The Reltio community is a place where like-minded IT professionals can share information and improve their Master Data Management (MDM) skills. Communities are defined by their members, which is why we'd like to shine a spotlight on some of the individuals responsible for giving Reltio the reputation it enjoys today.
Introducing Walt Feldmann, Solutions Architect at Subway
Walt Feldmann is a problem solver. As a solutions architect at Subway, Walt ensures innovative architecture aligns with the quick service restaurant brand's enterprise technology strategy. He does this by helping Subway compete in today's Experience Economy, using data to deliver value to customers across the entire enterprise.
The first step in this process was implementing a robust, cloud-based MDM platform that could unify Subway's 30 million consumer profiles through a single point of reference. Walt achieved harmonized process, technology, and data standards migrating profiles from two independently managed legacy consumer databases to Reltio. The system has now scaled to 40+ million consumer profiles.
Now, because Subway uses Reltio as the single source of truth for personally identifiable information (PII), it can efficiently pseudonymize user accounts downstream, help comply with access and erasure requests, and centrally manage opt-ins better than ever before.
Walt's work enables Subway to safely ingest first party data and converge many different B2C processes in a streamlined way. Having a single point of truth for consumer data enables remote ordering with in-store and curbside pickup, better mobile app performance, gift card registration, loyalty program benefits, and improved marketing performance across all channels.
Enabling Subway customers to update all of their personal data in a single place enhances the user experience. Some of the key performance indicators (KPIs) that this improves include:
- Customer Acquisition
- Customer Retention
- Customer Lifetime Value
- Wallet Share Expansion
- Marketing Spend Optimization
- Customer Satisfaction
Walt Feldmann on the Reltio Community
Walt's interest in MDM technology began in 2016, when Subway took him on as a digital data management lead in charge of developing a new digital platform. Migrating all of Subway's consumer data to Reltio was his first project.
With a wide background covering enterprise architecture, Unix administration, information security and more, Walt describes himself as having worn a lot of IT hats over the years. He looks to the Reltio community for opportunities to network and share valuable insight with peers in the MDM space.
One of the most rewarding aspects of Walt's work is the opportunity to coach young IT professionals and solve challenging problems. One of his favorite elements of the Reltio framework are surrogate crosswalks. Surrogate crosswalks allow Subway to use email address as the unique identifier, without facing challenges associated with a “winner” or a “loser” in a merge scenario.
We asked Walt what advice he would give himself if he were just starting in the industry. His words of advice for today's young professionals is to "accept the fact that everything in IT will change", and to expect technologies and processes to be replaced over time.
Outside of work, Walt tries to stay away from computers as much as possible. Cycling, cooking, sports, hiking, and going to concerts are among his favorite activities. He's keenly aware that the COVID-19 pandemic has limited many of these over the past year. When asked what he looks forward to most in the next few years, he gets straight to the point: "Forgetting about life in 2020."