The Analytic Insurer

Spring Awakening

Stuart Rose — Thu, 16 May 2013 13:19:58 +0000

Spring means many things for different people. For some it’s the start of the baseball season; for others it’s daffodils, tulips and azaleas season. For me, spring represents the start of the insurance conference season. This year is no exception, and over the past couple of months I have attended [...]

What insurers can learn from Starbucks

Stuart Rose — Wed, 01 May 2013 15:13:37 +0000

There are many people who think that insurance is fast becoming a commodity, with little differentiation between products, and where consumers choose their insurer purely on the basis of price. However a cup of coffee is a commodity, and yet Starbucks can sell a cup of coffee for $4 or [...]

More the merrier – Sharing ideas across financial services

Stuart Rose — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 02:21:49 +0000

The old adage “there is no I in team” is never more true than in today’s collaborative society. People and organizations share knowledge via wikis. They share advice, opinions and answer questions via social media. Recently I read about a case where a manager asked a new employee to do [...]

6 steps to data quality and success

Stuart Rose — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 13:08:15 +0000

This week marks the beginning of the Baseball season. Go Red Sox. Over the years baseball has always been run by numbers and with today’s “sabermeterics” there appears to be statistics for nearly everything in the game. There is WAR (Wins above replacements), WHIP (Walks plus hits per innings pitched) [...]

Chicken or the egg?

Stuart Rose — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 13:05:49 +0000

The old adage “What comes first the chicken or the egg?” could easily be used as a metaphor for the analytical lifecycle. Many will argue that data comes first. Insurance is a data-centric industry. Insurance companies collect data for a specific purpose or transaction via policy administration and underwriting systems, [...]

Insurance technology is cool…really it is!

Stuart Rose — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 15:04:49 +0000

Much has been written about how the insurance industry is a laggard compared to many other industries, especially when it comes to technology. In fact I remember a 2010 report that surveyed the usage of social media in 30 different industries. Insurance came in 28th, ahead of only Zoos and [...]

Telematics – A new business model

Stuart Rose — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 14:02:57 +0000

Much has been written about the pros and cons of using telematics – and many insurers have made a business case for implementing usage-based insurance in the auto industry. However, the challenge often ignored is how to store and analyze this explosion of data created by these activities. First of [...]

Why Solvency II feels like Groundhog Day.

Stuart Rose — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 14:11:52 +0000

Over the past few years I have written many articles on Solvency II with the anticipation that the directive would come into effect at the end of this year. However when it comes to Solvency II it seems Insurance companies are feeling like Bill Murray in the movie “Groundhog Day”. [...]

20 Questions – Answers insurance executives need in 2013.

Stuart Rose — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 13:59:05 +0000

Like many of my readers, I spent many hours traveling during the festive period. During one long car journey, I decided to play some “old-fashioned” games with my family, instead of having them stare at a TV screen or play endless videos games. One such game was “20 Questions”. For [...]

Year in review – Why SAS is the DBs

Stuart Rose — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 15:04:32 +0000

As the year draws to a close it is typical to think back over the past 12 months. As I was doing this exercise last week I began reminiscing about an interesting course I attended by SAS’ Legal Department. This course focused on what can and cannot be written in [...]