Challenges

With multiple lines of business and over 70 data sources across its entities, our customer, an international conglomerate based in the Middle East, knew it could gain more from its data. Following its customer-first approach, the company saw an opportunity to unlock more enriching and personalized experiences for all customers across the group’s business entities.  

An intelligent cloud platform would allow the company to deploy more advanced analytics across a variety of business scenarios and get a 360-degree view of customers.  

Real expertise in Azure Synapse, Databricks, Data Lake Storage, and Data Factory was critical. 

Solutions

Neal Analytics partnered with Microsoft to accelerate the customer’s digital transformation journey, reimagining the customer’s business model with an intelligent cloud platform.  

Key to this was developing a Customer Data Platform (CDP) to provide a 360-degree view of the company’s customers across various touchpoints. Leveraging an agile approach and deep technical expertise, Neal Analytics is developing a scalable digital infrastructure to tackle challenges around product recommendation, demand forecasting, pricing, and more.  

The Neal Analytics approach 

1. The Agile POD model

Fast, cost-efficient, and proven expertise. Conventional wisdom would say, “pick two.” Neal Analytics took a different route to provide the customer with all three by leveraging Agile PODs.  

With an office based in the Middle East and a deeply technical project, the customer needed a team that could hit the ground running and quickly adjust to their needs. 

 The POD model was ideal for this scenario. Not only would it capitalize on the time zone alignment with Neal’s office in Pune, India, but it would also provide the skills and flexibility needed for a rapid digital transformation.  

Advantages of the POD model include: 

• • Predictable monthly spend 
  • Flexibility in applying resources 
  • Flexibility in 2-week sprints and deliverables 

By providing a blend of Neal’s senior consultants and associates, the POD model offers the best expertise at a good price point. Fast, cost-efficient, and proven expertise – at the customer’s service.  

The Neal team was separated into three PODs, each with their respective deliverables.  

The Automotive Team worked with the customer to identify corner scenarios for the automotive line of business, namely around dealerships and other vehicle companies in the region.  

The team helped add complex data points to a simulation dashboard that allowed the customer to better track and gain insights into their vehicle stock. Equipped with the most up-to-date information, the customer can more effectively manage stock, identify missed sales, and correct their sales trajectories.  

The Retail Team focused on streamlining the process to identify replenished stock, allocate new stock based on replenishment, and ensure the correct allocation was transported to the right store.  

This use case required building Azure Data Factory pipelines that could pull data from several sources and maintain data integrity without duplication. The customer’s Databricks notebooks were also improved, upon Neal’s recommendation, for better testability, maintainability, reusability, and monitoring.  

The sheer volume of data was the biggest challenge, but the team ensured each data point would be captured and that the pipelines would scale with the company’s needs.  

The CDP Team focused on the internal initiative of capturing the customer’s data across various lines of business and maintaining it as part of a data platform on Azure. This included revising and improving existing pipelines to be more streamlined and structured, as well as ensuring compatibility with coding principles and naming conventions.  

2. Iterative approach  

The Neal Analytics team worked with stakeholders to clearly define what success would look like at the end of the engagement.  

Agile processes such as daily status updates, daily standups, and sprint planning, in addition to weekly meetings with senior leadership, ensured consistent communication between Neal Analytics and customer stakeholders. This allowed opportunities for each party to make recommendations, clarifications, and ask or answer questions without slowing pace.  

The team’s ability to match rhythm and flow with the customer allowed Neal Analytics to serve the customer wherever the company was on its roadmap.  

3. Deep expertise

Neal Analytics’ range and depth of proven technical expertise in Pune enabled the team to provide a full-service, “white glove” approach.  

Leveraging a mix of senior consultants and associates in each POD, the three Agile teams were able to address a variety of challenges, from scaling Azure Data Factory pipelines to identifying data gaps and improving Databricks notebooks.  

Results  

Neal Analytics delivered a successful pilot to the customer within three weeks. Unlocking new insights with advanced analytics and a 360-degree view of the customer, the company decided to extend the engagement with Neal Analytics and continue their digital transformation journey.