Sponsored Article: Winning the Data Revolution With Master Data Management: Phase Two
By Lisa Valentine
Advances in data capture and storage technologies have enabled insurers to incorporate new data from different sources, including unstructured data such as X-rays, digital photos, handwritten claims notes, video, maps, voice messages and expense receipts. In order to leverage these new data streams, insurers need the ability to analyze and share it throughout the organization, in its native form or as value-added analysis.
In the last issue of this newsletter, we outlined the benefits to insurers of being able to decrease the time needed to make decisions: achieving what Malcolm Gladwell in his bestselling book "Blink" terms "rapid cognition." Rapid cognition enables insurers to pinpoint trends, see opportunities and respond to challenges quickly without having to plow through disparate systems and reams of data.
Adding to the challenge of achieving rapid cognition is the proliferation of unstructured data that makes analyzing and acting on data difficult. Advances in data capture and storage technologies have enabled insurers to incorporate new data from different sources, including unstructured data such as X-rays, digital photos, handwritten claims notes, video, maps, voice messages and expense receipts. In order to leverage these new data streams, insurers need the ability to analyze and share it throughout the organization, in its native form or as value-added analysis.
To achieve rapid cognition, it's clear that insurers need a way to assimilate, harmonize and distribute both structured and unstructured data across the enterprise.
Effectively managing these various data sources across channels and across lines of business requires robust data management, collaboration and analytics capabilities. It also requires integration to core systems including claims, billing and collections, distribution and sales, and policy management.
"One critical component of rapid cognition is the ability to federate data," explains Barry Rabkin, senior analyst in the Insurance Services practice of Financial Insights (Framingham, MA), an IDC Company. "This enables insurers to keep data in various systems and still be able to access that data when necessary."
Fortunately, SAP Master Data Management (SAP MDM) - part of SAP NetWeaver - enables insurance companies to store, augment and consolidate master data, while ensuring consistent distribution to all applications and systems within the insurer's IT landscape.
For example, say an insurer has several lines of business, such as life and P&C. Each has its own legacy systems that house data particular to that business; however, the insurer's independent agents and brokers can sell both life and P&C products.
In order for the insurer to get a full-picture of the productivity of each of its agents across business lines, it would need to download the agent information into a central data repository or warehouse. While that may solve the immediate problem of analyzing agent productivity, updates and changes to agent information in one system means that data can become quickly out of sync. MDM creates cross-system linkages that keep the data consistent and enables cross-system updates that vastly reduce data maintenance costs and greatly accelerate analysis.
MDM also supports bi-directional data harmonization between both SAP and non-SAP systems. "Think of data like the blood that flows through your veins and arteries," says Rabkin. "One-way blood flow isn't going to work - it needs to be bi-directional. Same with data."
MDM also works out of the box with SAP Business Intelligence tools to create a powerful analytics platform featuring dashboards, balanced scorecards and other analytical tools that enable rapid decision making in insurance.
Barry Rabkin of Financial Insights will join I&T's senior editor Anthony O'Donnell and Peter Dubowchik, Business Development & Field Service Americas Global Insurance, SAP, for a WebCast titled "Improving Decision Making Via Real-Time Analytics" on Wednesday, December 7, 2005. To register for this free event, click here.
CSC leads the industry in helping insurers achieve their business goals by providing a single source for expertise and technology that addresses every facet of an organization.
CSC's life and annuity software and services are used by 80 percent of the top 50 carriers, representing 75 percent of total industry premium, to transform their businesses.
