Reinventing Wyndham’s loyalty program technology

Solution

Go completely cloud-native to streamline operations

Wyndham set a goal to make the loyalty architecture completely cloud-native by 2022. This seemingly simple target required a full-scale modernization using Amazon Web Services (AWS). The first step PwC took to simplifying the loyalty technology ecosystem was understanding its challenges, both now and into the future.

PwC designed and deployed cloud-native architecture to consolidate and automate multiple different legacy systems, connecting the dots between reservations, enrollment, financials and everything in between. The architecture was built using over 170 user stories derived from the business’ operations — all which laddered up to six key themes for improvement across financial management, reporting and analytics, and program management. PwC helped Wyndham shape its vision and build requirements around a system that could solve current and future challenges and grow with the business as it evolved. This enhanced automation eliminated data inaccuracies, reduced manual efforts and helped unlock new business insights.

“Our operations before relied heavily on manual data processes, which created many opportunities for human error, delays and inefficiency. Now, our loyalty ecosystem is powered by custom-designed automations, so we can be proactive, not reactive,” said Derek Barbara, Director of Data and Analytics at Wyndham.

Increasing the pace of doing business

Offering Wyndham a flexible menu of services, including fully managed and self-managed options, PwC helped the hotel chain create a first-of-its-kind solution that re-architected the backend of Wyndham Rewards. The automated structure provided more flexibility, agility, scalability and simplicity when processing and gathering insights on loyalty and financial data. Prior to the shift to the cloud, a single piece of data within Wyndham’s system would travel an average of nine steps from its point of creation to the company’s central database, a journey that could take up to two-and-a-half days to complete. Today, the same trip takes an average of four steps and as little as five minutes — enabling Wyndham to cut the amount of time it spends on managing its computing environment by an estimated 40%.

More automation = greater trust in the data

The second part of Wyndham’s plan flowed directly from the first: to improve customer and franchisee experiences, which would yield benefits both internally (for franchise operators) and externally (for loyalty plan members). New data-driven insights derived from the loyalty architecture allowed Wyndham to have more meaningful interactions — providing not only what customers and franchisees needed in real time but also anticipating what they may be looking for next.

By creating a self-sufficient model and training staff in collaboration with AWS, PwC put the tools to help streamline operations and build trust with customers and franchisees in Wyndham’s hands. Satisfaction on both sides of the front desk increased dramatically as the automated platform yielded fewer issues and faster resolution.