Silent Drains: How Poor Data Observability Costs Enterprises Millions

Published on Jan 30, 2025

Updated on Feb 4, 2025

Let’s rewind the clock for a moment. Thousands of years ago, humans had a simple way of keeping tabs on things—literally. They carved marks into clay tablets to track grain harvests or seal trade agreements. These ancient scribes kickstarted what would later become one of humanity’s greatest pursuits: organizing and understanding data. The journey of data began to take shape.

Now, here’s the kicker—we’ve gone from storing the data on clay to storing the data on the cloud, but one age-old problem still nags at us: How healthy is that data? Can we trust it?

Think about it. Records from centuries ago survived and still make sense today because someone cared enough to store them and keep them in good shape. That’s essentially what data observability does for our modern world. It’s like having a health monitor for your data systems, ensuring they’re reliable, accurate, and ready for action. And here are the times when data observability actually had more than a few wins in the real world and this is how it works

How Data Observability Works

Data observability involves monitoring, analyzing, and ensuring the health of your data systems in real-time. Here’s how it functions:

Data Monitoring: Continuously tracks metrics like data volume, freshness, and schema consistency to spot anomalies early.
Automated data Alerts: Notify teams of irregularities, such as unexpected data spikes or pipeline failures, before they escalate.
Root Cause Analysis: Pinpoints the source of issues using lineage tracking, making problem-solving faster and more efficient.
Proactive Maintenance: Predicts potential failures by analyzing historical trends, helping enterprises stay ahead of disruptions.
Collaboration Tools: Bridges gaps between data engineering, analytics, and operations teams with a shared understanding of system health.

Real-World Wins with Data Observability

1. Preventing Retail Chaos

A global retailer was struggling with the complexities of scaling data operations across diverse regions, Faced with a vast and complex system, manual oversight became unsustainable. Rakuten provided data observability solutions by leveraging real-time monitoring and integrating ITSM solutions with a unified data health dashboard, the retailer was able to prevent costly downtime and ensure seamless data operations. The result? Enhanced data lineage tracking and reduced operational overhead.

2. Fixing Silent Pipeline Failures

Monte Carlo’s data observability solutions have saved organizations from silent data pipeline failures. For example, a Salesforce password expiry caused updates to stop in the salesforce_accounts_created table. Monte Carlo flagged the issue, allowing the team to resolve it before it caught the executive attention. Similarly, an authorization issue with Google Ads integrations was detected and fixed, avoiding significant data loss.

3. Forbes Optimizes Performance

To ensure its website performs optimally, Forbes turned to Datadog for data observability. Previously, siloed data and limited access slowed down troubleshooting. With Datadog, Forbes unified observability across teams, reducing homepage load times by 37% and maintaining operational efficiency during high-traffic events like Black Friday.

4. Lenovo Maintains Uptime

Lenovo leveraged observability, provided by Splunk, to monitor its infrastructure during critical periods. Despite a 300% increase in web traffic on Black Friday, Lenovo maintained 100% uptime and reduced mean time to resolution (MTTR) by 83%, ensuring a flawless user experience.

Why Every Enterprise Needs Data Observability Today

1. Prevent Costly Downtime

Data downtime can cost enterprises up to $9,000 per minute. Imagine a retail giant facing data pipeline failures during peak sales—inventory mismatches lead to missed opportunities and unhappy customers. Data observability proactively detects anomalies, like sudden drops in data volume, preventing disruptions before they escalate.

2. Boost Confidence in Data

Poor data quality costs the U.S. economy $3.1 trillion annually. For enterprises, accurate, observable data ensures reliable decision-making and better AI outcomes. For instance, an insurance company can avoid processing errors by identifying schema changes or inconsistencies in real-time.

3. Enhance Collaboration

When data pipelines fail, teams often waste hours diagnosing issues. Data observability simplifies this by providing clear insights into pipeline health, enabling seamless collaboration across data engineering, data analytics, and data operations teams. This reduces finger-pointing and accelerates problem-solving.

4. Stay Agile Amid Complexity

As enterprises scale, data sources multiply, making Data pipeline monitoring and data pipeline management more complex. Data observability acts as a compass, pinpointing where and why issues occur, allowing organizations to adapt quickly without compromising operational efficiency.

The Bigger Picture:

Are you relying on broken roads in your data metropolis, or are you ready to embrace a system that keeps your operations smooth and your outcomes predictable?

Just as humanity evolved from carving records on clay tablets to storing data in the cloud, the way we manage and interpret data must evolve too. Data observability is not just a tool for keeping your data clean; it’s a strategic necessity to future-proof your business in a world where insights are the cornerstone of success.

At Mantra Labs, we understand this deeply. With our partnership with Rakuten, we empower enterprises with advanced data observability solutions tailored to their unique challenges. Let us help you turn your data into an invaluable asset that ensures smooth operations and drives impactful outcomes.

The insurance industry thrives on relationships—but it can only scale through efficiency, precision, and timely distribution. While much of the digital transformation buzz has focused on customer-facing portals, the real transformation is happening in the field, where modern sales apps are quietly driving a smarter, faster, and more empowered agent network.

Let’s explore how mobile-first sales enablement platforms are reshaping insurance sales across prospecting, onboarding, servicing, renewals, and growth.

The Insurance Agent Needs More Than a CRM

Today’s insurance agent is not just a policy seller—they’re also a financial advisor, data gatherer, service representative, and the face of the brand. Yet many still rely on paper forms, disconnected tools, and manual processes.

That’s where intelligent sales apps come in—not just to digitize, but to optimize, personalize, and future-proof the entire agent journey.

Real-World Use Cases: What Smart Sales Apps Are Solving

Across the insurance value chain, sales agent apps have evolved into full-service platforms—streamlining operations, boosting conversions, and empowering agents in the field. These tools aren’t optional anymore, they’re critical to how modern insurers perform. Here’s how leading insurers are empowering their agents through technology:

1. Intelligent Prospecting & Lead Management

Sales apps now empower agents to:

Prioritize leads using filters like policy type, value, or geography
Schedule follow-ups with integrated agent calendars
Utilize locators to look for nearby branch offices or partner physicians
Register and service new leads directly from mobile devices

Agents spend significantly less time navigating through disjointed systems or chasing down information. With quick access to prioritized leads, appointment scheduling, and location tools—all in one app—they can focus more on meaningful customer interactions and closing sales, rather than administrative overhead.

2. Seamless Policy Servicing, Renewals & Claims

Sales apps centralize post-sale activities such as:

Tracking policy status, premium due date, and claims progress
Sending renewal reminders, greetings, and policy alerts in real-time
Accessing digital sales journeys and pre-filled forms.
Policy comparison, calculating premiums, and submitting documents digitally
Registering and monitoring customer complaints through the app itself

Customers receive a consistent and seamless experience across touchpoints—whether online, in-person, or via mobile. With digital forms, real-time policy updates, and instant access to servicing tools, agents can handle post-sale tasks like renewals and claims faster, without paperwork delays—leading to improved satisfaction and higher retention.

3. Remote Sales using Assisted Tools

Using smart tools, agents can:

Securely co-browse documents with customers through proposals
Share product visualizations in real time
Complete eKYC and onboarding remotely.

Agents can conduct secure, interactive consultations from anywhere—sharing proposals, visual aids, and completing eKYC remotely. This not only expands their reach to customers in digital-first or geographically dispersed markets, but also builds greater trust through real-time engagement, clear communication, and a personalized advisory experience—all without needing a physical presence.

4. Real-Time Training, Performance & Compliance Monitoring

Modern insurance apps provide:

On-demand access to training material
Commission dashboards and incentive monitoring
Performance reporting with actionable insights

Field agents gain access to real-time performance insights, training modules, and incentive tracking—directly within the app. This empowers them to upskill on the go, stay motivated through transparent goal-setting, and make informed decisions that align with overall business KPIs. The result is a more agile, knowledgeable, and performance-driven sales force.

5. End-to-End Sales Execution—Even Offline

Advanced insurance apps support:

Full application submission, from prospect to payment
Offline functionality in low-connectivity zones
Real-time needs analysis, quote generation, and e-signatures
Multi-login access with secure OTP-based authentication

Even in low-connectivity or remote Tier 2 and 3 markets, agents can operate at full capacity—thanks to offline capabilities, secure authentication, and end-to-end sales execution tools. This ensures uninterrupted productivity, faster policy issuance, and adherence to compliance standards, regardless of location or network availability.

6. AI-Powered Personalization for Health-Linked Products

Some forward-thinking insurers are combining AI with health platforms to:

Import real-time health data from fitness trackers or health apps
Offer hyper-personalized insurance suggestions based on lifestyle
Enable field agents to tailor recommendations with more context

By integrating real-time health data from fitness trackers and wellness apps, insurers can offer hyper-personalized, preventive insurance products tailored to individual lifestyles. This empowers agents to move beyond transactional selling—becoming trusted advisors who recommend coverage based on customers’ health habits, life stages, and future needs, ultimately deepening engagement and improving long-term retention.

The Mantra Labs Advantage: Turning Strategy into Scalable Execution

We help insurers go beyond surface-level digitization to build intelligent, mobile-first ecosystems that optimize agent efficiency and customer engagement—backed by real-world impact.

Seamless Sales Enablement for Travel Insurance

We partnered with a leading travel insurance provider to develop a high-performance agent workflow platform featuring:

Secure Logins: Instant credential-based access without sign-up friction
Real-Time Performance Dashboards: At-a-glance insights into daily/monthly targets, policy issuance, and collections
Frictionless Policy Issuance: Complete issuance post-payment and document verification
OCR Integration: Auto-filled customer details directly from passport scans, minimizing errors and speeding up onboarding

This mobile-first solution empowered agents to close policies faster with significantly reduced paperwork and data entry time—improving agent productivity by 2x and enabling sales at scale.

Engagement + Analytics Transformation for Health Insurance

For one of India’s leading health insurers, we helped implement a full-funnel engagement and analytics stack:

User Journey Intelligence: Replaced legacy systems to track granular app behavior—policy purchases, renewals, claims, discounts, and drop-offs. Enabled real-time behavioral segmentation and personalized push/email notifications.
Gamified Wellness with Fitness Tracking: Added gamified fitness engagement, with rewards based on step counts and interactive nutrition quizzes—driving repeat app visits and user loyalty.
Attribution Tracking: Trace the exact source of traffic—whether it’s a paid campaign, referral program, or organic source—adding a layer of precision to marketing ROI.
Analytics: Integrated analytics to identify user interest segments. This allowed for hyper-targeted email and in-app notifications that aligned perfectly with user intent, driving both relevance and response rates.

Whether you’re digitizing field sales, gamifying customer wellness, or fine-tuning your marketing engine, Mantra Labs brings the technology depth, insurance expertise, and user-first design to turn strategy into scalable execution.

If you’re ready to modernize your agent network – Get in touch with us to explore how we can build intelligent, mobile-first tools tailored to your distribution strategy. Just remember, the best sales apps aren’t just tools, they’re growth engines; and field sales success isn’t about more apps. It’s about the right workflows, in the right hands, at the right time.

Silent Drains: How Poor Data Observability Costs Enterprises Millions