benefits
- A single, trusted version of the truth, „Golden Data“, across the business
- Club managers empowered to make smarter, quicker and more accurate decisions about their clubs
- Self-serve Power BI dashboards, freeing the BI team from providing data on request
- Forensic analysis across membership, revenue, food and beverage, app engagement and bookings
- A data science team able to experiment and innovate rapidly through a data lake
- A lasting data culture embedded across the organisation
What’s Next?
A second phase of work began in July 2021, extending the capability of the Modern Data Platform to provide analytics on huge volumes of group exercise, personal trainer bookings and swimming class data using Azure and Power BI Premium. The data platform will continue to enable David Lloyd’s data scientists to find new ways of providing a better experience for their members.