Analytical services team helps businesses with data-driven decisions

Jan. 28, 2021

This paid piece is sponsored by Marsh & McLennan Agency.

In these uncertain times, it is critical for leaders who want to make smart, stable business decisions to use data to understand trends and forecast outcomes.

Marsh & McLennan Agency’s analytical services team gives meaning to metrics and helps businesses respond to challenges, navigate changes and proactively protect their organization and employees.

Data science is more than numbers in an Excel spreadsheet or information in a database — innovative approaches and cutting-edge technology allow MMA’s analysts to serve as forecasters, storytellers and advisers.

“When working with clients, we let data do the talking,” said vice president of analytic services Sarah Delaney. “My team is comprised of quantitative storytellers mixed with underwriters, actuaries and marketplace experts. We understand industry trends and can apply an individual business’ data to see how it aligns with the bigger picture.”

The analytical services team provides benchmarking, performs independent analyses and runs projections.

“While these activities all provide underlying support for our risk management suggestions, ultimately, our focus is on guiding clients to make actionable decisions with data across the entire organization,” Delaney said.

Though data is becoming a more popular decision-making tool across many sectors, the insurance industry in particular is seeing increased interest in data modeling.

“Trying to stay in front of the repercussions the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has on day-to-day business has created a huge need for advanced analytics,” she said. “We’re using global data from parent company Marsh, real-time statistics from organizations such as the CDC and the depth of our national actuarial team to help businesses shift their priorities as the pandemic evolves.”

COVID-19 has temporarily — and likely permanently — transformed the way the United States utilizes health care. MMA’s proprietary COVID-19 Financial Impact Model gives companies powerful insight into the financial implications of medical and prescription drug expenses, changes in workforce strategies and other influences related to the pandemic.

Adam Craghead, a Sioux Falls-based actuarial consultant for MMA, uses the Financial Impact Model with clients to measure the financial impacts resulting from increased admissions related to COVID-19 diagnoses and treatment, increased telehealth use and short-term delays in nonemergency procedures, among other factors.

“This tool allows us to quantify the impact of the disease, which in turn gives leaders the insights to make confident, informed decisions around the future of their business and workforce,” Craghead said. “We collect and analyze information that is specific to each business, region and industry because we know that COVID-19 doesn’t affect everyone equally. Analyzing these costs can be instrumental in helping companies make informed decisions regarding layoffs and furloughs, budget reforecasting and overall impact to the bottom line.”

Businesses know that they need to gather resources to find gaps in their time, risk and workforce. Risk management consultant Travis Starks helps his clients in the agriculture sector understand how data helps them.

“Being able to engage the data and analytics team to help clients take a look at their information has not only helped us, their risk management team, visualize this information to help guide them to mitigate their risk, but also has helped clients be able to look at their company as more of a whole,” Starks said.

“When the data team comes in, we can do things like measure their safety culture, break down financials to illustrate pain points/success stories and analyze their risk in more depth.”

Without being able to understand their data, businesses might misinterpret their needs.

“We were working with a client, and they had never seen their locations mapped out, which means they have never seen how factors such as catastrophic weather could affect their inventory,” said data analyst Karl Hernes.

“Our team, within minutes, could input their address and make an easily digestible graphic, so they could see and understand how spread out they were, and then we advised them on coverages to make sure they were good to go.”

As a team, MMA analytic services strives to help navigate the uncertainty COVID-19 has brought by mitigating risk, uncovering unknowns and helping clients visualize the future with tools like the COVID-19 dashboard.

“Our team’s goal is to help our clients, colleagues and community make sense of all of the information that we are gathering,” Delaney said. “Data is only as good as the source and the person interpreting it. We want to be able to equip ourselves for the success of our clients, and creating a holistic team will help us do that.”

To find out more about how data can help inform your business decisions, contact Sarah Delaney at [email protected].

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Analytical services team helps businesses with data-driven decisions

“Data is only as good as the source and the person interpreting it.” This team will help your business use data to make even smarter decisions.

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