Google Cloud Platform Case Studies How ISCS Used Looker to Meet New Customer Needs

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	How ISCS Used Looker to Meet New Customer Needs Google Cloud Platform

How ISCS Used Looker to Meet New Customer Needs

Google Cloud Platform

Technology Category	Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Data Management Platforms
Applicable Functions	Business Operation Sales & Marketing
Use Cases	Predictive Maintenance Real-Time Location System (RTLS) Supply Chain Visibility
Services	Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services Data Science Services
Challenge	ISCS identified a market opportunity for industry-specific business intelligence software, but building a solution from scratch was not practical. Their customers, who were scattered along the adoption curve for analytics software, needed a flexible solution that could be used by anyone from novice business users to sophisticated data analysts. The software also had to make it easy for ISCS developers to build new and customizable features for companies with special requirements. The ideal BI solution had to eliminate data silos to offer 360-degree views of all the data, display interactive data visualizations, and support data exploration in real time. The tool also had to be scalable, provide fast performance, align with the ISCS public cloud strategy, and integrate seamlessly with the SurePower Innovation® platform. Lastly, the company wanted to minimize the time to market, which strongly tipped the build-vs-buy analysis in favor of “buy”. Read More
About Customer	ISCS is a company that provides a modern enterprise suite for property and casualty (P&C) insurers, known as SurePower Innovation®. The company's customers are scattered along the adoption curve for analytics software, ranging from novice business users to sophisticated data analysts. ISCS's customers are primarily insurance companies that need a flexible solution for their business intelligence needs. The company aims to help its customers gain insights they need to drive business success by having real-time conversations with their data. ISCS's goal is to offer a solution that can meet needs ranging from “give me the full report” to “just give me the data.” Read More
Solution	ISCS chose to use Looker on AWS for their new BI product. Looker’s lightweight and flexible architecture allowed ISCS to easily integrate interactive visualizations, dashboards, and self-service data exploration. ISCS utilized Looker’s modeling layer, LookML, to create business logic around insurance industry rules and provide customizable analytics solutions for their professional services consultants. In addition, the SurePower Innovation® interface includes a seamless connection to a full-featured, industry-specific version of Looker that is white-labeled as SurePower Insights™. ISCS uses a services architecture that relies on a variety of AWS components, so Looker’s ability to work in-database with Amazon Redshift was beneficial in both performance as well as architecture. In order to protect their customers’ sensitive financial data, ISCS uses the Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) architecture, pairing a discrete Amazon Redshift database with a private Looker cluster for each company. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Cloud Computing

Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Data Management Platforms

Applicable Functions

Business Operation

Sales & Marketing

Use Cases

Predictive Maintenance

Real-Time Location System (RTLS)

Supply Chain Visibility

Services

Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services

Data Science Services

Challenge

ISCS identified a market opportunity for industry-specific business intelligence software, but building a solution from scratch was not practical. Their customers, who were scattered along the adoption curve for analytics software, needed a flexible solution that could be used by anyone from novice business users to sophisticated data analysts. The software also had to make it easy for ISCS developers to build new and customizable features for companies with special requirements. The ideal BI solution had to eliminate data silos to offer 360-degree views of all the data, display interactive data visualizations, and support data exploration in real time. The tool also had to be scalable, provide fast performance, align with the ISCS public cloud strategy, and integrate seamlessly with the SurePower Innovation® platform. Lastly, the company wanted to minimize the time to market, which strongly tipped the build-vs-buy analysis in favor of “buy”.

About Customer

ISCS is a company that provides a modern enterprise suite for property and casualty (P&C) insurers, known as SurePower Innovation®. The company's customers are scattered along the adoption curve for analytics software, ranging from novice business users to sophisticated data analysts. ISCS's customers are primarily insurance companies that need a flexible solution for their business intelligence needs. The company aims to help its customers gain insights they need to drive business success by having real-time conversations with their data. ISCS's goal is to offer a solution that can meet needs ranging from “give me the full report” to “just give me the data.”

Solution

ISCS chose to use Looker on AWS for their new BI product. Looker’s lightweight and flexible architecture allowed ISCS to easily integrate interactive visualizations, dashboards, and self-service data exploration. ISCS utilized Looker’s modeling layer, LookML, to create business logic around insurance industry rules and provide customizable analytics solutions for their professional services consultants. In addition, the SurePower Innovation® interface includes a seamless connection to a full-featured, industry-specific version of Looker that is white-labeled as SurePower Insights™. ISCS uses a services architecture that relies on a variety of AWS components, so Looker’s ability to work in-database with Amazon Redshift was beneficial in both performance as well as architecture. In order to protect their customers’ sensitive financial data, ISCS uses the Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) architecture, pairing a discrete Amazon Redshift database with a private Looker cluster for each company.

Impact #1	ISCS was able to quickly install a comprehensive set of powerful, self-service analytics tools, then promptly develop industry-specific services and enhancements to further add value.
Impact #2	The new business intelligence module has solved a critical customer need while increasing the value of the SurePower brand and generating new revenue opportunities.
Impact #3	The ISCS team analyzes clickstream data through Looker to identify new product requirements, and they’ve quickly released enhancements.

Impact #1

ISCS was able to quickly install a comprehensive set of powerful, self-service analytics tools, then promptly develop industry-specific services and enhancements to further add value.

Impact #2

The new business intelligence module has solved a critical customer need while increasing the value of the SurePower brand and generating new revenue opportunities.

Impact #3

The ISCS team analyzes clickstream data through Looker to identify new product requirements, and they’ve quickly released enhancements.

Benefit #1	A typical insurance company could afford to support 50,000 users with the same resources it used to support 5,000 users.

Benefit #1

A typical insurance company could afford to support 50,000 users with the same resources it used to support 5,000 users.

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Overview

How ISCS Used Looker to Meet New Customer Needs

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit