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Maximizing data and AI to grow a thriving business
Conestoga Wood Specialties + IBM
Timeless craftsmanship takes off with analytics and AI in the 21st century
Since 1964, Conestoga Wood Specialties has been committed to delivering exceptional cabinet doors and kitchen cabinet components. Conestoga sells directly to cabinet manufacturers and industry professionals only, offering a wide variety of cabinet styles and materials painstakingly crafted to meet every kitchen and bath motif, from farmhouse to contemporary.
The company’s craftsmanship and expertise have helped it grow from a small Pennsylvania family business to a bustling enterprise with four US locations and over 1,100 employees. Such growth has necessitated creating a back-office infrastructure to keep pace with changing customer demands and a growing number of suppliers to improve decision-making.
Expanding analytics capabilities to make room for AI
In 2017, Conestoga first partnered with IBM to deliver IBM® Netezza® Performance Server technology to track and store larger volumes of data and run 10,000 queries a day across marketing, sales, operations, manufacturing and finance. This transformation also enabled Conestoga to use the IBM Cognos® Analytics solution to automate daily reports and insights on its business performance. Over the next few years, as both data and customer interactions increased, Conestoga once again turned to IBM for help in maximizing its growth potential.
In 2023, IBM Business Partner DAI Source and IBM joined forces to modernize Conestoga’s on-prem analytics appliance to a fully managed cloud solution with a Netezza SaaS instance that fit the company’s size and budget. With a seamless like-for-like compatibility in the cloud, it provided no disruption to in-house customers and overall business operations. With a modern, cloud-native infrastructure on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Conestoga is now looking at new use cases for data and generative AI with IBM watsonx.data™ to enable automation within its customer service experience.
Enhancing business performance today. Ready for tomorrow.
Conestoga has been pleased with the improvements in productivity and data analysis since its latest IBM-driven transformation. During the move from on-premises Netezza to the current fully managed solution on AWS cloud, Conestoga experienced 100% workload compatibility and zero downtime.
Today, Netezza and Cognos run over 5,200 reports per day, giving leadership across the business the decision support they need to continue growing and expanding the enterprise. In addition, Netezza supports 1.2 terabytes of data and 10,000 daily queries—with capabilities to scale up its business infrastructure as its needs change.
With such a comprehensive IT infrastructure as a foundation, Conestoga has been able to maintain its exemplary record of 99.9% complete shipments along with the company’s unwavering on-time performance for deliveries.
“From a cost perspective, IBM Netezza SaaS on AWS really nailed the economics of a cloud data warehouse. From an effort perspective, the migration was straightforward lift and shift—allowing us to easily migrate data and redirect our BI-layer without making any changes to our reports or dashboards,” says Karen Loose, Business Intelligence Development Manager for Conestoga Wood Specialties Corporation.”
She adds, “Next, we will explore the options available to us as we move in the direction of governance and metadata that is along the lines of a lakehouse, with watsonx.data and Netezza on AWS integration.”
Since 1964, Conestoga has manufactured the highest quality cabinet doors and wood components for the kitchen and bath industry. From modest beginnings in a small garage in Lancaster County, PA, Conestoga has grown into an industry leader known for its dependability in both product performance and on-time delivery.
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Produced in the United States of America. January 2024.
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