Data visualisation is more than just fancy pictures and models. If deployed correctly, it can be a source of deep insight into business operations. For the insurance industry specifically, data visualisation may drive innovation, increase profitability and improve customer service.

Ever since the London haberdasher John Graunt and the astronomer Edmond Halley gave birth to actuarial science in the late 17th century, data has been crucial to insurance industry operations. And today, there is an ocean of data available. Still, much of this data, such as policy sales, claims, frauds, coverage complexity and premiums, is underleveraged. Not to mention the streams of data – big data – flowing from connected IoT-enabled devices, social media, customer feedback and weather data.

This is unfortunate, as both internal and external data bear the potential of providing insurers with substantial insights and trends waiting to be leveraged. This is where data visualisation comes in. It is imperative that management is exposed to real-time information about operations. An updated visual tool allows decision-makers to keep track of all KPIs, metrics and other data used to track business performance.

THE IMPORTANCE OF DATA VISUALISATION

Although data visualisation is the presentation of data in a visual context, data visualisation is more than just creating pretty pictures and models – it is a way to gain deeper insight into your data. A recent study shows how important it is to visualise your data, and that data visualisation can indeed reveal unforeseen trends and patterns in your data. Big data may be the future, but as the author of “The Visual Organization: Data Visualisation, Big Data, and the Quest for Better Decisions”, Phil Simon, notes, it is data visualisation that unleashes its true impact.

Large tech companies, like Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google, are taking advantage of data visualisation tools to ask better questions of their data and to support their business decision-making, and several midmarket companies are turning to data visualisation. A Dell survey shows that data visualisation tools are among the most valuable technologies for midmarket businesses running big data initiatives. In banking, The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, for instance, is using data visualisation as a communications tool.

UNLOCKING SILOED DATA

Most companies organise themselves according to function with processes and systems that rarely communicate with each other. Sales work with certain systems and according to their own processes, while marketing work with theirs. IT has their own, and HR yet others. It is the same within the insurance industry. Most larger insurance companies and brokers usually operate a significant number of different disconnected systems and struggle with fragmented business processes.

To succeed with data visualisation, different departments should collaborate to unlock silos of information and data. Indeed, captives, marine and energy and brokers can more efficiently deliver customer value when silos of information are unlocked. This provides the necessary insight to deliver the required business results.

Data should be organised so that it’s easily related to each other. Structured data, such as sales and website performance data, should be related to unstructured data, such as social media and customer feedback data. The ability to compare large datasets with advanced analytics drives innovation, increase profitability and improves the ability to deliver the best service internally and externally.

VISUALISING THE DATA: BUSINESS BENEFITS FOR THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY

As the amount of data generated increases radically, data visualisation becomes more and more critical. According to Salesforce visualised data is processed faster, support visual learners, shows insight that may be missed in traditional reports and increases productivity and sales, among other things. For the insurance industry, specifically, data visualisation offers a plethora of opportunities. Let me mention just a few examples:

• Customer customisation opportunities in accordance with the end user’s situation, preferences, risks and behaviours
• Management information regarding economy, risks and sales prospects
• Opportunities to motivate employees through visualisation of important KPIs in real-tim
• Backlog visualisation for insurance claims clerks
• New possibilities to detect issues and opportunities
• Information on which employees and customers that deliver value to your organisatio
• Real-time data for automating the creation of customer reports

These examples are just a few of many. Indeed, the sky is the limit. Fortunately, there exists several BI tools that can provide you with the insight into you need through effective data visualisation. The following two are your safest bets:

• Jaspersoft: The company behind the intelligence of some of today’s leading apps and one of the leading BI-platforms for cloud and on-premise applications. In fact, one of the big differentiators of Jaspersoft is that it can be deployed in nearly any environment. It can quickly transform static reports and dashboards into interactive ones that can benefit both your organisation and your customers. It allows for big data analytics, and its multi-tenant platform is built on today’s web-standard technologies making integration easy to perform.

• Microsoft Power BI: Delivers a suite of business analytics tools to deliver insights that will benefit your entire organisation. It can connect to hundreds of data sources, simplify data prep and drive ad hoc analysis. Reports can easily be produced, published and distributed throughout your organisation across both web and mobile devices and everyone can create personalised dashboards with a comprehensive organisational view. For insurance analysts specifically, it can easily visualise claims, premiums, frauds, sales and customers satisfaction data in one place.

BI tools are almost a field of study on its own, and a theme we will come back to here on our blog more extensively in the future. In the meantime, you can download our e-book “The Insurance Industry 2025: A Digital Transformation Roadmap” for more information on how you can meet an increasingly data-driven world in the best possible way.