As a Microsoft Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate, you are tasked with designing a comprehensive data analytics solution for a global supply chain management company aiming to optimize their inventory management process. The company operates in multiple regions and has a vast dataset comprising inventory levels, sales data, and supplier information across different formats and systems. Given the complexity and scale of the data, along with the need for real-time analytics to support decision-making, which of the following steps is MOST critical to initiate the planning of the data analytics environment? Choose the best option.