Data Visualisation: The Key to Understanding Insurance Data

Insurers collect a wealth of data, but with opportunities come challenges. In this thriving data-rich universe, insurance management teams must manage vast amounts of data to manage their portfolios and enhance their customer experience efficiently.

Every year, underwriting teams struggle to get business value from unprecedented levels of data, processing a huge number of submissions. However, specialty insurance is inherently data driven and making sense of large volumes of data is essential in today’s “permanent crisis” environment. And thankfully, there’s one tool that can help to convey and understand huge sets of data easily.  Enter data visualisation.

The human brain processes image 60,000 times faster than text. Visualisation works from a human perspective because we respond to and process visual data better than any other type of data.

Source: International Forum of Visual Practitioners

Data visualisation has made it possible for insurance professionals to unlock powerful yet easily digestible and timely insights by presenting data in a visual format that makes it easier to access, understand, and get actionable insights. It involves taking complex data sets and turning them into graphs, charts, tables, or other visuals that show patterns, trends, and relationships between different pieces of information. 

By visualising data, we can: 

• Interact with asset and exposure data intuitively and analyse it more closely
• Identify and respond quickly to emerging threats and trends
• Recognise strongly correlated parameters among graphically represented patterns
• Make better decisions faster by accessing an easy-to-grasp overview of the data 
• Using interactive dashboards, view one or more metrics over time, compare multiple years, isolate specific factors, or break down key performance indicators at the departmental level
• Make accurate predictions about future outcomes

Visualisation is crucial for understanding data because it helps people see and interact with it more intuitively. It doesn't matter how complex or straightforward your visualisation is. Everyone can understand it, no matter how much experience they have.

For insurers , data visualisation can be a powerful tool in understanding their portfolios and delivering better client outcomes. With the right visuals, insurers can more readily comprehend their exposures, linking asset locations with insurance terms and liabilities, react quickly to events and advise clients more effectively.

Plus, data visualisation allows insurers to spot trends over time, helping to make informed decisions about their exposures should an event occur. Let’s take a look at more detail on how data visualisation can be used in insurance.

Let’s look at the main benefits of data visualisation for the insurance industry.

Ease of Conveying Information

One of the most relevant benefits of data visualisation is facilitating the flow of information. With data visualisation, insurers can explore data that is otherwise just a collection of tables, numbers, and words. It optimises the viewer's experience and makes it more compelling.

In addition, visualisations are extremely flexible. From marine to real estate, they can be used to present information about almost every aspect of risk and asset management.

Images are also more easily understood regardless of language, reducing the barrier to communicating with people from other cultures and different languages.

Visual Exposure Management

Through exposure visualisation, you can process and interpret critical data more efficiently and naturally by using tools that enable graphical representations. Your organisation's portfolio can be easily understood this way, as can suggestions for improving it.

For example, underwriting teams may use visual analytics to drill down into particular key performance indicators such as loss ratios, combined ratios and profitability metrics across different lines of business and geographic regions.

Equipped with these insights, insurers can use the visualisations to identify underperforming segments, optimise portfolio diversification, and better decide where and how to allocate resources for maximum efficiency. This can help them reduce costs and time waste while maximising profits in the long run.

Increased Transparency 

Finally, data visualisation also facilitates greater transparency between insurers and buyers. Insurers want information that is easy to understand so they can make informed decisions about their portfolios.

Data visualisation also serves as a data literacy tool. In other words, it allows you to read and analyse data, including big data. Because patterns and relationships stand out to the eye, you can easily recognise and compare them.

Using this resource, you can also see hidden structures. As you analyse and move through the visuals, you can see the bigger picture and then choose which details to focus on. 

Using visuals such as bar charts and cohorts, insurers can share detailed information quickly without overwhelming with too much text or endless spreadsheets—which helps build trust and increases efficiency at the same time.

Data-Driven Decision-Making

Instead of simply presenting static charts and graphs, interactive visualisations allow users to dive deeper into the data. Users can then explore various scenarios, comparing plans side-by-side or seeing how changes in one area can affect other areas of their insurance policy or assets.

Interactive visuals can be an invaluable tool for understanding customer behaviour patterns and tracking market share at a local level. For example, with the help of technology-powered tools such as Insurwave’s interactive Risk Map, insurers can easily visualise their portfolio to spot patterns or trends they wouldn't have noticed, allowing them to make more informed decisions faster than ever.

Additionally, interactive maps can help risk management teams more accurately assess risk by providing detailed information about geopolitical events, climate conditions, and other factors affecting policy rates.

Real-Time Dashboards 

Real-time dashboards are becoming increasingly popular among insurance professionals who need access to up-to-date information at any moment. 

These dashboards provide a snapshot of key metrics and performance indicators in an easy-to-understand format, helping insurance teams quickly spot potential issues before they become major problems. 

This allows insurance professionals to take proactive action before it’s too late, resulting in better customer experience and increased efficiency across the organisation.

Data visualisation is becoming an increasingly important tool for insurers looking to better understand their exposures and make better pricing and risk management decisions. With so many options available today, there are plenty of ways for insurers to leverage data visualisation to optimise their business operations and enhance their customer experience.

From analytics tools to real-time dashboards and interactive maps, there is something for every insurer looking for an edge in this ever-changing industry landscape.  Diving into large volumes of data can seem daunting, but thanks to powerful data analysis tools insurers now have access to insights that help them make well-informed decisions using data visualisation technology. 

The right tool will quickly identify patterns and emerging trends in the data that can be used to create tailored products that better meet customer needs. With the extra insight provided by these advanced analytics techniques, insurance providers will find they are able to get a better understanding of their customers, assess risk more accurately, and develop better products and services.