Secret Recipe: How a Malaysian café chain baked cloud and AI into its operations
Originally published on Microsoft Source Asia: View here
In the fast-paced F&B world, agility isn’t just a buzzword; it’s survival. For Secret Recipe, one of Malaysia’s most beloved café chains, staying ahead meant more than just serving delicious cakes and meals. It meant transforming how they understood their business.
The challenge: Turning data chaos into clarity
Before embracing the cloud, Secret Recipe’s data journey was time-consuming. Gathering performance reports from 360 outlets across Malaysia wasn’t just tedious—it was a logistical headache. Compiling data could take weeks, and by the time insights reached decision-makers, the opportunity to act had often slipped away.
Teams relied heavily on past experiences and anecdotal evidence to steer operations. While these instincts had value, they lacked consistency and clarity. The absence of real-time visibility meant missed chances, delayed reactions, and a growing need for a smarter, faster way to understand the business.
That’s when SRKK Group stepped in—not just as a technology provider, but as a strategic partner on effectives ways to leverage Microsoft’s cloud and AI solutions. They worked closely with Secret Recipe to map out a digital transformation journey, helping the team navigate the complexities of cloud migration, data modeling, and KPI prioritization.
The solution: Data-backed insights to drive success
With Microsoft Power BI, Secret Recipe now pulls performance data in seconds, instead of weeks. What used to be a slow, manual process has become fast and automated. Teams can instantly identify which outlets sell the most cakes, uncover patterns—like customers who buy black pepper chicken often pairing it with a specific beverage—and respond with targeted actions.
Each dashboard is tailored to individual roles, whether you’re in marketing, operations, or customer service. This customization means every team sees the metrics that matter most to them. Marketing can track campaign performance, operations can monitor outlet efficiency and respond to loyalty trends. These dashboards don’t just display data, they deliver actionable insights that empower teams to make smarter, faster decisions.
For example, when Power BI flagged low cake sales on Thursdays, Secret Recipe launched a “Healing Thursday” promotion. The result? A noticeable spike in both cake purchases and new member sign-ups.
Also, the shift to data-driven decision-making has transformed team dynamics. Before Power BI, decisions were often shaped by personal opinions and emotional judgments. Now, teams gather around dashboards that speak with data-backed authority. This clarity has reduced friction, fostered alignment, and created a shared understanding of the best way to move forward.
Looking ahead: Generative AI and beyond
But Secret Recipe isn’t stopping here. The next chapter is all about Generative AI. The vision? A future where team members can ask, “Can you pull last month’s beverage sales and suggest a new combo promo?” and get instant, actionable insights.
Building toward the next phase of innovation, Secret Recipe is harnessing Microsoft Fabric to unify data from operations, sales, and customer engagement — creating a single intelligent view that reveals customer behavior, uncovers emerging trends, and refines recipes with precision.
With SRKK and Microsoft, the goal is to move beyond dashboards into conversational analytics, where AI doesn’t just report—it interprets, recommends, and learns. By tapping into generative AI, Secret Recipe aims to unlock deeper layers of data understanding, automate even more processes, and make smarter decisions faster. It’s not just about keeping up—it’s about leading the way in digital innovation for the F&B industry.
