Revolutionizing IT Operations: How Aviva's Machine Learning Initiative Boosted Operational Efficiency

Aviva is a British multinational insurance company headquartered in London, England. It has about 18.7 million customers in the UK, Ireland and Canada. Wipro is partnering with Aviva on journey to transform Aviva's IT Support system to deliver impactful benefits and improve IT Operations process and help enhance customer experience.

Ambition

Aviva faced significant IT operational challenges due to their vast IT assets, numerous processes, and multiple support teams. As the business landscape evolved rapidly, Aviva needed to keep up with the expanding IT estate. However, the sheer volume of log data generated posed several key challenges such as:

1. High Spend on Maintenance
The reactive and manual approach of troubleshooting required more associates to churn logs manually, often resulting in increased downtime, tickets being routed through different teams, an extended Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR), expensive fixes, and dissatisfied customers.

2. Reactive Problem-Solving
The reactive approach to problem-solving was a result of the overwhelming volume of incidents, causing Aviva’s support team to prioritize symptoms over the diagnosis of root cause. This reactive mindset hindered the proactive identification and resolution of problems, leading to missed opportunities for improvement and prolonged disruptions.

3. Untapped Potential of Log Data
In the face of generating a substantial volume of log data, Aviva had unfortunately underestimated its true value. They had not fully grasped the immense potential that lay within their log data, missing out on a golden opportunity to extract meaningful insights, identify valuable patterns, and drive significant operational improvements through the power of Log Analytics. This oversight had hindered their ability to make informed decisions and optimize their processes, leaving untapped potential waiting to be unleashed.

To achieve their goals of cost optimization, improved operational efficiency, and generating tangible business value, it became imperative to leverage the untapped potential of log data. By harnessing the power of log analytics, the following outcomes were sought:

• Revolutionize incident management, swift and effective issue resolution
• Proactive identification of potential IT problems, preventive measures for optimal service availability
• Uncovering root causes of inefficiencies, targeted improvements and streamlined processes
• Identifying unreported incidents, proactive resolution for seamless and satisfying customer experience

Action

In a groundbreaking collaboration, Aviva and Wipro embarked on a transformative journey to enhance their IT operations by harnessing the power of data insights. Wipro's team meticulously evaluated approved tools and cutting-edge technologies to construct a robust machine learning (ML) solution. By actively engaging with run managers, Wipro gained a deep understanding of the specific challenges at hand and crafted multiple tailored solutions to address them head-on.

Leveraging the Dataiku platform, Wipro developed a comprehensive ML solution that catered to a multitude of use cases. This groundbreaking solution encompassed a range of capabilities, including but not limited to:

• Prediction of Root Cause:
  By analyzing a year's worth of incident data, a powerful model was constructed to predict the root cause of incoming incidents. This proactive approach revolutionized Aviva’s incident management, enabling swift and accurate resolution.
• Unveiling Anomalies:
  Statistical models were meticulously built to decipher complex log patterns and identify anomalous entries. This breakthrough capability empowered Aviva to swiftly detect and address potential major incidents, ensuring uninterrupted operations.
• Proactive Infrastructure Management:
  By leveraging multiple infrastructure metrics and employing advanced ML algorithms, a predictive model was developed to foresee server failures well in advance. This foresight allowed Aviva to take preemptive measures, minimizing downtime and optimizing operational efficiency.
• Alerting Application Support:
  Log sequences were meticulously analyzed to identify anomalies, enabling the application support team to swiftly respond and rectify potential issues before they escalated.

The impact of these solutions extended beyond incident and problem management. Aviva's Voice of Customer team benefited from a groundbreaking Natural Language Processing (NLP) solution that provided valuable themes extracted from customer feedback. This empowered Aviva to prioritize focus areas and enhance the overall customer experience. By correlating survey data with log analytics, Aviva successfully linked technical issues to customer satisfaction, driving continuous improvement.

Ambitions Realized

The implementation of our data insights solution, with Machine Learning at its core, has revolutionized Aviva’s IT System Support team, delivering impactful benefits that drive operational excellence and enhance customer experience.

• Increased Operational Efficiency:
  Our solution empowers the support staff to delve into the underlying causes of recurring issues, enabling them to resolve them permanently. This proactive approach to problem-solving has resulted in heightened incident resolution efficiency, increased operational and resource efficiency, and a remarkable reduction in Mean Time to Resolve (MTTR). As a result, there is projected saving of approximately 200 hours per month, allowing the IT team to allocate their time more effectively. Moreover, there would be projected savings of approximately 700 hours of MTTR  per month, enabling faster incident resolution and minimizing costly downtime.
  
• Enhanced Customer Experience through Real-Time Anomaly Alerts:
  Leveraging the power of log data, our solution provides the support team with near real-time alerts in the event of anomalies. This capability allows for swift identification and timely resolution of issues, contributing to improved service availability and ultimately elevating customer satisfaction to new heights.
  
• Increased Service Availability and Reduced Incident Rates:
  By identifying infrastructure failures in advance, our solution empowers the run team to take preventative measures, ensuring a more stable and reliable system. This proactive approach has led to a significant decrease in incidents, reducing the associated workload for the IT team and enabling them to focus on higher-value tasks.
  
• Identifying Detrimental Incidents and Customer Journey:
  Our solution has uncovered over 100 unreported incidents that would have otherwise gone unnoticed, allowing for proactive resolution, and preventing potential customer dissatisfaction. Additionally, it has identified more than 40 recurring issues within a span of just two months, providing the support team with valuable insights to address these problems promptly.

By harnessing new streams of telemetry data, such as clickstream, and continuously developing new use cases in collaboration with Aviva, our IT Operations have experienced a transformative evolution. This strategic synergy between evolving data sources and innovative AI-driven solutions not only empowers operational excellence but also reinforces our unwavering commitment to delivering heightened efficiency, proactive insights, and unparalleled value to Aviva and beyond.

The exceptional performance of the Log Analytics solution was recognized with the prestigious "Dataiku Frontrunner in Partner Acceleration Category" award in 2022, highlighting its industry-leading capabilities. Additionally, Aviva's NLP solution for the Voice of Customer team received the esteemed "Dataiku Frontrunner Community Choice" award and was a finalist for the coveted "Dataiku Frontrunner Best NLP Use Case" award in 2023, solidifying its position as a game-changing innovation.

Through this data-driven collaboration, Aviva and Wipro have revolutionized their IT operations, unlocking unprecedented efficiency, proactive insights, and unparalleled value. This strategic synergy between cutting-edge technologies and the power of data has propelled Aviva towards a future of operational excellence and limitless possibilities.