Global beverage leader revolutionizes retail trade spend with GenAI

Summary

As one of the world’s largest beverage brands, our client allocates a $5 billion annual budget for retail promotions, signage and sales activities. However, managing this massive spend with manually prepared, cumbersome spreadsheets often left gaps in the budget, resulting in unused or underused funds that didn’t live up to their sales-generating potential.

To address these challenges and leverage the benefits of data foundation built on Microsoft Azure, the company partnered with NTT DATA’s data and AI experts to implement a generative AI-powered solution that simplifies data querying and analytics for all users, leading to faster, data-driven decision making and increased revenue opportunities.

Transforming data access and analytics

With more than 200 brands in over 200 countries, this global beverage industry giant faced several challenges in managing and analyzing customer and sales data, which was scattered across various on-premises and cloud platforms. This disjointed environment led to frequent data migrations, which posed challenges in maintaining data integrity and quality during transfers. Traditional querying methods were slow and cumbersome, requiring specialized technical skills and often resulting in incomplete or outdated insights.

Additionally, the company relied on a few team members to understand current performance, trends, and budget status, which kept them tethered to the office instead of strategically driving revenue in the field.

The company needed a robust solution that facilitated seamless data integration across multiple sources and empowered distributors and bottlers to access and analyze data in a self-service manner. The existing systems were unable to efficiently manage the growing volume and diversity of data.

Accelerating decisions with AI analytics

NTT DATA, in collaboration with Microsoft and utilizing Microsoft Azure, developed an innovative Generative AI solution that streamlines data access and analysis. The solution includes several key enabling components:

• Unified data platform: Established a single source of truth by consolidating data from on-premises and other cloud platforms into a data repository, ensuring seamless and secure data migration.
• Data governance and quality: Enhanced control and confidence in data through improved governance and quality measures, including a data catalog that automatically scans, tags, and classifies data.
• Automated data pipeline: Streamlined data processes through intelligent automation and AI integration, ensuring data quality and freshness.
• GenAI digital assistant: Developed a natural language interface that allows users to ask questions and generate reports in a conversational way, democratizing data access and fostering a data-driven culture.
• Guided dashboards: Enabled faster, more informed decision-making through interactive, customizable data visualizations using Power BI solutions.
• Continuous data improvements: Demonstrated commitment to ongoing value delivery by continuously refining and improving data models.

Turning data into revenue opportunities

• $10M+ in new opportunities
• $30M in revenue lift
• Cuts days-long budget analysis to a 15-minute strategic exercise
• Quick and intuitive insights and data analysis for non-technical users
• Improved customer engagement with better informed sales teams

About the case study

A leading beverage company partnered with NTT DATA to implement a generative AI-powered solution that leverages Microsoft Azure to optimize retail trade spend, enhance customer engagement and unlock $10 million in annual revenue opportunities.