Exploring Innovative Technology Solutions in Cloud-Native Development and AI  

by / ⠀News / October 24, 2024
Innovative Technology; Gurmat Bhatia
Gurmat Bhatia is well-known for proficient work in cloud-native software, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and real-time Data integration. He serves as the executive director of engineering at Ingram Micro, a company that benefits from his strategic mind and strong engineering background, as he leads the company’s engineering operations and projects. His work is more concerned with finding solutions that he believes have the potential to be scaled up in an organization in order to improve operational activities and customer interactions. As for Gurmat, his experience is focused on the main areas of the technological industry. He has experience in developing global pricing and discount management solutions, supply chain order tracking, and autonomous pricing solutions, all built on cloud-native and artificial intelligence. His approach to the simplification of complex business processes focuses on the issue of efficiency in the support of initiatives that target a wide base of customers and vendor integration.

Innovative Technology; Gurmat Bhatia

Image of Gurmat Bhatia

Leveraging cloud-native and AI technologies for real-time solutions 

To address the challenge of managing the status of order in a fast-evolving operating distribution environment, Gurmat spearheaded a project based on cloud technologies and artificial intelligence. The goal was to connect internal and external systems involving manufacturers, carriers, ERPs, warehouses, and B2B middleware. Gurmat continued, “This meant that systems had to be integrated in real-time, and as this is one of the most used features, we had to have a scalable solution across the globe which can provide real-time tracking info to all channels – Web, API, CRM.” Thanks to the implementation of microservices on cloud containers, the project allowed horizontal scaling and high availability to address a large load workload while ensuring work quality.  It did not just mean linking the systems but also the need to adopt a real-time data integration approach. In terms of real-time, Gurmat said, “Real-time integration with carriers and vendors through pub/sub mechanism gives real time data if there is any change in advance shipment notifications with vendors, change in carrier status, delays, real time shipment visibility etc.” This integration made it possible to offer real-time visibility to the customers and associates and greatly improved the efficiency of operations as well as the satisfaction of the customers. The solution also enhanced the operation and user experience because the timely delivery of accurate information was a struggle due to the use of multiple external data sources. 
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Integrating AI for business success 

Order tracking in the distribution industry sometimes heavily relies on vendors for shipment visibility which in most cases creates a black box scenario. This occurs when the data provided by the vendors are delayed reducing the visibility that customers have. To overcome this, Gurmat led a campaign to train models with the usage of feature engineering in machine learning. These models worked on historical data as well as on particular data points to provide estimated time of arrival estimates (ETAs). Therefore, the number of calls concerning the shipments reduced, which improved the customer experience. The machine learning models contributed to the success and made the order status and tracking the second most utilized feature on the platform, which receives over 10 million requests monthly internationally. Gurmat on this achievement said, “This has reduced the customer inquiries about their shipments and improved customer experience.” Thus, presenting a case of how AI can enhance operational results by facilitating timely and accurate shipment visibility as an element of the solution delivered by the team.

Real-time pricing innovation 

Special discounts received from the vendors are another problem area as there is no benchmarking. According to Gurmat, “There are a lot of variations depending on vendors, product lines, relationships between different products, and how vendors transmit the data.” This variability created many manual steps such as translating vendor data into distributor data, setting up discounts, creating and loading SKUs into ERPs, and manually creating quotes for customers. These were some of the manual steps that could lead to operational problems and slow down the business hence affecting the customers.  To solve these problems, Gurmat’s team came up with a solution that interfaces with vendors in real-time using methods like exchange emails, PDFs, APIs, and EDI/FTPs among others. “It triggers the next pipeline in real-time to calculate the price margins and discounts based on over 20 data variables, resulting in millions of pricing rules combinations,” Gurmat noted. This real-time calculation means that a quote is ready within a minute, thus enabling customers to access it from the company’s web platforms and emails; this is as opposed to taking up to 72 hours to generate a quote.This automation made the process of pricing and ordering more efficient to create better customer satisfaction.
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Ensuring scalability and reliability in software design 

For Gurmat, “security, scalability, reliability, and maintainability are critical” when it comes to creating scalable and dependable software solutions for large-scale operations. Scalability, as a specific approach to design, is aimed at anticipating project expansion during the next iteration, load testing before each iteration, and assessing the results in the context of specific response time standards. Load balancing is also implemented as part of Gurmat’s approach; containers allow the system to handle increasing loads in the future without compromising on its speed.  Reliability is attained through the creation of backup in all layers; web application, databases, and storage. “Have backup and disaster recovery strategies in place to safeguard against potential failures,” Gurmat advises. The technologies employed in these solutions are inherently cloud based, which gives them the scalability and reliability of an enterprise grade system. For instance, the order status tracking system and the autonomous pricing software as a whole receive approximately 10 million API calls per month and over 10 million pricing calls per day, thus proving their scalability and productivity. 

Overcoming tech challenges through innovation

The most significant issue in digital transformation, as Gurmat pointed out, is not the tool but adopting and implementing the digital tools in business processes and change management. He believes, “In any digital transformation journey, we should start with the business process and then apply the technology to solve the problem.” His approach consists of examining the problem in its entirety, taking a systemic view, and beginning with the improvement of business workflows.  Gurmat uses the design thinking approach in developing solutions to business challenges; it presents a technical solution map with a flexible implementation roadmap. This methodology involves a process of prototyping and an ability to quickly fail, and then to improve the process on the next try. Start with optimization of the business process and then apply design thinking to the business problem to come up with an end-to-end technical strategy but agile delivery plan,” he explains. This approach was successfully applied to both the order status tracking and autonomous pricing solutions, which proves that creative problem solving can successfully address technological problems. 
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Cross-functional collaboration for successful projects 

The development of the pricing solution is a good example of how any initiative is always cross-functional and critical to the success of business. Gurmat also highlighted that the integration of several departments like the sales, the finance and the vendor relation department was important because it impacted procurement as well as sales cycle.  The project from a technological point of view involved the integration of ERP, CRM, web platforms, back end applications, EDI, middleware, data, DevOps, infrastructure, and security teams. Gurmat underscored the complexity of this integration, stating, “If a vendor is sending special discounts, these discounts need to flow from the pricing system to all the upstream/downstream systems from ERP, CRM, finance applications, web platforms, etc.  This extensive cooperation helped to avoid problems with compatibility and performance of all the systems, proving the significance of interdisciplinary cooperation in the effective application of innovative solutions. 

Staying updated with the latest tech trends 

To ensure that the solutions he provides are relevant and effective, Gurmat does not avoid different resources to explore the modern trends in technology. He actively participates in the technology groups and reads technology articles and research papers.   Additionally, Gurmat participates in technology summits and engages in online courses and projects offered by renowned universities like MIT, such as Designing and Building AI Products and Services and Artificial Intelligence: Implications for Business Strategy. These educational experiences provide important information about new technologies. He also leverages the open-source technologies to make prototypes, thus coming up with the new trends to implement in his work. This proactive approach guarantees that his solutions are as innovative as possible, and always address the needs of the industry.  The story of Gurmat is an inspiring one that shows how technology solutions can revolutionize organizations. He has been able to tackle all business challenges by integrating strategic direction with an understanding of innovations to improve customers’ experiences and business outcomes. That is why such leaders will definitely remain at the helm of the industry and contribute to the creation of new technologies in the future. 

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About The Author

Educator. Writer. Editor. Proofreader. Lauren Carpenter's vast career and academic experiences have strengthened her conviction in the power of words. She has developed content for a globally recognized real estate corporation, as well as respected magazines like Virginia Living Magazine and Southern Review of Books.

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