The amount of data your organization has today, is the least amount of data it will ever have. This statement need not be intimidating but for many businesses, it is. Why? Because having copious amounts of data is only beneficial to a business if it can do something with this information and if the business can extract insights from the data in order to up productivity, improve customer experience, develop new products/services, improve operations, and make better decisions.
For many businesses, insurance companies in particular, it is challenging to extract value from data because the information sits in multiple disparate systems. Therefore, businesses first need to collate and centralize data sets if they wish to gain real insights from them. This becomes especially challenging as data grows, because you have to pull the relevant information from even more systems. For insurance companies (both carriers and brokers) that operate in a highly regulated industry where data security must be strictly enforced, this adds another layer of complexity.
Often, insurance carriers are oddly incentivized to keep their data production low because the various systems they use do not speak the same language. This is especially true if the data is housed in legacy technology, not updated regularly, or is not organized properly. The truth is that all business users, be it the CEO or the receptionist, need to be able to access data to be able to make the right decisions. But, if they have to back and forth between different systems in order to pull data from varying sources, they are not working as efficiently as they could be.
This approach is dubbed swivel chair integration and, as the name suggests, it describes a group of people reading information from one system and then swiveling over to another to key in the information they need. This approach puts the onus on users to gather data manually and, unsurprisingly, increases the likelihood of errors, omissions, and duplicated data. This strategy is not sustainable in the long run, especially as insurance companies grow and have to deal with increasing volumes of client data because it creates inconsistencies and slows down productivity. In addition, when the systems an insurance company uses do not have real-time access to the right data, it is impossible to capitalize on the benefits that these technologies are meant to provide. It is a bit like buying a beautiful sports car but never filling up the tank; you never get to take the car for a spin and see what it is truly capable of.
Take a moment to think about all the different systems you use every single day. Now think about how much time you spend bouncing between these systems; pulling information from each one and bringing it all together so that you can come to a final decision. Or worse still, recapturing data from one system into the next.
In today’s highly competitive Insurtech environment, insurance companies need to have a quick, easy and secure way to ‘cross pollinate’ data so that they can bring diverse types of information together in harmony. A Data Integration Hub (DIH) makes this possible by integrating and automating data between different systems and quickly aggregating the data for more accurate reporting. A DIH can even identify the root cause of an error so that it can be resolved before the business experiences any downtime. One of the main benefits of a HIP is that it provides the nimbleness needed to manage the flex and friction of the data sets and sources of data entering the business as it grows. These platforms enable insurers to centralize data into one platform; creating a single unified source of truth. In this scenario, insurance companies never have to worry about how many systems they have or how much data these systems produce. In fact, insurers that have the ability to effectively manage their data often look to create more of it because the more data insurance companies have, the better equipped they are to capitalize on opportunities. In fact, having more data becomes an asset as it better supports organizational decision-making and broader business strategy.
In order to move to a world where Insurance companies do not fear growing data, new technologies and approaches are required. DIHs provide the solution to your big data requirements. Synatic can dramatically improve ROI on your technology stack by allowing you to use your technology to its full potential. To learn more about Synatic and how we can help you make the most of your data, contact Synatic today.
