General Insurance Article - Willis identify areas of Big Data currently underused


 The need to analyse heterogeneous and increasingly unstructured data will drive the insurance industry to adopt Big Data technology that has previously been overlooked or underdeveloped.

 That is according to Nigel Davis, head of Platforms and Delivery, Global Analytics at Willis. In his latest blog, he says “Big Data is a new term to describe the management and use of data in the modern era.” Davis identifies three areas of Big Data technology that he believes are currently under-utilised by the insurance industry.

 These are:

 The crunching of social media driven by the need to know everything. In other words, technology that scans millions of newsfeeds and social media feeds, such as Twitter and You Tube for posts containing certain content, e.g. earthquake, within a specific “geo-fenced” area.

 The use of sensor networks to track people in risky territories. “Tracking mobile assets produces vast volumes of data very quickly and it requires very high performance computers to analyse the data and facilitate predictive analytics.”

 The downloading of on-demand satellite imagery at an affordable cost. “NASA is a particularly good example. Raw flood, fire and climatic data can be downloaded from NASA’s online archives." 

 “Technology is facilitating change for those that can find ways to harness and consume it,” says Davis, adding that so far the application of Big Data has been predominantly driven by customer demand. “Technology evolution allows us to do things that we could never have thought possible a decade ago but it is not the size of the data mountain that has driven innovation. Rather, it is the demands made by the consumer." 

Back to Index


Similar News to this Story

Sleighing the risks by giving Santa the insurance he needs
While you might be the most magical employer in the world, we know that even you aren’t immune to the risks of running a global delivery service! From
Diversity improving in insurance and long term savings
Key figures from the Association of British Insurers’ latest Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) data collection highlight the work of insurers and
Almost a third of homeowners have been victims of burglaries
Research commissioned by Co-op Insurance reveals that almost one in three (29%) homeowners have been the victims of theft from their home. The member-

Site Search

Exact   Any  

Latest Actuarial Jobs

Actuarial Login

Email
Password
 Jobseeker    Client
Reminder Logon

APA Sponsors

Actuarial Jobs & News Feeds

Jobs RSS News RSS

WikiActuary

Be the first to contribute to our definitive actuarial reference forum. Built by actuaries for actuaries.