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George Wright on Outstanding Claims with the Price Writer Ep 16
41 Plays1 year ago
In this month's episode, we are thrilled to have George Wright, the innovative mind behind Vounder Analytics. Join us to explore the transformative journey of data management and software development. George shares his unique path from the environmental sector to revolutionizing bordereau software, highlighting the challenges, solutions, and the future of data analytics in the insurance industry. Tune in to gain valuable insights on managing big data, improving data pipelines, and the cutting-edge BDXView software designed to streamline Bordereaux management. Highlights:
George's Journey: From environmental regulation to founding Vounder Analytics, discover how George's passion for coding and problem-solving led him to create impactful solutions.
Challenges: Learn about the initial struggles in business development and the importance of finding a niche that Vounder now dominates.
BDXView Software: An in-depth look at Vounder's latest software innovation designed to consolidate Bordereaux data efficiently, catering specifically to MGAs, MGUs, and syndicates dealing with delegated authority.
Target Audience: Understanding who can benefit most from BDXView and how it revolutionizes data management for better decision-making and efficiency in the insurance industry.
Vision and Mission: George shares his aspirations for the future, emphasizing the role of advanced data technologies in fostering innovation and improved operational efficiency.
Contact George: george@vounder.co.uk
Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-wright-86824575/
BDX View: https://www.bdxview.com/
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Transcript
George's Career Transition
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello George and welcome to the show. Hi Jeremy, thanks for having me. Brilliant, thanks for coming on the show. So the first thing I want to ask you is, how did you get where you are today? Yeah, so I started in the actuarial world in 2016 working at a consultancy and I'd come across from the environmental
00:00:23
Speaker
doing environmental regulation. I was doing a lot of coding and that sort of thing and found my way into actuarial by adverts to cat modelers.
00:00:32
Speaker
And then, yeah, from there, went around and really found my niche in helping actuaries get together better data pipelines and be able to handle with bigger data. Yeah. Went from consultancy to in-house and then from in-house then started contracting with Lloyds. And that was really the beginning of what has become Boundar Analytics. And
Challenges in Business Development
00:00:57
Speaker
what have you found most difficult about starting Boundar?
00:01:02
Speaker
I think initially the struggle was really being on that business development side of it and not being a salesperson like out and out sales or what have you trying to start out and then yeah find and nurture those opportunities and find people you can help being quite
00:01:26
Speaker
excitable. So I love a problem. So if I come across and you're trying to fix every problem for everyone initially, and I think that's the sort of way to burn yourself out a little bit. So it's really finding which problems you click with and where you're most valuable and identifying and sticking with that. I think that was probably the challenge for me early on is maybe trying to do too much and
00:01:49
Speaker
Yeah, it's good to find the kind of niche within a niche that people know you for. And what would you say is that niche for founder?
Boundar Analytics Introduction
00:01:58
Speaker
The way I've worded it now, and I think that works best for us, is we build actuarial software. So we help build data pipelines. We get everything around so that actuaries and good actuaries can be really good at their job.
00:02:14
Speaker
So we work a lot with messy data sets, messy spreadsheets, pricing models that have been duplicated in Excel 100 times across a business. How do we bring that together in something that's valuable within itself and that can then be developed and move forward in a 21st century?
00:02:37
Speaker
actuarial tech stack and really taking that holistic operations. Actuarial systems is a word I quite like. Yeah. So that that's where I'd say our niche is clearing the gangway for actuaries to do what they need to do. Yeah.
00:02:54
Speaker
And I know you have a new piece of software out, don't you? Do you want to tell us about that? Yeah. So
BDXView Software Development
00:03:02
Speaker
we've spent the last couple of years building and using a piece of software for cleaning up border row, a sort of age old issue within the industry is how do you get all of these funky spreadsheets from different lines of business and with different
00:03:19
Speaker
data in it, how do you get that all consolidated quickly and in one place. We were, it's called BDXView. So that's what it is and how we're taking it forward. We were working with a client who had a different tool and it was a really great tool with lots of technical big data stuff, but they were just a really small MGA. So they didn't have a big IT team who could take this tool and run with it. And we ended up
00:03:49
Speaker
looking at what they had and looking at what they needed and really not being able to find a solution in the market for them. So we built something and then we've now released it out more widely under the moniker BDX view. And yeah, really enjoyed getting some more MGUs and syndicates on it lately and moving it forward.
00:04:14
Speaker
Who's the target customer? Who's the
BDXView for MGAs and Syndicates
00:04:18
Speaker
right person to be using BDXV? Yeah, so the right customer is...
00:04:24
Speaker
But MGA is MGUs who are writing several delegated authority books. So it's where you've got two or three. And then the idea of getting another customer is giving some of the admin team like cold sweats in terms of how are we going to get all of this data to align? We've already not got three that we're struggling to keep up with. So once you start getting those volumes of different
00:04:51
Speaker
border road coming in that are in different formats and need to go out to different stakeholders. That's really where our system lets you save a lot of time, de-risk and focus on what the data is saying and then make your data-driven decisions and write a book from there. The other clients are obviously syndicates who are writing sort of 40 plus
00:05:15
Speaker
cover holders with different delegated authority business where they've got loads of border row coming in and they want to sort of get that into one shape quickly and then move on from there. Often we can then be used to plug into bigger and fancier tools down the line.
Tackling Data Inconsistencies
00:05:33
Speaker
And what are the biggest problems that people encounter with their border array that BDXView is solving?
00:05:41
Speaker
It's the inconsistencies from one client to another and one month to the next and bringing all of that in in a way where you can be confident that data and that total premium number is correct or the total claims number is correct and there's not duplication from having total rows in the middle of a data set that you weren't expecting or
00:06:07
Speaker
or just having your data in 12 different spreadsheets and you're just adding aggregate numbers together, you can't really see what's driving the claims or what's driving the premium growth and whether it's premium growth that you want. If you've taken on a DA book for a particular aspect of it and then the premium's growing, you need to make sure that growth is in line with your risk appetite.
00:06:32
Speaker
So using BDX View, you've then still got that policy by policy detail that you can then go away and your team can look at and you can make decisions on the back of that. Yeah, it can be quite difficult with the border A's. I remember ending up with a small industry inside an insurer just working on the border A's and trying to make sensible, am I from it?
00:06:58
Speaker
Whereas a lot of the problem is really the reading in of what was there rather than actually just trying to analyze it. Yeah, a hundred percent. It's spending enough time focusing on getting that data in. Then you can automate outputs or you can dive in and analyze stuff in much better detail once you're confident on those numbers.
00:07:22
Speaker
If you're not, if you get mistakes, once a board member gets that, it can undermine the whole process. Yeah, Artur really focuses on what getting the data in should be so that you can go away and do the analysis that you want to do in a much safer environment, I guess. It's all about getting that good data flow early doors, I think.
00:07:49
Speaker
Yeah, there's a whole range of problems you can have and it's true when people receive a report and they immediately see something wrong with it, that can just ruin all of the work and the credibility that anyone's producing. And then wider problems as well, not knowing what the true premiums are, what claims are coming in, getting the reserving wrong, making the wrong choices and decisions based on it.
00:08:12
Speaker
Yeah, and getting that reconciliation, at least a reconciliation between what finance are telling you and what the analytics team are telling you, even if it's not
00:08:22
Speaker
to the scent, but something that's within ballpark because you can get frustration from the whole board if they're getting two sets of completely different numbers coming from different lines of the business. So what is the true number? And yeah, I think we go some way to trying to consolidate that issue, but yeah, it's good. And what would you say is your mission for what you're doing?
00:08:50
Speaker
I'd
Enhancing Industry Data Maturity
00:08:51
Speaker
say the mission is to get the whole industry onto better data technologies.
00:09:04
Speaker
getting that data flow, a more mature data flow and making that available throughout the market, not just once you get to the upper echelons of it. So for small and medium sized agents, getting that data into good shape early on and then that should flow upwards through the value chain.
00:09:28
Speaker
and be there for everyone. I think if you can make, if, and if we can get that and get it at a price point that does work for everyone, I think that the payoff further down the line is yes, exponential.
00:09:44
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's a world that's really changed in the past 15, 20 years as well. There was a time where people didn't really focus on these things and probably to their detriment, but now through the regulations, the PRA, the FCA, everyone expects better quality data and better decision making. And also we're just so much more exposed. There was a time when the markets were less competitive
00:10:09
Speaker
You could almost say people could get away with having poor data, but that just isn't the world we live in now. Yeah, definitely.
Cloud Computing Empowerment
00:10:19
Speaker
But also I'd say the technology's come on so much as well, even to the point of, I still think it's really under explored the whole value that we're going to get from cloud compute services like AWS and Google Cloud and Azure, where
00:10:37
Speaker
you've got levels of databases and analytics and then big data and AI tools and stuff that you can just plug in and you don't have to have this multi-million pound on-prem infrastructure to be able to be a player in that world. You can do it as a small agency writing low seven figures. You can have the AI or the, sorry, the analytical
00:11:03
Speaker
capabilities of anyone because you're just renting the little bit that you need. And I think it's such an exciting time to be using those technologies and offering them to all companies where you're going, yeah, the
00:11:21
Speaker
compute power that they've got at Lloyds or a big Lloyds insurer. Yeah, we can build you a smaller one of those and it's only going to cost a fraction of what you would have expected in the olden days. But yeah, it's so exciting to be using that tech and really diving into those data problems early on and getting everything lined up so that you can
00:11:42
Speaker
get reports out automatically and get those emailed to the team and get them ready for coverholder meetings and really have you can get so much knowledge in your back pocket that when you're in those capacity meetings and they go oh what's driving this or what's that there you haven't necessarily already presented it but you've got the appendix where you're going oh it's this or oh we've just done this
00:12:06
Speaker
and know it straight away and get those, those sorts of reports and stuff. You can get them scripted so they're being generated in the background without any real manual intervention each month. And then when you are finding the interesting points, you can then jump in.
Future of Data Systems for Underwriters
00:12:24
Speaker
deep dive into those rather than having already spent all your time and effort just getting a report together that shows you what's interesting and then not having enough time to go explore why it's interesting and make decisions early on.
00:12:39
Speaker
It's true. Analysis is a really powerful tool and it's often, I think in my view, a little bit forgotten about because people either don't have the data or they're more excited by the modelling side. What would you say is your vision for the future? I'd say the vision is for these tools and these analytical processes to then fuel
00:13:11
Speaker
fuel the next stage. So where you're then giving underwriters tools that they previously wouldn't have had, would not have had anything available to them. Yeah. So I'd say it's the next stage of tools. It's these data flows and data processes. They will fuel innovation where you can give underwriters access to numbers and tools and price drivers or value drivers.
00:13:41
Speaker
that they wouldn't have previously had so for instance in the capital world it's being able to get a capital estimate for a capital heavy piece of business on the fly how is that going to fit in with your normal or diversify or not diversify your current portfolio so i think
00:14:01
Speaker
The cleaner we get that data flow and the quicker we get that whole system, you can then start getting those real-time reports out, which is, I think, what's going to fuel better decisions, better companies in the market. Yeah, ultimately, at the end, it's about making more money, making the organizations more efficient, better decision making, faster choices.
00:14:29
Speaker
Yeah, and I think that then flows down to the consumer as well. So the consumer benefits at the end, after all that's said and done, is once you've got people who can find and identify the risks that fit in with their business the best, they can then get to those consumers and make sure that they're offering them the best price they can and everyone wins. Yeah, absolutely. That's always what we're trying to do. So George, is there anything you would like
00:14:58
Speaker
to add? No, thanks for having me Jeremy, it's been really good chatting to you about this stuff. So George, how should someone contact you?
Contact Information for Solutions
00:15:08
Speaker
If someone's there with their messy border O's and there's dates of complete pain and they're there trying to work hard with the border O team but it's going nowhere and they want to write a new scheme, how do they get hold of you? Yeah, brilliant. Feel free to send me a message, I'm on LinkedIn obviously
00:15:26
Speaker
Check out the website, it's bdxview.com. There's details to reach out or feel free to send me an email and find my details elsewhere. But yeah, we're always happy to chat to new people. And even if we can't help you, we've definitely been through these problems and we're happy to point you in the right direction if it's not the right tool. Brilliant. So bdxview.com and also you're on LinkedIn.
00:15:53
Speaker
Yes, indeed. Yeah. So yeah, George Wright. Brilliant. Thanks a lot, George. You have a good rest of your day. And you, Jeremy. Yeah, thanks for having me. Good to talk to you and chat again soon. Bye.