Case Study: RaceTrac achieves real-time data insights and a 65% reduction in redundant datasets with Alation

RaceTrac Fuels Real-Time Data Insights for Decision-Making with Alation and Databricks

RaceTrac, an Atlanta-based convenience retailer with nearly 800 locations and hundreds of millions of annual transactions, struggled with siloed data, inconsistent formulas across teams, and reports that could take up to 24 hours to produce. That lack of a single source of truth undermined trust in analytics and slowed strategic decision-making across the business.

By consolidating data on Azure and adopting Alation for governance alongside Databricks for real-time processing, RaceTrac ingested 1,500+ database tables and 500+ Power BI assets, appointed 44 data owners, and certified core datasets. The effort cut redundant datasets by 65%, reduced popular datasets from 725 to 250 (with further consolidation planned), delivered instant POS insights (0 minutes vs. 24 hours), enabled real-time fraud/theft detection, and noticeably improved confidence and speed in enterprise decision-making.

RaceTrac

John (JW) Williams

Executive Director of Enterprise Data