• Lack of real-time data pipelines delayed business insights

• Inconsistent KPI logic across departments led to misaligned decisions

• Frequent null values in reports reduced trust in analytics

• High cloud infrastructure costs due to inefficient architecture

• Absence of data lineage, catalog, and business glossary hindered discoverability

Exponentia.ai implemented a Unified Data Platform (UDP) on Databricks, leveraging modern cloud-native tools and architectures:

• Delta Live Tables (DLT) for real-time and incremental data loading

• Unity Catalog for centralized governance, lineage tracking, and glossary

• MLflow for predictive analytics and model deployment

• Power BI dashboards via Databricks SQL endpoints

• Azure Data Factory for ingestion from MSSQL sources

• Medallion architecture (Bronze, Silver, Gold layers) for structured transformation

The architecture integrates batch and near real-time ingestion using Change Data Capture (CDC), stores data in Delta tables on ADLS Gen2, and enables seamless consumption through BI tools and APIs.

• 40% reduction in annual infrastructure costs

• 3X faster data refresh cycles, completing within an hour

• Near real-time sales reporting enabled

• Month-on-month reporting for strategic planning

• Column-level masking and row-level access control implemented via Unity Catalog

Technologies Used

• Databricks

• Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2

• Delta Live Tables

• Unity Catalog

• MLflow

• Power BI

• Azure Data Factory

The transformation empowered the NBFC with a scalable, governed, and real-time data platform. It enabled faster decision-making, improved operational efficiency, and laid the foundation for advanced analytics and AI-driven insights.