Published on the 22/03/2018 | Written by Empired
AT A GLANCE
INDUSTRY
- Financial Services and Insurance
BUSINESS OBJECTIVE
- Ageing reporting platform with multiple data sources and various reporting tools and various reporting tools
- Lack of trust in the information across the business
- Lack of transparency for sales leaders and brokers
- Empired evaluated needs, embarked on a proof of concept, and showed Aussie what was possible
SOLUTION
- Microsoft Power BI
BUSINESS BENEFITS
- The project has been transformative in the way sales leaders and brokers can now interact
- Everyone is looking at the same data and there is no debate over its accuracy
- Significant reduction in investigating adhoc data queries for the IT team
- Immediate goal for Aussie was rear window reporting; now in a position to look to the future
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Empired
W: https://www.empired.com/
E: contact@empired.com
T:
Perth – 08 6333 2200
Sydney – 02 8355 8100
Melbourne – 03 8658 5300
Brisbane – 07 3067 5400
Adelaide – 08 7333 4200
Aussie home loans needed an accurate data solution that was mobile and easy to deploy. The answer was a data and AI solution deployed by Empired…
Aussie was founded on the premise of finding a better way for every Australian to get the right home loan for their dream home. They challenged the banks to give Australians a better deal, and the home lending landscape in the country changed forever. Today, more than 1,000 talented, experienced and passionate brokers stand by Aussie’s side, sharing their collective wisdom and drive to secure the right deal for their customers.
Difficult data impacts business insights
The company had an ageing reporting platform with multiple data sources and various reporting tools, which ultimately meant the data was difficult to access and verify.
“There was little to no room for actionable insight from the data due to a lack of trust in where it was coming from.”
Richard Hilliard, Head of Digital Transformation, Aussie
The main impact was the lack of transparency for sales leaders and brokers. For the 30 sales leaders, whose role is predominately to meet with and coach brokers, both mobile and in-store, the ageing systems and tools were time consuming.
“To prepare for meetings it would take too much time just to pull the data together. A lot of time at the meetings was then spent talking about whether the data was right when it should have been about strategic coaching for the broker,” says Hilliard.
As a result, there was an opportunity for us to provide a more comprehensive view of what was happening in their businesses.
Transforming data accuracy across the business
Aussie started on the path to clean up the data and discovered that it didn’t have a suitable platform to move forward. In addition, it had on-premises infrastructure that was reaching end of life. Aussie was already using Office 365 so looking at Microsoft solutions just made sense. There was also a genuine desire to make the shift to the cloud.
“We were already in the process of moving SQL Servers and other applications to the cloud,” says Hilliard. “This led us to Microsoft Azure and Power BI, which we believed could really bring us up to date.”
“We reached out to Microsoft, and Empired was recommended. Empired evaluated our needs, embarked on a proof of concept to demonstrate that Power BI was capable of being the single tool for the entire business, and showed us what was possible.”
Access to accurate data across the business
Empired has helped Aussie deliver accurate, intuitive and easy to use business information. “The project has been transformative in the way sales leaders and brokers can now interact, and in increasing the overall productivity of the team,” says Hilliard. “Now everyone is looking at the same data straight away and there is no debate over its accuracy.”
“The solution has meant that we can cut through the unproductiveness of unreliable data and spend valuable time on what is important. For the IT team it has meant a significant reduction in investigating ad hoc data queries”.
“Now the IT team can spend time focusing on coming up with new reports and insights that will help the business,” he says. “The feedback and adoption of the solution has been unprecedented.”
“With so many stakeholders with different levels of technical expertise it really is a top to bottom solution for the business, and has been one of the smoothest transitions I’ve ever worked on.”
The immediate goal for Aussie was rear window reporting; giving brokers accurate information about what happened in their business yesterday or last week. With this now in place, the company can look to the future.
“The project was a real game changer for us,” says Hilliard. “Once we had selected Power BI as our reporting platform, Empired was the logical choice to assist with the implementation. Empired has successfully helped us deliver analytics and reporting to our sales team and brokers across Australia.”
Key to the ongoing success of Aussie’s data and AI platform is the fact that Empired helped to upskill the Aussie team so they could take full ownership of the solution going forward. “Our team now has the skills and experience to drive the platform forward and our brokers have the insights into their pipeline, customers and portfolio to take their businesses to new heights.”
The importance of user experience
Rather than relying on traditional techniques to understand Aussie’s requirements, Empired used UX techniques to understand the types of users that would be operating the solution, what they needed to do and most importantly how a positive change in the way they do their jobs could be made.
Working with Empired
Empired took the time to understand Aussie’s business challenges, data and requirements.
“Key for us is having a partner that blends with the team and will integrate and work with us. Aussie was also looking for a partner that could upskill IT to be self-sufficient in Power BI. The engagement was short, sharp and extremely valuable. I am very happy with where the team is now having taken the foundation Empired gave us and extending it,” says Hilliard.
“The project was a real game changer for us. Our team now has the skills and experience to drive the platform forward and our brokers have the insights into their pipeline, customers and portfolio to take their businesses to new heights.”
Richard Hilliard, Head of Digital Transformation, Aussie
Source: This article was originally sourced from Empired
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