3x
faster claims processing
Rapid
AI-powered data discovery
Seamless
multi-system data integration
Centralized
and comprehensive data inventory
To differentiate its offering with next-generation AI services, lenders mortgage insurer Helia replaced its fragmented data environment with a centralized integrated AI-enabled cloud platform.
Helia exists to accelerate financial wellbeing through home ownership now and for the future. Since 1965, the lender's mortgage insurance provider has been helping people achieve their dream of home ownership by making loans more accessible for those who are looking to buy a home with less than 20% deposit. I'm responsible for the governance and the quality functions At Helia. Data risk and compliance is becoming an increased challenge because there's increasing data volumes, there's increased cybersecurity threats, trends in remote working, third and fourth party risks, you name it. But I would also say that it's also an opportunity for us at Helia as a B2B. We are the custodians of large amounts of personal information from home buyers and homeowners that's entrusted to us by our customers. We've got a real opportunity here to exceed our customer's expectations in the way that we managing data risk. At a high level, our technology ecosystem comprises of two operational source systems for originations and for loss management and our data warehouse. Aterio, Snowflake, and Informatica are key technologies in helping us stitch together those different facets of the business so that we can drive operational efficiency and innovation. So it's really about making sure that we can manage data from point of capture through to point of insight, but right across the business.
The Informatica stood out for a couple of different reasons. First and foremost, consumption-based pricing. We weren't limited by a specific number of users, for Helia that was key. One of our goals was to have everybody at the organization have access to governance and to quality tooling, and we wanted it to be seamless, and we wanted it to be via a single pane of glass. And so informer could delivered on that promise. Value in having the cloud data governance product is really making information discoverable. It's taking it out of spreadsheets, it's taking it out of people's heads, and it's putting it in the hands of everybody at the organization. For us having those sort of robust data management practices that are enabled by Informatica is key to allowing our teams to sort of push boundaries where AI innovation is concerned. For example, chatbots to enable our teams to chat with others about their data. I think we're going to start to see some more personalized experiences, some experiences that are more context aware. I think we're going to see reduced times to sort of curate and classify information. And I think people are more likely to have what they need at their fingertips.
“Customers and home buyers trust us to be the custodians of their information and we needed a platform that would allow us to take charge of our data and deliver on its true value.’”
Building a reliable lenders mortgage insurance data foundation
The Australian property market continues its upwards trajectory with housing prices rising upwards of 6% during the last year*. For aspiring home buyers, the dream of purchasing a home may seem out of reach, but that’s where Helia comes in. Helia exists to accelerate financial wellbeing through home ownership, now and for the future. Since 1965, the Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI) provider has been working with customers to help Australians achieve their dream of home ownership by making loans more accessible for those who want to buy a home with less than 20% deposit.
Helia faces a shifting industry landscape with rapidly growing data volumes and increased complexity in how customer data is managed including cyber-attacks, the rise of remote work and the risk of exposure to third- and fourth-party partners.
As a result, the company is more mindful than ever about managing its records and protecting its customers’ data.
To enable a new-age customer experience that taps into the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to provide LMI while ensuring security and compliance, Helia needed to modernize its approach to data. For Michelle Soakell-Ho, Data Governance Leader at Helia, this presented an opportunity to differentiate its services with features like chatbots and automated claims approvals. “By taking control of our data and governance, we’re building a foundation to surpass our customers’ expectations and maximize value from AI,” she says.
“The value of Informatica Cloud Data Governance and Catalog (CDGC) lies in making information discoverable for the business. As the single knowledge repository, CDGC helps take data out of spreadsheets to make it available where it counts—into the hands of the people who use it to power our LMI services.”
Clearing the clutter to boost data and AI governance
To stay competitive, Helia must deliver positive experiences formed by a complete and accurate view of each customer and their data.
Organic data growth had led to data being stored across multiple siloed systems, which limited visibility into the customer data across teams and data sources. Moreover, existing data management processes and policies left Helia’s analysts spending too much time manually managing data instead of acting on it.
As Soakell-Ho explains, it was time for Helia to rethink its approach to exceed customers’ needs. “Customers and home buyers trust us to be the custodians of their information, and we needed a platform that would allow us to take charge of our data and deliver on its true value,” she says.
The solution for Helia was to develop a flexible and scalable data governance framework that could integrate with multiple data sources and cloud systems across its organization.
"We need to manage data from point of capture to point of insight right across the business,” explains Soakell-Ho. “Informatica and cloud platforms became the key technologies in helping us stitch together those different facets of the business.”
Empowering teams with trusted, AI-ready data
To ensure the robustness of its approach, the company chose Informatica Data Management Cloud (IDMC) as the platform to underpin its new governance framework. IDMC has since helped Helia to create a centralized inventory of its data, enhance its classification processes using AI-powered capabilities for greater automation and enforce validated processes and policies to manage this information.
The solution ticked crucial boxes for Helia in its search for a future-proof approach to data governance. For one, IDMC is data agnostic, making it multi-cloud friendly, allowing Helia to create seamless integrations between the platform and its data, automations and downstream applications without IDMC storing or accessing the data.
In parallel, IDMC Cloud Data Governance and Catalog (CDGC) simplifies data discovery for Helia’s employees. Instead of siloed information, teams can now find, understand and use relevant data from across the organization using a single business glossary.
“The value of Informatica Cloud Data Governance and Catalog (CDGC) solution lies in making information discoverable for the business. As the single knowledge repository, CDGC helps take data out of spreadsheets to make it available where it counts—into the hands of the people who use it to power our LMI services,” says Soakell-Ho.
The scalability of IDMC is another major selling point for Helia. Informatica IPU pricing model enables consumption-based pricing, unbounded by a specific number of user seats. This approach prevents cost overruns and allows the team to start small and grow. Helia can also increase its data sources and users on demand, ensuring that the business has elastic data management capacity as its operation grows and workloads become more complex.
“We’re seeing data stewards help each other navigate IDMC and embrace its capabilities in their day-to-day, for instance by tracking the lineage of data to conduct an impact assessment,” says Soakell-Ho. “It’s amazing to see them engaged and take governance into their own hands without my team needing to step in.”
Driving faster claims processing and compliance
Above all, Helia’s transformation with IDMC has enhanced its value proposition for customers. Faster decision-making around underwriting and claims, improved transparency in data retention and more assurance that teams manage data responsibly have helped to differentiate Helia in an extremely competitive market.
Helia’s transformation has also positioned its teams to explore use cases for data-driven LMI services. For example, their engineers are now exploring how generative AI can bring speed, efficiency and accuracy to the company’s customer experience. From intelligent chatbots that can be trusted to deliver accurate results to automated decision making for claims that improve customer satisfaction, IDMC provides Helia with a robust data management platform that puts next-generation digital services within reach.
*Stat from Forbes Market Update, July 2024.
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