Interview with Prasanth Kolangareth and Candide Orou-Yorouba

Award for data-driven excellence: LHIND expert becomes Databricks Champion

Databricks Champion Lufthansa Industry Solutions (LHIND) has partnered with Databricks since January 2023 and is part of their championship program - a group of experts who stand for innovation, collaboration and data-driven solutions. Databricks combines the capabilities of data warehouses and data lakes. An open and standardized platform enables innovative data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) applications.

Norderstedt, April 15, 2025 – Prasanth Kolangareth, Data Engineer at LHIND, has now been named a Databricks Champion. Together with Candide Orou-Yorouba, Business Manager Data Platforms & Technology at LHIND, he talks about his path to becoming a Champion and the benefits this brings to LHIND customers.

How do you become a Databricks Champion?

Prasanth: The program is not open to the public. Partner companies are given a limited number of slots to nominate employees. Selection is based on technical background, data science or engineering skills. But it's also about the ability to translate technical knowledge into a business context. I myself was selected based on my experience with Databricks in various customer projects. That was the beginning of my journey as a champion.

Candide: Databricks has clear requirements. First, you go through several certification levels, such as Data Engineering Associate and Professional. You also attend workshops and take exams. The final step is to present your own projects and solutions to a panel that assesses how well you can translate technical knowledge into business value.

Our champions help customers not only implement technical solutions, but also clearly understand the business.

Candide Orou-Yorouba
Business Manager Data Platforms & Technology bei LHIND

How does this benefit LHIND customers?

Prasanth: The benefits to customers are tremendous. As champions, we understand the platform down to the last detail and can bring this expertise directly into the projects. We not only advise our customers technically, but also demonstrate the business value. Working closely with Databricks gives us access to new features, often before they are released to the public. This allows us to develop customized and innovative solutions that are tailored to our customers' needs. We can also offer best practices and deeper insights that go beyond what is available out of the box.

As champions, we understand the platform down to the last detail and can bring this expertise directly into the projects.

Prasanth Kolangareth
Data Engineer bei LHIND

How do you help customers get the most out of Databricks?

Candide: Our job is to recommend the best tool based on what the customer really needs and where they want to go with their data infrastructure. That's why we work closely with our customers to understand their needs. For example, we can use Databricks for data engineering, AI, or business intelligence. Our champions help customers not only implement technical solutions, but also clearly understand the business.

Lufthansa Industry Solutions is a service provider for IT consulting and system integration. This Lufthansa subsidiary helps its clients with the digital transformation of their companies. Its customer base includes companies both within and outside the Lufthansa Group, as well as more than 300 companies in various lines of business. The company is based in Norderstedt and employs more than 2,600 members of staff at several branch offices in Germany, Albania, Switzerland and the USA.