EQUINIX CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORY - PICKME
Continuous data platform enables real-time decision making and supports continued growth
PickMe, the leading on-demand transportation service in Sri Lanka, leverages Iguazio’s Continuous Data Platform and interconnection services from Equinix to maximize data and operational efficiencies, launch more services and improve user experience.
"PickMe’s move to Iguazio on Platform Equinix® has helped us focus on our core business while reducing infrastructure and data pipeline overheads. Iguazio’s Continuous Data Platform has made it easy for us to combine all of our data together, make better business decisions and ultimately improve the service we offer riders and drivers." Asanka Perera, Lead Data Scientist, PickMe
Business challenge
PickMe is Sri Lanka’s ride-hailing service market leader at a time when the industry and internet economy is booming in South East Asia. Six million rides are booked daily in the region through platforms, according to the "e-Conomy Southeast Asia Spotlight 2017" report by Google and Temasek1.
PickMe was processing an increasing volume of data from multiple sources due to a growing customer base. This meant the company was spending additional time and money managing infrastructure pressures, detracting from its ability to support business growth across Sri Lanka and expand its offering to logistics and additional transportation services.
From inception, PickMe has prioritized localizing its application around the user behavior of taxi drivers and passengers in Sri Lanka. PickMe was looking for a partner that offered enhanced performance, security and the ability to leverage the power of data to optimize business processes on a real-time basis to deliver a better-quality user experience.
The successful solution would need to manage a high volume of data intelligently and provide actionable business insights. It will inform PickMe on local market dynamics and enable the company to respond rapidly to current and future market demands.
Solution
Equinix partner, Iguazio, was able to provide PickMe with its Continuous Data Platform that processes vast amounts of real-time data from multiple sources such as news, weather and social media via a secure, scalable interconnected service.
Deployed on Platform Equinix®, Iguazio’s analytics and data platform delivers intelligent insights for PickMe, enabling it to enhance its services with heatmaps showing spikes in demand and flagging suspicious behaviors which detect fraud in real-time rather than after periodic updates.
PickMe enhances its services and profitability by matchmaking more rides and ensuring that drivers have less "empty time" in their days, due to improved usage models and predictions as to where drivers should be placed in expectation of bookings. Maximizing driver profits and reducing passenger wait times via improved data analysis and AI has, in turn, increased driver effectiveness and rider satisfaction.
Central to PickMe’s accelerated efficiency is the ability to leverage an Interconnection Oriented Architecture™ (IOA™), which allows Iguazio to collect and process its data from multiple sources, whilst ensuring reduced latency, maximized performance and fine-grained security via edge and hybrid cloud deployments.
This interconnection-first approach has also helped accelerate PickMe’s ability to quickly move from proof of concept to production, speeding up its ability to expand both the geographical reach and diversity of its services.
"By deploying on Iguazio, PickMe is able to deliver innovative programs, increase driver efficiency and maximize the profits of numerous aspects of our ride-hailing business. Better technology allows for faster growth, and faster growth is definitely the way to stay ahead of the competition, which Iguazio and Equinix are helping us achieve." Jiffry Zulfer, CEO PickMe
Business results
Embracing an approach based on interconnection has given PickMe the competitive edge in a growing smart mobility industry, enabling the on-demand transportation app to reduce complex data pipelines, improve operational efficiency and allow time for critical business decision making such as building new product features.
PickMe workloads have been consolidated, empowering analysts with greater insights and the capacity to spend valuable time on enhancing the ride-hailing application.
PickMe now combines historical and current data, using AI to detect and reduce fraud, as well as algorithms to detect cancellation patterns among specific drivers that can be blocked when needed. The real-time supply and demand heatmaps also enhances driver decision-making processes for maximum driver benefits and minimum passenger wait times.
With Iguazio and Equinix, PickMe was able to meet specific local market needs, including:
> Manage and analyze large data volumes intelligently, using AI computing at the edge to deliver faster and improved user experiences
> Implement new releases every quarter to increase revenue streams
> Enhance security and fraud detection
About Iguazio
The Iguazio Continuous Data Platform digitally transforms businesses by analyzing data from a variety of sources and types to create actionable insights. Through its platform, Iguazio simplifies the development and deployment of high-volume, real-time, data- driven applications to extend the cloud experience to the edge and on-premises environments. Iguazio accelerates the digital transformation of manufacturing, healthcare, financial services and others by supporting rapid development of applications for the Internet of Things, autonomous systems, media, cybersecurity and smart mobility. The company was founded in 2014 and has offices in the USA, UK, Singapore and Israel.
