I debated whether or not to use this title, since it is a little crass. During Bill Clinton's presidential campaign, James Carville, Clinton's campaign manager, was concerned that Clinton's campaign efforts were getting diluted because Clinton was trying to address so many issues. They decided to identify one item to effectively focus on for the campaign. Carville coined "it's the economy stupid" for a group of campaign workers and it became a primary theme of the successful campaign.

As I read this, it occurred to me that many risk managers and claims managers have a difficult time focusing on critical issues because they have so many wide-ranging responsibilities. Their attention and focus can become diluted and overcome by the minutiae. They are also frequently bombarded with interruptions from others who make it even more difficult to focus on the most important items. Therefore, they sometimes get bogged down by the frequent interruptions rather than focusing on the most important issues. This article focuses on:

• Setting aside time to analyze data

• Identifying critical items on which you should concentrate your time and attention

• Developing report formats that focus on high-level information for those critical items that identify trends and "hot spots"

• Setting priorities on the work to be done to address issues found.

How can data keep you on track?

Data can keep you on track by reducing information to your most critical needs rather than bombarding you with detail. Some of you may be young enough to picture the days when insurers and TPAs sent monthly detail claim listings to their clients, which provided numerous lines and columns of information on each and every open and closed claim. In pre-electronic delivery days, these detail listings were delivered in shrink-wrapped continuous pages that were often several inches thick. On many occasions I saw these listings on a risk/claims manager's floor, their usefulness limited to function as a doorstop, which was replaced the next month when the new listing was received. There was obviously some useful data and information in there somewhere, but the detail got in the way of useful data analysis.