“We know our customers and products better than any third party,” the client told us. What they were unsure about was how to handle the volume and deploy an enterprise solution. Millions of people use the company’s website per day, and the new product recommendation engine needed to run at 100% uptime with sub-second performance. In short, the client needed an in-house product recommender capable of enterprise-grade performance.
consumer goods
3-6 months
data ingestion, machine learning, cloud solutions
To replace the enterprise software, the new product recommender needed to be
If these technical challenges weren’t enough, the company's license for their commercial recommendation product was set to renew in only a handful of months. If we didn’t get the new software finished and implemented quickly, the company would have to shell out millions of dollars to keep their previous product recommender on their website.
Working in close collaboration with client subject matter experts, we deployed 40+ unique models to personalized product recommendations for each customer. These models considered data such as:
This tailored user experience increased click-through rates, purchase conversion, and customer satisfaction. As indicated by these increased conversions, our recommender made even better predictions than the commercial software.
To meet the demands of an enterprise online presence, we had to make sure the new platform was fast! We were aiming for a sub-100 ms response time for recommendations. When we benchmarked our recommender, it responded within 10 to 20 ms on average, making it even faster than the commercial software and exceeding our requirements to support this online sales channel.
The recommender we built has been running reliably for two years now, with no unexpected downtime from technical issues. Since our client is a global enterprise with annual sales in the billions of dollars, their website handles millions of visits around the clock. With that traffic volume, even a few seconds of downtime could cost the company thousands of dollars. Based on KIS’s experience building enterprise software, we design for scalability and reliability in mind from the start!
This was our first project implemented on the Google Cloud Platform. While it was challenging to go into production with such an aggressive schedule on an unfamiliar cloud platform, we met the challenge head-on and completed it without any major setbacks.
With a tight three-month deadline looming, we had no time to waste. KIS assembled a team of four talented engineers with different skillsets and got straight to work. We brought in an enterprise architect with 20+ years of experience of building world class software, a senior fullstack developer, a machine learning specialist, and a frontend engineer. We believe that small, focused teams of talented individuals deliver faster and with better quality. This project was a textbook example of exactly that.
In a matter of days, we had a working proof of concept; a few months and many iterations later we had an enterprise class product recommender that we knew was ready for prime time!
From there, it was all about time management and working with other departments in the company to implement the new product recommender on time. This took a great deal of coordination, including supplying clear and firm dates to the client’s website engineers who needed to integrate our product. We set clear expectations, provided documentation, and followed up with them regularly to make sure they were keeping pace.
Good technology is nothing without successful execution. KIS has learned these real-world lessons, and we focus as much on planning, communication, and logistics as we do on technology!
In the end, all parties involved successfully followed the schedule, and our team delivered production-ready software for a fraction of the cost to renew the client’s previous enterprise software license.
Writing custom software is hard. Large companies often assume that building software is riskier than buying software, and in many cases, this is true. Many organizations have seen projects fail, which sours them to the idea of building custom solutions. It is also hard for large companies to hire and retain top-tier technical talent, so they feel less confident that they can build something on their own. This project is a perfect example of where KIS’s expertise shines.
This client made the brave decision to replace an off-the-shelf tool. In most cases, a talented team can build something as good as, if not better than, commercial software, often for a fraction of the cost. This is exactly what we helped this client do!
You bring the idea, and we can build it!
We built an enterprise-grade product recommendation engine and deployed it within three months. The client has been using our solution for over two years now. In that time, the software has served over half a billion recommendations and is on track to roll out in 24 countries by 2024.
The recommender has also contributed to increased click-through and conversion rates: ~36% of website visitors clicked on a recommended product, while ~20% of those customers ended up purchasing one of the recommended products. Of the items sold through the client’s website, ~24% came from our recommendations this year, generating millions of dollars in revenue.
By implementing our software before the client’s enterprise commercial licensing expired, KIS saved the company millions of dollars in licensing fees. Supporting this custom solution will continue to cost money; however, this in-house labor will be at least 1/10th the price of the commercial software licenses.
Our new custom-built recommender outperformed the commercial product in virtually every category — especially speed. Our recommendations are served consistently in 10 to 20 ms.
Many companies look at software writing as a risky endeavor. Why take the chance of paying someone to write software when something similar already exists? To avoid this perceived risk, companies end up paying expensive recurring licensing fees instead of hiring trusted professionals to create the software for them at a fraction of the cost.
In this case, we built an enterprise-grade recommendation engine that outpaced and outperformed an expensive piece of commercial software and saved the client millions in licensing fees.
By trusting KIS to deliver the software, the client saved money, increased sales, improved their website’s user experience, and gained a reliable piece of software they have full control over.
tech strategy & consulting.
We empower companies, invest in IT, provide tech training, create scalable squads, and deliver the right value.
data
management.
We handle data migration, conversion, analysis and integration, and database consolidation and management.
machine learning models.
We use AI algorithms and data to improve the accuracy of your analyses and help you make better predictions that guide decision-making processes.
web services development.
From discovery to delivery, we solve every issue, not just the basic ones.
