Case Study: Enterprise Master Data Management

Insurance

Enterprise Master Data Management

The Challenge: Data Fragmentation and Quality Issues

A major multi-line insurance carrier was grappling with severe data management challenges that threatened its market position and operational efficiency. The company operated five disparate policy administration systems across different business lines, leading to ten or more conflicting definitions of core business entities. The lack of data standardization had caused three previous initiatives to fail, while 50% of analytics projects were being abandoned due to data quality issues. Most critically, the inability to create a unified customer view was costing an estimated $280M in missed cross-sell and upsell opportunities. The problem extended to the front lines, where agents were struggling with portals showing incorrect or outdated information, directly impacting customer service and sales effectiveness.

Our Solution: Comprehensive MDM Implementation

Lydatum designed and implemented an enterprise-wide Master Data Management solution that addressed both technical and organizational challenges. The solution encompassed:

• Enterprise Data Foundation: We implemented Informatica MDM as the core platform, integrated with Collibra for governance and Precisely for address validation. This created a single source of truth for critical business entities, with automated data quality checks through Great Expectations and comprehensive data cataloging via Alation.
• Integration Framework: Using Talend and Azure Data Factory, we built a robust data integration framework that could handle real-time synchronization across systems while maintaining data quality and lineage. Power BI dashboards provided visibility into data quality metrics and business impact.
• Governance Structure: We established a formal data domain ownership model with a tiered governance structure. This included implementing a clear data producer/consumer operating model with defined SLAs and accountability measures. The approach started with the customer domain as the highest value area, creating quick wins while building momentum.

The implementation was supported by a comprehensive change management strategy that focused on shifting the organizational mindset from "IT owns data" to "business owns data." This cultural transformation was critical to the project's success and long-term sustainability.

The Impact: Enterprise-Wide Data Transformation

The MDM implementation delivered substantial benefits across multiple dimensions:

Beyond the quantitative metrics, the solution achieved several transformative outcomes. The creation of a unified customer view across all lines of business was completed in just 9 months, far exceeding expectations. Agent satisfaction saw an 18-point improvement as they gained access to reliable, real-time customer information. The elimination of 2.3M duplicate customer records not only improved operational efficiency but also enhanced regulatory compliance and reporting accuracy. Perhaps most significantly, the project succeeded in shifting the organizational culture toward true data ownership by the business, creating a foundation for ongoing data-driven transformation.

Technologies Used: Informatica MDM, Collibra, Precisely, Talend, Alation, Great Expectations, Power BI, Azure Data Factory