Case Study
Super fund transforms reporting and testing capabilities with MIP
VicSuper is a $16-billion superannuation fund with more than 240,000 members and 21,000 participating employers.
Established in 1994 and headquartered in Melbourne, the fund is open to workers in any industry and provides fund management and advisory services.
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Challenges
01
Manual reporting processes
02
Inability to segment member & employer data
03
Cumbersome testing procedures
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Outcomes
01
Streamlined reporting
02
More granular views of data
03
Improved understanding of members and employers
04
Better testing capabilities
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Business Challenges
In the highly competitive superannuation industry, having a detailed understanding of both fund members and contributing employers is crucial. Identifying issues or concerns early can avoid the risk of business shifting to a rival fund. At the same time, funds need to closely monitor the overall market to stay abreast of trends and changes that could provide opportunities for growth.
Such monitoring relies on careful analysis of large volumes of data. To achieve this, in 2013 VicSuper deployed MIP’s WhereScape RED ETL tool to enable the creation of a data lake. Information from a variety of core systems is fed into the lake for analysis and reporting.
Although the data lake has supported the company for the past three years, the IT team realised that more could be achieved. The team was keen to find new ways to create data vaults and segment the large volume of customer data in different ways.
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Solutions
MIP has delivered a combination of tools including ETL tool WhereScape RED, modelling and design software WhereScape 3D, and automated testing tool Smart-CIT. Using all three tools has enabled VicSuper to create a data lake and extract the best possible business intelligence from it.
MIP is very responsive and easy to work with. It’s clear that they understood our challenges and were able to provide the tools and guidance we needed to overcome them.
Clare Tam
Chief Information Officer and Executive Manager Member and Employer Services
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Outcomes
With data structure and segmentation an increasingly critical business function, VicSuper is now well placed to take advantage of this rapidly evolving technology.
Reports can be quickly generated to meet user requests with the IT team confident they will be based on the most up-to-date information available.
Thanks to WhereScape 3D, the VicSuper employer and membership base can be structured in a data mart with data able to be segmented and accessed for automated campaign programs across members life stages. This enables more focused growth opportunity across the business channels. Employers have also been segmented with core data extracted and modelled to identify growth and retention opportunities.
With the number and diversity of super funds within the Australian market continuing to grow, VicSuper is also able to maintain a close eye on the industry and identify opportunities to grow its member and employer bases.
On the software development front, when the IT team needs to build new applications and data linkages, testing can be undertaken throughout the process rather than as a final step at the end. Using Smart-CIT, the team has built up a bank of unit / regression tests which can be executed as part of the development process. This replaces manual testing and reduces the chance that a particular data scenario or lineage might be missed.
