Scalable
integrations for omnichannel commerce
Two
legacy ETL tools consolidated
Real-time
streaming for global enterprise use cases
TaylorMade Golf needed to modernize its data integration stack to keep pace with omnichannel growth and new brand expansions. With Informatica, the golf icon consolidated its legacy integration vendors into a unified cloud platform, powered by Informatica IDMC, enabling real-time data flows across warehouses, e-commerce, assembly operations and international offices.
“Informatica's environment to design and build interfaces is very intuitive and powerful. We get all the monitoring capabilities, high availability and security of the platform, all in one place.”
Playing through legacy IT headwinds
In the competitive world of performance golf, TaylorMade has built its reputation on innovation and precision. Founded in 1979, with the creation of the world’s first “metalwood” driver, TaylorMade has continuously pushed the boundaries of manufacturing in clubs, balls, clothing and accessories. Today, the Carlsbad, CA-based company oversees a global footprint of production facilities, warehouses and retail channels, all relying on seamless access to data.
For over two decades, TaylorMade's IT team supported this growth with a delicate balance around data integration. Two legacy extract, transform and load (ETL) tools formed the critical connective tissue of its business operations. One integrated their enterprise resource planning (ERP) environment with warehouse management systems, facilitating the flow of sales orders, work orders, purchase orders and invoices. The other managed integrations with data warehouses, online channels and business applications.
In recent years, this aging infrastructure has become a growing operational bottleneck. TaylorMade’s IT leadership saw the need to finally modernize this integration stack. "We were going through upgrades that didn't necessarily deliver great functionality for the cost," says Rossen Petkov, Senior Manager of Application Technologies for Global IT. "Some of our legacy systems also required physical servers in our data center, which we couldn't deploy to the cloud. These limitations were holding us back from where we needed to go as a business."
The challenges extended beyond technical constraints. TaylorMade's global business was evolving rapidly, with new demands for data warehouses in international markets, various order intake channels including e-commerce and wholesale, mobile applications for sales teams and specialized systems for departments ranging from legal to R&D. Each new business initiative required additional integration points, making their legacy middleware environment increasingly difficult (and costly) to manage and maintain.
“With our data landscape growing more complex each quarter, we decided to take a step back,” says Petkov. “Instead of investing in outdated systems, we looked at how we can be proactive. Our new strategy was to consolidate and modernize our toolset with the best-in-class on the market.”
“The Informatica platform promotes reusability, helping us deliver new integration requirements faster than ever and instantly connect to partners like Snowflake with pre-built connectors.”
Reading the green: Evaluating integration partners
To develop a future-proof approach to cloud integration, TaylorMade initiated a comprehensive vendor assessment. The team considered both established leaders and emerging players, using Gartner’s Magic Quadrant as a starting point. “We spent a good amount of time talking to every vendor, taking multiple calls, assessing and evaluating them,” recalls Petkov. “We educated ourselves, and after all the demos and sessions, it was clear that Informatica was a standout platform.”
TaylorMade was impressed with Informatica’s comprehensive capabilities, robust security features and proven track record in enterprise integration. They also valued how the Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) supported both traditional batch processing and real-time streaming and API management for their new integration use cases. "Informatica’s environment to design and build interfaces is very intuitive and powerful," notes Petkov. "We get all the monitoring capabilities, high availability and security of the platform, all in one place."
While the team considered single-solution vendors, Informatica’s breadth of services offered a comprehensive approach; plus, the latest usage estimation tools for IDMC’s consumption-based pricing helped TaylorMade accurately forecast their needs across a multi-year migration. “We needed capacity to migrate both legacy ELT platforms over a two and a half to three-year period while accommodating new business demands," says Petkov. "After going through a detailed estimation process with Informatica, we gained the confidence to move forward with their platform."
Following through on bold IT transformation
TaylorMade took a methodical approach to their platform migration. The first phase focused on their ERP integration tool, replacing legacy workflows with Informatica Cloud Data Integration to automate data flows across warehouse and inventory management. The second phase addressed the legacy ELT system for data warehouses and apps, replacing on-prem connections with Cloud Application Integration to populate new Snowflake cloud data warehouses and streamline API integration with e-commerce systems and cloud apps like Workday for HR.
“During the migration, our guiding principle was to not re-architect or redesign something if it wasn't in scope,” says Petkov. “But we were also opportunistic, looking for opportunities to streamline or improve a process. The Informatica platform promotes reusability, helping us deliver new integration requirements faster than ever and instantly connect to partners like Snowflake with pre-built connectors.”
As an example, where appropriate, the team has optimized processes by moving from file-based integrations via file transfer protocol (FTP) to direct table access or API-based approaches.
This focused, value-added approach has already paid dividends. In addition to more efficient IT workflows, TaylorMade’s new flexible integration stack helps better seize new business opportunities. With Informatica IDMC, the company can rapidly spin up integration requirements and interfaces for new data warehouses abroad, e-commerce or direct-to-consumer initiatives, enhanced assembly automation and even new brand launches such as Sun Day Red, their latest and biggest-ever collaboration with Tiger Woods.
Teeing up data success for global growth
With this newest chapter of TaylorMade’s integration journey nearly complete, the golf icon is well-positioned for future growth and innovation. The company is exploring expanded use of Informatica's real-time integration capabilities, API management features and Cloud Data Ingestion solutions. "We made this decision keeping in mind the future, and looking down the road, I think we're in much better position now,” reflects Petkov.
The modernization journey has also yielded valuable lessons about partner collaboration. When initial consumption patterns didn't align with pre-implementation estimates, Informatica Customer Success team worked with TaylorMade to resolve the discrepancy, ultimately providing additional capacity to ensure the success of their migration initiative. This commitment to mutual success has reinforced TaylorMade's confidence in their decision.
As TaylorMade continues to delight golfers with state-of-the-art equipment, their revamped IT infrastructure provides the agility and scalability to maintain their market leadership. From enhanced e-commerce capabilities to streamlined supply chain operations, the company is delivering on seamless, data-driven experiences – and is still just getting started.
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