In just a few months, TCS Insurance has improved the efficiency of
their policy rating system by 750%, and reduced their annual IT
requirements by 20,000 hours. This amazing savings is coupled with
improved data access and speedier turnaround on everything from rate
evaluation to competitive pricing analysis.
These amazing improvements were accomplished by taking advantage of
parallel programming on a Microsoft Windows Server. From 1999-2010, TCS maintained duplicate data on both a mainframe computer and a web
based server. This system seemed the only way to meet the dual needs of
processing huge amounts of mathematical data and having critical
information available to agents in a timely manner. Such duplication
required that the systems be maintained separately, requiring extensive
IT staff time.
TCS is known as one of the top
auto insurance companies in New York City, grossing $130 million in revenues in 2009. It receives high
ratings both from within the industry and in customer recommendations.
Since 1985 the company has offered a broad variety of insurance
products in 3 states. Improving their ability to adapt rates according
to internal rules for adjustments is critical for maintaining such
excellent service.
Key to the requirements was performing analysis of varying scenarios to
calculate the potential results of rate changes. This rating engine
requires heavy mathematical calculations, with results available to
agents as quickly as possible.
Microsoft parallel programming through the Windows Server operating
system environment meets both of these needs. Microsoft Visual Studio
2010 and the .NET Framework 4 effectively uses modern multiprocessing.
With the aid of a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, it took only four
weeks for an operable parallelized rating engine to be developed. The
following three months were devoted to testing and documentation to
ensure an accurate, quality product. The system went live in February
2010.
On the new processors, running parallel in F# code, policy rating
jumped from an average of 10 policies per second to 89 per second. The
Visual F# is suited to mathematical problems, and is an integral part
of the Visual Studio 2010 package. The .NET Framework 4 does not
require compilation, and is implemented through runtime library
routines. IT specialists familiar with working in Visual C#, Visual
Basic, or Visual F# could easily adapt to the new platform.
TCS evaluates policy rates in light of 80-100 rules, and with Visual
Studio 2010 these could be evaluated independently, with only minor
changes to the coding, using parallel For Each loops. Instead of
building spreadsheet models and waiting for testing on the mainframe,
pricing analysts can now test validity rates for a batch of 50,000
policies in about nine minutes. TCS’s Manager of Application
Development noted that this has allowed the company to reduce a
rate-change cycle from three months to just one month, giving them a
significant market advantage.
