Modernizing data and analytics capabilities leads to 2.5x ROI

The Challenge

Our health plan client needed to improve its data platform to meet current needs and match its rapid growth. A scalable data foundation was essential to onboard new business, enhance analytics, and manage costs.

The old system lacked quality data management and governance, hindering scalability and decision-making. Increasing technology debt from disconnected tools exacerbated these issues, highlighting the need for a comprehensive data platform overhaul to create insight-driven decisions and competitiveness.

An Undeniably Different Approach

Our client was ready to define and develop a data strategy leveraging market-leading tools. We conducted a vendor selection, landing on Databricks based on their use cases and long-term growth strategy.  

With our multidisciplinary team of experts across product engineering, organizational change management, and healthcare and life sciences, we began by obtaining alignment from IT stakeholders to ensure the platform would meet organizational needs—both current and future. Together, we focused on:

• Data and analytics strategy: We assessed hosting and tooling options to guide client leadership toward migrating core data capabilities to the cloud, leveraging a multi-layer analytics architecture. We used Databricks to consolidate data science and analytics into a single platform, reducing development timelines for ML models by 50%, fostering collaboration, and paving the way for AI use cases. 
• Business case and value tracking: We developed a business case estimating a 2.5x ROI, reducing costs and opening new revenue streams across health plan functions. Databricks' autoscaling capabilities ensured efficient data ingestion, crucial for the client's growth.
• Solution design and implementation: We collaborated with key stakeholders to develop a data strategy and implemented a comprehensive platform incorporating a data lake, integrated layer, and consumption layer capable of managing large datasets, including up to one billion claims. Additionally, we deployed Unity Catalog in Databricks as a unified data governance tool within their Microsoft Azure cloud environment.
• Build and migration: We supported phased migration to the new cloud platform to expedite its use. Databricks enabled the connection of multiple data sources into a single source of truth, overcoming on-premises constraints, tech-debt, and fostering a unified data platform across business and IT. 
• Change management, training, and development: We led change management design, execution, and monitoring—enhancing overall program effectiveness. The flexibility of Databricks in supporting multiple coding languages (SparkSQL, Scala, Python, R) also allowed the client to attract and upskill top talent to strengthen their analytics organization. 

Real Results

Our priority was to move the needle in a measurable way—and that’s what we helped accomplish. Together, we: 

• Saved +120k person hours per year on data analysis, operations, and reporting, which improved organizational efficiencies and fostered upskilling opportunities 
• Drove faster results by 2x efficiency driving new analytics and data solutions into market
• Reduced costs for first-year licensing by $2.5 million by migrating workloads to the Databricks platform
• Increased their average technical scores for RFPs by 25-40%, improving their competitive advantage 

West Monroe does more than implement technology and advise our partners—we enable them to be self-sufficient. We coached our client to develop its own strategic advisory capabilities, helped them build sustainable business practices, and identified new opportunities for innovation that allow them to keep building on their digital strategy into the future.