Wonderbly - 173tech

More Data

£2K+ monthly tech savings & 100% ownership

Objective

Migrate from Kleene to a scalable, future-proof data infrastructure.

Obstacle

Disjointed and incomplete data preventing a unified, holistic view.

Outcome

Over £2,000 in monthly technology savings and complete ownership of their analytics ecosystem.

Background

Wonderbly is the world’s leading personalised publishing company, crafting extraordinary one-of-a-kind books for equally extraordinary readers around the globe. Their mission is to deliver meaningful, memorable experiences through uniquely personal storytelling.

However, while each book was beautifully bespoke, their analytics stack was anything but. Wonderbly relied on Kleene to manage their data, a platform that had served them well in their early growth phase. As their business matured, however, it became clear that Kleene’s limitations were constraining their ability to gain deep, actionable insight. To unlock their next stage of data maturity, Wonderbly partnered with 173tech to build a scalable, flexible infrastructure tailored to their growing needs.

Challenges

Scaleability: Kleene is designed for simplicity and speed in smaller-scale operations. Yet for a business like Wonderbly, with a rapidly expanding customer base and increasingly complex data landscape, that simplicity became a constraint. The system struggled with larger datasets and advanced analytics workflows, creating bottlenecks in both efficiency and decision-making.

One-Size-Fits-All: Another issue with Kleene is its lack of flexibility when it comes to bespoke data requirements. As businesses evolve, their analytics needs become more nuanced, requiring tailored solutions to answer unique questions or support innovative strategies. Kleene’s out-of-the-box structure often leaves little room for the custom integrations or advanced data modelling necessary for these scenarios.

Solution

Migration Plan: To ensure seamless tracking of the migration process, we compiled a master Google Sheet consolidating all models. This document allowed stakeholders to monitor progress effectively. Additionally, we requested confirmation of the exact list of models to be transferred, ensuring clarity and alignment on the scope of the migration.

Pipeline Improvements: As part of the migration effort, we also identified opportunities for optimisation by analysing the existing models for potential efficiencies. This evaluation informed a refactoring process, and we provided a detailed update on these optimisation efforts in the following week.

Impact

Internal Hire: Our work empowered Wonderbly to confidently expand their internal team, knowing that they had a robust and clean data infrastructure as their foundation. By creating a reliable system that was both scalable and efficient, we provided them with the tools and peace of mind to focus on growing their capabilities without worrying about the integrity of their data.

Streamlined Process: In addition to migrating their existing data, we focused on refactoring it to optimise performance and efficiency. This effort not only ensured that the data was seamlessly integrated into their new infrastructure but also resulted in substantial time savings for their engineering team.

Expansion: Building on the initial success, we collaborated with Wonderbly to further enhance their data capabilities by integrating additional data sources. These included platforms such as Gladly, Google Analytics, TikTok, and FeedX, which expanded the scope of their analytics and enabled deeper insights into customer behaviour.