Category: Santosh’s Insights

We have all witnessed the growth of technology ever since the early 20^th century. The semiconductor revolutionized the electronic industry and its been a race ever since to fabricate the most sophisticated semiconductors and chips that now are an integral part of life. The last 20 years in this century has seen a complete transformation and conversion of science fiction in the 20^th century, to reality. Among this was the use of data – collecting points of observation of any attribute deemed useful. Data, when connected, formed useful information and insights. And insights resulted in actions or development of ‘models’ to address a set of insightful or purposeful outcomes.

Curiously, machines have always been designed in my opinion, to mimic human output and make them better or make it work at a massive scale. The human being remains the most complex and intelligent machine on earth. Reaching a level where certain senses and cognitive abilities are far outperformed by machines is the current level of intelligence. Artificial Intelligence or AI, came out of our quest of machines ‘learning’ what humans could do. The result is that a significant part of the planet is touched by AI and its applications. From our smartphones, to our daily quest for information on search engines or our banks, our offices, our homes our lives and very soon perhaps, sensors within our bodies and brains.

The new tech and advances of the fundamental parts that went into the semiconductor chips have evolved into the current state of tech, which has resulted in new empires being created. Once again, these technologies tend to shrink this world further and bring advances, never before imagined.

Konsultera is a speck in this entire empire today. But our thoughts are to be a firm and prominent citizen in this empire and evolve with the maturity that befits a ‘learning’ organization. This quest has led us to constantly creating our own insights and content. Our team of both experienced and young members, provide us with gems of new information each day. The dialogue will continue to lead us to populating this column over time.

See you soon!

In the world of data, nothing is more precious than the management and nurturing of all that is received and all knowledge that is gained from it. The pursuit of data has been an eternal quest for centuries and, in the recent decade, technology has fueled the democratization of data management at a scale that has never been seen before. The quantity and velocity of data and information that flows through our digitally enabled systems today are staggering. Every touchpoint an individual has with a device generates a whole set of data. Initially, there was a lot of focus on capturing and storing all data for the future. This is still true, but, in the evolving world, it is the intelligence derived out of that data, that is key. Data privacy laws will make it difficult over time to store personal information without informed consent, but there is along way for that to happen. Meanwhile, with velocity, comes expectation. Decisions need to be made with data available in the present, and not from detailed analysis of data from the past. In this context, there is a need for a framework that encompasses data in flow and data at rest.  

Konsultera’s founders bring experience from large data ecosystems that span several domains. In every domain, however, the need is exactly the same. Good, qualified, data and the ability to process this data at scale that can scale horizontally, However, it is still necessary to put in the basic principles in place, to ensure this large set of information can be managed and processed effectively. In a data ecosystem, there is no size limit to start and virtually no end. We can start small and expand as time and budgets permit. The recommendation Konsultera offers, regardless of the size, focuses on the outcome and the use-case and subsequent deployment of your data model to meet those outcomes. Choose technology as you see fit, but follow the principles that span technology. To this end, we designed a framework of the four D’s or, as we call it, the 4D Framework for the Data Ecosystem.  

The 4D framework is designed to help any organization organize data right from ingestion to governance, from discovery to product creation, from insight to deployment. Every organization with this framework, stands to gain with benefits accruing almost immediately post deployment.  

We introduce a concept called the Global ID (GID), which is a single link for each defined entity in the system. In a banking context,  we can assume Individuals, Companies, CASA accounts, Credit Accounts, Locations and several other such key nodes to be present with their own GIDs. Associated with each GID, is a set of attributes that define the characteristics of that entity. Each of the types of GIDs can be interconnected with ‘Relationships’ and these relationships could have their own attributes and so on. This creates a web of data, where data starts to make sense by defining relationships and each chain represents linkages, much like our own life and relationships. The interaction and the intelligence that we derive from such relationships start to make more and more sense over time. We start to get better insights and see it with greater depth than a single planar view that would otherwise define an entity and its attributes.  

The illustration above indicates how data, converged around a GID, can appear to be a constellation when visualized correctly. Again, to bring in the 4D framework and its relevance, the organization and governance of this data is the key to bringing insights to the business. A data ecosystem is meant to help grow and protect the business.  

Konsultera is spearheading a new form of thinking for the data and analytics business. Konsultera’s teams are in the process of continuously working with customers to build platforms that sustains and support technology-enabled digitization and subsequent use of data ecosystems enabled by AI to generate profitable business outcomes.