AWS and Ironside Help Burn Boot Camp Build a Healthier Relationship With its Data

Burn Boot Camp’s IT infrastructure was comprised of several disparate corporate and SaaS systems, which made it difficult to get a holistic view of many critical business parameters. This led to a lack of trust in the company’s data model that prevented it from fully leveraging data for insights needed to drive growth and enable success for existing and future franchise partners (FPs).

Without a centralized view of the data, Burn Boot Camp’s data team found it challenging to provide business and marketing teams with the information they needed. The company needed timely, trustworthy data and reports from the disparate systems, apps, and sources that underpin the business. Specifically, Burn Boot Camp’s legacy mobile app didn’t easily connect to reporting tools, so was largely unable to provide the robust information needed to measure customer satisfaction.

Ironside, a consulting organization that helps companies translate business goals and challenges into technology solutions, was engaged to help Burn Boot Camp take its data game to the next level.

To address Burn Boot Camp’s data and scalability challenges, the Ironside team worked to identify its end goals: centralized visibility for corporate and franchise stakeholders and a new-and-improved mobile app. Burn Boot Camp emphasized the need to balance growth with financial constraints to ensure the project could scale effectively without compromising cost-efficiency. Data governance emerged as a central theme, underscoring the importance of establishing robust mechanisms for data management and standardization to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the new analytics solution.

To tackle these significant data management challenges, Ironside created a sophisticated operational data store (ODS) on AWS. This enabled Burn Boot Camp to centralize its data, previously fragmented across various systems, into a single, cohesive platform. Data was integrated from Burn Boot Camp’s accounting system, CRM, POS, franchise management, and more to create a franchisee portal showing easily digestible dashboards visualizing membership, retail sales, and comparative performance data.

Additionally, Ironside architected and built a serverless API backend for its new mobile app using Amazon API Gateway, Amazon DynamoDB, and AWS Lambda. The mobile app was designed to handle upwards of 100,000 unique users making over three million calls a day with no scaling issues. Ironside also designed and built a Snowflake ODS using AWS Lambda to fetch data from multiple SaaS sources and prepare Burn Boot Camp’s data for reporting.

Burn Boot Camp partnered with Ironside to facilitate several key outcomes:

• Enhanced data ownership and accessibility: The ODS allowed Burn Boot Camp to own and manage its data centrally, ensuring a single source of truth. This integration reduced reliance on disparate systems and manual data compilation, leading to more accurate and reliable insights.
• Improved decision-making: The centralized data platform provided franchise partners and corporate stakeholders with accessible, real-time dashboards, enabling data-driven decisions. This visibility helped in monitoring promotions, understanding membership attrition, and optimizing marketing efforts.
• Increased operational efficiency: The new data infrastructure significantly reduced the time spent on manual reporting and data analysis. Franchisees could now easily access and interpret data, leading to improved operational efficiency and better execution of business strategies.
• Enhanced customer experience: The revamped mobile app, supported by AWS services such as Amazon API Gateway, AWS Lambda, and Amazon DynamoDB, improved user engagement and functionality. Features like easier bookings for Burn Boot Camp’s in-house childcare program, Childwatch, and integration with the ecommerce shop enhanced the overall customer experience.
• Foundation for innovation: The ODS established a robust foundation for future technological advancements, including potential uses of generative artificial intelligence (AI) for forecasting and proactive business strategies. This setup positions Burn Boot Camp to continuously innovate and stay ahead in the fitness industry.

The partnership with Ironside and the use of AWS services transformed Burn Boot Camp's data strategy, leading to significant operational improvements and enhanced customer satisfaction.