Staysure uses Tableau Cloud to break down stubborn data silos and transform business decision making processes

Intuitive self-service analytics eliminates bottlenecks to productivity

Hundreds of key workflows run overnight using Tableau Data Management, for optimum business efficiency

Tableau Cloud delivers fast access to critical data from anywhere

Staysure Group is the UK’s number one travel insurance provider. The company was originally founded in 2004 by entrepreneur Ryan Howsam, to ensure over-50s could access travel insurance that covered pre-existing medical conditions. Since then, it has gone from strength to strength, significantly expanding its insurance offerings and providing peace of mind to more than eight million customers around the country.

Over the last 12 months, Staysure has used Tableau to transform itself into a fully data driven company, breaking down data silos and creating a powerful new culture where employees at all levels of the business can self-serve their own analytics needs. Staysure has also used Tableau analytics to better understand the impact of COVID-19 on its business and inform key decisions during this critical time for the travel industry.

Transforming disparate data silos into a single source of truth

Insurance is a highly data driven industry, with millions of policies bought and sold every day based on detailed analytical insights. However, as insurance companies grow and expand, their own internal data structures can be hard to maintain, resulting in disparate data environments that impact overall business efficiency. When Matt Cullen joined Staysure as Head of Business Insight in January 2021, this was exactly the situation he faced.

“I came into an environment with lots of spreadsheets and manual data reporting, and no overarching structure or governance” said Matt. “Rapid growth, combined with multiple acquisitions, had created fragmented data silos all over the business, making it hard for employees to quickly find the information or intelligence they needed.”

With Tableau in place, employees now have a single unified platform through which they can work and collaborate, creating a much higher level of trust in data and reducing conflict between different departments.

“In the past, people would come into meetings with their own siloed versions of the same data, for example on quote and sale volumes,” explains Matt. “Often, there would be small discrepancies between the numbers caused by different definitions or filters, which quickly led to issues. Now, everyone logs into Tableau Cloud and the latest data is always there for them to see.”

In the past, people would come into meetings with their own siloed versions of the same data, for example on quote and sale volumes. Often, there would be small discrepancies between the numbers caused by different definitions or filters, which quickly led to issues. Now, everyone logs into Tableau Cloud and the latest data is always there for them to see.

Matt Cullen, Head of Business Insight at Staysure

Enabling self-service analytics at all levels of the organisation

Tableau’s user-friendly interface has also significantly increased the amount of self-service analytics taking place throughout the company.

“Tableau makes it incredibly easy to create attractive and engaging visuals that are simple to understand, regardless of an individual’s own level of analytics experience,” says Matt. “As a consequence, people are much more willing to start exploring data themselves.”

Doing so has helped eliminate numerous bottlenecks to productivity, improving decision making and speeding up time to insight in the process.

“Previously, many employees would wait for someone in the finance or central insights team to do all their analytics for them, says Matt. “Now we have 35 Tableau creators and explorers in all departments of the business, as well as over 100 viewers, making detailed analytics faster, smoother and more enjoyable for everyone.”

Driving a powerful new data culture, starting at executive level

Some of Staysure’s most avid Tableau users are its executives, which Matt believes is a key factor in the growing data culture at the company.

One particularly popular executive dashboard offers near real-time updates on top line KPIs, including the number of policies sold that day and the total revenue created across all the company’s key brands, including Staysure, Avanti, and Petsure.

“Having real-time trading information available in Tableau is really valuable; it helps me, and my executive colleagues, identify issues as soon as they emerge and make quicker, more efficient decisions,” says Chris Sugden, CFO, Staysure Group.

Having real-time trading information available in Tableau is really valuable; it helps me, and my executive colleagues, identify issues as soon as they emerge and make quicker, more efficient decisions.

Chris Sugden, CFO, Staysure Group

Improving business efficiency with fully automated reporting

In addition to the insights provided, Tableau’s extensive automation features have also significantly streamlined reporting throughout the company, ensuring everyone has the latest information at their fingertips.

“Tableau gives us the ability to schedule flows overnight,” explains Matt. “Previously, we would have to run them manually every morning at 9am and they took an hour to complete, meaning no one had access to the latest data until 10am at the earliest.”

Now, the company uses Tableau’s Data Management Add-on to run the flows automatically every night, which means hundreds of worksheets are refreshed in Tableau Cloud by 5am each day.

“I used to lie awake worrying about how to speed up the daily flows, but now I know they will be there every morning when I arrive at the office, which is a big weight off my mind,” says Matt.

Using data analytics to navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a huge amount of uncertainty throughout the travel industry, making it very hard to effectively plan ahead by more than a few weeks. However, Staysure has been able to use Tableau analytics to take much of the guesswork out of decision making at this difficult time.