Domino’s Pizza considers itself a technology company that sells pizza. And it’s easy to see why. In recent years, it has been out in front of the restaurant industry when it comes to technology. It was one of the first pizza-delivery companies to offer online and mobile ordering and broke new ground with its innovative Domino’s Tracker technology.
Today, more than 60% of its sales come through online channels, and the options for customers continue to grow. People can order pizza in a snap, from virtually anywhere: Google Home and Amazon Alexa devices; social media channels such as Slack, Facebook Messenger, and Twitter; and smartphones, smartwatches, and smart TVs. Customers can even save a personalized “Easy Order” and get their favorite pizza delivered with a single click, tap, tweet, or voice command.
It all hinges on data—a lot of it. The company sells more than 3 million pizzas every day from over 17,100 stores worldwide. A unified customer database running on Pure Storage® FlashArray™ and FlashBlade® technology captures every transaction. That information is the key to understanding what customers like on their pizzas, how they prefer to order, and which new products they might try—breadsticks or wings, for example.
“Our data works as hard as our delivery drivers,” says Dan Djuric, VP of global infrastructure and enterprise information management at Domino’s. “It’s all about speed—the ability to ingest data, analyze it, and feed it back into actionable channels.”
That means Domino’s is constantly learning and adapting to customer preferences. And the company has been busy in recent years, putting the data to work as it drives innovation.
Delivering Great Pizza and Great Experiences
With multiple FlashArray and FlashBlade devices supporting customer data across all its franchises, Domino’s has become a powerhouse in the food-delivery industry. Pure supports everything from the Microsoft SQL Server database and VMware virtual servers to sophisticated data analytics that drive the business. As a result, Domino’s can launch new applications rapidly, scaling its storage as needed and relying on exceptional performance, resiliency, and ease of use to hold up under growth and innovation.
That includes Domino’s loyalty program, which has more than 25 million active members. The program has grown tremendously, supported by FlashArray, with FlashBlade providing fast recovery as the backup target. The company is also venturing into autonomous delivery cars and artificial intelligence (AI)—both of which generate an enormous amount of data.
The company’s Piece of the Pie Rewards program is another breakthrough customer experience that relies on Pure. The program gives loyalty points to customers for ordering pizzas, and last year Domino’s invited customers to submit photos of pizza—any kind of pizza, from any vendor—in exchange for points. Its AI-powered “Piedentifier,” running on FlashBlade, automatically analyzes each image to make sure it’s actually a pizza.
The Piece of the Pie Rewards program gets people engaged with the Domino’s brand and captures lots of great data, which can be used to drive exceptional customer experiences. The company is even using machine-learning algorithms to correlate images with online reviews, ultimately to recognize the difference between a good pizza and a bad one. Franchises in Australia are also using AI-powered cameras to make sure every pizza meets high-quality standards before being delivered to customers.
Resilience Baked Into the Business Model
Domino’s business model provides an advantage, especially in the current environment. Its stores are optimized for online ordering and rapid delivery, powered by data and technology. Other restaurants, and even top technology companies, are striving to emulate this “cloud-kitchen model.”
With its investment in data and digital channels, Domino’s was able to adapt quickly when things changed this year. The company kept sales up, delivered reliably to customers, and even donated pizza to people in need.
And as the restaurant industry continues to move toward the cloud-kitchen model, Domino’s is in a great position to stay successful by leveraging Pure for its rapidly evolving data.
See how you can drive innovation at your organization with FlashArray and FlashBlade.
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