Innovation Group Releases Innovation Data Mastery Maturity Model

Creation of Innovation Data Mastery Model Supports Insurer Initiatives to Better Control and Utilize Growing Stockpiles of Data for Business Benefit


FARMINGTON, CT--(Marketwired - Dec 3, 2013) -  Innovation Group announced the release of the company's newly-created Innovation Data Mastery Maturity Model (IDMMM) which is designed to help insurers understand milestones and identifiers in the data mastery journey, so they are better equipped to create a roadmap and strategy that maximizes the business value of solutions, including Innovation Group's Insurer Analytics.

The new IDMMM, as outlined in a whitepaper released to correspond with this important launch, serves as the "handbook" for process improvement on the journey to controlling current and future data. Reaching the highest level of data mastery requires an enterprise commitment, investment, strategy and roadmap and maturation in five specific areas: Strategy and Governance; Management and People; Data Integration; Data Technology and Tools; and Data Quality Technology.

Business Intelligence (BI) and analytics have been top business priorities for insurers over the last eight years, growing in budget annually. Insurers are now realizing these projects need to incorporate an enterprise data strategy, governance, senior management support and ownership. Additionally, many insurers now understand they must undertake data quality initiatives within their own data programs in order to master their current "small data" challenges before "big data" overtakes projects and initiatives within the company. The IDMMM is based on data mastery fundamentals which can help insurers gain business insight in the interest of increasing revenue, decreasing expenses, improving customer relationships, and heightening ease of doing business for all stakeholders.

"Novarica research indicates that business intelligence and data-related efforts are top priorities for insurers in 2014," said Martina Conlon, principal, insurance, for Novarica. "Many insurers struggle to understand the relative effectiveness and maturity of their existing data architecture, processes and data strategy. Having an independent conceptual framework can be a useful tool for highlighting areas of strength and areas in need of development, as well as guiding insurers to the level of maturity needed to deliver strategic data analytics capabilities."

Data Mastery, as previously defined by industry analysts, is the leveraging of internal and external data to gain business insight, increase revenue, decrease expenses, or improve ease of doing business, and gained importance in the insurance industry due to the overwhelming amount of data insurers handle daily. It should be noted that data mastery is more than just the tools to produce the insight, starting from Extract-Transform-Load (ETL) to data warehouses/data marts, reporting and analytics, data mining, BI presentation layer, GIS analysis, and of course, Big Data. It is the utilization of all of these technology elements along with people and process to create an overall benefit to the company.

"Many insurers are being overwhelmed with information and, without structures in place, are not taking full advantage of these storehouses of knowledge," said Euan King, CEO North America Technology at Innovation Group. "Innovation Group developed the Innovation Data Mastery Maturity Model to help insurers gain control and prepare for increasing flows in the future. Our model helps insurers understand where they are today with respect to enterprise maturity and where they want to be in the future. By mastering their data, insurers can gain greater insights and be able to make more informed, data-based business decisions. It will also enable them to better define their goals and develop roadmaps so they can maximize data mastery investments."

The whitepaper asserts that data mastery is a journey, not a project or program. Data mastery is, however, critical for insurers over the next three to five years in a data-driven competitive marketplace. To give a quick view of their current status, the report defines five groups with distinct characteristics which are from lowest to highest in degree of mastery:

  • Data Chaos
  • Data Driven Silos
  • Information-Driven Enterprise
  • Knowledge-Driven Enterprise
  • Innovative Leading Enterprise

"It's been said for years that data is the lifeblood of the industry," said Ben Moreland, senior business architect for Innovation Group and author of the whitepaper. "Today, more than ever, the ability to manage that flow and use it to your business advantage is critical. Insurers need to incorporate an enterprise data strategy, plus governance, and the support of senior management support to ensure that true data mastery is possible. Insurers need to take advantage of available data resources. It's no longer an option, it's an imperative."

The Innovation Data Mastery Maturity Model is now available on the Innovation Group's website.

Insurer Analytics, a component of the market-leading Innovation Insurer suite, works hand-in-hand with Innovation Group's new IDMMM by enabling enterprise data mastery through a fully-configurable, open architecture, analytics solution with train-of-thought analysis, advanced visualization, on demand MI, automated monitoring, web dashboard, sophisticated data engineering, and over 500 insurance-specific, out-of-the-box KPIs and reports. Designed and built for insurance on the Microsoft BI stack, Insurer Analytics features an insurance data model and capabilities that eliminate the additional time and set-up costs inherent to generic analytics solutions.

Insurer Analytics has been widely recognized over the last year with a vast array of industry awards, including Celent's Model Insurer and the Vanguards in Insurance Practice (VIP). 

About The Innovation Group plc:
The Innovation Group plc (LSE: TIG.L) is a global provider of business process outsourcing and technology solutions to the insurance, fleet and automotive industries. Innovation Group provides contact centres, repair networks, process management, supply chain and technology operations and decision support analytics to support accident management, repair and estimation and claims management services. Innovation Group has over 800 global clients including AXA Insurance, RSA, Encompass, Esurance, Hertz, Main Street America Group, American Modern Insurance Group, LeasePlan, The Ford Motor Company, Aviva, Toyota and Zurich. The Group processes more than 4 million claims per year with 20 per cent direct claims cost saving achieved. Innovation Group's 2,300 people are located in the United Kingdom, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, India, Pakistan, South Africa, Spain and United States. www.innovation-group.com

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Contact:
Innovation Group
Jennifer Overhulse
St. Nick Media Services
+1 859-803-6597
jen@stnickmedia.com