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For Property Insurance, a Need for Real-Time Big Data?

The Periscope system collects and analyzes hundreds of thousands of data points to optimize pricing for property and casualty insurers.

Written By

Sue Walsh

Oct 18, 2016

Quadrant Information Services, which provides pricing analytics for property and casualty insurers, has announced the launch of a new business intelligence tool, Periscope.

The tool is designed to to provide insurers with qualitative approach to competitive analytics by analyzing big data, including 5,000 insurance variables and hundreds of thousands of data points.

Using the company’s established strength in competitive pricing analytics, Periscope delivers a comprehensive summary of the salient points found in a data search, the company stated.

“What you need—and what is being used in many, many industries—is business intelligence technology. You need a tool that on the back end can crunch the data and isolate meaningful patterns, and on the front end can deliver its findings in such a way that executives can use them as the basis for action. It’s like driving a car; you don’t want an instrument constantly telling you that the oil pressure is X pounds per square inch at Y degrees. Of course there’s oil there; it’s a car. The same holds true for most of these thousands of data points. Of course they’re happening; it’s an insurance policy. What you do want to hear about are things that alert you to hazard or present you with opportunity,” Quadrant CEO Michael Macauley explained in the company’s announcement.

The company said their customers have asked for help with market intelligence to improve their targeted marketing efforts, business expansion, and to increase the speed and accuracy of decision making. Quadrant stated that they believe that salient data points for insurance analytics, such as how a competitor’s rate is structured, what other discounts are introduced, the variables involved in rating, and whether the competition is using univariate or multivariate ratings, are crucial for helping customers.

Speed is an important factor, Quadrant said, because a single automobile policy can be based on over 160 different components. If the insurer is tracking the policies of 30 competitors, that’s close to 5,000 variables.

Periscope claims to take those 5,000 variables and hundreds of thousands of data points and provide a comprehensive and qualitative summary of that data in real-time, instead of the days it would have taken before. The company said as the property and casualty insurance field increases in complexity and competitiveness, the need for quick and accurate decision making will continue to become more and more critical.