Book excerpt: Data is the insurance industry's single greatest asset. Yet many insurers radically underutilize their data assets, and are failing to fully leverage modern analytics. This makes them vulnerable to traditional and non-traditional competitors alike. Today, insurers largely apply analytics in important but stovepiped operational areas like underwriting, claims, marketing and risk management. By and large, they lack an enterprise analytic strategy -- or, if they have one, it is merely an architectural blueprint, inadequately business-driven or strategically aligned. Now, writing specifically for insurance industry professionals and leaders, Patricia Saporito uncovers immense new opportunities for driving competitive advantage from analytics -- and shows how to overcome the obstacles that stand in your way. Drawing on 25+ years of insurance industry experience, Saporito introduces proven best practices for developing, maturing, and profiting from your analytic capabilities. This user-friendly handbook advocates an enterprise strategy approach to analytics, presenting a common framework you can quickly adapt based on your unique business model and current capabilities. Saporito reviews common analytic applications by functional area, offering specific case studies and examples, and helping you build upon the analytics you're already doing. She presents data governance models and models proven to help you organize and deliver trusted data far more effectively. Finally, she provides tools and frameworks for improving the "analytic IQ" of your entire enterprise, from IT developers to business users.