These days the talk is about leveraging data to transform business. And it may be true that data has its place in the improvement of a company’s profitability. But data is static and its benefits to your company are limited. The real untapped source of success is information. Here’s why.
Your underwriting process is only as good as the data in front of you. That data has a shelf life, much like most data gathered in the research and benchmarking processes. The truth is businesses evolve and markets change constantly, sometimes quite rapidly. Today’s reports are current – well, today. Tomorrow could be another story as market factors, economic influences, and claims figures change.
But if your underwriting process had access to real-time ad hoc reporting capabilities, if the information you were working with was the most current, how would that improve your underwriting quality? If information is available to you instantly, your underwriting department will be able to better quantify the risks and price your products. As a result, your products are going to perform much more effectively.
Take a look at your insurance technology solution. Are you being given access to real-time data and information, or is your information static and dated? Where is your information being gathered from? How many groups do you interface with to get information: data warehousing, claims, re-insurance, billing? If those interfaces are not part of your technology architecture and your policy administration or underwriting platform is not talking to other enterprise systems, you may be working in a silo and relying on outdated information.
When evaluating a policy solution, ask yourself if that platform could serve as the hub of your business. Does it keep all the information about your business “in the center?” Are you able to harness that information in real time to help you make critical, time-sensitive decisions about a risk?