ISG served as a strategic sourcing advisor, guiding this insurance company on its go-to-market strategy for data management services, helping define the right-sized partnership to match analytics and data science goals of the organization.
The company, a specialty insurance managing general agent (MGA), was going through aggressive expansion, adding at least 4-6 new businesses each year for the next three years.
Company leadership recognized that data was an essential driver of a successful growth strategy. Leadership’s commitment to data-driven insights required that the company ensure that each acquisition and new business launch was supported by rigorous analysis, allowing for smarter decision-making and proactive identification of growth opportunities.
With the data current environment being essentially green field, the company was looking for a partner who could leverage their experience, processes and toolsets to deliver an effective data platform with a balanced approach to high quality output, speed of delivery and cost.
The company's retained data team was skeptical that it would be possible to effectively engage a partner due to poor experience with their incumbent provider. Therefore, for ISG, it was vital to ensure that the providers were going to bring subject matter expert (SME) value as well as a developer skillset to the proposed solution.
Working with ISG advisors, the team was able to create an efficient set of requirements but also understand the right approach to setting expectations and stage gates to ensure that their goals were met.
Additionally, ISG data SMEs helped the company explore a number of architecture options both in terms of effectiveness and cost, providing an independent, third-party perspective for future state.