Differentiate With Google Cloud Cortex Framework

Customers have consistently posed the question of how to extract maximum value from the data residing in their SAP and other enterprise applications. They aim to optimize their business processes across different areas, make informed decisions, and leverage the wealth of data they have accumulated over the years. After all, data is the new oil.

Lets Dig Deeper

To conduct their core operations, businesses rely on critical functions such as finance, procurement, and supply chain. Making data-driven decisions is crucial, and business line leaders are continuously seeking innovative ways to obtain predictive insights from data stored in their SAP and other enterprise systems. While hosting large SAP systems in the cloud has become easier through technological innovation, many enterprises still struggle to derive value from the data in their SAP and other applications. At Google Cloud, we welcome customer and partner feedback on how we can address these challenges and believe that feedback is a gift, regardless of its form.

About Cortex Framework

Google Cloud launched the Cortex Framework in October of 2021, which enables customers to leverage their SAP and other applications data and innovate analytics and business processes. Here are the specifics of what the Cortex Framework entails and how it can provide value to customers.

• The Google Cloud Cortex Framework is a collection of services that helps you build, deploy, and manage advanced analytics solutions using SAP and other applications data on the Google Cloud Platform. 
• The primary objective is to assist customers in expediting the framework's implementation process, allowing them to experiment with it quickly without having to spend weeks establishing data connections and setting up data pipelines.

By following the straightforward instructions provided in the git repository readme, customers can deploy the data foundation with the required Google Cloud services, which usually take a few minutes to complete. Customers currently using Looker can also set up pre-constructed Looker dashboards for frequently used analytical scenarios.

Value for Every Enterprise

• The Google Cortex Framework simplifies the integration process through pre-built connectors for common applications and systems.
• Real-time Insights: The Google Cortex Framework enables organizations to gain real-time insights into their data. By connecting their systems, businesses can create a unified view of their data, allowing them to make more informed decisions and identify trends and patterns that may not have been visible before.
• Begin your data cloud journey with less complexity, risk, and cost, and expedite business insights and outcomes with the aid of reference architecture patterns, pre-configured deployment content, and integration services.
• Digital Transformation: The Google Cortex Framework can support digital transformation initiatives by enabling organizations to create a unified view of their data. This can help businesses identify new opportunities, streamline processes, and improve customer experiences.
• Connect data with less risk, complexity, and costs. Reduce the time, effort, and cost of implementations and achieve desired business outcomes rapidly with proven deployment templates and reference patterns.
• Accelerate business insights and outcomes. Kickstart insights and business value with easy-to-leverage, scenario-driven packaged analytics solution content, including data models and sample dashboards.

Use Cases for Google Cortex Framework

Google Cloud customers have the opportunity to leverage the available analytics accelerators to jumpstart their Cortex journey. The list of available accelerators includes:

• Salesforce

  • Leads Capture and Conversion 

  • Opportunity Trends and Pipeline 

  • Sales Activities and Engagement

  • Case Overview and Trends

  • Case Management and Resolution

  • Accounts with Cases

• Accounts Payable

  • Accounts Payable

  • Vendor Spend Analysis

  • Vendor Performance

• Accounts Receivable

  • Doubtful receivables

  • Days sales outstanding

  • Overdue receivables

  • Accounts receivable

• Order to Cash

  • Order fulfillment

  • Order status snapshot

  • Order details

  • Sales performance

  • Billing and pricing

• Industry Solutions

  • Cortex Demand Sensing for SAP CPG

    • Alert potential impacts on-demand plan

    • Forecast outside statistics range

    • Unexpected weather alert

    • Non-seasonal trend alert

    • Promotional differences alert

  • Partner Solutions, Cross Industry

    • Inventory Optimization

    • Supply Network Risk

    • AI Demand Forecasting

    • Assortment Recommendation

    • Product Fulfillment Optimization

    • Many more…

Cortex Framework Technical Construct

Throughout the Cortex Data Foundation process, you will experience several Google Cloud services being utilized. A brief explanation of each service can help you understand its individual functions.

Google BigQuery — Google BigQuery is a cloud-based data warehousing and business intelligence solution provided by Google Cloud. It allows users to analyze massive datasets using SQL-like queries without the need for managing any infrastructure or servers. 

Cloud Build — Cloud Build is a service that executes your builds on Google Cloud. Cloud Build can import source code from a variety of repositories or cloud storage spaces, execute a build to your specifications, and produce artifacts such as Docker containers or Java archives.

Looker — Looker is a business intelligence and data analytics platform that enables organizations to gather, analyze, and share insights from data. It allows users to create customized data visualizations, explore data sets, and share findings with team members. Looker also provides advanced data modeling capabilities, allowing users to create data models and define relationships between different data sources.

Cloud Storage — Google Cloud Storage is a cloud-based object storage service offered by Google Cloud. It allows users to store and retrieve unstructured data objects such as photos, videos, and documents in a secure and scalable manner.

Cloud Composer — Google Cloud Composer is a fully-managed workflow orchestration service on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) that enables users to author, schedule, and monitor workflows that span across clouds and on-premises data centers.

Conclusion

The Cortex Framework for SAP is a robust framework that helps businesses streamline data integrations and facilitate advanced analytics-driven decision-making. It offers a unified view of data from both SAP and non-SAP systems, which enables organizations to streamline operations, automate business processes, and obtain real-time insights into their SAP and other applications data. The platform is highly adaptable, allowing businesses to tailor it to their unique requirements.

Call-to-Action

Are you familiar with the Cortex Framework, or have you already deployed it? If not, here is an automated deployment guide you can follow. I would appreciate any feedback or opinions you have on what you liked or didn't like. Feel free to connect me if you have any further questions. If you find this write-up helpful, please consider sharing it with others.

DISCLAIMER: The opinions and viewpoints are solely mine in this article and do not reflect my employer's official position or views. This article should not be considered an official endorsement or statement from my employer.