Business Intelligence at Secura. Frédéric Fanchamps, Secura NV, Brussels

Transkript

1 Business Intelligence at Secura Frédéric Fanchamps, Secura NV, Brussels

2 Agenda About Secura The IT Migration Project BI Solution Requirements SAS Response Conclusion

3 A Belgian reinsurer (insurer of insurance companies) Active in Europe Subsidiary of Belgian bank/insurance group KBC 85 employees Own IT department (9 people)

4 Secura New Way of Working Place and time independent No longer fixed places (Almost) paperless, we use electronic files

5 Different Workplaces Lounges

6 Different Workplaces Lounges

7 Different Workplaces Cockpit

8 Different Workplaces Teamroom

9 Different Workplaces Open Workspace

10 Meeting Rooms Mostly used for external contacts

11 Lockers, mail, mobile phones

12 Information Central location for magazines

13

14 Agenda About Secura The IT Migration Project BI Solution Requirements SAS Response Conclusion

15 The IT Migration Project Start 2003 Duration : 3.5 years Objectives: No re-engineering but migration with changes Keep main functionalities New user-interfaces New datawarehouse/reporting system

16 The IT Migration Project We can define our IT system as : Input (data entry part) Process and store (core) Output (query and report) Work management (document management & workflow)

17 Input: Rewrite From «old green screens» to GUI Fully data entry centred Main purpose : most efficient for daily data entry

18 Process and Store: Transfer Process (batch system) : keeping of former functionalities From VM/VSE to Iseries Store: from VSAM to relational database

19 Output : Case for Change Too many reports Too many different selection screens Not all information available No easy access to MS Applications, PDF, Conclusion: creation of completely new BI system

20 Work Management: New In line with Secura new way of working Place and time independent Paperless Supported by Electronic Files in Lotus Notes 24/24 availability of all information everywhere Contains: Workflow s, documents (Word, Excel, PDF, ) AND soon reports / statistics

21 Electronic Files

22 Electronic Files

23 Electronic Files

24 Agenda About Secura The IT Migration project BI Solution Requirements SAS Response Conclusion

25 BI Solution Requirements Dynamic choice of output type At least HTML and PDF must be possible Single point of access Make the easiest learning curve Avoid the multiplication of selection screens Avoid reports of which the existence is soon forgotten

26 BI Solution Requirements Integration with electronic files Integration with data entry applications Advanced stats Multidimensional scaling Clustering

27 BI Solution Requirements Integration with MS applications Possibility to write to the DB High degree of control on the tool

28 BI Solution Requirements Easy integration of company standards Fonts, logos, Automatic description of data attributes from the company dictionary Automatic decoding of values from the company dictionary

29 Agenda About Secura The IT Migration project BI solution requirements SAS Response Conclusion

30 SAS Response Summarized As: Encapsulated by Stored Processes Full power of SAS

31 Stored Processes SAS programs executed by BI server All SAS functionalities available Surrounded by ODS Can be fully parameterized

32 Dynamic choice of output type Output comes from ODS, all ODS destinations are available HTML PDF RTF

33 3-panel screen: Single Point of Access 1 selection: which region, which company, which business, Quick selection also possible: My businesses, 2 select data: budgeted, accounted, 3 select data item: premium, claims, Select also level of detail, total, subtotal, Obviously pre-built sets are proposed as well! Parameter selection : Lotus Notes Execution : stored processes

34 3-Panel screen =>

35 => URL => _action=execute &_program=/securareports/tageneralreport & &mij='df%20c03%25' &life_cycle= Name of stored process Selection in the 3-panel screen

36 => Stored Process Initialization %STPBEGIN; Prepare things for %global mij life_cycle ; «THE» 2 steps: 1) SQL %macro budget; 2) REPORT %if &source=first %then %do; data _null_; call symput('elements', strip(prxchange('s/c\./c.first_e_/', -1, "&elements")));

37 Stored Process => «THE» 2 steps: PROC SQL noprint; 1) SQL Create table T as 2) REPORT PROC REPORT data = T NOWINDOWS; %STPEND; Return to the caller

38 => Result

39 Integration with Electronic Files Special case of the single point of access Access to relevant reports in each Electronic File By stored processes URL automatically including parameters Access rights managed by Lotus Notes

40 Integration with Electronic Files E.g. reports available for contract 641

41 Integration with Data Entry Applications Purpose: Follow-up during data-entry Control lists Cf. Electronic Files: By stored processes Parameterized URL

42 Entry ID=6246 Data Entry Application =>

43 => URL => _action=execute &_program=/securareports/tainwardcontrol &id=6246 &_odsdest=pdf Selected item is 6246 PDF Name of stored process

44 => Stored Process => %STPBegin; PROC SQL noprint; PROC REPORT ; %STPEND; Initialization «THE» 2 steps: 1) SQL 2) REPORT Return to the caller

45 => Result

46 Advanced Stats The power of SAS: Statistical Analyses Can be encapsulated by stored processes

47 Integration with MS-Office SAS stored processes can be called from MS- Word, MS-Excel and MS-Powerpoint Using SAS add-in, which inserts a SAS menu into the MS-applications Important to: Keep recurrent notes up-to-date Further use the result in Excel

48 Write to the DB Read data database Add and modify data!! Marketing

49 Write to DB To answer questions as: Which reports are most used? Which reports are never used? Necessary for some applications a printed statement of account must be marked as such Not (easily) possible with other BI solutions

50 High Degree of Control <> black box E.g. what is sent to the DB and what isn t Use of Pass-Through SQL

51 Company Standards Definition of Secura Style with proc template Easy change management Adapting the Secura style has immediate effect on all stored processes Integration of the company dictionary Relevant data items are printed as footnote(s) Encoded data are decoded using proc format generated from the dictionary

52 Secura Style ods path reset; libname srcf '\\Sasserver\SecuraReportsCommonFiles'; ods path (remove) sasuser.templat; ods path (prepend) srcf.styles (update); proc template; define style secura_style; parent = styles.journal; Style PageNo / Defined once for all reports

53 Secura Style libname srcf '\\Sasserver\SecuraReportsCommonFiles'; ods path (prepend) srcf.styles (read); %let _odsstyle = secura_style; Used in all reports This code is automatically included

54 Company Dictionary Description for footnotes: read by proc SQL Decoding values: by 1 common proc format for all reports

55 Company Dictionary proc sql; create table cntlinc as select col_name 'fmt' as fmtname, 'C' as type, col_value as start, col_value as end, display as label from company dictionary; quit; Read company dictionary To format column currency, just use currencyfmt as format name proc format cntlin = cntlinc lib = fmtlib; run; Give it to proc format

56 Agenda About Secura The IT Migration project BI solution requirements How SAS has answered to them Conclusion

57 Conclusion Power of stored processes All strength of SAS available No black box For Secura : far the best solution!!