About Ando Insurance Group Limited (Ando)
Ando’s success in New Zealand hinges on a customer-focused approach, emphasising simplicity, transparency and timely support. One key area that Ando prioritises is efficient data analysis for quicker support to customers during challenging weather events. With a 300-strong team, Ando leverages smart technologies to streamline data processes.
Ando’s deployment of Qlik has transformed workflow, providing accurate, timely analytics and geospatial insights. Automation with Qlik saves significant time, enhances resource allocation and enables proactive responses during crises. Ando plans to expand how they use Qlik, particularly in process optimisation, for an improved customer experience and quicker claims approvals.
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Josh Reid, Head of Data and Business Intelligence, Ando |
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Ando’s proactive stance ensures enhanced customer experience
One of the keys to success for New Zealand’s Ando Insurance is adopting a customer-focused approach while ensuring speedy and accurate data collection. Ando believes that insurance needs to be less complex, less stressful and more transparent for its customers.
Drawing lessons from 2023’s North Island floods and Cyclone Gabrielle, along with prior weather events, Ando’s priority is to utilise all its resources to respond as fast as possible, for customers, at these critical times. To do that, it needs to analyse internal and external data for quicker and sharper outcomes, while maintaining an efficient resource allocation.
Ando has built its delivery capability around modern smart technologies, and has used these tools to design innovative products since its inception in 2015. Currently, Ando serves around 100,000 policyholders with over 35,000 policies covering businesses and more than 62,000 policies insuring New Zealander’s homes, contents and cars. It measures its yearly growth at 30%.
Growing need for efficient workflow and data analysis
With such fast growth, and as a relatively young business, Ando’s leaders faced monumental tasks of processing high volumes of data from multiple sources. Despite automating several processes, time-consuming work was still required. Staff had to pull together manual reports, carry out administrative work and work across different systems to gather data.
Visualising data for faster and swift customer support
Ando embarked on a data transformation journey by deploying Qlik, with help from Qlik’s partner, Acumen BI, who have built strong data fundamentals for the business. Ando credits Acumen BI for support in data architecture and ensuring that its systems are up to date, while allowing Ando to harness the power of cloud-based data analytics and machine learning platforms.
Ando’s migration from on-premises to the cloud was easy. Having already established connections to the required data sources, it was a matter of altering minor tasks or code for a seamless transition – showing flexibility, scalability and potentially cutting costs.
Qlik’s position as a one-stop digital platform allowed Ando to get it right in important areas – accuracy, timeliness and response times. Ando began deploying Qlik in its finance area, but soon expanded to operations, claims portfolio management and underwriting departments. With Acumen BI’s assistance, the platform now offers customisable home pages, access to alerts and subscriptions and mobile capabilities.
Claims teams previously had to perform time-consuming, manual analysis and data summaries, but Qlik’s solutions simplified their work processes to free them up for other vital tasks.
“We have the trust and reliability of updating as we need it,” says Reid. “Instead of spending one or two days trying to find out all the details on a claim, or how many claims we’ve had in a particular area, we can automate that.”
Crucial automation for proactive response and time-saving benefits
Qlik has given Ando the confidence to craft more proactive and targeted responses while improving its resource allocation and productivity.
Ando now finds it easy to input information from reinsurers and councils (information on floodplains or locations particularly badly hit by a storm or flood). They can overlay this geospatial data with its customers’ information resulting in immediate visualisation of a disaster’s severity.
For example, Ando’s use of Qlik’s geospatial analytics made a difference to residents affected by a storm that hit the top of the North Island.
On the same business day as the event, we were able to determine the customers who were most likely to be affected and send them an email to check in and offer any help they may need,” explains André Hamon, Business Intelligence Analyst at Ando.
Reid adds that this was very reassuring for evacuees, as they would already have their support email from Ando waiting for them once they were within cell reception.
These insights also act as advice to Ando’s on-ground teams, so they can react quickly and save time when processing a myriad of data from external parties. Within minutes, teams can find surrounding houses and properties where claims are likely to be made, putting their decision-making processes into gear for quick assistance.
“We make sure we put these claims with our most experienced team members so they’re better able to service these customers’ needs and make sure that they’re getting the right type of support through these very tough events,” Reid says.
During the 2023 flooding and cyclone events, Ando deployed Qlik to turn around situational reports swiftly. The disasters struck over a weekend and Ando’s reports were ready by Monday, freeing up teams to work on targeted responses and critical decisions. Hamon says Qlik allowed them to rapidly pass on information to their broker partners when they couldn’t get access to their offices because they were six feet below mud or underwater.
Instead of just reacting to an event, Ando empowers its team to proactively lead from the front.
Expanding Qlik’s usage for better operational and business outcomes
The Qlik experience is a positive one for Ando. Automating reports save staff up to 75 hours a month while the company recorded 65,000 hours of use last year. Usage is expected to grow as teams easily customise Qlik solutions for more complex functions.
Content was easily replicated and adapted during a crisis – at times within five minutes for quick overviews of any situation, making Ando more agile in its responses. Teams faced learning curves with Qlik, but deployment was “super-fast” once they mastered the proprietary language, according to Reid.
Qlik also helps Ando monitor trends and do risk analysis of households that could be affected by potential climate change-related events. It cleaned up Ando’s workflow with better user experiences on its platforms.
Hamon and Reid agree that Qlik has transformed Ando’s workflow, enabling it to stay “two steps ahead” with data. “In a crisis, we’re able to throw everything at Qlik and surface it in a way that helps us better serve our customers,” Reid concludes.
Customer Name
Ando Insurance Group Limited
Industry
Financial Services
Geography
Auckland, Tauranga and Christchurch, New Zealand
Function
Finance, Sales, Supply Chain Management
75 hours
saved monthly in report generation
5 minutes
to adapt content for varied overviews and visualisations
1 platform
enables visualisation of big data
Challenges
- Limited operational visibility of claim process trends, status or actions.
- Limited ability to benchmark, monitor trends or identify systemic behavior and issues.
- Inconsistent data from multiple sources of information.
Solution
Ando deployed Qlik Sense® to seamlessly bring data together for detailed analysis to improve business outcomes.
Results
- Single and accurate data source for improved claims processes and response times.
- Data granularity for meaningful insights and business decisions.
- Time-saving benefits for effective resource allocation.
About Acumen BI
Acumen BI transitions organisations from working within the constraints of traditional data and analytics reporting paradigms, to effectively utilise modern cloud-based data, analytics and machine learning platforms.