Leveraging information: enterprise data strategies and data road maps help manage corporate data assets.

Data is a corporate asset, just as valuable and in need of management as financial assets. Insurance is an industry run on data and insurers are collecting more data than ever before through Web sites, call centers, customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning applications. In fact, a recent study conducted by Teradata, The 2003-2004 Teradata Report oft Enterprise Decision-Making, shows that data is increasing, with 59% of respondents saying data is doubling or tripling.

Insurers are adding front-end systems, such as underwriting and adjuster workstations, requiring and generating vast amounts of new data. They're adding clinical data to improve medical and disease management programs, and also are replacing their agency, policy and claims administration systems.

Data not only is increasing, but so is demand. Insurers are increasing their use of enterprise business analytics to improve profitability, reduce expenses and allocate capital effectively. To conduct these enterprise analytics, however, the data needs to be integrated across business units into a credible, available single version. Providing a cross-business unit or cross-functional access to the data is a challenge compounded by different names, data formats and calculations used in various policy and other source systems, for the same or similar data.

As a result, data availability, access and quality have become key issues for insurers, pointing to the need for an enterprise data strategy. This strategy is a plan to improve the way an organization leverages its data assets, thus turning data into information, information into knowledge, and knowledge into measurable business value. Its components include an enterprise data architecture (that includes the organization or structure of the data) and data model; enterprise data management, or governance; and enterprise analytic capabilities, which include customer relationship management, risk management and business performance management.

Enterprise data management refers to the overall data governance process--the data stewardship and data quality process. It includes metadata, or data about the data, to ensure an understanding of the data.

An enterprise data strategy, which is an alignment between the business users who use the data and IT departments who manage it, is the key. An effective way to achieve this alignment is to plan, document, manage and communicate it through an enterprise data warehouse road map--a visual planning and communication tool between business and information technology areas that shows the linkage of a company's vision, its data and corresponding business value.

A key concept of the road map, of the data strategy and of the data warehouse itself is to store the data once, but use it many times. It includes and shows the relationships among:

* Business vision, key goals and objectives/initiatives;

* Business improvement opportunities (analytic business processes such as pricing, product development, fraud management, claims management, etc.);

* Key analytic business questions and key performance indicators linked to the business initiatives and the relative business value of those business initiatives;

* Data needed to answer these questions--evidenced in an enterprise data model (the relationships of the data);

* Source systems in which the data resides;

* Business value associated with the above; and

* Organization charts for both the business units who own the business objectives/initiatives and the IT teams who will deliver the technology projects to achieve them.

In addition, it can include a metadata repository that captures the names, data formats and definitions of the data as it resides in various systems through the enterprise and the corporate data governance charter addressing data quality and data management.

The value of the road map is in providing a single location for documenting, planning, and managing the enterprise data strategy and a common communication tool. Once built, it is a dynamic planning tool that allows users to see the impact of the reprioritization of an initiative, the addition of a new system or the retirement of a system.

Loading all of this information for the enterprise need not be done at once; it can be built in increments by business unit, functional area or level of detail. Data will continue to grow, as will the demand for access. Business needs and priorities also will change. An enterprise data strategy and enterprise data road map can help both business managers and information technology professionals jointly manage and reprioritize their initiatives and optimize their resources to meet evolving business needs.

Patricia L. Saporito is industry director, insurance, health care and pharmaceutical for Teradata Division, NCR Corp. She can be reached at [e-mail].