What is C3.ai?

C3.ai is one of the leading enterprise AI software platforms. It has helped organizations accelerate their digital transformation journey since 2009. The C3.ai platform provides a unique model-driven architectural approach that allows organizations to facilitate delivery and reduce the time to value of AI scenarios.

C3.ai offers a set of standard AI-powered applications to accelerate deployments. When building their custom solution, it uses prebuilt data models, analytical assets, and end data products for direct developer consumption. The architecture also provides an abstraction layer that helps them develop applications using conceptual models rather than spending time writing lengthy code.

Also, the C3.ai federated data image allows organizations to further customize and accelerate unique business scenarios by integrating their platform with existing enterprise systems.

C3.ai platform challenges

As C3.ai moves to accelerate the adoption of its unique AI-driven approach to unlocking the value of enterprise data, here are some key challenges for effectively developing, deploying, and maintaining C3.ai solutions:

• Customers getting started with C3.ai often have multiple analytics tools for building and managing insights. It results in a need to determine how to best incorporate C3.ai and other tools and platforms (e.g., Microsoft Azure) into a holistic enterprise initiative.   
• The C3.ai talent pool is limited to customers who have purchased the platform and C3.ai partners. This can hinder a customer’s ability to scale platform implementation without external support from trained partners such as Neal Analytics. 
• Developers need additional and specific training to work on the C3.ai platform, as it’s a highly specialized skill area.  
• Developing a complete solution on the C3.ai platform requires a variety of skillsets (e.g., Data Integration, Data Sciences, Application Development) from professionals trained on the platform. 

How does Neal Analytics work with C3.ai?

Since 2017, Neal Analytics has been partnering with C3.ai. Our deep cloud, engineering, and AI expertise has helped a variety of customers throughout their C3.ai adoption journey. In addition to having access to C3.ai support and training, Neal helps customers on their C3.ai projects by offering end-to-end services, modern advanced analytics techniques, and skilled developer resources.

During a typical engagement, Neal acts as an extension of the C3.ai’s team by collaborating with the C3.ai Center of Excellence (COE) and the end customer business owners. Neal helps those business owners achieve optimal success by focusing first on the most valuable scenarios. Being an early C3.ai partner, Neal has a proven record of identifying, training, and placing skilled resources into active C3.ai environments.

What does Neal Analytics offer?

During its C3.ai engagement, Neal Analytics offers a proven, four-step approach to staffing the right team for the customer’s needs.

First, Neal helps customers identify high-value scenarios and develop a roadmap for realizing value on the C3.ai platform. From this analysis, working together with the customer, Neal identifies the required resources skill set to achieve those results.

Based on those clearly defined requirements, Neal then identifies candidates with relevant knowledge and technical abilities and proceeds to assess their qualifications. Our well-honed staffing approach allows us to assemble a team with the right mix of skill sets to help customers achieve value along the way. The team we put together is a Product Delivery unit or PDU.

Once the resources are qualified, we train them (as needed based on their experience) on the C3.ai platform and assign them to one of three PDU roles: C3 Data Integrator, C3 Data Scientist, or C3 Application Developer.

If required, multiple PDUs can be created and staffed to manage multiple use cases in parallel. Before being onboarded, the PDU members are interviewed by the customer, who has the final say in validating the team composition. Following this onboarding, regular business reviews ensure continuous project success.

The final element of Neal’s PDU team is oversight. In addition to the PDU developers, we provide oversight from our C3 leadership to ensure the success of the initiative. The oversight will be a mix of digital consultant, project manager, and PD support.

Delivering business value

Neal Analytics’ extensive exposure to the C3.ai platform since 2017 has allowed us to collect many findings and best practices that we now implement in our customer’s projects and across industries. This partnership model can help accelerate knowledge sharing and transfer between the Neal PDUs and the customer’s teams. It can help effectively overcome critical challenges faced by the customer when using this powerful but unique AI platform.

We have deep expertise in Azure and C3.ai platforms, which allows us to take an enterprise approach for building analytics solutions, leveraging the right tool for the right job.

To know more about our partnership with C3.ai and the projects, contact us here.

Learn more: 

• C3.ai site 
• How Neal enabled automated ingestion of pictures and geolocation meta-data into the C3 platform from an existing GIS system 
• Neal’s partnership with C3
• Dylan Dias, Neal Analytics: C3.ai customer testimonial