The Quantexa Platform is not a point solution; it has been developed on fundamental principles of flexibility and scalability, and supports multiple business applications or use cases in a single system. Many Quantexa deployments will originally serve a single use case, although some may be intended for broader use from the beginning. Over time, new use cases may be added.
This page describes Quantexa’s recommended approach to building a multi use case deployment.
Benefits of multi use case deployments
By sharing platform elements and ways-of-working between use cases, you can achieve significant cost savings compared to independent deployments. If this is done well, the effort required to add a new use case to the deployment will end up being only a small fraction of the effort for the initial deployment. The ongoing maintenance and operation costs of all use cases will also be proportionately reduced: common components can be centrally managed, with use cases being responsible for their customizations only.
The importance of having a multi use case strategy
An optimal multi use case deployment will not happen ‘accidentally’. Without being deliberate about how you manage the deployment, you may miss out on the organizational value that the approach can deliver. You risk reducing both the cost savings from utilizing a multi use case deployment, and the value generated by the business use cases. In the worst case scenario, a poorly-set-up multi use case deployment could be more costly to run than having a number of separate deployments.
The most important step is deciding to prioritize the shared platform itself as a first-class citizen, as the common foundation for business use cases. The platform acts as an enabler and accelerator rather than directly solving business problems.
Next, recognize that a strategy for a multi use case deployment will need to consider many aspects, including:
- People: the roles, teams, and structure needed to develop the common platform which caters for the needs of multiple consumers (use cases).
- Processes: the interactions between the common platform and the use cases, and ensuring that use cases develop in an independent yet consistent way.
- Technology: how frameworks and tooling support the efficiency and scalability of the system’s development and maintenance.
Quantexa has recommendations across all these areas, which are introduced in the following section.
Quantexa’s recommendations for multi use case deployments
A major early milestone in the development of a multi use case deployment is the centralization of common data sources. This pattern is the most significant single activity in moving towards a better multi use case setup:
- It brings significant cost savings. This comes from both a reduction in the infrastructure footprint needed to serve multiple use cases, and from a deduplication of data ingestion effort required for use case implementations.
- It gives rise to a team with a specialism in data ingestion, which will make them more efficient over time, but also position them to support use case teams. This could form the seed of a Quantexa Centre of Excellence within the organization.
- It goes hand-in-hand with a mindset shift towards thinking about the common platform as a first-class citizen, which is key to set the programme up for success in the future.
You can read more about centralizing data sources here:
https://community.quantexa.com/kb/articles/231-5-centralized-data-sources
Quantexa have a number of further recommendations for achieving success with multiple use cases; see the following pages:
Quantexa Solution Architects are available to support you in ensuring your deployment is optimized for current and future use cases. We can perform health checks, facilitate strategy workshops, and offer guidance tailored to your situation.
