Ansvar Insurance is a premier specialist with over 60 years of expertise in Australian insurance and risk management solutions and part of the Benefact Group. They partnered with Candela Data to modernise their data infrastructure, successfully integrating multiple systems into a centralised data platform. This data transformation project enhanced operational efficiency, improved data quality, strengthened regulatory compliance, and created a scalable foundation for their business reporting.
The Challenge: Modernising Data Management
As Ansvar expanded their services and market presence, and with increasing demands from regulatory compliance, data management and the development of insights to drive operational efficiency and strategic-decision making had become increasingly challenging. Disparate information spread across multiple systems and BI reporting tools increased operational costs, and complex reporting processes consumed valuable hours through manual processing. Maintaining data quality and consistency had become difficult, and access to critical business decision making information was limited. To address these challenges, they sought to:
- Align with the Benefact Group wide data strategy.
- Improve data access for business users to streamline reporting obligations.
- Enhance data quality for easier reconciliation and greater visibility.
- Reduce manual data manipulation within reports.
- Standardise reporting templates to easily identify approved reports.
- Establish clear data lineage for capturing change data and improving data assurance.
Building a Future-Ready Data Foundation
Candela Data implemented a data integration solution during a focused 10-week engagement. The modernisation project delivered immediate business impact while establishing a foundation for future growth.
The implementation phase established a robust, enterprise-grade data infrastructure leveraging leading cloud technologies, with a Snowflake data warehouse environment at its core. This foundation was meticulously configured to ensure optimal performance and scalability, and minimising operating costs while adhering to Ansvar Group's stringent data standards. The integration layer, built using Azure Data Factory, enabled seamless data movement between on-premises systems and cloud infrastructure while maintaining data integrity and security, reducing operational risk and compliance overhead.
To empower business users and accelerate decision-making, Power BI was implemented as the primary reporting tool, providing intuitive visualisation capabilities and self-service analytics. Data Security and Data Governance remained paramount throughout, with Azure Blob Storage providing secure, scalable storage for raw and processed data. The entire solution was version-controlled through GitHub, ensuring code quality, collaboration efficiency, and maintaining a comprehensive audit trail of all development changes, crucial for regulatory compliance and risk management.
Candela Data's ETL methodology prioritised both technical excellence and business value, incorporating a customised ETL control framework designed to handle complex data transformations while maintaining data lineage and quality controls. Standardised reporting templates, developed in collaboration with key stakeholders, incorporated best practices in data visualisation, user experience and brand design, were introduced to reduce report creation time while ensuring consistency, data governance principles and accuracy in decision-making data.
Navigating Complex Challenges with Innovative Solutions
The project team demonstrated exceptional agility in delivering value through a systematic and efficient approach. Once source system access was established, the team rapidly deployed and iterated SQL code in the client’s Snowflake environment, implementing our comprehensive ETL methodology and control framework within just three weeks. This efficient execution was enabled by the team’s preparatory work developing and testing frameworks using simulated data, ensuring a seamless transition to production implementation while maintaining project timelines and budget constraints.
Complex on-premises data connections required innovative solutions, particularly in establishing secure and reliable connections between legacy systems and the new cloud infrastructure. Determining primary keys for the entities within the AS/400 i90 database proved a challenge for conducting Change Data Capture (CDC), so the team developed solutions for primary key determination and duplicate record management. Deep technical investigation of legacy reporting systems, including tools like QlikView, ensured accurate replication of business logic in the new environment while reducing operational risk.
Delivering Transformative Business Value
The implementation has provided a solid foundation for Ansvar's data operations, delivering comprehensive improvements across multiple business dimensions. Business analysts now access data directly through Power BI to two source systems, eliminating technical intermediaries and reducing report generation time, significantly improving operational efficiency. The automated reporting processes and simplified reconciliation procedures have dramatically improved accuracy while enabling faster decision-making cycles and reducing operational costs.
Data quality and visibility improvements have strengthened the organisation's regulatory compliance capabilities, particularly in meeting APRA reporting requirements, allowing them to avoid potential penalties and in turn enhancing their reputation and reducing compliance risk. Candela’s standardised data quality management framework ensures consistent handling practices, while automated workflows guarantee that only approved reports are used for regulatory submissions. Comprehensive audit trails provide complete tracking of all data access and modifications, supporting regulatory reporting requirements and strengthening governance.
Future-Ready Foundation
This transformation established a scalable, future-proof data architecture making a foundational step in Ansvar’s data-enabled transformation journey while positioning them for continued growth and innovation. The modernised platform enables:
- Improved data accessibility driving faster market response.
- Enhanced reporting capabilities supporting strategic decision-making.
- Stronger compliance measures reducing regulatory risk.
- Adaptability to market changes ensuring competitive advantage.
- A trusted and performant data foundation from with to develop advanced analytics and AI use cases with confidence
The successful integration of on-premises databases into the cloud environment creates a robust foundation for future data initiatives, ensuring Ansvar maintains their position as a leading specialist insurer while fulfilling their community-focused mission and driving sustainable business growth.