Questions about the organisation of Intellegens projects
What is your project delivery process?
Once your purchasing activities finish, Intellegens will assign an Alchemite™ Success team to work with you on delivering the project.
In most cases, our project delivery process starts with a kick-off meeting, in which the Alchemite™ Success team will discuss and confirm with you the project plans, including scope, objectives, and timelines. Often, delivery begins with a pilot (or Proof of Concept) project. Once the initial project approach has been agreed, all users from your organisation will get access to the Alchemite™ platform.
The first stage is usually to collate, organise and prepare data in the required formats – the Alchemite™ Success team will advise on this process and support you through initial analysis work. This analysis can be undertaken either by Intellegens scientists or by your own team, as agreed in the project plan. In either case, the Alchemite™ Success team will meet you on a regular basis to coach all software users on how to use the platform step-by-step, review the insights found by Alchemite™ on your project, and discuss the best approach to solve problems that arise.
By the end of project, the Alchemite™ Success team will support you in delivering the project review in a manner of your choice (reports, presentations, etc.) and in deciding on next steps.
What is a “pilot” project (or “Proof of Concept”) and what’s next?
In many cases, your journey with Intellegens starts with a pilot project (also called a “Proof of Concept”, or POC project). These projects are consultancy-driven and run for 3 months on average (although the length might vary depending on the complexity). During the project lifecycle, the Alchemite™ Success team will work with you to deploy Alchemite™ software to meet agreed objectives and to demonstrate the feasibility of Alchemite™ in your use case. As part of the engagement, we will ensure that your project leads learn the skills needed to use Alchemite™ and thus feel confident in leading projects internally in the future.
Following a successful pilot project, you’ll be in a position to decide whether to extend the existing project or begin a project with a new focus. In either case, you’ll be provided continuous support and guidance from the Alchemite™ Success team.
Who is involved in a pilot project?
The Alchemite™ Success team will be involved in a pilot project from Intellegens’ side. Normally an Alchemite™ Success team will consist of an account manager, at least one ML scientist, and a project delivery manager.
What is a consultancy project?
In consultancy projects you will expect most of the scope of work and deliverables to be undertaken as a service by the Alchemite™ Success team, in accordance with the requirements and objectives discussed in the project kick-off. Consultancy projects have less focus on training you in the use of the Alchemite™ software and preparing for an on-going software deployment – although, often, customers decide after a consultancy project that progressing to a software deployment is a good next step.
What is a software project?
In software projects, your role will gradually transition from an AI participant to an AI player, with most of the scope of work and deliverables to be undertaken by your internal project team, although (particularly for initial projects) some service and support is usually provided by the Alchemite™ Success team. This includes providing you with training sessions where you can learn and develop the essential skills and competencies to use Alchemite™.
What licence do I need after a pilot project finishes?
After Alchemite™ has proven its feasibility in your use case, you might consider deploying it to your team or organisation. To use Alchemite™, you need to get either a “Model Builder” or “Analytics User” licence for each individual user in your organisation. Please contact our sales team for more information.
Do I have to comply with your EULA if it’s a pilot project?
Yes. All Alchemite™ users must comply with our EULA terms and conditions after registration. The terms and conditions can be found on the login page of Alchemite™ Analytics, labelled as “Legal” and “Privacy” on the bottom of this page.
What’s the difference between Model Builders and Analytics Users?
Model Builders have the ability to create new models, whereas Analytics Users can only view and apply them. To get a model, Analytics Users need to ask either Model Builders from your organisation or from the Alchemite™ Success team to create a model meeting your needs and share it with you.
How can I deploy Alchemite™?
You are free to use Alchemite™ through either the Alchemite™ Analytics web browser (frontend) user interface or its API, Alchemite™ Engine.
There are 3 ways to deploy AlchemiteTM in your organisation:
- Shared cluster. All the cloud resources and computations will be run and hosted on Intellegens shared infrastructure.
- Private managed cluster. All the cloud resources and computations will be run and hosted on a standalone, private infrastructure that is separate from the shared infrastructure, all managed for you by Intellegens.
- Self-hosted cluster. All the cloud resources and computations will be run and hosted on your own infrastructure, isolated from any Intellegens infrastructure, and will be deployed, supported and administered by your own IT team.
Both the frontend and API are available on all three cluster types.
Which cloud platform do you deploy your services on?
Our service is currently available on Google Cloud Platform, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure.
The shared cluster is purely on Google Cloud Platform.
The private managed cluster is currently available on all of these three cloud providers.
The self-hosted cluster is available on all of these three cloud providers, plus any other Kubernetes enabled services, from your own hardware to smaller services such as OVH or linode.
What are the minimum requirements of the workstation to deploy and use Alchemite™?
Alchemite™ Analytics is a web browser based tool and all the computation will be done on cloud, so if you’re using Alchemite™ Analytics there’s no requirement on your device/laptop. In order to get the best experience please always keep your browser version up to date.
For Alchemite™ Engine API users, some familiarity with programming is required. We provide a Python client to simplify the process of authenticating with and using the API. Using this client requires a Python installation of 3.8 or newer. Alternatively, full documentation of the API is available to allow the creation of a custom client, if you have specific needs that the Python client can’t fulfil.
The requirements above on Alchemite™ Analytics and Alchemite™ Engine are the same in the shared cluster and private managed cluster situation. For a self-hosted cluster, hardware requirements will depend on data volume, number of models and users. We would recommend a multiple node install while a single node also works. Corresponding minimum specs are listed below.
Single node:
- A minimum of 32 GB of RAM is recommended with 8 cores.
- 250GB filesystem storage.
Multiple node (min 3):
- A minimum of 16 GB of RAM is recommended with 4 cores.
- 100GB file system storage per node plus 500GB for the File System and 100GB for each replica of Opensearch (3 replicas are deployed by default).
For more information please refer to the AlchemiteTM Security Guide.
How do I add more users during the course of a project?
If you’d like to expand your licence, please contact our sales team who will propose new licence plans for you and guide you on the next steps.
Who is my key contact?
Before you agree to a pilot project or licence the software, your key contact will be your Intellegens sales representative. During this process you’ll be gradually introduced to the Alchemite™ Success team, consisting of your account manager, ML scientists, and a project delivery manager. When a project is kicked off, the project delivery manager will become a key contact alongside your account manager.
How can I get more consultancy?
During any project, your Alchemite™ Success team will keep closely in touch with you and collaborate with you to assess further needs. If further support or consultancy is needed, you can discuss this with your key Intellegens contacts at any time and they can advise you and work with the scientific team at Intellegens to timetable any necessary ML scientists’ time.
