Transforming insurance: data-driven alignment and smarter decision-making

As a service-oriented company, the service you provide to your clients is of great importance. For Madison.Partners' Belgian insurance customer, this is no different. With the ambition to further align both private and professional insurance needs, this insurance player aims to offer its clients a comprehensive framework, preferably through tailored solutions. Operating from a robust, independent base, with the objective to gain market share.

Aligning business and technology objectives through data

To better collaborate towards these ambitions, such as personalizing their services and gathering the necessary insights, there was a need to better align the activities and data of various departments and have them contribute to the overall business objectives. For instance, there was a business-driven demand for more automation at a time when the IT landscape was highly fragmented. While there was a lot of technology available, efficient cohesion was lacking. This fragmentation led to operational challenges, notably high infrastructure costs to support the multitude of technologies and dispersed data across systems. Moreover, while there was considerable in-house expertise, it wasn't adequately documented and shared within the organization, posing a risk to their business continuity.

The company recognized the need to develop its technology and data foundations and facilitate a digital transformation journey. They established a future-proof and reliable infrastructure, facilitated remote work and consolidated technology. However, these efforts were primarily technically oriented and developed based on the current situation, failing to sufficiently align with the overarching business strategy and vision of the company.

From assessment to roadmap: executing the data-driven roadmap

In 2022, some fresh air brought a 2025 strategy to the forefront. As said by the customer: "It was imperative to translate our strategic narrative into obvious, measurable output to realize our ambitions." The necessary actions became apparent.

Based on a Data Maturity Assessment with interviews conducted by Madison.Partners, they were able to redefine the building blocks to ensure effective communication between business and the technology department, and vice versa. Everyone's interests were considered. The value chain of the insurance company was scrutinized to ensure a renewed focus on their activities. During this exercise, roles and responsibilities within departments were also clarified.

Workshops with the Executive Committee were executed to fine-tune and align the strategy and values across departments. With a focus primarily on the business and Technology departments, Madison.Partners acted as facilitator, challenger, external advisor and content expert during these workshops. “In such workshops, you essentially redefine the guiding principles of your company. You seek answers to questions like: What do we do as a company? What do we focus on and how do we plan to achieve this? This way, you develop a business project portfolio that aligns with your strategy and objectives. You analyze which projects are needed, their priorities and what exactly is required for them,” explained the insurance client.

Subsequently, they worked together towards a balanced roadmap for the coming years. “This is a translation of our 2025 strategy, taking into account the right priorities, the impact of the actions and their feasibility, as well as the available budget and associated resources,” confirmed the insurance company’s Director of Enterprise Architecture.

To complete the cycle, key performance indicators (KPIs) were defined within this track to make the translation of the strategy measurable. To effectively monitor these indicators, a KPI dashboard was developed for the CEO in collaboration with the internal Business Intelligence competence center.

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‍Transformative impact of data and strategic alignment on business decisions

The impact of these actions on the customer’s internal operations and business was quickly evident. Their portfolio of projects was sharply defined and the outlines for 2025 are drawn up, with measurable goals translated into KPIs. The skills, resources and technology applications have been defined to ensure the operations and supporting departments align and execute on the strategic priorities. Significant effort was made to elevate the data maturity of this insurance company to a higher level.

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The result of this strategic data track?

• Clarified organization-wide priorities to become more data-driven, anchored in the strategic 2025 plan, with the objective to generate maximum value.
• A “strategy-on-a-page”, serving as a one pager listing out the organization its strategic choices and principles regarding data and digital.
• A clear and aligned balance between business objectives and digital/data foundations.
• A roadmap with prioritized projects and use cases, ready for implementation. This roadmap is tailored to the organizational readiness of the company based on six equally important foundations: data, data governance, tools & technology, skills & capacity, organization & communication and change.
• A KPI framework to monitor the strategy with insights and introduce measurability to the organization.
• CEO’s ability to steer the organization on data, thanks to the corporate KPI dashboard

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This process remains the guiding principle for the organization to prioritize projects based on their objectives. “We embrace the output of Madison.Partners every time. Carefully considering the business strategy has genuinely taught us to make better and more profitable choices.”

Empowering growth of the insurance sector

"Right from the start, we fully aligned with Madison.Partners' vision and methodology. We quickly saw how we could make our corporate narrative more concrete and, most importantly, data driven. Examples of use cases provided us with insights into how such a strategic process can lead to numerous useful and measurable business outcomes."

"The ability to articulate their rather complex expertise in a logical, clear manner is where Madison.Partners stands out for us. They listened and engaged in dialogue. That's true collaboration. It's highly motivating for the team."

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Sitting idle? Not their style. Meanwhile, numerous new activities are in the pipeline that will contribute to the insurer's ambitions. Think of initiatives like enhancing data literacy among their employees and customers, implementing stronger data governance, or utilizing AI to streamline various business processes. And Madison.Partners is happy to collaborate on that, too.

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