AEGIS London is the UK-based subsidiary of AEGIS (Associated Electric & Gas Insurance Services Limited). It operates the AEGIS London Syndicate 1225 at Lloyd’s with a capacity of £310 million for 2013. AEGIS London has grown from its origins as an energy insurance specialist and is today a successful, diversified business, leading and participating in a wide range of classes traditionally written in the Lloyd’s market.

OPEN Data Warehouse : AEGIS Case Study

AEGIS London Selects OPEN Data Warehouse A customer success story.

Background

With over 100 people in its team, the business continues to develop its capabilities in new business lines, bringing its unique, collaborative style to new clients and new classes, while operating for the mutual benefit of all involved.

AEGIS London has employed Agencyport’s* policy administration software, OPEN Core Platform: Lloyd’s; configured for the Lloyd’s and London markets and OPEN Core Platform: Commercial; configured for the commercial markets to support its business processes, global underwriting, accounts & claims systems.

The Challenge

AEGIS London created a reporting database in-house at its formation in 1999. The system had grown in an ad hoc manner over the years, with multiple solutions added as the company grew and its needs changed. This included new versions and several upgrades of OPEN Core Platform: Lloyd’s and OPEN Core Platform: Commercial. Over time, while expanding, upgrading and adding onto the system, some data had been sidelined and pockets of data emerged. Whilst the system was adequate for the business’s infancy, there came a point when AEGIS London’s anticipated future needs outpaced the solution.

Anant Patel, Head of IT at AEGIS London said: “It was becoming more and more onerous to source and validate data and to ensure its consistency. In today’s business climate, we needed and expected the right information at our fingertips when we needed it. We required a resilient, scalable warehousing solution that could reorganise and consolidate our data and ensure that we could access and manage it easily.”

Initially, AEGIS London planned to build a single data warehouse solution to capture data from multiple sources and provide improved efficiency and support for day-to-day business enquiries. A central reporting database was also needed for the production of mandatory returns and other business-defined reports. After reviewing its options, AEGIS London’s Head of IT concluded that Agencyport could provide a proven product faster at lower risk.

Solution

The Agencyport OPEN Data Warehouse solution was a customised data warehousing platform designed to work alongside the provider’s existing policy administration systems. Based on an out-of-the-box product, it was customised to meet AEGIS London’s current and future objectives, and to work around its existing data sets.

Jon Scott, MIS manager, AEGIS London said: “To build a platform in-house that could fulfil all the requirements we had then, and would have in the future, would have been a lengthy and disruptive process. In contrast, Agencyport* had the technology and means already, and were able to make the solution relevant to our business. It was an obvious choice.”

Data feeds come from multiple sources onto the warehouse platform. The existing underwriting systems in place, OPEN Core Platform: Lloyd’s and OPEN Core Platform: Commercial together with third party sources, work alongside each other and are presented back to the users as streamlined datasets and reports.

Phil Lucas, AEGIS London Project Manager said: “Ninety per cent of data warehouse projects are said to fail because a business has bitten off more than it could chew. As a long term Agencyport customer, we were confident that we would be able to work together to build a solid and reliable foundation to build upon as we grow. With more than ten years working together, Agencyport understands our business and our needs and they delivered on time, on budget and to specification.”

Phil Race, Director of Xuber said: “We had been working with AEGIS London for many years and were delighted when they approached us to discuss a data warehousing platform. Insurers hold almost immeasurable amounts of data that offer huge opportunity for insurers, but the ability to unlock the insights within it is the key to success. We work alongside insurers to customise solutions that get them more from the valuable data they are already holding. The result is insight that improves decision making and mitigates risk.”

Benefits

The Agencyport data warehouse solution went live in October 2012. AEGIS London business users now have access to better quality data, helping them to make more informed decisions in less time. The database being used for reporting is restructured to better identify business opportunities and threats. Furthermore, AEGIS London business managers can now leverage and gain value from actionable insights, using data that was previously held in disparate systems.

Capable of being adapted and incorporating new business areas, the data warehouse is a flexible foundation designed to support AEGIS London’s business growth over the next 10 years. AEGIS London has leveraged that flexibility by starting to build out reporting systems, currency modules and dashboards.

Anant Patel explains: “A simplified, validated source of data is crucial to the growth of the business. Now that we have OPEN Data Warehouse, we can work with confidence in our decision-making and reporting functions. An ambitious company needs a robust and flexible platform— one that can be added on to, developed and customised for future growth. Agencyport have successfully delivered that platform.”

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*On 4 July 2014, Xchanging acquired the European operations (people, process, technology) of the Agencyport Group from Agencyport Software Ltd and Agencyport Software US Incorporated. References to Agencyport in this document to refer to Agencyport Software Europe Limited, Agencyport Software Europe (Regional Hub) Limited, Agencyport Software Bermuda Ltd and / or Agencyport Software Europe Offshore Corporation only, and are solely used for the sake of historical accuracy.

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