Month: November 2019

Insurers have a lot of customer data across different systems peppered throughout their enterprise. Customer data would typically live in multiple systems like CRM, Billing, Policy Administration, and so on. This approach however suffers from multiple challenges:

 

1. Duplicate data across multiple systems
2. Multiple Versions of the same data point
3. No Single source of truth
4. No correlation between cause and action
5. Completely under utilized customer interaction data

 

Imagine a structure so flexible and scalable that, that it could bring all your data sources together, irrespective of the data formats, tie in with the customer key result areas (KRAs) and at the same time deliver predictable insights at the point of decision. In real time.

 

Enter single customer view. Or as we call it – Customer OneView.

 

OneView in Action

 

Customer OneView is part of Aureus data analytics platform called CRUX. OneView is not anything like a CRM. While a CRM would show only static information, OneView delivers intelligent, usable and real time insights that can be put to use immediately.

OneView can integrate with (atleast) four broad event data streams:

1. Customer
2. Relationship
3. Transactions
4. Interaction

 

Nitin had written about stream based data integration on his insightful post titled “Cheers to Stream Based Integration“

 

These data streams could originate across multiple data systems – Policy Admin, CRM, Billing, etc.. Between them, these four cover some of the most critical customer data, that often lies under utilized. OneView not only brings these data streams together, but it also helps build a comprehensive customer life journey showing important milestones, critical customer interactions, sentiment at each interaction or transaction level as well as at a relationship level.  While OneView is a powerful insights delivery framework, it also helps to deliver the output of predictive analytics models in a form that is usable by the business users. OneView can help translate the output of the analytical models into usable insights. Imagine a customer sales representative talking to a customer, or a field sales agent going to meet a customer. OneView will give them unambiguous insight into the customers history, sentiment and even potential  action to take, without burdening them with the Hows and Whys.

 

Imagine a typical customer cross sell scenario. Most organizations tend to throw (figuratively speaking) the entire product catalog at the customer without any consideration for their lifestage needs, portfolio, demographics etc… Not only is this a highly ineffective cross sell approach, but it is a terrible customer experience approach. With OneView the customer service representative or the field service agents knows exactly what the customers latest and overall sentiment is, what her product portfolio looks like and which product the customer is most likely to buy.

 

The end goal of any activity is to make the end customers experience epic. By knowing how a customer is likely to behave, modeled on her previous behavior, insurance companies can ensure that the customer experience is always moving to the right.

 

Source: A Single Customer View : The Secret Weapon Everyone Must Use by analyticsweek

The surging interest in blockchain initially pertained to its utility as the underlying architecture for the cryptocurrency phenomenon. Nonetheless, its core attributes (its distributed ledger system, immutability, and requisite permissions) are rapidly gaining credence in an assortment of verticals for numerous deployments.

Blockchain techniques are routinely used in several facets of supply chain management, insurance, and finance. In order to realize the widespread adoption rates many believe this technology is capable of, however, blockchain must enhance the very means of managing data-driven processes, similar to how applications of Artificial Intelligence are attempting to do so.

Today, there are myriad options for the enterprise to improve operations by embedding blockchain into fundamental aspects of data management. If properly architected, this technology can substantially impact facets of Master Data Management, data governance, and security. Additionally, it can provide these advantages not only between organizations, but also within them, operating as what Franz CEO Jans Aasman termed “a usability layer on top” of any number of IT systems.

Customer Domain Management
A particularly persuasive use case for the horizontal adoption of blockchain is deploying it to improve customer relations. Because blockchain essentially functions as a distributed database in which transactions between parties must be validated for approval (via a consensus approach bereft of centralized authority), it’s ideal for preserving the integrity of interactions between the enterprise and valued customers. In this respect it can “create trusted ledgers for customers that are completely invisible to the end user,” Aasman stated. An estimable example of this use case involves P2P networks, in which “people just use peer-to-peer databases that record transactions,” Aasman mentioned. “But these peer-to-peer transactions are checked by the blockchain to make sure people aren’t cheating.” Blockchain is used to manage transactions between parties in supply chains in much the same way. Blockchain aids organizations with this P2P customer use case because without it, “it’s very, very complicated for normal people to get it done,” Aasman said about traditional approaches to inter-organization ledger systems. With each party operating on a single blockchain, however, transactions become indisputable once they are sanctioned between the participants.

Internal Governance and Security
Perhaps the most distinguishable feature of the foregoing use case is the fact that in most instances, end users won’t even know they’re working with blockchain. What Aasman called an “invisible” characteristic of the blockchain ledger system is ideal for internal use to monitor employees in accordance with data governance and security procedures. Although blockchain supports internal intelligence or compliance for security and governance purposes, it’s most applicable to external transactions between organizations. In finance—just like in supply chain or in certain insurance transactions—“you could have multiple institutions that do financial transactions between each other, and each of them will have a version of that database,” Aasman explained. Those using these databases won’t necessarily realize they’re fortified by blockchain, and will simply use them as they would any other transactional system. In this case, “an accountant, a bookkeeper or a person that pays the bills won’t even know there’s a blockchain,” commented Aasman. “He will just send money or receive money, but in the background there’s blockchain making sure that no one can fool with the transactions.”

Master Data Management
Despite the fact that individual end users may be ignorant of the deployment of blockchain in the above use cases, it’s necessary for underlying IT systems to be fully aware of which clusters are part of this ledger system. According to Aasman, users will remain unaware of blockchain’s involvement “unless, of course, someone was trying to steal money, or trying to delete intermediate transactions, or deny that he sent money, or sent the same money twice. Then the system will say hey, user X has engaged in a ‘confusing’ activity.” In doing so, the system will help preserve adherence to company policies related to security or data governance issues.

Since organizations will likely employ other IT systems without blockchain, Master Data Management hubs will be important for “deciding for which transactions this applies,” Aasman said. “It’s going to be a feature of MDM.” Mastering the data from blockchain transactions with centralized MDM approaches can help align this data with others vital to a particular business domain, such as customer interactions. Aasman revealed that “the people that make master data management have to specify for which table this actually is true. Not the end users: the architects, the database people, the DBAs.” Implementing the MDM schema for which to optimize such internal applications of blockchain alongside those for additional databases and sources can quickly become complex with traditional methods, and may be simplified via smart data approaches.

Overall Value
The rapidity of blockchain’s rise will ultimately be determined by the utility the enterprise can derive from its technologies, as opposed to simply limiting its value to financial services and cryptocurrency. There are just as many telling examples of applying blockchain’s immutability to various facets of government and healthcare, or leveraging smart contracts to simplify interactions between business parties. By using this technology to better customer relations, reinforce data governance and security, and assist specific domains of MDM, organizations get a plethora of benefits from incorporating blockchain into their daily operations. The business value reaped in each of these areas could contribute to the overall adoption of this technology in both professional and private spheres of life. Moreover, it could help normalize blockchain as a commonplace technology for the contemporary enterprise.

Source: The Mainstream Adoption of Blockchain: Internal and External Enterprise Applications