The Santam Group, a South African-based general insurer, has as part of the company’s FutureFit strategy selected SAS as the provider for its data science platform.
The Santam Group is one of the first JSE-listed companies to invest in SAS’ latest analytical software for their South African business. This transaction extends SAS and Santam’s existing partnership in the field of data analytics, and the company’s data science investment reflects its confidence in the future of the South African economy.
Making use of the best-in-class bundled solutions within the SAS® Viya® platform, Santam will be more agile in serving their policyholders through relevant insights and quick-to-market enhancements to the current and future suite of policies offered.
“Santam believes in the future of South Africa, and this is why we have chosen to invest in this type of technology. SAS® Viya® will make us more agile and able to improve decisioning and implement analytics much faster throughout our business processes,” says Kevin Wright, Chief Information Officer, Santam.
SAS® Viya® is the flagship modern analytical platform that covers the end-to-end analytical life cycle. The platform incorporates everything from data preparation and data visualization to model development using the latest AI and machine learning algorithms, model management and deployment capabilities, as well as streaming and IoT capability and image processing.
SAS’ reputation within the industry is one of excellence, with modelling software that is accurate, relevant and reliable, that is accepted by the regulators. Santam and SAS share the key value of Innovation, which makes them ideal business partners in the pursuit of cutting-edge data solutions. Indeed, SAS is constantly evolving to meet the needs of its customers and spends 24% of its revenue on research and development. SAS® Viya® will tackle a wide spectrum of business challenges across the insurance value chain.
The adoption of SAS® Viya® extends a long-standing relationship between the two companies. Santam currently relies on SAS for other solutions spanning customer, fraud and risk areas. “In recent years, Santam has expanded its use of SAS solutions for real-time claims segmentation, claims fraud detection and compliance with IFRS 17 regulations. Now, in strengthening the partnership, SAS’ cutting-edge analytical platform, SAS® Viya®, will be implemented to enable their Advanced Data Analytics (ADA) capability,” explains Matthew Bray, Senior Account Executive at SAS.
“We are delighted to be partnering with SAS, and we believe that the new SAS® Viya® analytical platform will take our Data and Analytics capability to the next level at Santam,” says John Melville, Executive Head: Underwriting, Reinsurance & International, Santam.
“SAS is delighted to be able to build on our successful 25-year partnership with Santam. We believe in walking the journey alongside our customers, and we look forward to further analytical excellence with Santam and the SAS® Viya® platform,” says SAS South Africa Country Manager Akesh Lalla.