How HAAS group is revolutionizing its data landscape

As the HAAS media group approached us, the company was at a decisive turning point. With its strong local footprint in the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region and in the Main-Tauber district, HAAS had successfully established print media over decades. But like many companies in the industry, HAAS was faced with the challenging task of offsetting the declining relevance of the print market with innovative digital offerings.

In the initial discussions, we quickly realized that the management of HAAS had already recognized the importance of data for this transformation. Management had understood that the future viability of the company depends largely on how well it manages to collect, analyze and use data for strategic decisions. However, the existing data potential could not yet be fully exploited — a fact that we wanted to change together.

The challenges that HAAS faced proved complex upon closer examination. Over the years, a complex tool landscape had developed that contained numerous redundant components and could no longer meet modern data processing and analysis requirements. This historically developed infrastructure was not only inefficient, but also costly to maintain and develop.

To make matters worse, HAAS was significantly dependent on external service providers and individual discontinued systems. These dependencies made a fundamental realignment of the data landscape not only desirable but necessary. In addition, there was a complex stakeholder landscape with different interests and priorities, which made consolidating initiatives more difficult and further hindered the exploitation of one's own data potential.

In order to systematically address these challenges, we first conducted a comprehensive status quo survey. We use a mix of methods including questionnaires, exploratory interviews and workshop formats. This multi-level approach enabled us to gain a holistic picture of the current situation and to capture both the technical and organizational aspects. Particularly noteworthy is the extremely collegial and appreciative cooperation, which shaped the entire course of the project. The openness and commitment of HAAS employees at all levels contributed significantly to the success of our analysis and laid the foundation for the following measures.

Based on the knowledge gained, we developed a comprehensive plan for a consolidated system landscape. The focus was on a modular data warehouse as the heart of the new data architecture. This should not only overcome the previous silos, but also form the basis for future data-driven decisions. To demonstrate the immediate added value of this new infrastructure, we developed two MVP use cases: a consolidated customer golden record for sales and one for marketing.

The Customer golden record for sales combines customer data from various sources for the first time — from subscription information to interaction data and demographic characteristics. This gives the sales team a 360-degree view of the customer and forms the basis for personalized offers, targeted customer loyalty measures and data-based sales strategies.

In parallel, the Customer golden record for marketing a comprehensive overview of advertising partners, campaign performance and monetization potential. By integrating various data sources, marketing decisions can now be made on a solid data basis, which increases efficiency and opens up new sales potential.

In addition to these technical solutions, however, we also identified a need for action in the areas of organization and culture. Our recommendations therefore included measures to optimize the organizational structure, to clarify roles and responsibilities, and to promote a data-driven corporate culture. Because one thing was clear to us: A modern data infrastructure can only develop its full potential if it is accompanied by an appropriate organizational and cultural transformation.

The results of our project were valuable to HAAS in several ways. First, we succeeded in identifying weaknesses in the three core aspects of organization, culture and architecture and making them transparent. On this basis, we were able to formulate concrete and directly implementable recommendations for action, which provided HAAS with a clear roadmap for further transformation. In addition, we developed a blueprint for building a modern data infrastructure, including the first developed use cases, which were immediately ready for implementation.

With the completion of this project, HAAS now has a solid foundation to drive its digital transformation and maintain its leading position in the region. The path to a fully data-driven organization is not yet complete, but the decisive course has been set. We are proud to have accompanied HAAS on this journey and look forward to continuing to work together to implement our recommendations.

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