Object recognition, classification, clustering, forecasting, text mining. Achmea takes advantage of the opportunities that data science offers as much as it can. She regularly needs extra hands or expertise. Always from Pipple.
The data science department at Achmea, headed by Wouter Slot, is regularly involved in new propositions, automatic claims settlement and making processes more efficient. That wasn’t always the case. “In the start-up phase of our department, we were mainly browsing,” says Slot. The yields were modest. “At most, an insight from a model led to some factor being given a better weight, or to adding a rule.”
Data consultant
As his department’s findings became more substantial, so did the urge to get them out of the lab, into the business. That requires extra skills. Slot: “If you release models in an operational department, the manager in question naturally wants to understand what you are doing. Such a person is often not a beta person. Arithmetic knowledge alone will not convince you. Then you have to be more of a data consultant than a data scientist. In such a case, Pipple comes in extra handy. They have a diverse team that can meet many different needs.”
IT knowledge
What makes Pipple special, slot believes, is that many of their consultants also know how to bridge the gap between IT and data science. “You can make very nice models, but to get it real-time in the back office application you have a hard IT side to manage. That is very close, because your model must be implemented exactly as intended. Then it helps if you also know something about data engineering and data architecture.”
Never pushy
Perhaps that is Pipple’s secret, Slot thinks: their high quality standard. “I can be sure that a candidate from Pipple meets our wishes and requirements.” According to Slot, there is also a distinctive strength of Pipple in this. “Pipple has never been pushy. The initiative for a new assignment always comes from me. And when it’s time to say goodbye, that’s good too. They have a pleasant way of selling.”
