There is a movement within the insurance industry to consolidate databases from multiple departments in order to gain a complete policyholder view. Typically, insurers with one database can see the different channels and lines of businesses within the company in which policyholders interact. In addition, it allows insurers to better comply with regulatory reporting and prevent premium leakage.

But, consolidating databases has always been a challenge, which is why so many insurers choose to maintain separate databases for different departments or business units. The question is whether it is worth going through the business challenges of combining a database to get the business benefit of centralization.

While there are many considerations to take into account, one challenge that faces insurers with any migration is data quality. Questions often arise about datastandardization, duplicates, outdated information, and missing fields. All of these challenges are surmountable if stakeholders properly consider how to mitigate these processes prior to migration.