Ashwin Ratan, VP of Technology at Burn Boot Camp, speaks with Geoffrey Speare, Director of Data Architecture and Engineering Practice at Ironside, in a video interview about the value of trust in data, having the right data requirements, being consistent with metrics, and spreading the organizational message.

Burn Boot Camp is a global fitness community that offers challenging 45-minute workouts and nutritional support.

Describing Burn Boot Camp’s data situation, Ratan states that trust is the keyword in everything related to data. Bringing the value of trust back to the community of members, and franchise partners is critical, he adds.

Speaking of maintaining trust, Ratan shares that the company has 350 franchise locations across the U.S. Further, with Ironside’s partnership, the company has embarked on a mix of technical architecture and business architecture projects to understand the pain points of franchise partners from a trust standpoint.

Digging deeper into pain points, Ratan observes that initially data was presented incorrectly, which eventually led to a break in trust and franchise partners performing independent analyses.

Adding on, Ratan alludes that rapid growth may have a part to play in the escalated issues. He states growth creates change and change leads to rapid implementation.

Highlighting accuracy issues, Ratan stresses the need for the right requirements. For instance, he says, the company may end up building a solution that may not be the actual solution from a reporting standpoint.

That is when Ironside came in to build the governance model from a data dictionary standpoint, which involved defining data elements and being aligned with the needs.

To become more consistent with metrics, Ratan states that the first thing to do is build the operational data store, with one source of truth across multiple systems. It should be a centralized, neutralized bucket of clean data.

Staying aware of the metrics and definitions is a continuous educational and socialization process, internally and externally, says Ratan. It involves defining the metrics internally, aligning with stakeholders, and educating the social community at large.

When asked about organizational efforts to get the message out, Ratan shares that there are various tracks when it comes to socializing and communicating. It is done at the technical and operational levels, and there are multiple mechanisms from a media standpoint

Moving forward, Ratan says the organization is transparent, and shares proactively. Commenting on the impetus behind the mobile app, he appreciates Burn Boot Camp’s Co-founder Devan Kline as it was his idea.

After getting a team together for a year and a half, the company ensured that the mobile app was just the front end and the key lies in controlling the data presented on the app. Doing it themselves, enabled the team to build experience, do it at a certain frequency, and share experiences with customers.

Furthermore, Ratan states that the data analytic effort was happening at the same time as the launch of the app, which was eye-opening for him from a professional standpoint.

In conclusion, he shares how he learned a bunch in terms of the consumer-facing app and the importance of data for franchise partners, internal finance, operational people, and leadership.

CDO Magazine appreciates Ashwin Ratan for sharing his insights with our global data community.

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