Blue Lagoon Journey with Timextender

From ‘Wonder of the World’ to ‘Data Wonderland’: Blue Lagoon’s journey with TimeXtender

Founded in 1992 to harness the benefits of geothermal seawater, Blue Lagoon Iceland has evolved into a company that encompasses transformative spa experiences, research and development, sustainability, culinary delights, a renowned skincare line and the convergence of hospitality and wellness. In 2012, National Geographic recognised Blue Lagoon as one of the 25 Wonders of the World, solidifying its status as a premier global travel destination. Included in Time magazine's list of the world's 100 greatest places, the complex features a 62-room luxury hotel, an underground spa, a mineral-rich lagoon and two restaurants. All of Blue Lagoon Iceland's operations are powered by sustainable energy.

Enhancing hospitality with data insights

In the hospitality industry, data insights play a critical role in delivering exceptional guest experiences and maintaining a competitive edge. Through the use of data, organisations can gain an in-depth understanding of guest preferences, booking patterns and the efficiency of their operations. These insights enable them to tailor offerings, optimise pricing strategies and refine operational processes, ultimately leading to higher guest satisfaction, increased revenue and improved cost management. As the hospitality industry continues to evolve and guest expectations continue to rise, data-driven decision making has become essential for long-term success.

 Data power to the people

Sigurður Long has held the position of Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Blue Lagoon for four years. His office of the CIO consists of three main departments: IT Development, IT Operations and Digital Channels - the customer-facing arm of IT, responsible for ticketing, customer-facing websites and enhancing the guest experience through features such as 'mybluelagoon'. Upon assuming the role of CIO, Long initiated a major shift in the company's data strategy, focusing on democratising data access across the organisation. It was then that Blue Lagoon Iceland began its journey with TimeXtender and quickly established TimeXtender as an integral part of its operations.

"Our data platform existed prior to my appointment, but I initiated significant changes. We wanted to democratise data access across the organisation, moving away from data silos that were primarily for financial purposes and were rarely updated."

Sigurður Long, CIO Blue Lagoon

Blue Lagoon draws on a wide range of data sources, including retail systems, booking systems, operational systems for spas, hotels, restaurants, warehousing, finance, HR, sales, marketing, and even data from Google Analytics to track guest behaviour prior to booking. They have deployed TimeXtender's ODX and MDX components for data warehousing, and leverage Power BI's visualization and dashboarding capabilities.

A future-proof data infrastructure

Although TimeXtender had already been in use prior to his tenure as CIO, he re-evaluated its ability to support the revised data strategy. When asked about the choice of TimeXtender, Sigurður Long emphasised the time-saving features of TimeXtender and its ability to manage integrations: "I concluded that TimeXtender would provide us with all the features we need to build a future-proof infrastructure for the ingestion, transformation, modelling and efficient delivery of data. It serves as a hub, making it easy to integrate and extend our core platform, resulting in significant time savings when developing".

Single data hubs for each function

Maven, one of TimeXtender's business partners in Iceland, has been a key supporter of TimeXtender's operations at Blue Lagoon for the past three years. They have played an important role in application development, data connectivity, data warehouse optimisation and the use of PowerBI.

"Today we have consolidated most of our data into TimeXtender, enabling us to visualise it through functional dashboards in Power BI that connect all facets of our business. Our Employee Dashboard, for example, integrates data from systems for recruitment, employee (self)services and more into one intuitive employee dashboard, highlighting the importance of having a single hub for each function. This high level of data integration and analysis would not have been possible without the use of TimeXtender. In the face of significant business demands, including new data-driven requirements on a weekly basis, TimeXtender is enabling us to meet these demands without the need to hire additional developers. We have also seen a significant improvement in data quality".

Sigurður Long, CIO Blue Lagoon

Data can reshape your company

Sigurður's advice to other CIOs is clear: "It's not just about the operation of your business on an IT platform, it is also about the effective use of the data you collect. The transformative ability to present data to users quickly and efficiently can reshape your business. The return on investment (ROI) for TimeXtender is easily seen in the time savings it provides. Blue Lagoon is now well-equipped to deal with a wide range of data-related requirements with precision and speed, which will ultimately enhance our ability to adapt to an ever-changing landscape".

Blue Lagoon's journey with TimeXtender serves as an example of how innovative data management and integration can revolutionise an organisation's operations and decision-making processes. Committed to "data-driven insights for everyone", the Blue Lagoon team continues its mission to deliver exceptional guest experiences, with TimeXtender as an indispensable partner in their ongoing success.

Solution overview

Company name Blue Lagoon

Industry Hospitality

Challenges

• Data Fragmentation: Blue Lagoon faced issues with scattered data across departments, hindering efficient data usage.
• Limited Access: Data was confined to financial silos, restricting its availability to various teams.
• Scalability: Blue Lagoon needed a scalable solution to meet evolving data needs in the hospitality industry.

Benefits

• Data democratisation: TimeXtender democratised data access, breaking silos and enabling cross-departmental data utilisation.
• Comprehensive integration: TimeXtender consolidated data, creating efficient Power BI dashboards for informed decision-making using multiple data sources
• Efficiency: TimeXtender's features reduced development time and improved data quality for cost-effective operations.
• Enhanced guest experiences: Data-driven decisions led to higher guest satisfaction and increased revenue.
• Adaptability: TimeXtender future-proofed Blue Lagoon's data infrastructure, ensuring agility in a competitive industry.

About Maven

Maven is an IT service provider that aims to create knowledge and wisdom from data. Our focus is on future-proofing our customers' data management, integration, storage, and reporting. We do this by building solution-oriented teams with our customers who are creative and hungry for knowledge. This way, we aim to increase the likelihood that all stakeholders achieve their goals and for us to deliver great service. Our services include building modern data warehouses, business intelligence, data integration, reporting, dashboards, and machine learning.

https://maven.is/