Our client, an Australian government organization responsible for delivering retail water supply and wastewater services in Southeast Queensland, sought to improve its operational efficiency and customer experience. They partnered with HCLTech to implement a cloud-based, AI-driven intelligent data platform (IDP) that would enable real-time insights and data-driven decision-making. The solution involved migrating to Azure Databricks and using HCLTech's Sketch framework to streamline and automate the process. The result was a modernized infrastructure that facilitated informed decision-making, improved consumer experience and significant cost savings.
The Challenge
Overcoming the limitations of legacy infrastructure and data silos
Our client faced numerous challenges, including multiple data silos, processing inefficiencies, limited digitization and data tracking capabilities in their legacy systems. Additionally, the organization had to ensure data sharing processes were in compliance with SOCI (Security of Critical Infrastructure) and adhered to standards of data quality, storage and real-time access.
The Objective
Utilizing digital technology for sustainability and enhanced CX
Our client aimed to optimize business efficiency and profits by leveraging digital technology to protect waterways, promote sustainable water usage, reduce carbon emissions and improve customer experience. They sought to adopt an "On Demand" storage model, increase compute capability with PaaS/SaaS services and lower costs while embarking on a digital transformation journey.
The Solution
Implementing a unified data and AI-driven analytics platform
We created the "Simplified Water Analytics Platform" to help our client bring together data and AI, delivering predictive solutions for their customers and business. This platform consolidated multiple data streams into a data lake, converting information into dynamic dashboards and enabling informed decision-making to better serve communities.
Our highly scalable, cloud-ready solution provided:
- End-to-end data flow: Azure Event Hub for streaming ingestion, Databricks for processing and ADLS (Azure Data Lake Storage) for storage
- Rapid development and automation: A fully integrated, unified IDP that ensured data traceability for business stakeholders, leveraging HCLTech's Sketch framework for efficiency and enhanced user experience
- Operational automation: The Azure DevOps pipeline facilitated automation, while the semantic layer allowed for Cube and KPI measures
HCLTech's IDP provided a flexible, scalable cloud data platform for enhancing customer and network operations. The platform offered effective data visualization, a service-driven architecture and cost-optimized design. Users were empowered with a unique UI framework for meaningful insights, while data security and user access were managed through Azure Active Directory. The Model Manager facilitated AI/ML development and the platform is designed to scale up as data volume, user base and concurrency grow, with plans to identify new use cases in the future.
The Impact
Enhanced efficiency, sustainability and customer experience
The implementation of the IDP resulted in numerous benefits for our client:
- 100% data residency and data sovereignty compliance
- 5x faster decision-making
- 30%-40% reduction in development efforts and duration
- 20%-25% reduction in compute costs
Our solution also improved the customer experience for over three million users, reduced non-revenue water loss and supported environmental sustainability initiatives. Overall, HCLTech's cloud-based data platform empowered our client to make data-driven decisions and achieve operational excellence.
