Upfront & Personal: Derek Price, Betterview’s Manager of Business Intelligence

We are inundated with massive amounts of data. How do we know what is important?  How can we use it? Derek Price says, “The key to data management is presenting data in manageable and understandable bites. This makes it easier for the subject matter experts to focus on the minutia and hone in on the ‘needle in the haystack.’ It is like using a dowsing rod, only in this case, you are searching for insights rather than precious ores. Basically, I think it all comes down to a general formula: plug in any X (industry, domain, use case) based on a need – and get powerful outputs.”

What is Business Intelligence (BI) and how did you get into it?  

I have always been enthusiastic about numbers and data – I worked my way through the ranks, like many do, using Office applications like Excel and Access.  After years of working in various analyst roles, I was introduced to the concept and tooling behind BI and knew immediately where I was going to navigate my career.

The power of BI first became evident to me when I was working for a Boston-based Non-Profit Health Insurer.  We had just implemented the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and our medical expense trends were skyrocketing. BI allowed us to ultimately find the root cause of the spike in expenses: newly insured members were finally receiving screenings and treatment for long lingering issues that had been put off.

How are you using BI to help Betterview?

Betterview has an amazing platform – one that continues to evolve alongside their data.  My job is to ensure that Betterview’s data is easily accessible and meets the needs of their audiences – from internal coding engineers to external customers such as underwriters and claims managers.  

The beauty of BI is that it allows you to glean over 80% of a company’s overall health and productivity trends with very little effort. At Betterview, we use BI to lead individual analysts and subject matter experts to very pointed data categories, enabling them to drill down into layers of data to find the specific drivers of property loss trends, for example. BI saves time, eliminates frustrations in data searching, and ultimately decreases costs.

Internally, users in client-facing positions need to be nimble in their decision-making processes to respond quickly and accurately to a customer’s needs. I work with internal users to customize data points for specific customers – molding the data to the customer’s needs. I also work with Betterview’s data-oriented teams to help them visualize data differently and to have a place where they can quickly assess metrics and uncover hidden correlations (or the lack of any correlations).

Customers want access to Betterview’s data with the same ease of execution afforded to our internal teams. Soon, using the power of BI, our customers will be able to look through all their front-end data – hundreds of thousands of data points – without the need to rigorously navigate properties one by one. Ultimately, my goal is to create a future state where people can peer into their own data from a BI perspective and gain powerful insights quickly and accurately, without the use of expensive resources.

What would people be surprised to know about you?

I am a cat lover! I have three right now. When I first moved to California, a stray cat kept coming to my condo door, so I finally invited her in. Luckily, they all get along. What I really love about cats is how self-sufficient they are – and that is a good thing.

Outside of work, I am a competitive pinball player. Recently, I reached one of my very ambitious goals – I am ranked in the top 50 players in the world. Before the pandemic, I traveled to 10 different states in the US and played in over 80 events. It is my hope to play in events internationally, including Europe and Australia.

What is the best way to contact you?

You can reach me via email at dprice@betterview.com, call me at (978)-235-2646, or connect with me on LinkedIn.

Betterview is on a mission to turn high-quality data into actionable insights for the P&C insurance industry. We foster a collaborative environment, working together to find the best solutions for our customers. If you are interested in joining a strong, innovative team, head over to the careers page on our website or contact us directly.