Bringing Technical and Enterprise Groups Along with Atlan
The Energetic Metadata Pioneers sequence options Atlan prospects who’ve accomplished a radical analysis of the Energetic Metadata Administration market. Paying ahead what you’ve discovered to the subsequent knowledge chief is the true spirit of the Atlan group! So that they’re right here to share their hard-earned perspective on an evolving market, what makes up their trendy knowledge stack, revolutionary use instances for metadata, and extra.
On this installment of the sequence, we meet Kevin Nutbrown, Senior Knowledge Analyst at International Excel Administration, a medical value containment and claims administration firm, processing over $1.9 billion in medical claims yearly throughout greater than 90 international locations. Kevin shares the historical past of how his group has grown, and the way Atlan will play a key function in driving Knowledge Governance and interesting with their enterprise colleagues.
This interview has been edited for brevity and readability.
May you inform us a bit about your self, your background, and your crew at International Excel?
I’ve been at International Excel for 28 years, and I’ve seen the corporate develop from a small operation dealing with claims for Canadians touring exterior of the nation to the worldwide chief it’s immediately. After we had been simply beginning out, leveraging knowledge as an asset was a comparatively new idea, and our techniques had been primary. I received inquisitive about how we may higher handle our knowledge, so I began determining how tables linked and pull the knowledge we wanted, which led me into the world of Knowledge & Analytics.
I ultimately went again to high school and picked up a Certificates in Laptop Science to enhance my enterprise diploma. That gave me the inspiration to assist construct our data techniques as the corporate grew.
Our crew is now divided into two elements: the Knowledge Workforce, which pulls knowledge from completely different sources and units it up for reporting, and the Analytics Workforce, which makes certain that knowledge is offered in a approach that’s straightforward to grasp.
My function is sort of within the center. I’m not a programmer, but when there’s a mission that requires knowledge change between shoppers, for instance, I’ll help with that in addition to different tasks, resembling implementing an information catalog.
Why seek for an Energetic Metadata Administration answer? What was lacking?
As International Excel grew, the necessity for a extra structured and built-in strategy to knowledge administration turned clear. We lacked a unified system to doc and handle our knowledge, resulting in inefficiencies and inconsistencies ensuing with these of us who’ve been right here for a very long time up being a useful resource.
As an illustration, we’ve got a desk known as ‘Declare’ in a single system, and one other desk known as ‘Declare’ in a unique system, however they’re not the identical factor. In consequence, completely different groups may use the time period ‘Declare’ in a different way, relying on the system they’re working with, which creates confusion and discrepancies in reporting.
When completely different groups pull knowledge and get completely different outcomes, it’s irritating and time-consuming to determine why. That’s why we began searching for an answer; a approach to carry every little thing collectively in a single place, so we’d all be on the identical web page.
We would have liked a approach to carry every little thing collectively in a single place and enhance our Knowledge Governance, so we knew who was accountable for what. Our objective was to make sure that everybody, from technical groups to enterprise customers, had a shared understanding of our knowledge property to enhance accuracy and confidence within the knowledge.
Did something stand out throughout your analysis course of?
What stood out was Atlan AI, the way in which lineage is offered, and the overall “intuitiveness” of the software.
Particularly for folks that aren’t technically oriented, or not on the info crew, if you wish to know what “Declare” is, Atlan offers you Google-style outcomes. The glossary permits the enterprise to work together with knowledge and is an effective approach to make sure we’re talking the identical language in relation to our metrics and phrases.
This ease of use and deal with collaboration between technical and non-technical groups was a key differentiator. It was clear that Atlan wouldn’t solely assist us handle our knowledge extra successfully but additionally foster higher communication and understanding throughout the group.
How have you ever carried out Atlan, thus far? What’s subsequent?
Atlan is built-in with Snowflake and MSSQL, permitting the info crew to rapidly discover lineage, entry any attainable affect of adjustments and effectively navigate our knowledge panorama. This integration has considerably streamlined our onboarding course of for brand new crew members, who can now rapidly achieve visibility into our knowledge platform with out sifting via complicated SQL queries or a number of tables. Immediately, that was a key win.
Concerning Knowledge Governance, we see Atlan as a software that we are able to construct on prime of. We now have a a lot clearer understanding of who can entry what knowledge, particularly in relation to delicate data like PII. It’s not only a theoretical dialogue anymore, it’s one thing we’re actively managing.
What’s forthcoming is getting extra readability round enterprise definitions and knowledge possession. It’s vital for us to know who’s accountable for what, and to ensure everybody agrees on the which means of our knowledge property. This may assist us keep away from confusion and make it simpler for our enterprise customers to resolve issues on their very own, with out at all times having to show to the tech crew for solutions.
It’s encouraging to know that we’ll have folks accountable for sure knowledge, and that it is going to be easy for the enterprise to grasp what it’s and who to ask about it. It implies that if someone sees a quantity go up or down, they’ll know what it means and the place it got here from by utilizing Atlan, fairly than asking us first. Drawback-solving will likely be of their palms, and that’s extra of a “folks” than tech drawback, however requires a little bit of setup to allow it. It’s serving to us shift a number of the duty to the enterprise customers, which is strictly what we wanted.
We’ve carried out lots of work to resolve ‘knowledge points’, and I’m hopeful that Atlan will give us the leverage to shift to a extra data-driven company tradition.
Photograph by Martha Dominguez de Gouveia on Unsplash
