Combining platforms offers data advantage

Risk managers and their organizations, particularly those with limited or no risk management budgets or resources, can turn to partners including brokers and insurers to take advantage of technology tools.

“I find it to be a good partnering process,” said Audrey Rampinelli, New York-based senior vice president of risk management and insurance services at Mastercard Inc., who has used both insurer and broker platforms. “Their platforms are getting better and their systems more robust, so leveraging those platforms can be quite helpful,” she said.

Ms. Rampinelli added that using the tools of more than one broker or insurer can be especially helpful because it “allows the opportunity to view risk through two different lenses. You get different perspectives.”

“Each of our partners offers a different system,” said Christie Weinstein, Morris Plains, New Jersey-based director of risk management and insurance for Honeywell Inc. and a Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc. board director. For example, one broker provides risk managers with policy information through client-facing technology, she said. 

USI Insurance Services LLC has an in-house group of about 120 employees focused on building proprietary technologies, said Kate Bang, Valhalla, New York-based digital transformation leader for the brokerage. Within the group are subgroups focused on specific areas, such as one dedicated to submissions, she said. 

“When you do enough volume with certain insurers and wholesalers, they are happy to participate and provide these tools,” the cost of which may run into the millions, said Jonathan Naranjo, San Mateo, California-based national real estate practice leader for Newfront Insurance. “Clients can leverage the broker partner and relationships they’ve built,” he said.

“The kind of resources your partners provide can help clients maintain and manage” risk management tasks, said Kyle Duke, senior vice president and practice lead, construction loss control, for Newfront in Dallas. One of the tools Newfront makes available to clients is predictive modeling, he said.