Unifying disparate data sources for faster insights with Atlan
The Active Metadata Pioneers series features Atlan clients who have completed a comprehensive assessment of the Active Metadata Management market. Passing on what you’ve learned to the next data leader is the true spirit of the Atlan community! That’s why they’re here to share their hard-earned insights into an evolving market, what makes up your modern data stack, innovative use cases for metadata, and more.
In this installment of the series, we meet Hans Howard, senior data engineer at ChargePoint, a company that operates hundreds of thousands of electric vehicle charging stations in 14 countries, delivering 269 million charges and avoiding 2.5 million tons greenhouse gas emissions metrics. Hans shares how ChargePoint went from navigating multiple data systems to using Atlan as a one-stop shop for questions about your data.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity..
Could you tell us a little about yourself, your background and what attracted you to Data & Analytics?
I first recognized the power of data in high school. There was an after-school program where we repaired out-of-warranty computers for reuse. After logging enough hours, you could earn a computer. My main task was to inventory each part, such as motherboards and video cards, recording serial numbers and descriptions in an Excel sheet. I spent several days gathering all this data until I handed it in and forgot about it.
Months later, my teacher told me that the data I gathered helped the police investigate a classmate for stealing hardware. Not only was he expelled, but he also faced legal consequences. It was a sad story, but it really opened my eyes to the power of data.
My career was built in that moment. Good, accurate data can lead to serious, impactful events.
Could you describe ChargePoint and how your data team supports the organization and mission?
ChargePoint was founded out of concern about the state of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, with the goal of making electric fueling easy and widely available, a mission I fully support. But I didn’t start in data and analytics, far from it. I started at a fledgling advocacy organization in Arizona.
At the time, ChargePoint was still private and many processes in the support organization were in a state that could not be scaled. Naturally, I started pulling metrics from our phone and ticketing systems and making connections. Before long, I was managing the support team and then leading a metrics and reporting organization for support and IT.
In my current role in ChargePoint’s dedicated data and analytics group, our mandate is to help people across the business understand data coming from various systems and make it work for them.
That’s why I enjoy working at ChargePoint. While there is an overall mission, each group has its own specific objectives. There are countless opportunities to contribute and the environment is constantly changing. It is dynamic and fluid, with changing priorities and new challenges. As issues arise, our team works with others to identify their needs, define the problem, and use data to find solutions.
Why look for an Active Metadata Management solution? What was missing?
I was not involved in the original decision to adopt Atlan, but I spoke to the person who was at the time; An exceptionally intelligent person.
His team struggled with requests that required comparing and understanding data from disparate sources, and spent countless hours pulling data from phone, sales, manufacturing, and quality control systems, each of which tracked different information.
Before Atlan, finding the necessary data was a challenge. They had to find out what system it was on, who owned it, and generate access tickets, which slowed everything down. This prompted his team to adopt Atlan and I remember being very excited about it.
Could you share your experience with Atlan so far?
Atlan became our one-stop shop. You can simply search for a field name, table topic, or system in a search box, which provides tables, fields, lineage, and more. All ChargePoint data is accessible and searched by everyone. You can check it out and join everything in one place, which has been incredibly helpful. They sold me.
Atlan acts as a force multiplier.and it’s the answer to almost any data question a team may have. For example, “I want to combine session, alarm and ticket data to feed a machine learning algorithm,” either “We have a large language model and we need to analyze certain things. How do I gather that data?“
Atlan builds a query for you and guides you to sanitize your data. If you have a data question, the answer is Atlan.
What’s next for you and your team? Is there something you are excited to build?
ChargePoint recently announced our the industry’s first AI solution to improve operations. Drivers can take a photo of a malfunctioning station, and while that’s rare, it poses a problem when it happens. Instead of making calls back and forth with support, AI analyzes cloud data to diagnose the problem, identify needed parts, and expedite repairs, reducing downtime and contact rates.
Since AI has been proven to save money and improve customer experience, we are actively exploring new applications for even more innovative solutions. Atlan will play a key role in these AI-driven initiatives, starting with the discovery of available data, evaluating its size and quality, and helping to build data sets for various use cases..
Anything else you want to share about your experience with Atlan?
Support organizations have been my bread and butter throughout my career, so I tend to notice when I interact with one. My interactions with Atlan Support have been limited, which is a good sign that things are working, but every experience I’ve had has been first class and I really appreciate it.
Photo by Michael Fortsch in unpack
