The challenge
Back in 2019, Eraneos delivered Hallmark’s first Azure data platform. It was successfully used for BI and advanced analytics for over five years. Built using the best practices available at the time, the platform included Databricks, SQL Warehouses, Analysis Services and Power BI, and required a variety of skills to use and operate. Consequently, changes affecting all technologies took considerable time and resources. Meanwhile, Databricks introduced Unity Catalog as its foundation, but this was not adopted. Because of this, many useful features such as access management, lineage and pipelines could not be used fully.
To support growth and unlock new opportunities such as self-service reporting, behavioral analytics and customer retention modelling, Hallmark needed a simpler, more flexible foundation. They (re)turned to Eraneos to design a modern data platform that could reduce complexity, lower costs and enable future innovation.
The approach
Since 2019, a lot has changed in the warehousing and analytics domain; most importantly the rise of ‘Lakehouses’. These solutions and data architectures unify the data lake, warehouse and advanced analytics functions previously spread across multiple services. Instead of patching the old setup, Hallmark and Eraneos chose a full rebuild using a modern lakehouse architecture in Databricks, with Power BI for reporting.
To reach the intended results we:
- Moved most of our data and access permissions to the Unity Catalog. Rather than separating personal information into different datasets, we now use column-level encryption and fine-grained access control, resulting in a much simpler setup than before.
- Leveraged transformation pipelines (formerly known as Delta Live Tables). We can now load data with schema inference and evolution to handle source changes. While such changes used to take a considerable amount of time across the entire data landscape, we can now simply access additional data within the bronze table whenever the business requires it.
- Used a combination of job and serverless computing to balance processing speed with costs. Business-facing analytics are mostly done using Serverless SQL to ensure fast start-up and response times.
- Used Databricks dashboards for validation purposes before making the data broadly available via Power BI.
- Leveraged Databricks Asset Bundles for deployment, which is a significant improvement on the previous, more notebook-based approach. This design greatly simplifies the stack, lowers costs, and enables business teams to work more independently with data.
- Finance now integrates platform data directly into Excel for payment level analtycs, while product and marketing teams access up-to-date insights through self-service dashboards.
"The new environment connects insights to action: business and finance now share a single version of truth through self-service BI, while Databricks enables us to uncover new consumer insights, democratize data and activate segments directly on our digital platform."
The results
Hallmarks new data platform is live and enables the data team to focus less on operations and more on the creation of insights for finance, product, marketing, and management. These business teams now access sales, customer and order data directly in Power BI or Excel, reducing manual work and speeding up decisions.
Even while processing more data with faster refresh rates, operating costs are almost 80% lower thanks to a simpler architecture and built-in automation. The platform also delivers richer insights into customer behavior, helping Hallmark invest more effectively in retention and loyalty. With privacy and compliance safeguards in place, the company is well positioned to expand use cases even further.
About the client
Hallmark is a globally recognized brand best known for its greeting cards and gifts, with a growing e-commerce presence in Europe. The company combines a rich heritage with a modern retail approach, offering customers both traditional products and new digital experiences. By investing in advanced platforms and data-driven insights, Hallmark is strengthening its ability to serve customers, expand its European operations, and build lasting relationships through personalized offerings.
