When business users talk about operational reports, their primary concern is the output - the information they require to make the decision at hand. To them, a report is a report is a report. It’s a thing. But to make reporting happen, you actually need three things, not one.
The right data
Gaining insight from reports and analytics starts with good data and getting good data isn’t easy. Modern core systems purpose-built for P&C have provided many carriers with a strong base data model foundation. Flexibility and extensibility of that data model are also key to gather the data elements specific to a given company or line of business. And workflow ergonomics support improved quality of data entry when users don’t feel the need to take shortcuts around system limitations.
Useful in the moment
The right data is only valuable if you can surface it in a way that is useful to a decision maker at the moment he/she needs to make a decision. For the last 30 years, reporting has been the primary way for businesses to see that this goal is being accomplished. But there are limitations with this one-size-fits-all approach. First of all, it's a separate "system" (if it is a system) - a user has to look at a bunch of paper or virtual paper along with whatever operational system they are using to get something done. Second, reports are poor at data visualization - columns and rows are certainly a valid way to visualize data, but not the only way. And lastly, traditional reporting has a strong dependency on IT for the generation of new reports. No matter how many reports you have, they are never enough to cover all the users and all the decisions those users need to make - which puts IT on a never-ending reporting treadmill.
Making data useful in the moment sometimes doesn’t require a report at all. An adjuster or an underwriter should be able to see the information they require within the core system they work in every day, without the need for a piece of paper or PDF. An executive needs aggregates and trending on the device of their choice. And both should be able to create reports tailored to their specific needs, without an IT change request.
Optimized for a role and a decision
And finally, the right data, properly visualized and useful in the moment, must be optimized for the role and the decision at hand. The reality is that all the reports and analytics you need to make decisions and run your operation won't come solely from your core operating system for two primary reasons:
The data needed may not be properly organized for analysis: Raw core system databases are optimized for workflow and transactional processing, not for aggregation and trending.
The data you need may not be inside your organization: Many business decisions (e.g., underwriting, risk acceptance or fraud referral) require internal and external data (e.g., geographic risk or social media data)
In the end, the output may look familiar (i.e., data in tables, charts or maps), but what’s required is more than one thing. What’s required is a modern core system to capture the right data, the ability to publish content to multiple target systems to make that data useful in the moment, and visualization tools that incorporate internal and external data to support a specific role and set of decisions.