Harnessing Data to Achieve Awesome Audits

Nobody in the market wants to spend their time preparing for a data audit and Andy
Jones, Head of Sales at DQPro, explains why they shouldn’t have to.

Let’s not pretend an audit is something to get excited about, although it takes all sorts to make a
world. Nor should audits be met with the usual mixture of reluctance, begrudging acceptance or
apprehension. This is because, thanks to good data as a foundation, many audits can now be
automated. And at DQPro, we think that’s awesome.

This might be an unexpected – and surprising even – gift for senior executives and their teams,
particularly those in operational roles, who have no desire to be distracted away from the
business by the onerous, expensive and time-consuming business of an audit.

Previously, insurers’ audits have suffered from problems such as manual errors, delays in
gathering the data required, as well as marshalling the resources needed to compile them.
DQPro provides the advantage of better data management, putting automated audits within
reach.

More than a third of London market carriers are using DQPro to provide data assurance. We run
850 rules daily, and 25,000 checks against these rules each month, amounting to 300,000
annually, across more than £14bn of global premium. Typically our clients find this frees up the
equivalent of two to five full-time employees compared to previous legacy processes.

From Three Weeks to 30 mins

While these efficiencies might put insurers in a better position for an audit, the same savings
can be applied to audit automation. For example, Markel International managed to cut down
three weeks off their annual data audit preparation to just a thirty-minute task.
DQPro’s round-the-clock operation also provides the advantage of a full, timestamped audit
trail. Insurance businesses are already using this functionality to meet regulatory demands or
more quickly answer unexpected requests from the supervisor. The same applies to audits: time
and effort otherwise spent chasing employees for data filed in disparate spreadsheet locations
is saved by having data governance processes already in place.
Automated checks and controls can be applied against 100% of data held in any carrier system.
Smart workflow and analytics ensure leadership teams have a visible and time-stamped audit
trail, providing confidence about both accuracy and completeness of data. The audit trail allows
auditors or regulators to quickly drill down to identify how and when issues were found and
fixed.

Centralise and scale

DQPro provides a solution purpose built to allow insurers to centralise and scale their data and
control checks from one place for regular business teams and users. Rules and checks are run
automatically at a time and frequency of the customer’s choosing. Business users are kept
engaged via user friendly notifications and an intuitive user interface that drives and expedites
issue resolution.

Awesome or what?