Day in the life of a Project Manager at a global insurance firm

L1 Change+ Analyst, Alfie Lowe reflects on how he’s worked to overcome his client’s business challenges through his role as a Project Manager  

After joining the Change+ Development Programme, I soon moved over to my client assignment at a Global Insurance Firm, where my role saw me work to improve the data quality for the property binders (US Delegated Authority) team. Delegated Authority is a type of reinsurance where, in basic terms, smaller localised insurance companies bulk insure and then sell the insurance to larger firms or syndicates (through a broker), for a percentage of the premium as commission. I was responsible for improving the quality and timeliness of the data for our exposure management team who use catastrophe modelling to predict average annual loss (what you’d expect to pay out in claims over the policy length) vs the premium (what you get paid from the policy).  

Challenges faced within insurance 

The accuracy and timeliness of data is an important issue, as it works both ways. It can take months to receive data, due to the numerous middlemen, and then months again to receive the verifications or corrections of the data. Sometimes, there can be a 6-month data lag which can impact the renewal of contracts. If the company doesn’t have visibility of a coverholder’s performance, it can struggle to make accurate decisions on whether it should continue to do business with them or not. Other challenges faced are overexposure and the reporting of inaccurate trends. When we model data, inaccuracies skew our figures, so we could make poor business decisions based on the belief that we have room to write more insurance, when in reality, we could be over exposed in certain areas which could have catastrophic consequences. 

Overcoming client complications 

I worked to create a Quality Checking tool to combat the above challenges. This flags data inaccuracies bound by a set of rules. For example, we’d expect a building’s roof to be the same age or younger than the building itself. If we, therefore, find a policy for a building whose roof age is 11+ years but the building itself is only 10 years old, this would automatically flag up and be sent back to the broker to investigate further. Whilst on assignment, I also created a Bordereau tracker, which shows which cover holders are up to date or late, and by how many days. The tracker automatically updates and tracks the pathways between error send out and error correction.  

Upskilling with learning tools 

Grayce’s access to LinkedIn Learning has been a great help in improving my work efficiency, especially when it comes to Microsoft Excel, where shortcuts and macros are key to increasing the speed of my workflow. As a result of my Agile training, I built a tool incrementally from scratch. I was then able to use it in a live scenario, which I found was the best way to spot any bugs or think of new features which could be added to improve it. 

Ongoing training & wraparound support 

Grayce’s ongoing training has been crucial, especially the Agile training. The access to LinkedIn learning courses has given me great base knowledge on all Microsoft Office products. The Analyst community has been great too. I’ve met a lot of friends, not only at my clients, but through training sessions, social events, and the Grayce Collaboration Hubs. The support from my Grayce Delivery Manager has been a great and the quick responses I received ensured I never felt lost or confused. They have given me great career guidance and have been a calm and reassuring head for me in times when I have been confused and stressed. 

Why Grayce? 

Grayce Analysts bring high quality and fresh perspectives to companies. Within the Grayce Analyst community, everyone I’ve met has been extremely professional, intelligent, and friendly. I couldn’t sing Grayce’s praises any higher to either prospective clients or prospective colleagues.