Property/Casualty Rating Engine Vendors

Major players in the rating market offer a variety of solutions to help carriers improve competitive position and profitability.

Carriers are acutely aware how important rating is to their overall health and profitability. But continued reliance on custom-built solutions may be constraining efficiency.

"Vendor-based solutions are improving rapidly," says senior analyst Craig Weber, author of the Celent report, " ." "Any carrier that has not evaluated the latest rating engine vendor offerings recently should put that task on its list for 2006."

Weber notes that some rating engine vendors provide end-to-end solutions, from rating through policy administration, while others focus exclusively on rating. "In addition, many vendors are building out extras such as What If modeling capability and better integration tools," he says. "Over time these enhancements should win over carriers that feel like custom-built solutions are a necessity."

The report provides detailed analyses of 13 vendors that are active in the property/casualty rating space, including CGI, Computer Sciences Corporation, Decision Research Corporation, Duck Creek Technologies, IDP, Insurity, ISO, OneShield, Rackley Solutions, Insbridge/Skywire Software, Steel Card, The Innovation Group, and Trilogy. These vendors are shown in the Celent ABCD vendor view in Figure 1, which summarizes how the vendors stack up in terms of breadth of functionality, advanced technology, existing rating clients, and depth of client services.

"Carriers looking for a vendor partner need to thoroughly assess their needs against the broad spectrum of solutions and services," Weber says. "While any of these vendors can deliver a rating solution, they all bring very different strengths to the table."

Profiles for each vendor in the report highlight product functionality, service options, and pricing strategies. Detailed technical information, such as supported platforms and databases and integration methods, is also provided.

A companion report, "Trends in Property/Casualty Rating," highlights current market trends and offers carriers insights into rating best practices.

A table of contents for the report is available online.

of Celent's Property/Casualty Insurance research service can download the report electronically by clicking on the icon to the left. Non-members should contact info@celent.com for more information.