COVER STORY
The Analyst
JUST LIKE INSURANCE , DATA ANALYTICS IS CONSIDERED BY SOME TO BE A ‘ MALE ’ DOMAIN . HOWEVER , NIAMH MEHIGAN , CERTAINLY DOESN ' T SUBSCRIBE
TO THIS STEREOTYPE . PART OF A LARGE REPORTING TEAM AT THE AON DATA CENTRE IN DUBLIN , SHE TELLS US WHY SHE FEELS INSURANCE IS DEFINITELY
NOT UN-PROGRESSIVE AND IS ABOUT MORE THAN JUST CLAIMS .
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HOW DID YOU GET INTO THE JOB YOU ARE CURRENTLY IN ? I studied Financial Maths at the University of Limerick . During my third year , it is compulsory that every student has an 8-month work placement in their desired field . Generally , the university finds the placement for the student but there are limited opportunities for Maths students especially in analytics . I heard about the Aon Centre for Innovation and Analytics ( ACIA ) through a family friend and applied for the 8-month work placement . Towards the end of my internship I was delighted to be offered a full-time permanent position once I had graduated . I am currently working as a data analyst for the Reporting Services team and have been for nearly a year .
WHAT DOES A DATA ANALYST DO ? As a data analyst , my day to day routine would be working on ad-hoc analytics for colleagues . This includes collecting , analysing and presenting the data in order to provide insights for clients and insurers to make well-informed business decisions . I work on a team with 14 other highly skilled data analysts , and we all have varied skillsets including , R , SQL , Python , Tableau , Alteryx , Excel and industry knowledge .
HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT INSURANCE AS A CAREER OPTION BEFORE YOU STARTED WORKING WITH AON ? To be honest it wasn ’ t something I had previously considered . However , after starting with Aon , it has opened my eyes to how innovative and fast paced the insurance industry can be . It is a such a vast field and I am currently studying for the first set of APA exams to expand my knowledge , so I can progress further in the industry .
WHAT IS IT ABOUT YOUR JOB THAT EXCITES YOU ? I love problem solving , deep diving into the data to discover trends and discovering interesting perspectives on the information . I enjoy my job as I love a challenge and some days can be more challenging than others , which helps me learn and improve . The ACIA has valuable and rich data which enables me as a data analyst to perform at my best .
TELL US ABOUT AN EXCITING PROJECT YOU HAVE WORKED ON ? I was recently asked to help with a high priority request to assist a number of our C-suite executives for an upcoming senior leadership meeting around strategy . As the request required granular level detail that we would typically not have at our disposal , I needed to consolidate data from multiple disparate sources to create a holistic view of the Aon world . The challenge here was to ensure consistency concerning mappings and of course data validation was a key focus . This project was exciting as it was different and helped me improve my skill set and expand my knowledge even further .
WHAT ARE YOUR MAIN DIGITAL AND DATA RELATED CHALLENGES ? I think one of the biggest challenges for global companies such as Aon , is moving away from the historical way of representing and analysing data with Excel . We have replaced Excel-based analytics to support business users with Code-free analytic and BI visualisation tools such as Tableau , Alteryx and Jaspersoft . Technology is such a big part of the industry nowadays , so it is essential that we keep up and provide new and exciting ways to analyse and represent the data .
WHAT ROLE DO YOU BELIEVE DATA PLAYS WITHIN INSURANCE NOW AND HOW DO YOU SEE IT FURTHERING DECISIONS IN THE FUTURE ? I think that data plays a vital role . The more accessible and intuitive the data is , the easier it becomes for stakeholders to trust and rely on it for decision-making . Data analytics is fundamental in the growth of our clients and is crucial for our own ability to assess risk . From my perspective , data will become the key contributor of insurance decision making and the role of data analyst will evolve with it .
IF YOU COULD CHANGE ONE THING ABOUT HOW DATA IS USED WITHIN THE MARKET , WHAT WOULD IT BE ? Aligning the data to the business requirements is vital . The analysis we currently produce would benefit from more input from the business which would lead to improvement in future models . Therefore , I believe working closer with the business would be mutually beneficial . At the ACIA we work in an agile environment , which is brilliant . This impacts how the data is used and how we improve on the management of blockers , which is important to any business .
Issue 7 • September 2018 • The Insider