The Horton Group is an insurance, employee benefits and risk advisory firm specializing in helping clients turn costs and risk into a competitive advantage.
Like most in the insurance industry, The Horton Group handles copious amounts of data from clients including benefit policies, carriers, coverage complexities, etc. This data is then transformed into vital information for analysis and detailed business performance insights.
Reporting on a constant flux of information demands exceptional data accuracy and timely analysis to attain a more holistic outlook on company performance and provide more valuable insights. Insurance companies must deliver the right information to the right customer at the right time. Optimizing data structures and data accessibility helps better identify how this data can be used for on-demand visuals and reports to initiate conversations with clients.
The Horton Group wanted to use background data collected on clients to aid future portfolio sales. Although data was being collected, the methodologies being used to explore the data offered restricted capabilities and reporting issues still existed.
Netrix worked with The Horton Group executives and their technical team to review their current data structures to understand how the data is being collected and processed. It was understood that data being used for reporting was both rolled up and manually entered in one screen on their insurance platform as well as within the CRM system. Custom form data was also being manually extracted and saved one form at a time in XML format. The data was then manually formatted for a single specific client and presented in visuals with Excel or PowerPoint. Netrix evaluated the data that is being currently stored and accessible, but not optimized, and the data that is being collected via custom forms that needs an extraction process scheduled in order to be used to create analytics.
Because multiple systems were being used for data entry, unknown and unwanted discrepancies were diluting the real truth of data. A single source of data was recommended with the idea that data can be pulled on a timed schedule to roll up and be reported on later from the CRM system. The data utilizing custom forms was being stored in a single XML field per form and needed extraction processes so it could be used in reporting and sales documentation.
Amid rapid business growth and bottlenecked by a disparate data structure and reporting system, The Horton Group sought for a partner who could build a Business Intelligence platform that would allow further insight into business, sales, and benefits. Netrix Group worked directly with the business and IT to determine the best possible future state solution.
Building the backlog
Netrix began by meeting with business and IT stakeholders to understand and solution requirements, focusing on the business value of each feature set and any major technical shortcomings of the current solution.
Together, we reviewed The Horton Group’s current functionality, data structures, and desired enhancements. Business stakeholders painted a compelling vision of a Business Intelligence platform that could be effortlessly extended on the fly reporting, less overhead for IT staff, and more power to the business users to use data and visualizations.
Project Engagement
Netrix recommended that jobs be set up to roll up client data and store in the existing roll-up data tables so as to keep a single source of truth. This also expanded the capability for XML data to be extracted in larger scales as opposed to data available for a single client/form. Views were created on existing data structures to provide better insight for reporting needs.
Netrix took a streamlined approach to these data limitations as well as a single source of truth to better supply reporting data for the current and future state of reporting. Power BI was an excellent solution to address these issues and offer a reporting platform that utilized their on-premises SQL Service license and allowed users to report off of the data available.
Netrix utilized existing infrastructure to feed Power BI as the reporting repository for all tailored reports and created the ability to allow on-the-fly slicing of data metrics for a specific client and their past premiums, as well as other market leaders, to compare policy premiums. These data structure improvements enabled The Horton Group to surpass prior system limitations and provided increased visibility to Business stakeholders.
“The Netrix team was great in helping us bring our ideas around data to life. Building out our data strategy is a long journey – and I find that taking the first steps can be incredibly difficult. Netrix understood early on where we were trying to go, and helped us take the first steps and make it a reality.” -Dan Horton, CEO
Pains
Gains
No matter what challenge you’re facing today, our team of technical experts can get you started on a path to a better solution. We’ll partner with you to:
