In industries the world over, accurate pricing is the key to avoiding financial catastrophe. The property and casualty insurance arena is no exception. During the past decade and a half, the most successful P&C businesses have gotten stronger by employing ever- more sophisticated underwriting strategies across business lines. And in today's disruptive insurance marketplace, rapid innovations in analytic technologies continue to revolutionize the concept of underwriting intelligence and efficiency. As new data sources and categories of risks emerge, P&C insurers face the ongoing challenge of effectively implementing analytic tools to gain and maintain a competitive edge.

Smart underwriting is necessarily receiving a bigger share of funding for analytics in many insurance enterprises because it is the core of risk decision-making. Underwriting analytics is among the most important of all analytics for an enterprise. If price is wrong, nothing will save a business from creditors in the short run or from its competitors in the long run. This is true not only for P&C risk-based pricing but for every risk management decision. Executives cannot ignore competing on analytics anywhere in their enterprise — most especially in pricing risks and managing decisions about risk portfolios.

Multiline carriers are aggressively applying everything they learn from all segments of their business, be it personal or commercial lines, marketing, even reported claims. Commercial vehicles have long used vehicle location technologies for asset management, logistics planning, driver management, and accident/incident event recording. The commercial lines market is now learning how to benefit from the confluence of predictive modeling methods and technology honed in personal lines. Property lines are profiting from the investment in auto lines, most specifically because the value of analytics has already been proven to line and senior executives. Those decision makers now want to move aggressively rather than wait for the competition to act first. Personal auto has been the prime example for showing executives that “catching up” is not the best strategy. The advantage of taking the initiative is apparent in companies that are thriving and those that are no longer contenders.