To improve transparency and decision-making across complex global supply chains, a global mission-driven organization launched a strategic initiative to unify and activate its data through a modern analytics platform. The goal was to consolidate disparate datasets—from audit reports to partner feedback—and deliver actionable insights to field teams and external stakeholders via embedded business intelligence (BI) tools.
The solution was built using a modern AWS-based architecture, integrated with a secure delivery framework and dynamic access controls. This enabled field agents, program staff, and partner organizations to access personalized dashboards embedded directly into a web portal or via external APIs.
As part of the core delivery team, I led the development of the embedded analytics delivery mechanism and contributed to the AWS architecture, security, and governance design.
Business Objectives
- Accelerate insights delivery for internal teams and business partners.
- Unify and enrich data from CRM, audits, surveys, and partner systems.
- Enable embedded analytics within a secure, responsive web portal.
- Support external access via APIs and partner-facing dashboards.
- Ensure scalability, security, and governance across environments.
Architecture Overview
The platform was built on a modular, cloud-native architecture designed for performance, flexibility, and compliance. Key architectural layers include:
Data Sources
- CRM platforms, audit systems, and survey tools
- Unstructured content (media, documents)
- Partner applications and REST APIs
Ingestion & Transformation
- AWS Glue for data extraction and preparation
- Amazon Translate for multilingual input normalization
- Amazon Recognition for image/video auto-tagging
- Amazon Bedrock for future AI-driven categorization and text enrichment
Central Data Storage
- Amazon Redshift for structured analytics
- Amazon S3 for object and media storage
Analytics & BI Layer
- ThoughtSpot Embedded provides self-service dashboards and interactive insights
- Liveboards are personalized based on user roles, accounts, and data groupings
Delivery & Middleware
- Built on Laravel + Vue.js, with token provisioning and routing handled by:
- AWS API Gateway
- AWS Lambda
- Okta SSO for identity management
Security & Governance
- AWS IAM, Secrets Manager, and CloudTrail ensure secure access and traceability
- Environment isolation via org-based provisioning (Dev, Stage, Prod)
Embedded Analytics Delivery
The delivery mechanism allows secure, personalized dashboards to be embedded within a partner-facing portal:
- ThoughtSpot dashboards are loaded dynamically using the Visual Embed SDK
- JIT (Just-In-Time) provisioning enables real-time assignment to user groups and orgs
Impact
The new platform delivered significant operational and strategic benefits:
- “Three months to minutes” – staff and business partners can now access insights instantly that once required months of manual analysis and data collection.
- Hundreds of hours saved – staff no longer need to manually compile audit and supply chain reports, freeing time for higher-value work.
- Scalability – the system is capable of supportine multiple partner environments, thousands of users, and dynamic access controls without reengineering.
- Improved governance – environment-specific provisioning and centralized IAM ensure secure, compliant access to sensitive data.
- Future-ready – the architecture is extensible to AI/ML tools like Amazon Forecast and Personalize for predictive insights and recommendations.
Future Roadmap
The platform lays the foundation for advanced capabilities, including:
- Predictive analytics using Amazon Forecast and SageMaker
- Automated summaries and multilingual narratives via Amazon Bedrock
- Partner-specific recommendations through Amazon Personalize
- Context-aware risk modeling based on ESG and supply chain metadata
- Data enrichment using third-party sources from platforms like Amazon Data Exchange to enhance decision-making and contextual analysis
Conclusion
This case study highlights how an engineering-led, cloud-first approach can transform how organizations operationalize insights and scale stakeholder access. By combining AWS, ThoughtSpot, and secure embedded delivery, the solution has become a cornerstone for real-time decision support across global supply chains—driving efficiency, equity, and impact.
Tags: AWS, ThoughtSpot, Embedded Analytics, Data Architecture, Supply Chain Visibility, Cloud Engineering, Serverless Architecture, Laravel, Vue.js, Redshift, S3, Okta, API Gateway, Lambda, IAM, JIT Provisioning, BI Integration, Governance, Scalability, Data Platform, Field Enablement, Operational Efficiency, Multilingual Data, Secure Data Access, Digital Transformation