Sympany optimizes IBM Cognos Analytics for new data warehouse

The company

Sympany has been advocating for private people and companies for more than 100 years. This Swiss insurance company offers health and accident insurance, as well as property and liability insurance. Sympany’s headquarters is in Basel.

At an insurance company, data has always played a central role for setting rates and reporting. With current technologies, there are new data sources and analytical tools available. These open up new possibilities for offering customers better services and products and making customer relationships more personal.

Learn more about Sympany.

Challenge

Quick, flexible conversion to the new data warehouse and IBM Cognos Analytics, including the migration of all data

Advising approach

Technical and content optimization of the reports in ongoing operation, improved rights and access concept

Customer benefits and solution

High-performance, easy analyses for the departments, even with linked data elements

The challenge

A significant part of Sympany’s evaluation infrastructure is a high-powered enterprise data warehouse. As part of the implementation of a new ERP system, an interim solution for evaluations with restricted functionality was designed, which therefore bore the name “GoLive-set.” The goal was to implement a state-of-the-art data warehouse and to keep business operations running full speed ahead during the implementation phase. The changes in the data warehouse required adjustments in the IBM Cognos Analytics front end, as well as in the interfaces and reports.

The challenge was to convert the existing reports for the departments to the new data warehouse as quickly as possible. However, professional resources were at a premium, so external support was required. It would have to be possible to deploy the partner quickly and flexibly and the partner would need to have very good IBM Cognos Analytics skills.

Solution

valantic was able to fulfill all of these requirements. In particular, its extensive Cognos expertise and experience from other projects for health insurance companies were very helpful for the quick implementation.

Overview: Conversion to the new data warehouse and IBM Cognos Analytics:

Migration of all data into the newly structured data warehouse
Higher performance and more efficient calling of data for all departments
Easier operation and clearer display for all employees

New access rights concept, which reveals responsibility for data and reports

valantic’s consultants understood the logic changes in the back end in the shortest possible time. The reports used had to be adapted to the new data warehouse, which meant that the report data changed logically and structurally. At the same time, Sympany and valantic tested the migrated reports for possibilities for technical improvement. Therefore, there was an adjustment on both the technical and content levels. The departments accepted the reports during the migration phase, in parallel with ongoing daily business. All analytic information was thus always available and could be used by the business without restriction.

Results & customer benefit

Since July 2020, all Sympany departments have been working with the new data warehouse and the optimized IBM Cognos Analytics. It was possible to end the resource-heavy parallel operation earlier than planned, which resulted in significant savings. The departments use all data in a quality-assured, high-performance environment.

With the new solution developed by Sympany and valantic, departments can call up all data quickly and link data elements from different tables easily and clearly, something that was not possible with the old solution. Data analysis is much easier for the employees. Furthermore, the new data warehouse is structured much more clearly, which in turn improves performance. In the process, valantic also introduced a new “ownership” concept. The new rights and access concept guarantees that today and in the future, responsibilities for the existing data and reports are clarified, and with a growing need for analysis, they display all available reports in the overview.

Sympany and valantic tackled the migration to the new data warehouse successfully and with minimal effort for the departments. Reporting is stable and runs in the new environment to users’ complete satisfaction.

Learning & recommendations for action

In the beginning, many users couldn’t see the great benefits of migrating to the new data warehouse. The readiness to invest resources in the project was correspondingly low.

Sympany and valantic succeeded in revealing the benefits to users and at the same time, requiring as little work of the departments as possible. During the project, it became clear that especially changes to existing and proven structures should be tested well. Most of the work, questions, and problems arose where adjustments to data structures initiated by the departments were made. Worth recommending is also that companies should plan acceptance with the departments at the very beginning of the project and agree on content and procedure in binding fashion.

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Your Contact

Marc Philipp

Managing Director
valantic Business Analytics Swiss