Exploring a Single View of the Customer in Insurance 

As the insurance landscape evolves, many organisations are looking for ways to understand their customers more completely and operate with greater efficiency. Creating a 360-degree view of insurance customers has become central to this ambition – shaping how risk is priced, how claims are resolved and how personalised experiences are delivered.

Yet, achieving this remains difficult for many insurance organisations. The challenge isn’t a shortage of data; it’s the way information is spread across legacy platforms, cloud platforms and digital channels that don’t naturally connect. Without a unified foundation, building an accurate customer picture becomes complex, efficiency suffers, and teams are forced to navigate silos rather than deliver value.

This blog explores three specific ways fragmented data undermines performance and how creating a trusted data platform enables insurance firms to harness advanced analytics and next-generation AI whilst gaining the clarity needed for confident data-driven decision-making.

Three Ways Data Fragmentation Is Slowing Your Insurance Progress

1. Underwriting: Pricing Without a Complete Picture

Underwriters rely on accurate, up-to-date and complete data to assess risk and set pricing effectively.

When risk profiles don’t match this, underwriters often rely on partial insights. Data trapped in siloes also makes reconciling policy history and customer interactions slow, forcing underwriters into time-consuming cross-referencing and limiting strategic use of advanced data analysis, AI and automation tools.

By consolidating these sources into a unified data foundation, underwriters gain a complete picture of each customer, improving data quality and allowing for faster, more precise decisions that are grounded in solid evidence.

2. Claims: Linking Information for a Better Experience

Claims teams need to be able to pull information from a variety of different sources – from policy records and repair details to communication logs and supporting documentation.

When this information is scattered, teams can spend hours tracking it down – increasing the risk of errors, interrupting the seamless customer experience and limiting the ability to successfully utilise AI initiatives, such as Agentic AI.

A connected data foundation with integrated data governance practices removes these obstacles, giving claims handlers instant access to the right information in one place. In turn, claims handling shifts from being a point of friction to a moment of trust.

3. Growth: The Opportunities Hidden in Plain Sight

When marketing, distribution and customer service teams operate with fragmented data, gaining a clear understanding of the full customer journey becomes nearly impossible. Without this holistic view, it becomes difficult to anticipate customer needs, identify cross-sell opportunities or deliver personalised experiences at the right time.

Important customer signals that provide insurance organisations with opportunities for growth – from a new life event to digital engagement patterns – can slip through the cracks if teams are working from conflicting data sources.

Connecting behavioural, transactional and engagement data into a single customer profile reveals these insights, helping teams align across channels. Digital experiences become intelligent rather than generic and customers receive personalised recommendations that make them feel seen and understood.

Why a Unified Foundation Matters for Insurance Organisations

Fragmented data impacts far more than just customer experience – compliance falters, resilience suffers, costs rise, and agility declines. Environmental, social and governance (ESG) ambitions slip out of reach and maintaining data quality and governance becomes unmanageable.

Now, the most forward-thinking insurance firms treat a unified, 360-degree customer view as the backbone of their strategy, empowering confident, data-driven decision-making that accelerates everyday operations.

What Changes When Insurance Data Works Together

A true single view of the truth transforms everything.

• Regulation becomes manageable, with governance, lineage and controls built directly into the platform.
• Underwriting becomes precise, with up-to-date profiles enabling sharper and faster pricing decisions.
• Claims become seamless, eliminating the need to chase missing information.
• Cross-sell opportunities become proactive, powered by unified data that enables personalised journeys.
• AI innovation becomes reliable, with only trustworthy data feeding machine learning tools.

Conclusion

Insurance leaders face a defining choice: continue operating within the constraints of fragmented systems or create a unified data foundation that meets the expectations of modern performance. Ultimately, building a well-governed data environment gives insurance organisations a single view of every customer allowing them to strengthen pricing strategies, speed up claims handling, empower personalisation, and support safe, effective use of AI.

As the insurance industry continues to evolve, firms that modernise now will gain clarity, consistency, and achieve stronger results. Position yourself among those who act, not those who react.

How Can Simpson Associates Help You?

As a Microsoft Partner of the Year award winner and data transformation partner with over three decades of expertise, Simpson Associates are ideally placed to support the needs of insurance organisations.

Whether you are just getting started with your data strategy and need expert guidance on how to achieve a 360-degree view of the customer or are looking to incorporate AI consultancy or modern data technology including Databricks, Microsoft and IBM, we are here to help you. Get in touch with one of our experts today through email or via live chat.