Many years ago Thomas J. Watson said: "Once an organization loses its spirit of pioneering and rests on its early work, its progress stops." In the current economy, with much of the insurance marketplace appearing as a zero-sum game or perhaps even a temporarily shrinking pie, insurers are on an innovation treadmill they must keep pace with to stay competitive. And today, one of the most important competitive paradigms to embed in every insurance enterprise is a rock-solid business intelligence (BI) foundation.

Analysts and others have opined BI and predictive analytics have been two of the most important technology trends for the past few years with expectations they both will continue to be defining efforts for the most progressive companies in the coming years. From a base in BI, advanced predictive analytics capabilities can be used to turn raw and synthesized data into insights that can help improve performance and generate advantage through end-to-end fact-based decision-making.

There are a number of critical activities and milestones that must be reached for an organization to construct this end-to-end BI foundation. Despite investments in various BI developments, some insurers have struggled with aspects of the effort while continuing to drive forward with mixed success. While many components are required for competency in BI, certain key considerations must be planned and executed with excellence. Now seems like an opportune time to review some of the grounding concepts for BI to help companies better understand and implement the basics before too much more effort is expended. Some examples of important considerations follow.