Overview

pAgero is a leading B2B provider of next-gen driver assistance services, pushing the industry in a new direction by taking manual processes and redefining them as digital, transparent and connected. This includes: a transformative roadside platform powered by Swoop, an SF-based software company acquired in 2018; comprehensive accident management services; knowledgeable consumer affairs and connected vehicle capabilities; and intuitive tow dispatch software./p pThe company protects 115 million vehicles in partnership with leading automakers, insurers and other diversified clients. Managing one of the largest national networks of service providers, Agero responds to approx. 12 million service events annually and is headquartered in Medford, MA, with operations in North America and Europe./p

Supernova Award Category

Data to Decisions

The Problem

pWhile historically a data-forward company, in 2019, Agero’s data and analytics team noticed an organic, growing interest in data throughout the entire company - beyond simply strategy or product development. They began receiving more requests for data from a wider variety of teams than ever before and were quickly becoming overloaded with ad hoc requests from business teams. People were clearly hungry for data, but had no way to access or analyze it themselves so they were completely dependent upon the data and analytics team for insights./p pWhile there was an abundance of data at hand, existing tools made it difficult for the data team and analysts to consistently be able to respond to these requests in a timely fashion. These requests also frequently devolved into a time-consuming back and forth with colleagues, as both groups worked to determine exactly what data was needed and appropriate for each purpose. This often resulted in significant time lapse between when a request was made and when it was fulfilled, which had downstream effects on project timelines and decision-making. The data and analytics team often needed to redesign dashboards when the inevitable follow up questions began. /p pThis bottleneck also took valuable resources away from larger company-wide data analytics initiatives. Agero needed a data analytics stack that could flexibly scale with their growing business and BI tools that did not require coding knowledge./p

The Solution

pSr. Director of Data Science Analytics Mike Bell knew it was not scalable for the entire organization to be dependent on his team. Select data needed to be available, in compliance with contractual and client commitments, so employees could find their own insights when they needed them. Bell also needed a way to share clean data safely and securely, ensuring that only the right people had access to the right data, that this access was trackable, that the data was appropriately anonymized, and more./p pAgero needed to transform its BI ecosystem and migrate to a modern cloud data analytics stack with an auditable self-service analytics and business intelligence (ABI) tool. Bell needed to provide secure access to live, governed data, as well as a single tool that allowed Agero to democratize the data within their tight guidelines, so that the organization could all collaborate. They also needed to accelerate time to insight through a community-driven approach to ABI./p

The results

pToday, Agero takes a community-driven approach to ABI and is more data-driven than ever before. Instead of spending time churning out reports, Bell and his team are now able to focus on larger initiatives that are supporting Agero’s evolving business and focus on industry innovation, rather than just preparing, modeling, and curating data for business teams to use. /p p /p pDepartment domain experts are now collaborating with their data counterparts and applying their unique expertise to the analytics process, which has produced not only faster insights but entirely new discoveries that would not have been possible without their input. In fact, Agero’s CEO is a frequent Sigma user on the business side of the house, creating and sharing dashboards that better visualize and support Agero’s decades of industry leadership and data collection - ultimately helping close new business./p p /p pWith Sigma, Bell and his team are now able to iterate quickly on modeling across Swoop and their legacy platform and build actionable dashboards in minutes. They have been able to identify ways to operate their proprietary platform more efficiently and effectively, identifying points of friction and changing how the company manages roadside service. They’ve also been able to help their industry partners use their platform more effectively and take action on the new insights they’ve uncovered./p

Metrics

pReports that previously could take weeks or more to build can now be completed in less than a day. Agero is also able to create reports and dashboards that would have been nearly impossible before because of their complexity, need for cross-functional contributions, and the amount of time it would have taken to complete them. Bell’s team just didn’t have the bandwidth to take on such an enormous project and balance all of their other priorities./p pIn just a few months, Agero is already at parity between active users in the prior tool and Sigma, do adoption has been fast:/p p- Queries per use on Sigma have doubled in the past month./p p- Already there are more than two times the number of active “developers” on Sigma than previously, and the team is continuing to train more and drive adoption./p p- Sigma has required far fewer takedowns for maintenance and upgrading compared to previously existing systems./p p /p pIt has also greatly improved how Agero is able to serve its clients - industry powerhouses like USAA, Progressive, Toyota, and Ford, alongside nimble and rapidly growing digital startups like Root Insurance. With Sigma, Agero is now embedding live dashboards for clients and partners so they are able to see key performance metrics in real time, like the number of calls answered, response time, number of roadside events they’ve managed, track customer experience data, and more./p

The Technology

pEase of use, accelerating time to insights, and modern data governance were top priorities for Bell as he considered the right cloud technology for his data analytics stack. Bell turned to a new cloud data warehouse to store Agero’s data and Sigma Computing’s ABI platform to empower everyone to analyze live data and discover insights UI - no coding required! - all in the same platform./p

Disruptive Factor

pThe biggest challenge was simply change management. As much as the business was eager for data, Bell had to overcome obstacles around request and access management, how various teams interacted with each other and with the data, and creating new workflows. /p p /p pBell also had to help build up the business teams’ confidence in appropriately exploring and analyzing data independently, which is where Sigma’s familiar spreadsheet-like UI came into play. Business teams were already accustomed to using spreadsheets to analyze data so providing a similar environment where they could use many of the same formulas helped ease the transition. /p p /p pAs the largest B2B provider of driver assistance services in the industry, with nearly 50 years’ experience supporting approximately 12 million events a year, Agero has collected significant data volume that enables the company to truly differentiate in their space. But without the right tools in hand, leveraging this insight was becoming increasingly difficult as the amount of data grew. With Sigma, Agero now has a technology that supports the speed of their business, which, at the rate of over 30,000 service events a day, means rapid decision-making, automation enablement, prediction creation, and more./p

Shining Moment

pThe ability to easily analyze and share data has proven invaluable during the global pandemic. Operational data was used to make decisions on remote work and staffing for employee safety. Data was harnessed to launch modified programs for first responder customers. An interactive dashboard was created in less than a day to track the impact shelter-in-place orders were having on event volume, serving as the foundation for a release that resulted in coverage for Agero in key trade publications./p