Brand Management
A major event-based retail organization, with most of its annual revenue concentrated in a single week, needed to modernize its data transformation workflows to support high-frequency decision-making.
Their legacy Alteryx-based processes were slow to troubleshoot and difficult to maintain — putting real-time inventory decisions and revenue at risk.
Analytic Vizion migrated key transformation logic to DBT, running within the client’s existing Snowflake environment, streamlining performance and empowering the internal team with greater autonomy.
93% Decrease in Manual Entry
Saved in Annual Staff Cost Reductions
The Challenge
A global hospitality leader managing dozens of well-known hotel brands was facing a breaking point in how it updated and maintained brand standards across its international portfolio. Each year, thousands of standards—ranging from room furnishings to safety codes—required revision to reflect evolving expectations, technological advancements, and local regulations.
Previously, every suggested change was managed through separate Excel files. For example, a single change to television size might require 50–400 line items to account for brand variations, region-specific constraints, approved vendors, and compliance considerations. Each line required users to input 172 data fields, even if that information was already stored elsewhere.
This outdated method produced:
- Over 150 Excel files per year, often containing hundreds of complex line items.
- Massive redundancy, with every user manually entering known data.
- High error risk, from manual data entry and inconsistent approval tracking.
- Opaque workflows, with approvals gathered via email, screenshots, and spreadsheets—making it nearly impossible to verify who had signed off.
As the brand portfolio grew and new acquisitions increased the volume of updates, the process became unsustainable. The client’s small internal team simply could not keep up, placing both operational continuity and global brand consistency at risk.
Our Approach
Analytic Vizion led the design and build of a fully automated solution using SmartSheet, purpose-built to handle the scale, complexity, and governance needs of a global standardization process.
People
AV worked closely with cross-functional stakeholders to design an approval workflow that reflected organizational realities. Instead of leaving it to each user to determine who needed to approve a change, roles were preassigned by region and function—ensuring that legal, finance, and operations representatives across geographies were notified and accountable.
Process
A major breakthrough was eliminating unnecessary manual entry. AV reengineered the input process so users only had to indicate what they were changing—not retype what was already known. Key data like current standard, impacted brands, and regional applicability were auto-populated from an internal reference database.
Technology
SmartSheet became the core platform for the solution, but AV pushed its limits by developing custom logic and creative formulas that could dynamically scale:
- When usage spiked, SmartSheet’s data volume caps became a bottleneck. AV engineered a workaround where incoming submissions were automatically routed to one of five SmartSheets with the most available capacity—maintaining performance during peak submission periods.
- A centralized approval dashboard was created so each approver could log in, see their assigned items, and record approvals in a clear, auditable way.
- The entire solution was built using core SmartSheet features, without external plug-ins, showcasing the platform’s potential when combined with deep domain expertise.
The Results
The new solution fundamentally transformed how the client manages brand standards—delivering measurable outcomes at both strategic and operational levels:
- Data field reduction: From 172 to 12 fields per line item—93% decrease in manual entry.
- 4,000+ line items processed in the first year, with over 600,000 fields auto-filled, saving time and reducing error rates.
- Estimated time savings exceeded 100,000 hours, equivalent to $4+ million in annual staff cost reductions.
- Approval workflows centralized, ensuring global compliance across legal, financial, and operational domains with full visibility and traceability.
- Increased adoption: The tool’s intuitive design drew significantly more users into the process—so many that it exceeded SmartSheet’s platform capacity, confirming improved usability and engagement.
This solution gave the client a scalable infrastructure to support both current operations and future growth. As they continue to acquire new brands and expand into new markets, the standardization process is no longer a constraint—it’s a competitive advantage.
Key Takeaways
Simplified Systems Enable Scale
Streamlining a complex process into one centralized tool empowered the client to manage growth with ease.
Automation Delivers Real Savings
Reducing manual effort saved time, minimized errors, and unlocked millions in cost efficiency.
Stronger Governance, Smarter Growth
Clear workflows and approvals improved compliance and positioned the organization for future expansion.
Subscribe to our latest Case Study and/or Blog Post!