DataChat launches into Google Cloud Marketplace with speed and confidence

Big data insights for everyone

Today’s enterprises are flush with data–on their customers, products, transactions, and market conditions. Discovering novel patterns and extracting actionable insights requires top expertise at a high cost. Challenges such as how to personalize the customer experience, modernize supply chains, implement predictive analytics, and optimize manufacturing require deep mathematics, programming, AI, and machine learning know-how to solve.

“Not everyone has the math and coding skills to develop machine learning models to turn large data sets into credible, reproducible insights,” says Viken Eldemir, CEO of DataChat. “DataChat can help.”

DataChat is a no-code, generative AI analytics platform designed to make complex data science accessible to everyone. Any type of end user can prepare and blend data and pose analytical questions in plain English. “You can work in a spreadsheet, chat conversationally, or a combination of both, meanwhile, everything is converted into Python and SQL automatically,” explains Eldemir. “To be able to do Python and SQL is truly a differentiated offering.”

Business challenge

As DataChat prepared to launch their SaaS product, they knew they needed to establish a presence on a public cloud platform that could provide a more streamlined connection with prospects. Google Cloud, with its range of capabilities, including big data compute, machine learning, security, and developer tools, was the obvious marketplace to integrate with.

“The way people buy has changed,” says Eldemir. “More and more of our prospective customers are signing up with Google Cloud, so it has become essential to be part of that ecosystem if we want to do business.”

Eliminating friction in customer relationships

DataChat was also attracted to the fact that users don’t have to figure out whether a project is budgeted, negotiate master service agreements (MSAs), or do collections. “If a customer is committed to Google Cloud and has identified a need suited to our software, we can leverage their commit so that the transaction is frictionless,” says Eldemir. “It creates confidence by reducing risk.”

Since launching on Google Cloud Marketplace has a different approval and technical integration process, DataChat didn’t want to go it alone. Time was of the essence, and they wanted to launch into the marketplace as soon as possible, with as much technical ease as could be mustered. 

Solution

Building a marketplace integration strategy

Leveraging relationships from prior project engagements, DataChat turned to SADA for their expertise to smooth the runway to the Google Cloud ecosystem.

SADA was a natural fit. Their team knows Google Cloud, Google Cloud Marketplace, and what it takes to get on it. We knew they could streamline the process for us. 

Rogers Jeffrey Leo John | Co-founder and CTO at DataChat

In collaborating with SADA, DataChat aimed to:

• Accelerate the integration of their SaaS application with Google Cloud Marketplace
• Gain in-depth knowledge and consultative best-practices guidance 
• Test and validate the proper functioning of the registration process
• Publish their cloud marketplace listing by the end of the engagement
• Set up revenue reporting

Leveraging SADA’s Google Cloud Marketplace expertise

Over an eight-week engagement, SADA’s Google Cloud Marketplace Integration Services team of infrastructure engineers and project managers collaborated with DataChat’s subject matter expert, Leo John, and project sponsor, Eldemir. Based on prior experience with Google Cloud open source-based systems, DataChat felt they had the background that they could leverage for the marketplace integration but still desired guidance. 

“Before engaging with SADA we were running our SaaS product on Kubernetes,” says Zach Mathe, Senior Software Engineer at DataChat. “We did some hands-on exploration of Google Cloud requirements, which involved building out custom integrations and integrating with other Google Cloud technologies, but some pathways were unclear.”

Building on each other’s strengths

With SADA having performed 45+ Google Cloud Marketplace integrations, DataChat looked forward to building on that know-how. To start the process, SADA conducted its Google Cloud Marketplace Readiness Assessment on behalf of DataChat. The Readiness Assessment ensured DataChat’s product readiness with a thorough review that addressed any gaps before solution validation.

For the solution implementation, SADA walked DataChat through the Google Cloud Marketplace new listing form, Google Cloud architecture diagram, and the Google Cloud cost calculator, while DataChat provided pertinent details on their application.

“SADA smoothed the process of order management, which saved us a lot of time because we didn’t have to dig into the technical details of how to interface with Google Cloud and the partner procurement API,” says Mathe. “All we needed to do was provide the requested information, and we were given guidelines on how to format it for a successful marketplace approval.” 

Solving integration with a plug-and-play tool

Along the way, SADA provided feedback on DataChat’s architecture and clearly listed out the requirements. Without SADA’s guidance, DataChat would’ve expended resources poring over pages of documentation and troubleshooting readiness strategies.

“SADA offers a built-in marketplace integration tool,” says Leo John. “Since this is our first time going into Google Cloud Marketplace, having billing and usage tracking integrated within the SADA tool was equally helpful. It functioned like a plug-and-play solution.”

The sharing of information and open communication between stakeholders was also important to the success of the implementation phase. “Communication flow with SADA’s team was fast, so we could iterate quickly,” says Mathe. “If I had questions, I could easily reach SADA, get an answer, adjust, and see those results on our listing. That was extremely beneficial for us.”

Impact

Fast-tracking integration

For a typical Google Cloud Marketplace integration, solution validation takes anywhere from four to six weeks for final Google Cloud approval. With SADA’s help, the DataChat marketplace listing gained approval within five business days.

Solution validation was eased by SADA’s expertise in technical implementation of the Google Cloud Marketplace integration,. When Google Cloud approval came back within a week, we were pleasantly surprised.

Viken Eldemir | CEO of DataChat

Simplifying business operations

Firmly launched into Google Cloud Marketplace, DataChat felt the impact on their business immediately, particularly in the area of managing the financial aspect of client accounts.

“When it comes to the marketplace, I don’t have to have a finance process; I don’t have to handle accounts receivable; I don’t have to send out invoices,” says Leo John. “Eliminating all those things comes as a huge benefit to us as a smaller company.”

Reducing time spent on sales, increasing customer dedication

The benefits of Google Cloud Marketplace extend to DataChat’s customers in critical ways. First, being part of a public cloud marketplace offers an added level of assurance. “Protocols and hosting have already been vetted by Google Cloud,” says Eldemir. “That confidence helps us focus on building out great analytics software that solves problems no other offering can.”

Additionally, it frees up time that otherwise would’ve been spent on technical matters or sales training, and lets DataChat rededicate themselves to building client relationships. 

“Having a SADA account representative involved in selling makes it easier for us to manage the task of generating demand with Google Cloud customers who are looking for analytics solutions, as opposed to managing a team of individual sales reps,” concludes Leo John.