How a Scalable Telematics Data Platform Enabled a Fortune 100 Insurer to Deliver 15% Cost Savings

Key Highlights: What This Case Study Covers

• Best practices in telematics data platform modernization for insurers, including real-time streaming and metadata-driven data quality
• Implementation of Databricks Serverless and Delta Live Tables (DLT) to enable trip insights in under 5 minutes and handle 4x scale
• Creation of a future-ready IoT platform to process auto, commercial vehicle, and home sensor data
• Adoption of cloud-native governance and observability frameworks to boost reliability, security, and compliance
• Strategic cost optimization with ~15% savings in high-volume telematics data processing

Client Overview

A Fortune 100 insurer with a broad portfolio of auto, homeowners, life, and specialty insurance. The company is expanding its IoT and telematics-driven offerings to grow auto policy share and deliver best-in-industry customer experience.

The Ask

The insurer needed a modern IoT data platform that could deliver trip insights within five minutes, scale to four times current volumes, ensure data quality and observability, optimize costs, and support the expansion of Usage-Based Insurance (UBI) products.

Challenges

• 10–20 min latency risked SLA breaches and delayed trip insights.
• Legacy enrichment constrained accurate, AI/ML-ready data.
• Rapid tech shifts risked misalignment with enterprise IT priorities.
• Integrating Databricks Serverless with AWS Cloud demanded strict security controls.
• Limited KPI visibility hindered cost-performance management.

Our Solution: A Scalable Telematics Platform

Modernized Data Ingestion and Processing

Re-architected ingestion pipelines to handle diverse telematics data feeds from mobile apps, TSPs, and OEMs. Implemented structured streaming with Delta Live Tables for near real-time processing.

Embedded Data Quality and Reconciliation Frameworks

Introduced metadata-driven rules to standardize trip definitions, validate data formats, and ensure high-quality insights with automated reconciliation.

Real-Time Insights with Databricks Serverless

Shifted workloads to Databricks Serverless, enabling on-demand scalability and consistently delivering trip insights within five minutes.

Unified Observability and Governance

Designed dashboards for end-to-end monitoring of data pipelines, trip volumes, and SLA adherence. Integrated governance and security checks to support compliance.

Cost-Optimized, Future-Ready Blueprint

Developed a flexible roadmap that reduces run costs while extending the platform’s scope to commercial vehicle telematics and home IoT sensors.

Impact Delivered

• Latency reduced by around 70% to under 5 minutes, enabling real-time trip insights
• Scalable to 800K+ trips per day, 4x the previous capacity
• Potential run-cost savings of 15% through optimized serverless compute
• Real-time observability dashboards for performance and growth monitoring
• Automated reporting and CI/CD-enabled operations for reliability and faster releases