Insurer looks to Lyza for automated data integration, analytics

Baldwin Mutual Insurance Co., a property and casualty insurer based in Alabama, has started using data analytics software from Lyzasoft in an effort to remain competitive.

The insurer is using Lyza, Lyzasoft's desktop analytics tool, to help with its reinsurance modeling and rate analysis. Lyza's ease of use and the broad array of data sources it supports made it a good fit for Baldwin Mutual, which is using the system to integrate and analyze historical data from multiple sources, including spreadsheets and MySQL databases.

“Part of the reason for using a new data system is reactive,” said Kevin Russell, VP at Baldwin Mutual. “The insurance and reinsurance markets are demanding more and more data and more and more fine-grain data. We've used Lyza extensively to pull datasets from different sources and different formats. It is enabling us to quickly consolidate data, and to conduct rate reviews and to create ad hoc financial reporting for our accountants in a timely fashion.”

Because Baldwin Mutual was storing data in so many systems, storage and integration had become increasingly difficult, and the insurer was being forced to manually build temporary data tables for every report. Lyza provides an ETL — extract, transform, load — tool and analysis for Baldwin Mutual's data that allows it to gauge and correct its price structure in a more automated way. Baldwin is also using Lyza for data verification.

“We're really using this to see if the rates are adequate, meaning you're not losing money on a particular line of business we're not charging too much on a particular line of businesses,” Russell explained. “The goal is to ensure that our customers' needs are being served at a fair price.”