logo
Hallmark cuts TCO by up to 60 percent after analytics overhaul

Hallmark cuts TCO by up to 60 percent after analytics overhaul

Techday NZ11-07-2025
Hallmark has reported significant operational and financial benefits following a comprehensive overhaul of its enterprise analytics systems in partnership with Xoriant.
The collaboration between Hallmark and Xoriant has resulted in a total cost of ownership (TCO) reduction of between 55 and 60 percent after modernising the company's analytics landscape and enabling cloud-based solutions.
Migration and modernisation
Faced with rising data volumes and evolving user expectations, Hallmark aimed to realign its analytics infrastructure to meet the requirements of a software-defined business. Xoriant guided the process, which included a migration from legacy reporting systems to a new, cloud-native analytics ecosystem using Power BI and Tableau.
The migration was completed rapidly, with 180 reports transferred to the new platform within seven weeks. This move also saw the integration of artificial intelligence and real-time data into Hallmark's daily business operations. The transition facilitated more agile and data-driven decision-making processes and provided secure, scalable analytics capabilities to the business.
Cloud-first approach
The engagement began with an initial discovery and planning phase using Xoriant's proprietary Data Xplorer tool. This assessed and scoped the migration from Hallmark's on-premise MicroStrategy servers and highlighted opportunities for optimising extensive datasets for real-time analytics. In addition, the project delivered new transaction dashboards and constructed a secure, composable analytics architecture aligned with Hallmark's long-term technology goals. "Xoriant's exceptional agility and deep expertise have been instrumental in helping us transition to a modern, performance-oriented Power BI environment. Completing the migration of 180 reports in just 7 weeks, while ensuring high quality and user acceptance, reflects the strength of our collaboration. Xoriant's Data Xplorer tool, coupled with their seamless execution, has enabled us to move forward with confidence - laying the foundation for a future where data and AI can drive continuous improvement and innovation across our organization," Gopal Dhandapani, Director – Data Engineering at Hallmark said.
The new analytics environment is designed to provide agility and scalability, supporting Hallmark's vision of a future-ready business model. By moving major business functions - including product assortment planning, customer personalisation, and inventory optimisation - onto the upgraded platform, the company has embedded data and intelligence more deeply into its decision-making processes.
Operational impact
Several business outcomes have resulted from the engagement: a 55 to 60 percent reduction in TCO, enhanced speed-to-insight through real-time dashboards, a scalable foundation for predictive analytics, and more streamlined operations with fewer manual interventions and reduced IT dependency.
The transformation has produced a unified data platform, moved legacy data warehouses to a cloud-native architecture, and enabled the operational use of AI in multiple business domains. As part of these changes, reporting capabilities are now accessible across Hallmark's global teams, which are expected to support more informed and timely decisions.
"Hallmark's transformation is a powerful example of how forward-looking enterprises are moving beyond legacy reporting tools to embracing modern, software-defined analytics ecosystems. At Xoriant, this is core to our mission - to help businesses reimagine their data landscape by combining platform engineering, AI, and insights to drive intelligent decision-making and growth. With decades of specialist experience, we enable our clients to modernize and create measurable impact – towards what we refer to as becoming software defined businesses," Mukund Rao, President of Global Markets at Xoriant, commented.
Strategic direction
The initiative forms part of Hallmark's wider objective to become a software-defined business, where software, analytics and intelligence form the basis of operational and strategic decisions. This approach underscores an ideology that places data at the centre of how products are built, services are delivered, and value is created across the organisation.
Hallmark's approach reflects a broader trend within enterprise technology, where businesses are moving from measuring performance through traditional reporting toward actively shaping growth through real-time, AI-enabled insight.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Hallmark cuts TCO by up to 60 percent after analytics overhaul
Hallmark cuts TCO by up to 60 percent after analytics overhaul

Techday NZ

time11-07-2025

  • Techday NZ

Hallmark cuts TCO by up to 60 percent after analytics overhaul

Hallmark has reported significant operational and financial benefits following a comprehensive overhaul of its enterprise analytics systems in partnership with Xoriant. The collaboration between Hallmark and Xoriant has resulted in a total cost of ownership (TCO) reduction of between 55 and 60 percent after modernising the company's analytics landscape and enabling cloud-based solutions. Migration and modernisation Faced with rising data volumes and evolving user expectations, Hallmark aimed to realign its analytics infrastructure to meet the requirements of a software-defined business. Xoriant guided the process, which included a migration from legacy reporting systems to a new, cloud-native analytics ecosystem using Power BI and Tableau. The migration was completed rapidly, with 180 reports transferred to the new platform within seven weeks. This move also saw the integration of artificial intelligence and real-time data into Hallmark's daily business operations. The transition facilitated more agile and data-driven decision-making processes and provided secure, scalable analytics capabilities to the business. Cloud-first approach The engagement began with an initial discovery and planning phase using Xoriant's proprietary Data Xplorer tool. This assessed and scoped the migration from Hallmark's on-premise MicroStrategy servers and highlighted opportunities for optimising extensive datasets for real-time analytics. In addition, the project delivered new transaction dashboards and constructed a secure, composable analytics architecture aligned with Hallmark's long-term technology goals. "Xoriant's exceptional agility and deep expertise have been instrumental in helping us transition to a modern, performance-oriented Power BI environment. Completing the migration of 180 reports in just 7 weeks, while ensuring high quality and user acceptance, reflects the strength of our collaboration. Xoriant's Data Xplorer tool, coupled with their seamless execution, has enabled us to move forward with confidence - laying the foundation for a future where data and AI can drive continuous improvement and innovation across our organization," Gopal Dhandapani, Director – Data Engineering at Hallmark said. The new analytics environment is designed to provide agility and scalability, supporting Hallmark's vision of a future-ready business model. By moving major business functions - including product assortment planning, customer personalisation, and inventory optimisation - onto the upgraded platform, the company has embedded data and intelligence more deeply into its decision-making processes. Operational impact Several business outcomes have resulted from the engagement: a 55 to 60 percent reduction in TCO, enhanced speed-to-insight through real-time dashboards, a scalable foundation for predictive analytics, and more streamlined operations with fewer manual interventions and reduced IT dependency. The transformation has produced a unified data platform, moved legacy data warehouses to a cloud-native architecture, and enabled the operational use of AI in multiple business domains. As part of these changes, reporting capabilities are now accessible across Hallmark's global teams, which are expected to support more informed and timely decisions. "Hallmark's transformation is a powerful example of how forward-looking enterprises are moving beyond legacy reporting tools to embracing modern, software-defined analytics ecosystems. At Xoriant, this is core to our mission - to help businesses reimagine their data landscape by combining platform engineering, AI, and insights to drive intelligent decision-making and growth. With decades of specialist experience, we enable our clients to modernize and create measurable impact – towards what we refer to as becoming software defined businesses," Mukund Rao, President of Global Markets at Xoriant, commented. Strategic direction The initiative forms part of Hallmark's wider objective to become a software-defined business, where software, analytics and intelligence form the basis of operational and strategic decisions. This approach underscores an ideology that places data at the centre of how products are built, services are delivered, and value is created across the organisation. Hallmark's approach reflects a broader trend within enterprise technology, where businesses are moving from measuring performance through traditional reporting toward actively shaping growth through real-time, AI-enabled insight.

aconso unveils Insights tool for real-time HR data analytics
aconso unveils Insights tool for real-time HR data analytics

Techday NZ

time09-07-2025

  • Techday NZ

aconso unveils Insights tool for real-time HR data analytics

aconso has launched aconso Insights, a new analytics tool aimed at providing HR teams with real-time access to workforce data and performance metrics. The introduction of aconso Insights occurs at a time when 54% of global senior HR leaders report increasing pressure to provide measurable evidence of their initiatives' impact. Additionally, 37% of these leaders believe that AI and automation are becoming essential in developing new performance metrics and methods of evaluation. aconso Insights has been designed to enhance data-driven decision-making within HR departments by enabling the tracking and improvement of key performance indicators (KPIs) such as time to hire and issue resolution times. The tool provides actionable insights into areas including document processing, workflow efficiency, and employee satisfaction. The tool functions by integrating with widely used business intelligence (BI) platforms, including PowerBI and Tableau, allowing HR teams to work with prepared data collected across aconso's workflows. This integration provides detailed oversight of metrics, including the duration required for contract signatures, the proportion of documents processed manually versus automatically, and the level of delay in obtaining salary approvals. Organisations can define and adapt analytics and reporting to meet their specific business objectives. According to the company, administrators can activate the plugin directly from the aconso Admin Centre by accessing a new tab where integration with BI platforms and dashboard customisation are managed. The new tool is currently in a pilot phase, with plans to make it available to existing customers later in 2025. Ulrich Jaenicke, Founder and Chief Executive Officer at aconso, offered his perspective on the strategic importance of HR data: "KPIs aren't just metrics – they're proof that HR truly drives business success and is a strategic partner within a business. However, it's difficult for many HR teams to prove their impact. That's because many have been managing analytics in silos or relying on intuition when evaluating HR performance. With aconso Insights, we're giving HR teams of all sizes the access and visibility they need to lead decisively, act on insight, and turn people strategy into measurable business outcomes. It's a game-changer for HR." The software claims to facilitate detailed internal accounting, enable HR teams to monitor workflow performance and provide actionable data to streamline processes and enhance outcomes linked to core business objectives. By bridging data from multiple systems and providing real-time visibility into performance metrics, aconso Insights aims to support HR teams in demonstrating their value to business leadership. The company states that more than 600 HR teams worldwide currently utilise its products to manage substantial document volumes for their employees. Through its integration approach, aconso seeks to help organisations align human resources functions more closely with broad business goals, utilising data to validate and improve HR strategies. Follow us on: Share on:

Voitec appointed to distribute Heedify Teams console in ANZ
Voitec appointed to distribute Heedify Teams console in ANZ

Techday NZ

time13-06-2025

  • Techday NZ

Voitec appointed to distribute Heedify Teams console in ANZ

Voitec has been appointed as the official distributor for Heedify's attendant console solution for Microsoft Teams in Australia and New Zealand. Heedify offers an attendant console designed specifically for Microsoft Teams, allowing organisations to manage their frontline communications entirely within the Teams environment. The solution is intended to help receptionists, call handlers, and customer service staff operate more efficiently and deliver improved customer satisfaction. Unlike some attendant consoles that require third-party plugins or additional infrastructure, Heedify is installed natively and can be set up in less than sixty minutes. This approach aims to simplify both deployment and ongoing management for IT teams in a variety of organisations, from single-site enterprises to distributed, multi-location companies. Product features Heedify's core features include full integration with Microsoft Teams, meaning organisations can adopt the solution without having to configure external components or adapt existing workflows. Users benefit from intelligent call queueing, skill-based routing, and advanced IVR (Interactive Voice Response) navigation, which are designed to connect callers with the appropriate representative as quickly as possible. For customer-facing employees, Heedify also integrates with customer relationship management (CRM) systems, presenting relevant information during interactions and supporting more personalised service. Administrative controls are simplified, featuring delegated access along with real-time tracking of queue activity. Information such as wait times, call volumes, and call outcomes is accessible through standard reporting and can also be integrated into Power BI dashboards for more detailed analytics. Partnership rationale Mefteh Werghemmi, Co-founder of Heedify, described the solution's benefits for organisations seeking to improve frontline communication. "Heedify enables organisations to elevate their first impressions. It was built from the ground up for Microsoft Teams to streamline call flow, reduce wait times, and improve service levels. Customers such as NHS Royal Marsden and Endrix in Europe are already seeing measurable results. We're excited to partner with Voitec to bring these benefits to the ANZ market." For Heedify, working with Voitec is seen as an opportunity to reach a broader audience in the Australia and New Zealand region, supported by a distributor with longstanding relationships in the enterprise and government sectors. Mark Owens, Managing Director at Voitec, commented on the suitability of Heedify for current market needs. "Heedify brings a level of simplicity and integration that fits naturally into how many organisations already use Microsoft Teams. At Voitec, we've spent over a decade working closely with IT teams to understand their environments and help them overcome the real-world challenges of managing voice communications. Heedify offers a compelling solution that enhances the way frontline staff handle calls and interactions - without the complexity of disconnected systems or time-consuming deployments." Regional availability With the appointment, Heedify is now available across Australia and New Zealand through Voitec's distribution channels. The product is designed to address the requirements of both small-scale reception areas and larger, geographically dispersed call handling teams. The aim is to provide a functional and scalable solution for organisations seeking to align their communications infrastructure more closely with Microsoft Teams. Voitec's role will include supporting implementation, training, and ongoing customer service, drawing on its local presence and technical expertise. The company has a history of assisting businesses and public sector bodies in upgrading their communication systems and supporting integrations with Microsoft products and platforms. Voitec states that the partnership is intended to allow organisations in the region to adopt Heedify with confidence, with a focus on minimising deployment time and optimising call management processes for better overall customer interaction.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store