London Market Conference discusses strategies imperative to meet their Data and Analytics challenges

The recent TINtech conference in London featured a panel on Data & Analytics comprising Reid Stanway, Chief Digital Officer at Verisk; Saki Thethy, Head of Data at Ascot; and Richard Brayshaw, Systems Analyst for Data Analytics at Verisk.

In discussing the challenges of the digital transformation journey, data maturity, and its business implications Reid Stanway kicked off the session by highlighting the importance of starting with a clear business strategy in order to avoid technical debt.

Saki Thethy emphasised the importance of a clear strategic vision, quick wins, and over-communication to bridge the gap between IT and the business. He also stressed the need to give space to iterate towards the goal whilst adapting to current business needs.

Richard Brayshaw introduced the concept of the data maturity curve, explaining that the top end of the curve involves machine learning and predictive analytics which is often intimidating for legacy spreadsheet users. 

In the subsequent breakout workshops, attendees discussed their data challenges as brokers and carriers, including the need to create efficiencies in the pre-bind process, intelligent risk placement, and centralising data. The groups also targeted the importance of using data insights and benchmarking to improve the quality of their client conversations.

For Verisk, importance was placed on the tailoring of solutions to specific challenges and right-sizing the data analytics toolkit whilst noting that businesses must own their data as part of the strategy and avoid wasting time on data arguments.

The panel also discussed the big gaps seen in the marketplace, and for Verisk there needed to be a clear understanding of where businesses are in their data maturity in order to provide solutions to specific challenges.