I. Use Case

Medialab Group is the UK’s leading independent media agency. Not being owned by a bigger network means they can innovate more quickly and without bureaucratic compromises, thus always focusing on what’s best for its clients. As a truly data-driven organization, this entails constantly pushing for cutting-edge solutions to deliver client insights faster and more accurately.

A couple of years ago, Adam Cunnington, Head of Data & Engineering, made the bold decision to redesign Medialab’s entire data infrastructure, starting with building its own data ingestion pipeline. Recognizing the need for scalability and future-proofing, the team meticulously crafted a pipeline that integrated various technologies and laid the foundation for its data transformation processes.

The initiative was motivated by the desire to ensure its service offerings could meet evolving client needs and leverage AI more effectively than other agencies. This move, which has set the stage for further improvements across the organization as a whole, eventually led them to adopt Paradime - making their production workflows even more efficient.

II. Challenge

Adam and his team initially faced several challenges, with the primary issue revolving around the need for a robust scheduler to handle their production workloads more efficiently.

With over 1000 dbt™ models running every hour, they required a solution that could streamline their dbt™ orchestration with close to zero downtime.

They also encountered difficulties in resolving failing or broken dbt™ pipelines promptly, leading to delays in their data workflows. Additionally, they were also on the look for a more intuitive way of managing and hosting their documentation.

Their old data stack didn't meet their basic needs, frustrating the team and prompting them to urgently seek a new solution.

III. Solution

Enter Paradime, a solution that caught Adam’s attention through a well-targeted, and slightly provocative, email from our GTM team. The Paradime platform offered a comprehensive solution that addressed some of Medialab's core needs - such as a robust yet user-friendly dbt™ orchestrator. The Bolt Scheduler now provides the team with all the necessary functionality and beyond, allowing them to streamline their data workflows effectively.

Additionally, Paradime's unique approach to managing and hosting docs is saving Adam’s team hours of mundane work. Now, with DinoAI, the team can expect an additional 30-40% reduction in development time.

However, what really makes Paradime stand out among competitors, according to Adam, is how we, at such an early stage, can demonstrate outstanding agility and responsiveness - swiftly addressing concerns and closing gaps to meet Medialab's needs.

IV. Impact

The adoption of Paradime brought significant improvements to Medialab's overall client insight delivery. With an intuitive interface, investigating and resolving data incidents became faster and more efficient, enabling Adam’s team to maintain a smooth production pipeline.

The streamlined dbt™ orchestration process facilitated by Paradime's scheduler has led to a notable reduction in the time spent on error resolution - from more than 30 seconds per error to 10 seconds, nearly 70% faster. When running models at a super-high cadence, this is a critical metric.

Moreover, Paradime's continuous improvements and responsiveness to feedback underscore a collaborative partnership, ensuring that Medialab's (and its clients’) evolving needs are met in an effective and timely manner.

V. Conclusion

In summary, Paradime emerged as a pivotal solution for Medialab, addressing its challenges in data infrastructure with our robust scheduler, intuitive interface, and shipping velocity.

The team at Medialab has developed its data capabilities and is now actively integrating client data. They are also constructing models to align with new data integration and transformation requirements, supporting various use cases such as business intelligence and analytics.

By streamlining dbt™ orchestration, facilitating error resolution, and demonstrating agility in addressing feedback, Paradime is playing a significant role in their ongoing innovation journey; to set a new industry standard for how media agencies work with client data.

With a collaborative approach and a focus on meeting customer needs, Paradime proved to be an essential asset in Medialab’s journey towards building a scalable and efficient data infrastructure.

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