About the Client
LendingTree (TREE), one of the largest online loan marketplaces in the United States, has grown substantially since its founding in 1996. The company's primary mission is to help its customers make smarter financial decisions. It allows potential borrowers to connect with multiple lenders to find optimal terms for loans, credit cards, deposit accounts, and insurance while creating more opportunities for lenders to connect with qualified leads.
About the Project
At the core of LendingTree's approach is data. By collecting information from multiple sources and focusing on delivering highly personalized interactions for consumers, as well as tracking outcomes from lenders, LendingTree identifies patterns that enable easier and more successful connections between lenders and borrowers.
Challenge: Streamlining the Loan Application Process with Cloud Data Platform
LendingTree's expansion through multiple acquisitions introduced challenges in data integration, consolidation, and scale.
Challenge #1
Each business unit operated with its data and terminology, resulting in more complex daily data management, additional costs, data silos, and operational inefficiencies. Also, business analysts needed to duplicate data into secondary storage to be able to perform queries and ad hoc analysis efficiently. This led to data inconsistencies and overall inefficient data analysis.
Challenge #2
To provide exceptional service, LendingTree must match their customers (borrowers) with the best lenders based on their unique financial profiles while ensuring lenders have capacity to service these customers. This core mission faced a challenge - smaller lenders were able to handle only a limited number of leads at a time. To maintain a steady flow of leads throughout the day for lenders of all sizes, LendingTree had to navigate each lender’s unique constraints while ensuring the best match for customers.
Challenge #3
Finally, LendingTree needed ongoing support in streamlining data processes.
To solve these 3 challenges, LendingTree recognized the need for a single, robust, and scalable data platform to optimize data accessibility and analysis across the entire business. They approached BlueCloud to help them achieve their goals.
Solution: Transforming Endless Silos into Unified Data with the Snowflake Platform
Operating in both an advisory and execution capacity has allowed BlueCloud to work closely with LendingTree and their technology partners to identify opportunities for creating business value.
Solution #1: Enabling Seamless Migration to Snowflake AI Data Cloud
BlueCloud, a trusted and experienced Snowflake Elite Services Partner, helped LendingTree seamlessly migrate to the Snowflake AI Data Cloud enabling them to optimize their data infrastructure and maximize the value provided by Snowflake Platform.
The Snowflake Data Cloud Platform, built on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Azure, emerged as the ideal solution - it enables seamless data integration, enables advanced ML capabilities, and enhances collaboration between different business units, driving continuous innovation.
By utilizing BlueCloud’s scalable, high-performing, and on-demand global workforce, LendingTree successfully migrated to Snowflake, building a foundation for long-term innovation. This partnership not only ensured high-quality migration to Snowflake, but it also initiated a robust data-driven revenue growth strategy.
“LendingTree saw a 40% reduction in relational database costs, and up to a remarkable 97% improvement in report runtime, with some report runs going from 5 hours to just 10 minutes. On top of this, it achieved overall account-level cost tracking, a single source of truth with trusted data, and clear data lineage.”
Bill Tennant, Chief Revenue Officer at BlueCloud
Solution #2: Providing Superior Experience for Lenders and Borrowers with Snowpark ML Models
Together with BlueCloud, LendingTree created Snowpark ML models that have dramatically improved matching algorithm capabilities, ensuring customers get the best match and that lenders of all sizes can be successful in the LendingTree network. This approach prevents fluctuations in applicant volume and ensures consumers receive prompt, personalized attention from lenders.
Solution #3: Delivering Continuous Support for Effective Data Management
BlueCloud further supports LendingTree in managing their ongoing data needs. This involves migrating outdated databases to either Snowflake or Amazon RDS, depending on LendingTree’s data usage, and performing intricate data reconciliation and validation—a complex and time-consuming process. As a result, LendingTree teams can now focus on strategic initiatives and adopt cutting-edge technologies like Snowpipe Streaming.
Impact: Driving Continuous Innovation for Online Loan Marketplace with Robust and Scalable Data Platform
LendingTree's partnership with BlueCloud has enabled the company to optimize its data management and analytics capabilities following its successful migration to Snowflake. With BlueCloud's support, and their commitment to technological advancement, including data analytics and machine learning, LendingTree aims to continuously enhance their services and drive continuous innovation. Through ongoing collaboration with BlueCloud, LendingTree is poised to drive further innovation and solidify their reputation as a trusted and respected leader in the financial industry.
