Why SingleStore is the ideal choice for real-time analytics and applications

A good data experience is the key to winning or losing a customer. Today’s evolved, conscious users seek real-time insights and analytics to make quick decisions. This creates the need for a solid data infrastructure to support changing business needs.

Meet SingleStore, the world’s fastest distributed SQL database for real-time analytics applications. It combines transactional and analytical workloads in a multi-model framework in a single engine.

Multiple case studies prove its success – many of which were highlighted in Leaders Exchange: Indian Startups’ AI Journey to Global Dominance, organized by SingleStore in collaboration with YourStory.

In addition to the opening speech of Sanjay AroraGeneral Manager, APAC, SingleStore, the event included a fireside chat–Raj VermaCEO, SingleStore and Shradha SharmaFounder and CEO, YourStory.

A panel discussion on ‘Achieving Growth in India: Real-time Analytics and AI’ brought together pioneers like Praveen DasCo-founder, Factors.ai; Vikas GuptaGeneral Manager, HPCL; Vaibhav, Director of Engineering, BharatPe; and Sreedhar GadeVice President of Engineering, Freshworks. They discussed the unparalleled opportunities for Indian startups to achieve global dominance through the power of real-time AI. The session was moderated by George KuruvillaSenior Director, Data Platform Evangelist (APAC), SingleStore.

Leveraging real-time analytics for growth and decision-making

Elaborating on Factors.ai’s journey, Das shared that the first year was all about building the product and attracting some customers. However, in 2021, they signed up to SingleStore, because their app was “terribly slow” and impacted customers.

“We did some assessments and had certain criteria, like being cloud neutral. We were looking for a single database for both analytical and transactional workloads. As a company, analytics is the core offering of our product,” he shared, adding that Factors.ai has moved from an S2 cluster to an S12 cluster in the last three years.

The company managed its growth without a single resource dedicated to infrastructure. “That’s the kind of advantage we have… our focus has been purely on application,” Das said.

Gupta spoke about the various challenges in operations and decision-making in the petroleum industry. HPCL has a platform, HP Udgam, to support startups and provide funding to those with a vision to grow the sector. But it all comes down to the value generated by the data.

“Our products are based on commodities, so we need to know how to deliver value to the customer. It’s all about how to deliver a personalized customer experience. We went from “data is the new oil” to “data is the daata (donor)”. If you want to earn your bread, you have to play with the dice,” he shared.

To manage operations, Gupta said it is important to put a layer of governance on an OT platform to tell it what is right and what needs to be invested. “Safety is fundamental to the oil and gas sector. We have been able to establish visual analytics at our points of sale to increase customer safety and prevent untoward incidents,” he said, adding that improved customer service is a consequence of the SingleStore collaboration.

Innovation to scale

BharatPe reported a 77% increase in new merchant signups in February 2024. But how did the company navigate such huge volumes? “It is more a question of readiness in relation to such scenarios. This can only be done through the data infrastructure we prepare and the data platform we choose. An obvious keyword that comes to everyone’s mind is autoscaling, but it also has its limitations,” he said. He added that handling such scenarios requires implementing several machine learning algorithms in the background, based on data collected in the past.

Freshworks, which started as a single-product company in 2010, has added several products and gone public over time. Today, it is present in more than 100 countries, with 65,000 customers across industry verticals.

“We have been innovating at GenAI and trying to stay ahead of the curve. We have Freshdesk, our customer experience product. We also have Freshservice, and on top of that, when you have Gen AI, you’re talking about predictive analytics. Everyone is playing past or present; we are playing in the future,” Gad said.

Freshworks seeks to revolutionize the customer experience through agent actions. “We recently launched a beta version of self-service in our CX product, where 100% of agent actions are performed by AI, both voice and text. This is just the beginning of things to come,” Gad said.