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Bypassing the Data Bottleneck: Quick Generative AI Deployment with Planning in a Box

September 26, 2023 | Tarun Kumar

Blog / Bypassing the Data Bottleneck: Quick Generative AI Deployment with Planning in a Box

The traditional mindset that many enterprise architects have revolves around constructing a monolithic data warehouse before moving to analytics and AI solutions. They believe that by centralizing and structuring data first, they can achieve better analytics later. This method, while solid in theory, often faces challenges in implementation.

Here’s why the traditional approach can be challenging:

  • Time-Consuming: Building a massive data warehouse can take years, delaying potential benefits from analytics and AI.
  • Costly: The traditional approach often requires substantial investments in infrastructure, software, and expertise.
  • Lack of Agility: Data needs and business objectives change over time. By the time the warehouse is ready, business needs might have evolved, making parts of the warehouse less relevant.
  • Complexity in Integrating New Data Sources: As businesses grow, they often need to incorporate data from new sources. Integrating these into an established warehouse can be challenging.
  • Potential for Siloed Data: Even with a centralized warehouse, data can remain siloed if not properly integrated, leading to disjointed insights.

The Pluto7 Approach

Pluto7 advocates for a more iterative, modular, and agile approach. Instead of waiting to construct an entire data warehouse, Pluto7 suggests building a foundational data platform and expanding it progressively. This approach aligns with real-time analytics and Generative AI initiatives.

Here’s why the Pluto7 approach is advantageous:

  • Immediate Value Realization: By working on data modules, businesses can start deriving insights and value immediately rather than waiting for the entire warehouse to be completed.
  • Cost-Effective: Iterative development can often be more budget-friendly, allowing for adjustments without substantial sunk costs.
  • Agile and Scalable: The modular approach lets businesses adapt to changing data needs swiftly. New data sources can be integrated without disrupting the existing architecture.
  • Ensures Data Quality: By focusing on smaller data modules, there’s better oversight on data quality, ensuring reliable analytics and AI outcomes.

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7 Steps for Enterprise Architecture Teams to Enable Real-Time Analytics with Generative AI

Navigating the intricate world of data analytics and AI demands a solid strategy, especially when real-time decisions are at stake. Pluto7, backed by its rich experience of over 6 years in the domain, offers a clear, outcome-focused roadmap to help enterprises achieve just that. Let’s delve into the approach:

1. Define Your Business Vision

  • Purpose and Metrics: Before diving into data and AI, it’s vital to crystallize your vision. Know exactly what transformation goals you’re chasing, be it with Data, AI, or Generative AI.
  • Tailored Workshops: Pluto7 recommends kickstarting this phase with intensive brainstorming sessions, be it a crisp 3-hour workshop or a more detailed 2-day assessment tailored to the depth of insights you seek.

2. Assess the Current Data Landscape

  • Diagnostic Analysis: Unravel the layers of your current data ecosystem. Pinpoint where your data comes from, its quality, and how it’s currently utilized.
  • Initial Value Recognition: This foundational step is crucial for highlighting initial pain points and areas of quick value generation.

3. Define the Business Requirements

  • Use Case Identification: Here’s where we zero in on tangible business outcomes. It’s not just about data but how that data can be directed towards specific business use cases.
  • Metrics and Reporting Needs: To stay outcome-focused, defining the necessary metrics and reporting systems early on is key.

4. Design the Data Architecture

  • Blueprint Creation: Like constructing a resilient building, an architecture plan is laid down. This encompasses data models, how data sources will integrate, and ensuring airtight security.
  • Outcome Alignment: Ensure that the architecture aligns seamlessly with the business vision set in Step 1.

5. Pilot Implementation with Google Cloud Cortex

  • Hands-on Deployment: This phase is about getting hands-on. Pluto7’s data platform solutions, in tandem with Google Cloud Cortex, form the core of this step. Data is loaded, models are created, and security configurations are set in place.
  • Rapid Value Generation: The pilot serves as an early indicator of the potential value, allowing businesses to witness outcomes in a matter of weeks.

6. Enable Use Cases with Generative AI

  • Application Development: Leverage the decision intelligence platform Planning in a Box to breathe life into the defined use cases, whether it’s Inventory Positioning, Demand Sensing, or any other impactful scenario.
  • Instant Outcomes: With a ready data foundation, this step ensures that AI tools are immediately generating value, highlighting Pluto7’s promise of speedy outcomes.

7. Deploy and Monitor

  • Transition to Production: After the successful pilot and initial results, the applications transition to the production environment.
  • Ongoing Optimization: Using active support and maintenance, the platform isn’t just set and forgotten. It’s continuously optimized, with Pluto7 offering its expertise to ensure that as businesses grow, their data solutions scale accordingly.

Additional Considerations for Enterprise Architecture Teams

  • Striking the Right Balance with Methodologies: Both the Inmon and Kimball methodologies offer advantages in data warehousing. While making a choice, enterprise teams should consider the specific needs and characteristics of their organization rather than adopting a one-size-fits-all approach.
  • Preserving Past Investments: It’s critical for businesses to recognize and leverage prior investments in data and analytics infrastructure. This strategy helps avoid redundancy, reduces costs, and ensures a smoother transition towards newer platforms or methodologies.
  • Adopting Modern Data Platforms: As the business landscape becomes more dynamic and real-time, staying updated with the latest data platform technologies is vital. Decision Intelligence Platforms like Planning in a Box by Pluto7 provide enterprise architecture teams with an agile and integrative approach to real-time analytics, making it easier to blend data through the Google Cloud Cortex Framework and embrace technologies such as Google Cloud’s Generative AI.
  • Focusing on High-Impact Use Cases: Instead of spreading resources thin, prioritize use cases that promise substantial business impact. This ensures that initial efforts yield visible results, paving the way for further investments in Generative AI.
  • Evolution Over Stagnation:The business and technological environment is in constant flux. Hence, it’s essential for the decision intelligence platform to be adaptable and evolve with changing business requirements and technological advancements. Regular reviews, updates, and scalability considerations should be integral to the enterprise architecture strategy.

Real-World Outcomes: Why Global Companies Opt for Planning in a Box’s Use-Case-Driven Approach

Data solutions are everywhere. What sets Pluto7 apart is the targeted nature of our use-case-driven approach. Instead of broad-brush solutions, we give organizations pinpoint accuracy to tackle their unique challenges.

Planning in a Box, Pluto7’s decision intelligence platform, is the engine behind this approach. By creating a solid data foundation on Google Cloud, it accelerates the integration of Generative AI, making the transition from problem to solution both rapid and adaptive.

Here are some concrete examples of how businesses across industries have benefited:

Pluto7 and Cisco: Cisco collaborated with Pluto7 and Google Cloud to revolutionize its enterprise search capabilities. By leveraging tools like Google BigQuery, Cloud Vision, and Google Cloud Search API, we consolidated vast data sets, seamlessly integrating disparate data sources. This robust, AI-driven platform was set up in just 4 weeks, a stark contrast to traditional warehousing methods, which often require extensive timelines. The result was an agile decision intelligence platform, enabling rapid data retrieval and facilitating a superior search experience that could adeptly handle complex queries from both structured and unstructured data.

Deep Dive into the Case Study

Dxterity’s Leap with the Right Data Foundation: Utilizing Google Cloud tools, Pluto7 set up a decision intelligence platform for Dxterity in just 4 weeks. By focusing on a use-case-driven approach, we swiftly integrated diverse datasets into the FHIR standard. This method was notably quicker and more cost-efficient than traditional data warehousing, which typically takes months. As a result, data processing time dropped from 210 hours to just 3, delivering real-time insights for better disease management. 

Deep Dive into the Case Study

CDD’s Transformation: Pluto7 employed a use-case-driven strategy for California Design Den on Google Cloud, bypassing redundant steps inherent in traditional warehousing. In contrast to the 6-month setups often seen with conventional methods, our approach built a robust data foundation and had its decision intelligence platform up in just 4 weeks. This rapid deployment led to a reduction of inventory carryovers by over 50% and consistent improvements in demand forecasting accuracy quarter over quarter. 

Deep Dive into the Case Study

Future-Proofing with Generative AI: What’s Next for Enterprise Architecture Teams?

As the landscape of business evolves at breakneck speed, the role of Generative AI in shaping and future-proofing enterprise strategies has never been more crucial. But in the noise, how can businesses adopt this cutting-edge tech without entangling themselves in protracted setups and processes?

Planning in a Box stands distinct as a decision intelligence platform. It unifies vast datasets across organizational functions using its Glassbox methodology. It goes beyond traditional tools, harnessing Generative AI for specific applications like inventory optimization and demand forecasting. It is trusted by industry giants, including SAP and Google Cloud, and it has received acknowledgment from Gartner.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tarun Kumar, VP of Global Sales at Pluto7, is an MIT-endorsed Senior Data Architect with deep expertise in Google Cloud solutions. He has spearheaded data platform adoptions for diverse organizations, championing supply chain transformations with Gen AI. As an Agile Scrum Master and TOGAF® 9 Professional, Tarun seamlessly bridges tech innovation with tangible business value.

Connect with Tarun on LinkedIn