Favor Delivery is a same-day delivery and online food ordering platform headquartered in Austin, Texas. As a three-sided marketplace with runners who deliver, customers who place orders, and merchants providing products, Favor operates at a scale that demands efficient data management to ensure a seamless experience across all its user segments. Favor Delivery is part of H-E-B, one of the largest private companies in the U.S., with an annual revenue of over $38 billion.
Favor’s data architecture team, led by Richard Heim, Director of Data Architecture, and Greg Aponte, VP of Data & Operations, consists of data architects, data engineers, and analytics engineers. This small yet effective team is responsible for ingesting data into the warehouse and transforming it into insights used across the company. With fewer than ten members, the team ensures data availability and relevance for business stakeholders, from data scientists to marketing teams.
Current Data Stack
To meet diverse needs across departments, Favor maintains multiple dashboards that are updated daily with data from both in-house and third-party sources. Each department, from support to operations, relies on these dashboards for real-time insights, optimizing everything from customer support to marketing. In total, they manage hundreds of dashboards across 10–15 departments.
Evolution of Favor’s Data Stack
Favor initially operated on Amazon Redshift with an in-house data integration system based on Python scripts, MySQL, and PostgreSQL DMS setups. This approach, coupled with data retrieval issues, prompted a migration to Snowflake. This transition led to a renewed focus on data integration solutions, ultimately guiding Favor to Hevo, whose low-code platform, powerful CDC + API integration, and competitive pricing fit their needs.
Decision Criteria and Tool Selection
Favor’s data team evaluated several ETL vendors, performing four detailed proofs of concept and consultations with eight to nine vendors. Critical decision criteria included:
Low-Code and No-Code Platform: With a small team, Favor required an intuitive UI to build and manage data pipelines without extensive coding.
Unified API and CDC Integration: A single platform managing API-based and change data capture integrations was essential to streamline monitoring and adjustments.
Cost-Effectiveness: Favor needed a solution that balanced cost efficiency with functionality and reliable support.
After extensive evaluation, Hevo emerged as a top choice for Favor due to its user-friendly interface, robust API and CDC integration, and competitive pricing. Favor’s team found Hevo highly responsive, with dedicated support for internal changes and database migrations.
We’ve been very pleased with Hevo’s responsiveness. When we needed support for database changes, Hevo’s engineers were readily available, which we don’t believe we’d have had with other vendors.
Hevo has been a perfect balance of reliability at a competitive price. They’ve also been excellent partners, making our migration to the current stack seamless.
Business Impact of Hevo for Favor Delivery
Since adopting Hevo, Favor Delivery has accelerated its data processes and operational agility, ensuring better support for both internal teams and end-users. Some key improvements include:
Accurate ETA Predictions: Hevo’s data integration has empowered Favor to improve real-time ETA calculations by analyzing historical and live data. This accuracy is crucial for customer trust and satisfaction.
Agility in Subscription Services: With Hevo, Favor quickly adjusted to support the launch of its new subscription service, allowing granular analysis of service data and marketing effectiveness.
Optimized Data Access and Integration: Hevo’s low-code interface and centralized API management have reduced the time spent on routine data tasks, enabling the team to focus on broader strategic projects.
Future Priorities
Favor plans to continue consolidating data integrations and moving away from legacy codebases. Additionally, they are looking at Hevo for more streamlined data orchestration and aim to explore advanced monitoring capabilities and integration with data cataloging solutions to strengthen data observability and governance. As Favor continues to scale, Hevo’s intuitive platform and dedicated support will be pivotal in enabling faster, data-driven decision-making.
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