Analytics Cloud Accelerator: get more value from your data faster with a standardized approach

“A fool with a tool is still a fool,” smiles Bram Wauters, who has been working as Inetum-Realdolmen’s Senior Solution Manager for Data, AI & Integration for several years. "Admittedly, it’s a towering cliché in our industry, but like every cliché, it also contains a grain of truth." And that truth is: as crucial as the choice of technology is to the success of an IT project, the method you use is also crucial to the project.

Speed is innovation

With that important truth in mind, Wauters and his colleagues developed their own standardized approach to migrating BI and Analytics to the cloud. To achieve this, they drew upon their personal experience and expertise. And as the name Analytics Cloud Accelerator suggests, speed (i.e., time saving) is the prime objective. 

“You don't need to see this speed so much in terms of ‘the entire project will be completed five times faster,’” explains the data expert. “Rather, you have to see as getting the first return and value out of your project much faster. In our view, this is also the most important thing if you really want to innovate. Go into production as quickly as possible and create business value, so you can effectively grow as an organization and use data to make decisions.”

Positive digital flow

Technologically, the new approach is based on Inetum-Realdolmen’s own tool for extracting, transforming and loading data, which helps ensure the promised acceleration. “Of course, speed also depends on the context in which a company operates. You can't just compare everything one-to-one,” says Wauters. “Just as you can't implement the different use cases or usage scenarios at a company all at once. You just have to choose now.”

“What we invariably strive for in the first selected use cases is creating value for the business as quickly as possible. This puts the organization in a positive digital flow, in order not to miss the exponential growth phase in its innovation curve. For our customers, now more than ever it is important to be up to speed and not have to chase the innovation.”

Added value

With the Analytics Cloud Accelerator, Inetum-Realdolmen is not marketing a separate product. “This standard method we have developed for ourselves is not exclusively tied to one or more technology suppliers,” emphasizes Lothar Verledens, AI & Innovation Lead Architect at Inetum-Realdolmen.

“The Analytics Cloud Accelerator helps us make the right choices for every company quickly. What is the best and fastest way to help a company? Herein lies the added value for our customers,” continues Verledens. “In the past, the approach to a project depended too much on individual consultants. Although they had some experience and expertise, we have now formally combined the individual experience and expertise of all our consultants into one standardized, structured method. By putting all these individual pieces of the puzzle into one big puzzle for everyone, our consultants don't have to reinvent the wheel every time, and they can move much faster.”

Also AI and IoT in the cloud

“The larger the client's Analytics environment, the more complex it tends to be. And the more time it will take to move to the cloud. But if you choose the right approach, you can make some gains,” Wauters concludes. 

“Ultimately, you also need to see this more broadly than just cloud BI, although that is often the first use case for companies looking to get more value out of their data. If you want to go even farther as an organization, you’ll eventually have to implement AI and IoT in the cloud, for example. The good thing about this is that you’ll also be able to take those further steps much faster thanks to our standard method.”