Editors Note: The X Factor is a blog series featuring data rockstars and their everyday challenges and solutions.
This blog features Raghav Nargotra, Digital Analytics Manager, 7-Eleven.
Even before digital analytics manager Raghav Nargotra joined the 7-Eleven analytics and verification team, he worked hard to bring value to his workplace and to his coworkers by utilizing his skillset in data and analytics to solve complex problems.
“All of us like to be valued,” Nargotra says. “We have to put in the effort to get to that point though.”
So when he came aboard 7-Eleven, a national chain of 70,000 stores in 17 countries and over 8,600 convenience stores in the U.S., Nargotra immediately took notice of some process challenges and issues gathering data. In particular, he noticed an issue surrounding the gathering and combining of data from 7-Eleven’s stores across the United States. This was being handled by outside vendors, which made the sources of information he received disparate, unorganized, and delayed. This resulted in the data not being recent to make timely business decisions.
“Before I joined there was no data architecture, and the vendors took long lengths of time to get back to us,” Nargotra says. “So you would just sit down and try to get stores sales metrics one-by-one on how many units of products were sold and measure the incremental impact of promotional materials.”
Nargotra recognized the need for a better way to execute this painful process.
“At the time, we needed something where we wouldn’t have to do a full onboarding process for a new platform, and something that could help us automate our processes,” Nargotra says.
Uniting Data and Passion
Using his dynamic skillset (and unrelenting passion) in data and analytics, Nargotra was able to bring in numerous external vendor data sources and combine them together, saving his team hours previously spent scouring through vendor data, and increasing his team’s efficiency by 60%.
Going forward, Nargotra’s team will continue to automate workflows, collaborate across different teams to accomplish tasks, and infuse analytics into the culture of 7-Eleven.
“I think analysts should develop a sense of ownership, do their research, and learn the capabilities of solutions,” Nargotra says. “People now come to me with questions that I can answer confidently, so that they can quickly get back to focusing on their business objectives, which makes me (and the organization), very happy.”
Nargotras X Factor?
Challenging the status quo and taking advantage of all available resources, such as product forums and communities to maximize his and his team’s potential.
STAY PUT.
READ
Find out how Nargotra organized one year of store sales data in just one hour in the full story .
REVIEW
Get a quick snapshot of 7-Eleven’s challenges, goals, and successes.