{"id":54428,"date":"2025-05-28T12:46:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-28T12:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/academy.xebia.com\/us\/?post_type=case&p=54428"},"modified":"2025-09-09T07:54:49","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T07:54:49","slug":"this-is-how-bol-remains-a-frontrunner-in-data-and-ai","status":"publish","type":"case","link":"https:\/\/academy.xebia.com\/us\/case\/this-is-how-bol-remains-a-frontrunner-in-data-and-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"This Is How Bol Remains a Frontrunner in Data and AI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\t\n\tThis Is How Bol Remains a Frontrunner in Data and AI<\/h1><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\n\tTo enhance in-house data engineering and data science capabilities and remain a frontrunner in data and AI, Xebia Academy helped set up an extensive in-company training program at webshop bol. The program has been a success since the start and continues to be successful as it has been running since 2018, thereby exceeding expectations. The result is that data professionals at bol maintain up-to-date skills with the latest data engineering and data science knowledge. They can apply that training knowledge directly to their day-to-day work, supporting bol.com\u2019s overall business.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\n\t22 September 2023 <\/p><\/div>\n\n<\/div>\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\n\t\t\t\n\tCustomer name<\/h2>

\n\tbol.com<\/p>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\n\tCategory<\/h2>

\n\tCustomer<\/p>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\n\tIndustry<\/h2>

\n\tRetail<\/p>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\n\tNumber of employees<\/h2>

\n\t2,500+<\/p>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\n\tWebsite<\/h2>

\n\tbol.com<\/a><\/p>\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\n\t\n\tWhy<\/h2><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\n\tbol.com wanted to remain a frontrunner in Data and AI and keep its competitive edge.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\n\tEnhance its in-house Data Engineering and Data Science capabilities for its data employees.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\n\tWe set up an extensive in-company training program comprising of 15 to 20 courses per year, running since 2018.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\n\t\n\tData for decision-making first<\/strong><\/h2><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\n\tFounded in 1999 as a pure internet company, bol doesn\u2019t have the baggage of traditional organizations in becoming data-driven. The company\u2019s advanced analyst Melissa Perotti explained, \u201cDecision-making at bol is based on data first. The data doesn\u2019t confirm someone\u2019s hunch; it tells us where to go.\u201d

As the largest e-commerce platform in the Netherlands and Belgium, bol.com has vast amounts of data for decision-making at its fingertips. \u201cWe use data science in many places\u2014our search engine and recommender systems, forecasting of sales and customer service, and our chatbot. We have a mature data landscape and are proud of what we have achieved so far\u2014and we\u2019re ready to take it all to the next level.\u201d

Over the past two years, bol.com\u2019s data science capability quickly matured, and now the shopping platform\u2019s next challenge is to extend this beyond its data engineers and data scientists.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\n\t\n\tMelissa Perotti<\/h3><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\n\tAdvanced Analyst at bol.com<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\n\t\n\t“Xebia understood how we envisioned the direction to develop our data science capabilities. It was also really flexible in setting up the\u00a0data and AI learning programs, so the courses were perfectly tailored to our situation, and the material was very applicable to our work.<\/strong>“<\/h2><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\n\t\n\tKeep learning to stay at the forefront of Data Science<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\n\tBeing a frontrunner in the Dutch data science landscape is a great advantage, but it comes with its own set of challenges. Staying at the front, especially in a field that evolves as quickly as the data and AI space, means never resting on your laurels.\u00a0

Perotti elaborates: \u201cAttracting great data scientists to work at bol.com means having a strong development program. We started ours about two years ago. We also founded a data science community within bol around the same time to improve cooperation and knowledge sharing among data scientists, not just internal capabilities.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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