Business Intelligence Services for the Insurance Industry

Insurance Brokers

It could be said that in an ever changing and challenging insurance environment, Insurance Brokers especially, are encountering varying levels of difficulty in the struggle to both maintain their current books of business and to capture new clients.

Key Performance Indicators

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are the essential measures by which a company's progress and deficiencies can be charted and for the Insurance Broker this means constantly monitoring, for example:

• Commission earned so far this year
• How the commission figures compare to last year
• The most profitable class of business
• The most profitable class of client
• Where the business is being placed/with which insurer
• The best performing executives
• Renewal Retention
• Policy Transfer Analysis (from Insurer to Insurer at Renewal)
• Lapsed policy value
• Fee Income

Furthermore, this data must be monitored by department, for example, by Personal Lines and Commercial departments and in the case of a multi-branch Insurance Broker, this data must be additionally monitored both integrally and by branch which can prove cumbersome, time-consuming and not always accurate.

It is crucial that such information is available to the broker in such a way as the data can be compiled or filtered in whatever way required, whether this be by effective date, ledger date, paid, unpaid, monthly, annually, etc...

The broker can then decide upon a strategy or action, for example, whether to concentrate on new business or to better the renewal retention rate, negotiate betters terms with insurers, leading to such reporting data being referred to as “actionable data”.

Such actionable data must be:

• Easily Accessible
• Available on demand
• Robust
• Accurate

How Aspect Business Intelligence can help

• Business intelligence, or BI, is an umbrella term that refers to a variety of software applications used to analyze an organization’s raw data. BI as a discipline is made up of several related activities, including data mining, data extraction, data validation, analytical processing, querying and reporting
• The Insurance Broker can use BI to improve decision making, cut costs and identify new business opportunities
• Business Intelligence provides added value in that it sheds light on the quality of data being entered into your system and also on processes that are not serving the company as they should and may perhaps require re-engineering. Errors can also be better identified and corrected.
• BI works best when those that need it can access it easily and on demand. Even with the best software tools available, attempts to extract this data can be frustrated by time frames and the expertise and workloads of the in-house staff. Other alternatives may include the purchase of an expensive software platform but again, training and budget considerations may dictate otherwise.
• Using tools such as Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, SQL and Visual Basic, Aspect Business Intelligence can assist you in getting the reports you need by pointing such tools at your system (Open GI, Infocentre, for example). Aspect BI can then create, automate and present your data back to you in an easily accessible, real time format ((MS Excel for example) and will ensure you can run your up to date reports whenever you need them. Clear documentation is provided telling you and your key staff outlining where the reports are stored, how to run them and details as to the parameters on which the reports are based. In addition, where so required, Aspect BI will also provide training in relation to running the reports.

Insurers and Underwriting Agents

Aspect Business Intelligence can assist you in the creation of management reports such as:

• Underwriting Reports including Loss Ratios by Product Type
• Underwriting Reports including Loss Ratios by Agent
• Claims Reports
• Triangulation Data (preparation for Actuarial Submission)
• Data Cleanup for Import
• Any and all reporting requirements by your Carriers