Customer Solution Story Data Management and Analytics What game will you want to “We are using Azure to make our UX smarter and truer to its purpose: enhancing the guest go with that burger? Ziosk may experience.” already know. Kevin Mowry, Chief Software Architect, Ziosk What would make your next restaurant meal more enjoyable? Someone to recommend a rosé or entertain the kids? Or maybe a way to pay the bill without waiting for the waiter? The tabletop platform from fast-growing Ziosk® does all that— and now it’s set to do something more: Using Microsoft big data and cloud technologies, it’ll predict your preferences and serve them up as part of a better dining experience. The goal is to create personalized experiences that result in happier guests and more business for restaurants. Finding the key to greater when they want it,” says Kevin Mowry, “Until now, we haven’t guest satisfaction Chief Software Architect at Ziosk. had the ability to Go into a casual-dining restaurant in the optimize the guest US, and the chances are good, and getting Ziosk provides business-intelligence reports to its restaurants, and, as it experience based on their better, that there’ll be a Ziosk tablet at continues to expand its data infrastructure specific interactions with your table. Restaurant guests can use the devices—which are in 1,400 restaurants at and strategy, those reports have come the devices. With Azure, the start of 2015, up from just 400 a year faster and faster—reports that used to be we can close the loop.” earlier—to view menu items, play games, delivered in weeks now take just days. watch news and entertainment, order Kevin Mowry food and beverages, and pay when they’re “That still isn’t fast enough for us to create Chief Software Architect and deliver analytics in time to optimize Ziosk ready via a built-in credit-card reader. the dining experiences and transactions Using the tablets, guests can make as they’re happening,” says Mowry. “It’s their dining experience more enjoyable. not fast enough for a restaurant manager They have a ready source of tableside to spot concerns as guests register entertainment and dining suggestions, them and intervene to enhance their and can order and pay their checks experiences. That takes a real-time process, when they’re ready, rather than having and it takes analytics that are forward- to flag down their waiters. Restaurants looking—that is, predictive—rather than get a way to improve guest satisfaction just a report on what’s happened.” and frequency, customer insights, restaurant efficiency, and, most The ingredients for a importantly, revenue—all competitive successful data strategy advantages in a crowded marketplace. Ziosk is ready to serve up a predictive analytics solution to address these As Ziosk continues to grow, it wants to needs—because the ingredients of that make its service increasingly valuable to solution, and of Ziosk’s broader data restaurants, their guests, and the Ziosk’s infrastructure and strategy, are Microsoft content and sponsorship partners. technologies. Even before considering its need for predictive analytics, “Our challenge is to understand what Ziosk took advantage of Microsoft drives guest behavior and use that insight technologies to support mission-critical to give guests more of what they want, infrastructure, including the following: Overview Customer Profile Solution Customer: Ziosk Ziosk, based in Dallas, Texas, is the maker of the Ziosk is using a range of Microsoft data and Customer Website: www.ziosk.com world’s first ordering, entertainment, and pay-at- cloud technologies for big-data processing, Customer Size: 110 employees the-table tablet. predictive analytics, and end-user visualization. Country or Region: United States Industry: Hospitality Business Situation Benefits Partner: Artis Consulting Ziosk wants its user experience to learn and • Gives devices real-time “smarts” Partner Website: adapt in real time to create a custom experience • Reveals the hidden value of information www. artisconsulting.com for each guest. • Delivers data-driven competitive advantage • Data warehouse built on Microsoft SQL Server software services to collect guest-facing device analytics and form data, POS check information, and third-party feeds into a consumer-insight platform. • Content management system for dynamic delivery of software and application data, based in part on an internally developed system running on Microsoft Azure platform as a service (PaaS). Ziosk is partnering with Microsoft services Bing and MSN to expand the premium content it makes available to guests. • Menu management system for online and tabletop ordering, Ziosk and Artis used Azure HDInsight, the also based on Azure PaaS. The Microsoft Hadoop in the cloud service, Guests can use the Ziosk master repository holds not only to aggregate the broad range of user- device to order food and food and beverage items, but also experience data, including where guests drink, connect with social recipe and nutrition information. click on their Ziosk devices and what media, access premium • Guest relationship management parts of the user interface and premium content, such as games, system, which integrates with content they use. Key to the higher restaurant loyalty systems, and level of analysis that Ziosk sought was and pay their checks. is based on Azure PaaS. capturing not only what actions guests • Survey system, running on an took, but when and in what order. Azure PaaS web portal, enables restaurants to manage guest surveys Azure Machine Learning was essential with dynamic questions based on for the next step: creating a model that time of day, food purchased, and could understand the causal relationships responses to earlier questions. among the temporal data points. With that understanding, the model could A return engagement predict what offers, content, and user- in the cloud interface elements could be presented Ziosk engaged Artis Consulting—a dynamically to help guests optimize Microsoft partner with gold competencies their use of the Ziosk devices. An Azure in data analytics, content and Machine Learning web service feeds the collaboration, and cloud—to help it results back to the Ziosk tablet in real build the next generation of its data time to optimize the guest’s experience. infrastructure, including the predictive- analytics capability. As part of that Ziosk and Artis are now building Power process, Artis helped Ziosk to preview BI dashboards to enable highly custo Microsoft cloud technologies including mizable and intuitive use of the Azure Machine Learning, Azure Data analysis by managers at Ziosk, at the Factory, Azure HDInsight, and Power restaurants’ corporate offices, and BI for Office 365, and to validate in the restaurants themselves. their use in a proof of concept. Each manager would see a different slice “We are using Azure to make our “The data we’re talking of the data, based on his or her role. A UX smarter and truer to its purpose: about has always been Ziosk marketing manager might see an enhancing the guest experience,” there, but until now aggregation based on the company’s says Mowry. “Until now, we haven’t 77,000 (as of early 2015) devices. A had the ability to optimize the guest there’s been no way corporate restaurant manager might see experience based on their specific to capture it, analyze data for the entire chain, with breakdowns interactions with the devices. With it, and use it to drive by region and restaurant. A manager in Azure we can close the loop.” more business and more the restaurant might see data to show effective operations. where and when to redeploy resources, Mowry says the predictive analytics We’re using Azure and such as moving a waiter from one section solution will be a boon for guests, Power BI to change all to another to reduce guest wait times. restaurants, and Ziosk itself. The predictive- analytics solution helps fulfill Ziosk’s that.” To integrate cloud and on-premises tasks, mission to revolutionize the experience Ziosk uses Azure Data Factory to schedule, and economics of dining. With predictive Kevin Mowry Chief Software Architect transform, and monitor data processes, analytics, each guest gets a customized Ziosk reducing their execution times. Azure experience tailored to the guest’s specific Data Factory handles functions including needs, which drives guest satisfaction, uploading files to Azure Blob Storage, frequency, and advocacy. It is a win transforming text files using HDInsight for the guest, restaurant, and Ziosk. into Hive tables, and pushing data through Azure Machine Learning. Ziosk technicians Reveals the hidden value of information monitor and manage these processes The win for Ziosk’s immediate through a highly visual web interface. customers—the restaurants—may be even greater. Mowry points out that The upshot is a state-of-the-art data delivering actionable intelligence in real infrastructure that’s ready to provide time to in-store managers is something increased functionality and competitive that could significantly improve the advantage even as the number of Ziosk operations of most restaurants. devices, and the volume of data they generate, continue to grow rapidly. “The data we’re talking about has always been there, but until now there’s been A boon for guests, no way to capture it, analyze it, and restaurants, and Ziosk use it to drive more business and more With a healthy helping of predictive effective operations,” he says. “We’re analytics and related data technologies, using Azure and Power BI to change all Ziosk is ready to deliver more that. For example, instead of a manager enjoyable dining for guests, more coaching the staff in the morning based revenue for restaurants, and even on the previous day’s reports, the more effective management of Z manager can coach the staff continuously iosk’s own growing data infrastructure.