Automotus - Data Warehouse & BI Implementation

Client Overview

Automotus is a leading provider of computer vision and machine learning solutions for parking and curbside management. Their clientele includes cities and airports, for whom they provide data-driven insights to optimize parking utilization and improve traffic management. Additionally, Automotus offers a billing system for account holders with fleets, allowing for accurate calculation and billing based on the duration of parked vehicles.

Challenge

Automotus faced challenges in delivering comprehensive parking and traffic data to their city and airport clients. Their existing data infrastructure, powered by Google Data Studio and Postgres, was unable to provide the scalability, reporting feature-set, and data-freshness requirements required for effective decision-making.

Solution

Automotus partnered with Cloud Data Consulting to revamp their data infrastructure, enable efficient data analysis and implement a more robust and feature rich reporting system. Cloud Data recommended Snowflake as the primary data warehouse and operational data store, Tableau as the business intelligence (BI) tool for data visualization, and Matillion for data integration and orchestration.

Key Solution Components:

Data Ingestion and Transformation:

• Cloud Data initially implemented Fivetran to ingest live data from Automotus’ Postgres database into Snowflake
• Using dbt, Cloud Data designed and developed a reporting star schema that transformed Automotus’ postgres raw transaction data into a structured dimensional model optimized for analysis

Tableau Dashboards for City and Airport Managers:

• Leveraging Tableau’s powerful visualization capabilities, Cloud Data collaborated with Automotus to create intuitive and informative dashboards
• Developed geographical and financial reporting dashboards
• These dashboards provided city and airport managers with same-day insights into parking utilization, traffic patterns, and operational performance in their respective areas

Cost Optimization and Scalability:

• By transitioning from full-refresh to incremental loads in dbt, Cloud Data not only optimized the processing workload but also reduced the costs associated with Snowflake usage
• The incremental approach ensured that only new and updated data were processed, significantly reducing resource consumption and enhancing scalability

Migration to Matillion:

• Cloud Data analyzed the growing costs of Fivetran as Automotus expanded its client base
• To optimize costs further, Cloud Data assisted Automotus in migrating from Fivetran to Matillion for data integration
• Leveraging Cloud Data’s IaC Terraform solution, they deployed a Matillion EC2 instance and supporting architecture to AWS
• Matillion was configured to incrementally ingest data from Postgres
• Cloud Data orchestrated dbt from within Matillion, leveraging another strength of the Matillion platform

Knowledge Transfer and Documentation:

• Cloud Data conducted thorough knowledge transfer sessions with the Automotus team
• Provided system documentation, including data profiling results and a comprehensive data dictionary
• Empowered Automotus to maintain and further develop the solution independently

Results

The collaboration between Automotus and Cloud Data Consulting led to significant outcomes:

• Actionable Insights for City and Airport Managers: Tableau dashboards empowered city and airport managers to make informed decisions by providing same-day visibility into parking utilization, traffic patterns, and operational performance
• Cost Optimization: The transition to incremental loads in dbt and the migration to Matillion resulted in optimized resource utilization and reduced costs, both in terms of tooling and Snowflake usage
• Scalability and Performance: The new data infrastructure, powered by Snowflake and Matillion, provided scalability and improved performance, accommodating Automotus’ growing client base and data volumes

Conclusion

Through their partnership with Cloud Data Consulting, Automotus transformed their parking management and traffic operations. By leveraging Snowflake as the central data warehouse, Tableau for data visualization, and Matillion for data integration, Automotus gained powerful insights into parking utilization and traffic patterns. The collaboration between Automotus and Cloud Data resulted in a scalable, cost-efficient, and insightful solution, ultimately improving parking management and traffic operations for cities and airports.