The project was started in early 1997 and finalised in end 1998, with continuous upgrades and major improvements in 2000, when the solution was migrated from Microsoft SQL 6.5 to Microsoft SQL 2000, combined with the Analysis Server 2000 and integrated with Microsoft SharePoint Portal 2000, to provide BI in real-time mode. It cost less thanUS$10,000 and took two weeks, to implement BI.

Allianz had already adopted the Microsoft Windows 2000 platform for mission-critical operations and was satisfied it could meet the needs of its BI project. Purwadarma and his team used Microsoft Data Analyzer 3.5 to analyse data sources required to improve customer services, and then drew them into a single SQL Server 2000 database. Data sources include agent and mobile applications, branch and broker connectivity, as well as front-end and back-end Oracle-based applications. With the data collected in the new, single database, OLAP cubes were created to perform advanced analysis of the contents.

To put the information extracted through this process in the hands of the Allianz Indonesia team and customers, the company also implemented SharePoint Portal Server. This takes information from the SQL server and publishes it to an intranet for Allianz Indonesia staff, and to a secure extranet for brokers and agents.

Making it worthwhile

"We used to have time pressures and difficulties gathering all the information on a particular client, but now we have much more information throughout the company and can move faster. We have also transformed our customer service team from normal into knowledge workers. Now that we have BI accessible across all our departments, our people can instantly view a detailed profile of our clients. This helps us to make better decisions, which is good for our business and also meets client needs," says Purwadarma.

He adds: "We can now group customers by which ones are profitable and which are not, by location, or by the products they use. This information is being used by our marketing and claim departments and also the accounts team to change the products we offer, the premiums we charge and they way we conduct our business," he adds.