We asked five technology experts to weigh in on businessintelligence measures, ranging from how to handle massive amountsof data and identifying important elements, the creation ofdashboards, process management, and perhaps most importantly, howcarriers can become more profitable. Here's what each had tosay.

Turning Data Into BusinessIntelligence

Deloitte Consulting's John Lucker says insurance carriershave accumulated massive amounts of data over the years, which canpresent a daunting task when it comes time to turn that data intobusiness intelligence.

KEY INSIGHT: “Typically, business intelligenceis not a counting exercise. The phrase you hear often is 'good isoften good enough.' What I've found almost every time I've [workedon data] with a client is they've seen that the cleaning exercisedoesn't significantly change the trends and patterns that they weresetting out to see in the business intelligence exercise.” Click here to read more.

SuccessfulBI Means Eliminating Manual Processes

MutualAid eXchange's Paul Heacock says manual processes canbe time consuming, particularly if you are trying to extract datafrom disparate systems and turn it into actionable businessintelligence. He discusses his company's goals for businessintelligence and the benefits it has already derived.

KEY INSIGHT: “We predefined the reports and thedashboards that we want. When we see a number we are curious about,we can drill all the way down to the coverage level to find outwhat created that number. We hope to spend a lot more timeanalyzing numbers than creating the numbers.” Click here to read more.

AchievingSuccess with Business Intelligence Initiatives

For Karen Pauli, research director in the insurance practicefor TowerGroup, the first step in a business intelligence projectcalls for getting your data in order, but there are other stepsthat need to follow for carriers to achieve success with their BIinitiatives.

KEY INSIGHT: “Once [insurers] understand thatnot all data elements actually turn into information, you can lookat pulling out some of the data elements in the first initiative,get the data warehouse loaded with the important data elements thatlead to decisioning, let the BI technology bring it all togetherand turn it into information, and then route it into the BPMsoftware.” Click here to read more.

MatureBI Platforms Can Lead to SuccessfulImplementations

There are several factors to consider when beginning abusiness intelligence implementation. Much depends on the maturityof the BI platform, according to Qasim Hussain, senior architectfor the technology consulting firm X by 2.

Key Insight: “By the time you get therequirements designed and the models done, you've spent asignificant amount of time thinking about the problem withoutactually delivering something that is useful to the business. Theshift should be to a more agile or iterative approach where youtake a small chunk, release it to the business, get early feedbackas to whether it is meeting their expectation and adapt as you goalong.” Click here to read more.

PredictiveAnalytics Is Next Generation of BI

Business intelligence projects can come into play acrossmost of the functional areas of an organization, according to SteveCallahan, practice director for Robert E. Nolan Co.

Key Insight: “We have the pressure of achievingsales growth and profitability in an environment where expensereduction doesn't contribute as much as it could in the past.[Carriers] have to find out how to be more profitable. To do that,they have to look more closely at their products, their marketsegments, and their risk exposures. That's going to drive thegreater use of tools to achieve profitability. They have to look attheir business with a magnifying glass.” Click here to read more.