Tata Play Builds Unified Data Lake Solution to Double the Speed of Insights Generation on AWS

Tata Play aimed to boost customer engagement and increase cross-sell and upsell opportunities through enhanced data analytics. Previously, the company used third-party tools to collect and analyze user data, optimize marketing campaigns, and personalize content. However, these tools operated on separate databases, preventing a unified view of information.

Siloed systems hampered effective data analytics and timely business insights, which were crucial for business decisions. For example, performance monitoring requires collecting data across disparate sources, causing data fragmentation. 

Lead generation delays further affected Tata Play’s ability to cross-sell or upsell. Over 2,000 agents depended on timely customer data for phone calls. Delays in data processing hindered agents from delivering precise and relevant sales pitches, impacting their conversion rates. Backend inefficiencies also impacted costs.

In 2024, Tata Play embarked on an initiative to create a unified framework for collecting, managing, and querying data. Working with AWS, the company developed a scalable, reliable, and cost-effective data lake. This innovative solution helped consolidate data from diverse sources, speed up access to insights, and enhance cross-selling and upselling efforts, positioning Tata Play for sustained growth and market leadership.

Tata Play developed and upgraded Lakehouse Analytics, a unified data lake platform entirely in the cloud. Powered by AWS, this platform handles analytics workloads of any size without the need to manage data warehouse infrastructure. Reports now generate in 2hours, achieving a 30 percent improvement in speed. With faster, more responsive reporting, the company can now access deeper, data-driven insights, reducing operational efficiencies and enhancing agility and performance. These insights also improved the delivery of recommendations and enhanced customer experiences, which resulted to 1 hour more time spent on the platform and increased 15% in positive customer sentiment.

Tata Play utilized Amazon EMR on Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS), a cloud-based big data solution for processing and analytics using open source frameworks, as well as Amazon Redshift Serverless, a fully managed serverless cloud data warehousing service. Amazon EMR supports petabyte-scale data analytics with low operational overheads, while Amazon Redshift Serverless processes very large volumes of data daily.

With Amazon Simple Storage Solution (Amazon S3), an object storage service, Tata Play has consolidated and store terabytes of customer data from various sources. Additionally, the company employed Amazon Redshift Spectrum, a feature within Amazon Redshift, to query this data within a single data lake. By consolidating multiple siloed data sources into a single, scalable data warehouse, the company optimized IT costs and maintained a predictable cost structure.

With a robust data foundation in place, Tata Play is armed for future innovation and growth. The company plans to implement an additional data governance layer for its data lake solution, enhancing data management and ensuring compliance with India's data privacy regulations.

Tata Play continues to work closely with AWS Enterprise Support to uncover new opportunities — channeling resources into expanding development teams, driving innovation, and accelerating product launches. This included proactive planning, advisory services, automation tools, communication channels, and 24/7 expert support. Additionally, the company received extensive training on utilizing the AWS services for data analytics. This ensured effective use of the new data lake solution.

Tata Play is also in the early stages of using Amazon Q and Amazon Bedrock, a fully managed service for developing and scaling artificial intelligence (AI) applications. This initiative focuses on experimenting with generative AI and exploring innovative applications, positioning the company as a leader in leveraging cutting-edge technology for future growth.

"In India’s highly dynamic media and entertainment landscape, leveraging data is crucial for gaining an edge. With Lakehouse Analytics, our AWS-powered data lake solution, we've created a scalable, cost-effective platform that transforms our understanding and engagement with customers. This innovation empowers our teams to uncover valuable insights, drive strategic growth, and deliver exceptional experiences," said Vijay Sharma, CIO, Tata Play.