I work with an insurance company and our main reason for using Denodo is to bring together all our data into one platform in the cloud. The company has very diverse data sources including data stored in the cloud, XML files, Db2 and SQL databases, and SAM / VSAM files on legacy mainframe platforms. Thus, management decided that they wanted all the data in one place by connecting these different data sources for better visualization and reporting.
It's really working well for us and we are using it for both of our claims centers with our claims management solution as well as our premium management solution. One instance of Denodo is for the underwriting team and the other is for the actuary team. In total, we have around 45 people using it.
We were originally using the solution on-premises but we are now using the cloud version deployed on Azure.
There are a lot of benefits of using Denodo in our company. Suppose, as an underwriter, you are approving a policy for a customer; typically, you will have to do a number of SQL queries or perform macros on Excel to find out information such as, "How many years has this customer been with the company and how is their claim history?" or "How is this customer's business actually doing?" There are many things that underwriters want to check before they approve any underwriting amount. And this means, for any approval, they're taking up to three or four hours, especially in a commercial insurance setting with all the changes that have taken place during Covid.
Lots of companies have filed for bankruptcy or are not doing as well as they should be, so there are many changes that the underwriting teams have to take into account. These teams could be doing great business by writing the right amount for premiums for the company or for the client, and they have been having a lot of difficulties reaching certain data points in order to give their final verdict.
However, now that everything is in front of them in one virtualized screen, they can quickly see all the necessary data such as claims files, history files with previous premium history, how much lifetime value the client has for the company, etc. They can obtain all these pieces of information from a single search and then make an appropriate decision to approve or deny, all within 15 to 20 minutes. Considering that the time to do such things has come down to 20 minutes from three hours, you can tell how much time has been saved by using Denodo.
Also, some of the underwriters are over 60 years old, having been in the company for 35 years or more, and they don't love technology that much. Yet, with the training that we've given them, they're slowly starting to enjoy it and are now able to appreciate how much time it has saved them. They are very aware that Denodo is helping them, even though they would have been happy to stick with Excel.