Archive for category Career Advice
Business Analyst in Insurance Domain
Posted by admin in Career Advice on February 6, 2012
The right balance of information and technical know how is needed for a Business Analyst to successfully complete his job in any sector. This dictum applies to the Insurance sector as well. A Business Analyst should be well versed with the information that is needed for any Insurance professional to work in the Insurance domain. Since he has to analyze the processes and then help in the development of essential software for the projects in the Insurance sector, he needs to have both – the information required of an Insurance professional and the technical knowledge required for the establishment of software designed for this sector.
Insurance as is known is generally divided into three major divisions: Life Insurance (dealing with safeguarding life and the risk of mortality and critical illnesses), General Insurance (dealing with the risk of damage to immovable property, motor, cargo, marine, household, and fire insurance), health insurance (dealing with risk of illness and disease, and thus covers reimbursements, medical claims, operation of panel doctors, cashless hospitalization, co payment etc.) The level of knowledge and range required is different in each stream and hence a Business Analyst has to have a certain demonstrable understanding of the workings of the particular streams in the sector and also desirably, adequate level of experience in the sector.
Functional Knowledge of Insurance applications is also essential, like new business, channel management, policy servicing, claims management, underwriting, reinsurance and finance. Along with knowledge of the business processes of the particular client company, a brief and thorough understanding of the requirements given by the regulatory authority of the Insurance industry is also mandatory. The terminology is varied for the Insurance sector, with changes even within the sector, for the different streams of the sector. Knowledge of these unique terminologies will help the Business Analyst to understand the client who is the end user’s expectations and he will be able to draft them better into requirements efficiently.
Once functional requirements are known, the technical knowhow is also essential for any good Business Analyst to communicate to his software developer’s team about the client user’s expectations from the project. The Business Analyst should be aware of the basic MS- Office tools like Microsoft Word, Ms PowerPoint, MS Excel, MS Visio, MS Access, and MS Project). These help in collating data and presenting it in proper format. Then knowledge of relational databases is also important for understanding the technicalities of Querying and Support. Basic programming languages that are used by software developers should also be known to the Business Analyst so that he can understand the developer’s problems or point of view. These programming languages could be ASP, Dot Net, JAVA, J2EE, XNL, HTML etc. In addition to these, knowledge and experience in insurance business applications, content management systems, portals, data warehousing tools can give any Business Analyst that extra edge over others standing next to him.
Thus, it’s quite clear that a Business Analyst in the Insurance domain needs to know both sides of the coin – the knowledge of insurance business processes and the relevant Insurance software packages.
Business Management Styles
Posted by admin in Career Advice on January 24, 2012
Businesses can’t go without proper management. Hence aspiring entrepreneurs cannot start up any enterprise if they are not well acquainted to the art and science of business management. Given the age of the practice, plenty of business management styles have been established. Entrepreneurs who wish to succeed in their business ventures should be knowledgeable of these and be able to practice them correctly.
Here are the three types of business management styles:
1. Autocratic
This type of management hands over all of the power to the proprietor. All the decisions are made unilaterally. This management style is actually adapted when no trust is established to the workers. Essentially, everything that goes on in the business will reflect the preferences of the owner.
On one hand, this can be effective when quick decisions have to be made. It can project a cohesive and confident management. But if the reasoning of the person in power is corrupted, any decision made autocratically may put the business in demise. This also makes the business prone abuses and the workers more dependent.
There are two kinds of autocratic managers. The directive autocrat usually makes unilateral decisions and closely supervises the workers during the execution. The permissive autocrat, meanwhile, gives some space for workers to carry out the task.
2. Paternalistic
Decisions for this type of management are still unilaterally made. However, it pays more attention to social needs and worker views. Entrepreneurs who apply this are constantly consulting their workers regarding agreeability of certain business decisions and they ensure that needs are met. There is still a sense of authority fostered but moral is better cared for.
This management style builds up loyalty but like autocratic management, it still supports dependence.
3. Democratic
This style of management puts complete confidence in employees and allows them to make decisions. Authority is delegated and workers are empowered to make conclusions and plans, with the consent of the proprietor. Given the set up, this management style usually involves meetings and the formation of discussion groups.
Though this does promote independence on the side of the workers, the decision making process is severely lagged as contradictions are bound to occur. Regardless, if important matters are deliberated, disagreements may be healthy as it saves the business from biases.
4. Laissez-faire
This type of management basically involves full turnover of power. The leader stands side-by-side with his staff as they take over the responsibilities of the leader. It’s every department for their selves.
Communication does run both ways and it does help bring out the best from everyone. But given that there is no unifying element to the decisions made; laissez faire’s management style is actually pretty poor.
See, not all business types require the use of the same management style. And particular circumstances only welcome specific management practices. Familiarity with all management styles then makes a manager, leader and entrepreneur more flexible with changing business dynamics. In view of the nature of the task at hand, or the nature of the work force or his own personality and skills, he can appropriately extend the management style that is called for and that which he can ably exercise.
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