The last several years have seen a tremendous evolution in the AI-based technology landscape, requiring company leadership to understand the impact of aggressively adopting a new technology that could be a disruptive force in terms of the technology (deployment) and the necessary skill sets to run it!
Having sold ERP and CRM applications as a part of the Oracle business intelligence team, I made many technology recommendations and managed several deployments of disruptive technologies. As a senior IT advisor, I can attest that evaluating, choosing, and rolling out a new technology is difficult! It is time-consuming, costly, and requires a lot of resources. In addition, a significant challenge with disruptive technology is its acceptance by the end-user community. The user community often has the power to make or break the successful deployment of such technologies.
Now, as CIO of Ceres Technology, I want to make our solution easily deployable so users can take advantage of our robust disruptive platform, called Ceres Nostradamus, and achieve a faster ROI. Allowing users to continue using their preferred day-to-day applications without disrupting their workflow is just as important.
Data is The Key, But How Much Do You Need to Get Started?
Larry Ellison, Oracle CEO, used to say, “The database is the key and not the application.” If I could make a slight modification to his words, I would say that in the AI-based application world, the key is the DATA.
But how do you do this? Is it possible to enable an AI-based platform within a short period without causing an employee revolt? The short answer is a resounding YES. The graphic below shows exactly how you can achieve this, including many more benefits.
Like any other application, a successful outcome starts with data! Do you have a single source of truth? A single source of truth (SSOT) in data management refers to having a centralized and authoritative repository for data within an organization. This concept is valuable for data consistency, improved decision-making, reduced data silos, and easier data quality maintenance.
If you answered “no” to that question, then you may need help to take full advantage of an AI platform like Nostradamus but don’t let your data issues prevent you from getting started in AI. Nostradamus requires only 9 or 10 data elements (such as supplier name, product name and SKUs, Port of Origin, Destination, etc.). With just a few data elements, Nostradamus can start delivering predictions and allow your organization to profit from the power of AI to predict upstream disruptions. Once you can see the value of the data you already have available to you, it’s much easier to understand what data should be most prioritized and where data cleanup may be necessary.
Having a platform that requires minimal data and resources is crucial for making AI easily integratable to achieve faster ROI for various business use cases. Because it operates in the background, there is no disruption to day-to-day workflows. It serves only to provide benefits without needing changes to entire systems and processes.
Simplifying Process Integration
No-code platforms are key to simplifying deployment, meaning the platform can be seamlessly integrated into your internal processes without involving advanced programmer knowledge. This dramatically shortens and simplifies the time required to deploy the AI-based platform.
The Nostradamus platform is a no-code solution that offers several ways to take in and push data out. Ceres has several APIs and webhooks to import and extract data and risk output. An API, or Application Programming Interface, is a set of rules and protocols that allows different software applications to communicate with each other. It defines the methods and data formats applications can use to request and exchange information. APIs are used to enable the integration of different software systems, allowing them to work together and share data or functionality.
Additionally, Ceres has built a strategic relationship with Boomi iPaaS. Boomi is the leader among integration platforms and allows a simple integration to any application environment, such as Oracle, SAP, NetSuite, or even homegrown applications.
And Finally, Automatization: Performing Tasks with Minimal Human Intervention
Ceres adopted a simple methodology when deploying Nostradamus: “Crawl, Walk, and Run”, for which the phases of this adopted concept are as follows:
- Crawl Phase. You will gain insights into the forward-looking supply chain risks for each product, supplier, and purchase order through the Nostradamus Dashboard or APIs. This will enable you to start building resiliency in your supply chain swiftly. Setup is quick, allowing you to assess risks in a timely manner. This phase takes 4-6 weeks to complete.
- Walk Phase. You can begin implementing automated business process flows at this stage. This allows you to create backend workflows and set up automatic business triggers for decision-making and actions. For example, you can automatically submit purchase orders (POs) where Nostradamus has not predicted any disruptions, or you can manage safety stock by automatically placing orders for the appropriate amounts or by shifting units to different warehouses based on predefined risk rules.
- Run Phase. Once you fully integrate different business flows, Nostradamus will operate 100% automatically in the background. This requires your internal team to use Ceres’ workflow to grant platform access to your back-office applications. Alternatively, you can streamline this phase by utilizing our strategic partner, Boomi. By leveraging Ceres-branded connectors and Boomi’s workflow, the process will be easily accomplished.
This is a simple approach to deploying this unique and powerful platform. The simplicity of this approach is you can achieve ROI results much faster and start building resilience in your supply chain.
The good news is you don’t have to use this methodology! The platform is robust and flexible, so you can utilize these phases in any order, meaning you can start with the “Walk” phase or even the “Run” phase. These phases require a little more work to create appropriate application interfaces.
Nostradamus isn’t just a tool or an application; it’s a robust strategic platform that equips businesses with the power of predictive analytics. Contact Ceres Technology today to unlock the full potential of Nostradamus for your business.
You can also contact me directly or connect with me via LinkedIn for an in-depth discussion of our deployment strategy.
