4 Steps to Successful Insurance Data Governance Programs – A business-first approach

Getting started with data governance

Insurance carriers depend on data for all aspects of doing business, from generating sales and making underwriting decisions to servicing policies and settling claims. That’s why leading insurance carriers want what data governance has to offer:

• Improved data quality and integrity
• Data that employees can find and trust for confident decision making
• A framework for owning, managing, monitoring, and deploying compliant data end to end

Unfortunately, traditional insurance data governance initiatives frequently fall short of expectations. That’s because building data governance from the bottom up is difficult

• particularly for insurance carriers with siloed operational departments and multiple locations.

The results too often are overly complex and focused too heavily on governance policies and enforcement. Employees are asked to attend governance meetings, define terms, and change the way they work. Yet often these employees don’t see the connection between data governance and how it makes an impact on meeting their own goals and responsibilities.

Governance strategy becomes bogged down in minutiae. It loses focus. With no tangible improvement in insights, operations, costs, or risk posture — and no clear return on investment — corporate leadership loses enthusiasm. They may even consider defunding governance efforts, losing out on their benefits altogether.