Health insurer becomes a more analytical business

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Published on the 27/07/2015 | Written by Zag

AT A GLANCE

Accuro Health Insurance

INDUSTRY

Healthcare

BUSINESS OBJECTIVE

Improve information visibility and accuracy
Deliver management reports as required
Leverage data stores for the benefit of members
Establish ‘analytical’ approach to business.

SOLUTION

SAP BusinessObjects EDGE

BUSINESS BENEFITS

‘Single version of the truth’
Familiar interface for ease of use
Immediate access to accurate information
Platform established for future BI initiatives.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Zag
NZ: w// zag.team
E: info@zag.team

AU: w// zag.team
E: info@zag.team

Auckland
T: +64 9 571 7100
Wellington
T: +64 4 472 1897
Sydney
T: +61 2 8520 3797

Latin for ‘taking care’, Accuro is driven by a mission to provide comprehensive health insurance cover and personal service at the lowest possible premiums…

Faced with the challenge of leveraging its enormous data stores for actionable business insights, Accuro Health Insurance turned to Soltius for a solution. The SAP partner proposed BusinessObjects EDGE as a core component of an improved approach to analytics – and that’s set the scene for an increasingly information-driven organisation.

Accuro Health Insurance has taken care of its members for over 40 years. Founded in 1971 as a healthcare insurer for health professionals, Accuro is run by Kiwis for Kiwis. The company operates as a Not For Profit (NFP), which means that everything it does is for those who own the organisation: the members.

Situation
An issue for Accuro over several years was its inability to turn a wealth of data into actionable business insights. Lenka Horanska, Application Support Analyst at Accuro, describes the company’s position: “There wasn’t a great deal of clarity around a lot of aspects of the business and stakeholders would sometimes get different answers to the same questions. It can be difficult to execute a strategy without being able to answer core business questions correctly.”

The absence of a clear direction in analytics had led to the co-existence of a number of data silos. Without one version of the truth, Accuro had been using large numbers of spreadsheets with Excel queries in an attempt to better understand business information. However, this led to a proliferation of different reports and a lack of structure around reporting rules and integrity.

Solution
With a desire to start using scorecards in management meetings and also deliver a user-friendly, self-service reporting environment, Accuro went to market for a solution. Soltius proposed SAP BusinessObjects EDGE. As a single-server, centrally-managed and easy to use business tool that met both the current reporting and future scorecarding requirements, the solution was accepted by Accuro.

SAP BusinessObjects EDGE offeres the advanced visualisation features that Accuro was seeking, which makes analysis more appealing and insightful for stakeholders. The ability to schedule report distribution either within or outside the organisation, as well as add in personalisation, was seen as particularly advantageous for the company.

Results
Thanks to BusinessObjects EDGE, reported information is today trusted by business users throughout the organisation, with repeatable and consistent analysis. The centralised data approach allows the governance team to feel assured, knowing that it has immediate and accurate visibility on how the business is tracking against organisation-wide goals.

Standard documents, like board and management reports, are produced using the Live Office tool, an addon for Microsoft Office, which is part of the BusinessObjects EDGE toolset. Business users have been able to continue using the interfaces they are comfortable with, whilst being reassured that their data is consistent and up to date.

While the team at Accuro is excited by progress to date, it has further ambitions for improving analytics capabilities. The ability to standardise reports and terminology is considered a significant step towards which the team is working.

Central to this is the extension of the platform to include SAP Data Integrator, allowing the construction of a centralised Data Warehouse. This will further strengthen the ability to track business performance against strategic measures, continuing and increasing the benefits already realised.

The knowledge and expertise of the Soltius team is considered an essential factor in the success of the initative, even beyond the technological elements. “Soltius is not only a provider for us. We see them as a trusted partner when it comes to support and training as well. We look to Soltius to provide leadership and assistance with the direction of our analytics capabilities, and we enjoy working with them,” says Horanska.