Arrow Risk Management builds transparency and agility with Zoho Analytics

The company

Arrow Risk Management is a London-based managing general agency (MGA) founded in 2021, specializing in underwriting across niche and specialty insurance lines such as general aviation, financial lines, and renewable energy. Combining underwriting expertise with a data-driven technology platform, Arrow streamlines operations for brokers and carriers. The company is a Lloyd’s London coverholder and operates under UK and EU regulations, letting it serve multiple markets efficiently.

The challenge

Paul Cogger, Financial Controller at Arrow Risk Management, needed a business intelligence solution to analyze and visualize business data from Arrow's core insurance underwriting system and finance systems.

Finance heads, underwriting and operations managers, and executives needed to monitor the company's performance in near real time (instead of relying on static month-end reports) and track credit control and debtor positions dynamically to review collections progress.

The goal was to segment and explore the data to understand performance metrics such as profitability, business growth, and financial efficiency. By doing this, Cogger would be able to produce fast, data-backed information, allowing leaders to act promptly on emerging issues or opportunities.

Cogger, being a qualified accountant and seasoned SQL developer himself, worked on data that was spread across multiple systems and formats. The core underwriting system on Microsoft Azure SQL databases stored detailed information on policies, premiums, and claims, while the accounting system maintained ledger entries, journals, and financial statements. Bank transaction data was kept separately for tracking receipts and payments, and payroll information was managed by external suppliers and maintained in Excel files.

Initially, he worked on spreadsheets for forecasting, planning, and other ad-hoc analyses. Since these data sources weren't connected, reports had to be compiled manually by exporting, reconciling, and combining information from different systems. This manual process was resource intensive, delayed reporting timelines, and made it difficult to view or analyze data in real time or at a detailed level.

He soon realized that a BI tool that offers strong database connectivity, flexible data modeling, and intuitive visualization was essential.

The solution

Arrow Risk Management decided that Zoho Analytics was the ideal choice due to capabilities like easy integration with multiple data sources, its ability to handle complex SQL-based logic, and advanced reporting and automation.

The first step was to connect Zoho Analytics with the organization’s Microsoft Azure SQL databases that hosted the core insurance underwriting data. Using Zoho’s native Azure SQL connector, the data was imported into Zoho Analytics through custom SQL queries. These queries extracted and transformed data such as policies, premiums, and claims for performance tracking. To ensure that insights remained up to date, the integration was configured to refresh automatically every three hours, allowing near real-time analysis of business metrics.

The next step was to build a double-entry ledger engine using query tables. These tables applied SQL transformation logic to imported business data, automatically generating the corresponding debit and credit entries in line with accounting principles. This automation eliminated manual work and significantly reduced reconciliation time between operational and accounting data.

Then, to manage cash collections efficiently, bank transaction data was imported directly into Zoho Analytics. The transaction files were mapped and linked to policy and broker records. Using data relationships like lookup columns, the accounting and ledger tables' data was mapped, and dashboards were built to monitor cash flow, outstanding balances, and credit control performance.

Payroll data, previously managed separately, was integrated into Zoho Analytics with scheduled file imports from the payroll system. Using queries, the payroll data was converted into ledger entries and merged with the general accounting tables using lookup functions. This integration provided a complete, automated, and secure view of salary costs.

Given the company’s multi-currency operations, Zoho Analytics was connected to FloatRates.com for daily foreign exchange rates. The XML feed was imported into Zoho Analytics using its web data connector feature, which mapped exchange rate data into a tabular format. Custom SQL queries were then applied to join the exchange rate table with financial data, converting all monetary values into the organization’s two reporting currencies: GBP and USD. This allowed consistent, automated multi-currency reporting across all dashboards.

Finally, all datasets, including business written data, accounting ledgers, payroll, banking, and exchange rates, were consolidated within Zoho Analytics to produce comprehensive profit and loss accounts, balance sheets, cash flow reports, credit control, cash collections, payroll, expense reports, and more. These reports could be filtered, sliced, and analyzed by any dimension such as product, region, or client, providing deep visibility into every area of the business.

Arrow highlighted several favorite features that have greatly enhanced the reporting and decision-making process:

  • Interactive dashboards and widgets provide consolidated views of key business metrics at a glance.
  • Interactive data exploration enables users to explore data at multiple levels of detail with pivot table reporting and drill-down capabilities, making it easy to analyze performance trends.
  • Geospatial analytics offer visual insights through charts and global map views, helping the team track business across regions using geo data types.
  • Custom SQL query support allows the creation of bespoke SQL-based calculations, giving flexibility to perform advanced analysis directly within Zoho Analytics.
  • Cross-device compatibility ensures that dashboards and reports are accessible anytime, anywhere on portable devices, supporting quick decision-making on the go.
IMT Matcher saves £5,000/year with Zoho Analytics

"Zoho Analytics has been a game changer for us. With near real-time reports, we can slice and dice data without relying on spreadsheets. Our business leaders can now monitor performance and view our credit control and debtor positions instantly instead of waiting until month-end."

- Paul Cogger
Financial Controller, Arrow Risk Management

Benefits and ROI

Zoho Analytics has ensured a single, unified truth across the organization, enabling everyone to work with the same reliable data tailored to their specific needs and at varying levels of detail. It provides a near real-time view of company performance with continuous updates, ensuring decisions are based on the latest information. Overall, this has been a game changer, giving the company a significant competitive advantage through transparency and timely insights.