Creating and expanding markets by innovating with FME
tapestry is a unique data fabric technology that allows customers to unlock and monetize their data by sharing it with partners in real-time. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) often have fragmented systems and can’t access the full benefits of their information – nor can they afford to implement a team of data scientists and developers to maintain their own deep analytical systems. tapestry’s mission is to remove the market’s barrier to entry by empowering individuals and businesses to take ownership of their data.
With two intrinsically linked products, tapestry offers a comprehensive solution for businesses. Retail+ is an advanced analytics platform that helps retailers optimize inventory purchases and monitor in-store activities. With Supply+, suppliers can gain real-time insights into their product performance and access insights in an instantly usable format. At the heart of their innovative approach lies FME, a critical component of their data virtualization strategy.
FME is the integration layer
tapestry turned to FME to help them overcome challenges posed by legacy systems and extract maximum value from them. They faced high overhead costs, required a level of scalability as they grew, and needed a way to sync data from multiple sources in near real-time. FME provided them with the certainty needed to solve complex problems and help them synchronize their data into the tapestry data fabric, creating a single source of truth:
Data flows in near real-time into tapestry’s cloud-based platform. FME facilitates the transformation of data extracted directly from on-site databases into the correct format. The seamless connection of data from client systems with the platform empowers tapestry to overcome software development uncertainty, rapidly iterate, and continuously improve.
FME also made it easier to create a complex data translation strategy and see tangible benefits from tracking inventory. Product data structures from customer PoS systems can be poorly structured with some systems being strings of text, making it impossible to extract value from analytics for users and algorithms. FME parses and standardizes the valuable data, identifying the size, amount, and quantities, and tapestry’s analytics quality is vastly improved. They also gain operational visibility and can efficiently track data volume and performance across their system. Customers can now identify incorrect pricing, increasing their overall store quality.
CPU Engines play a significant role in tapestry’s burst-driven processes and ensure their platforms are economically viable. Data processing happens on demand and they have the certainty they can keep up with demand spikes. FME provides a highly parallel processing solution so every customer’s data is processed timely and costs are minimized for time spent waiting for network traffic.
With one Chief Science Officer and FME, tapestry effectively accomplishes what would have required a team of four, translating to a 300% increase in resource efficiency. FME is the first step tapestry takes in creating value for their customers, as retailers gain a potential 400% return on investment by monetizing data with their suppliers. The leadership team is free to focus on delivering outstanding customer service and experiences significant time and money savings. As they continue to broaden their customer base, expand into new markets, and partner with PoS providers, FME will remain a crucial part of their growth strategy. The extensibility, flexibility, and enterprise-ready scaling capability make the FME Platform the perfect solution as tapestry continues to drive innovation and growth.
The project was done in partnership with 1Spatial and Spatial Partners.
