Leading Auto Insurer Enhances Customer Experience through A Revamped Mobile Application
Case Study
Leading Auto Insurer Enhances Customer Experience through A Revamped Mobile Application
About the Client
Our client is a specialty auto insurance provider in the U.S. They deliver non-standard auto coverage to high-risk drivers through a network of agents and direct-to-consumer channels. With programs tailored to different risk categories and state regulations, the firm offers a mobile application to service policyholders, allowing them to make payments, review policy details, upload documents, and interact with support.
Business Challenge
The client’s mobile app had served its purpose for several years, but over time, it began showing signs of architectural strain and operational limitations that hindered business growth and user experience. Built on the Titanium/Appcelerator framework using an MVC pattern, it lacked the flexibility and resilience needed for today’s fast-paced digital environment. As business demands grew, the underlying technology stack became difficult to scale, extend, or maintain without risk.
The situation was compounded by suboptimal development practices: all changes were deployed directly to production with no staging, QA, or development environments.
Key Challenges
- Brittle architecture with direct API coupling to the core insurance system (OSIS), making any backend change a potential app-breaking event.
- Zero deployment safety with code hosted on Azure Repo but no automated pipelines or testing environments.
- Limited platform reach as the app was used only on phones with no tablet or web extensions.
- Reactive development approach where feature releases were driven mostly by backend API updates or mobile OS changes rather than business vision.
- Fragmented user experience requiring customers to email documents instead of uploading in-app.
- Poor performance due to lack of caching and optimization.
- Low adoption rates (only 2.2K iOS and 2.58K Android installs), reflecting user dissatisfaction.
The app was technically functional but operationally stuck in the past, requiring complete modernization to support business growth and improve customer experience.
Trigent Solution
We started by evaluating our client’s existing tech landscape in depth. We pulled code from the Azure repository, traced the Titanium-based architecture, and mapped every touchpoint across the 8 core screens. Based on our analysis, we made the bold decision to start from scratch and implement a comprehensive modernization strategy.
Rebuilt the Application from the Ground Up Using React Native
We transitioned the entire app from the legacy Titanium/Appcelerator framework to React Native, a modern cross-platform technology. This allowed us to maintain a single codebase for both iOS and Android, simplifying development, reducing duplication, and speeding up release cycles.
Established Environmental Separation
We set up four isolated environments: development, QA, staging, and production. This enabled structured testing, version validation, and stable rollouts. Developers could now test features without risk, QA teams could validate changes in isolation, and business teams could approve releases before they hit end users.
Created Azure DevOps CI/CD pipelines
To streamline the deployment process, we built a complete CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment) pipeline using Azure DevOps. With this, every code change now goes through automated build, test, and deployment stages, ensuring consistency and eliminating manual errors.
Refactored Backend API Calls with Abstraction Layers
Instead of having the mobile UI directly depend on the OSIS backend, we introduced abstraction layers in the codebase. These layers act as intermediaries, standardizing how data is fetched, formatted, and handled, making the app more resilient and scalable.
Created Reusable UI Components
We also created a set of reusable, shared UI components for commonly used elements such as date fields, input forms, and buttons. This ensured a uniform look and behavior across all screens.
Embedded Document Upload Features
In-app
We eliminated the disjointed email process by enabling in-app document uploads. Users could now use their phone’s camera or file picker to attach documents directly to their policy or claim.
Improved Oakwood Payment Flows
We redesigned the payment flow to be faster, cleaner, and aligned with mobile UX best practices while preserving PCI compliance. We also improved field validation, error handling, and screen transitions.
Fully Enabled Device Hardware Features
We standardized and optimized the use of mobile hardware like camera, GPS, and phone dialer. Users can now capture claim photos, locate nearby agents using GPS, and reach support instantly via the dialer.
Client Benefits
The client now operates with a modern, scalable mobile platform that supports their growth ambitions instead of constraining them. What was once a source of constant operational anxiety has become a reliable foundation for customer engagement and business expansion.
- 80% faster release cycles with automated CI/CD and environment control.
- 100% reduction in deployment-related downtime.
- Seamless, consistent, and enhanced UI/UX, improving customer retention by 12-15%.
- Document uploads and extra features handled in-app, reducing support burden.
- All-new technical documentation, enabling smoother onboarding and future enhancements.
- Future-proofed foundation with React Native’s growing ecosystem and active community support.
- 40% reduction in load time and enhanced performance through improved caching and optimized API calls.
- Better hardware integration, turning the app from a static portal into a dynamic, responsive tool.
- Improved app ratings, better reviews, and more confident adoption.
- Significant Risk eliminated with no more live deployments to production
Technology Stack
