Solutions designed by insurance experts

Most re/insurers now understand that a profitable future for their firms will increasingly depend on their ability to leverage technology and data analytics. Anders Ericson, chief executive of ActERM, explains to PCI Today how his unique perspective can help companies solve these challenges.

Perhaps the single greatest challenge facing many property/casualty companies in an increasingly fast-paced world defined by technology is how to maximise their own use of technology and data analytics to become more efficient and make better decisions.

One US-based startup is looking to change this dynamic. Actuarial & ERM Solutions (ActERM) has been formed and is run by an executive with a background in the re/insurance industry. This means they have a better understanding of the practical realities of what insurers and reinsurers really need and how to implement it.

The core offering of ActERM is CAPx, a system that combines financial planning and capital management. The system provides a framework for the development and monitoring of a company’s financial plan and the capital modelling needed to determine required income.

ActERM formed in 2014 to deliver high performance analytical software applications to the P&C insurance and reinsurance industry. Anders Ericson, its chief executive and founder, spent nearly three decades working in the P&C insurance and reinsurance industry—which gives him a unique insight on the sector as a technology provider.

He worked for a wide range of companies in a variety of senior actuarial roles during his career, including spells of software development responsibilities at Aon Re (now Aon Benfield) and RMS, for instance, building systems and automating analytical processes.

During his tenure with Aon Re, Ericson was responsible for Prime/Re, the company’s primary modelling tool used by its entire North American actuarial staff to value reinsurance transactions. More recently at RMS, he was in charge of the financial model product management team and led the development of the Contract Definition Language (CDL), which provides an English-like approach to describing contract terms and conditions in a compilable programming language—a revolutionary technology.

After three decades working for larger companies, Ericson decided to go it alone.

“I wanted to draw on my unique experience to build innovative enterprise-class analytical applications. My decision was based on a passion for building software as well as a belief that with the right combination of product vision, domain expertise, and system development experience, superior products can be developed for the P&C insurance and reinsurance market,” he says.

He adds that the vision of the company is to deliver high performance analytical software applications to the P&C insurance and reinsurance industry.

Its strategy initially is to focus on the design and implementation of the core system architecture using a small team of experts with significant experience.

“With the core system in place, our focus is on extending the system features and the user interface. We believe that truly great systems are built ‘from the inside out’ rather than ‘from the outside in’. Building this way means starting with the core system architecture and making sure it is well grounded in the domain problem at hand,” he says.  


No more ‘Excel hell’

Ericson explains that the concept of domain-driven design is the main difficulty for large software companies entering into new and complex domains.

“At ActERM, we consider domain-driven design and product vision to be core strengths that set us apart from the competition in the domain of P&C insurance and reinsurance analytics,” he says.

He stresses that his goal is to save clients from what he calls ‘Excel hell’. “We will help our clients write the plan/road map, monitor performance to plan, and deliver credible projections,” he says. “Companies need a solid foundation of trustworthy forecasts to underpin their strategy.”

Ericson describes himself as a programming actuary. His background means that he knows what actuaries need, while his skills as a programmer and domain expert means he has the ability to build solutions and communicate clearly with clients on their requirements.

“Business-to-business is much harder to do this in than business-to-consumer—the former is more complex,” he says. “If it takes an actuary 10 years to truly understand the inner workings of an insurance company, how can they pass that knowledge to a programmer?”

Ericson explains that the company is launching a beta program at PCI. “At PCI, our aim is get on companies’ radars and make connections with interested clients who may join as beta partners at no cost to test the system with their own data.

“Beta partners may then lock in a perpetual discount on future licensing costs of CAPx,” he says.

For more information on CAPx and its capabilities, see day 2 of PCI Today.

Anders Ericson is the chief executive and founder ActERM. He can be contacted at: aericson@acterm.com