Using technology to enable more impactful risk management

Nicole Schepanek of Swiss Re Corporate Solutions talks about the use of data and insights to build more resilience beyond traditional insurance.

Increasing resilience is critical in the current polycrisis, where natural catastrophes, geopolitical uncertainty and cyberattacks are contributing to the rise in risk. Furthermore, it is resilience beyond traditional indemnity-based insurance that is needed – solutions that enable preventative actions instead of reactive ones.

Swiss Re Corporate Solutions has long been a pioneer of innovation in insurance and the use of technology to help companies improve their risk data to identify, understand and mitigate risk effectively.

Its Risk Data & Services (RDS) is a cloud-based platform supporting corporates in controlling their exposure to physical risks across their property portfolio or supply chains.

“The idea behind the platform was to reimagine risk management by allowing corporates to be more in control and precise with their risk data first and foremost,” says Nicole Schepanek, head of risk data and services corporates at Swiss Re Corporate Solutions. “The platform offers a more accurate and granular view of risk through insights that were previously only available to risk experts.”

The central element of the platform is the digital twin. It gives businesses access to a private and secure space in which their assets and portfolios are replicated and visualised. Clients can then enrich that digital twin with data from Swiss Re and other leading risk insight providers. This enables them to experiment with risks and model current and future risk scenarios themselves, using the insights generated by the platform.

The importance of interoperability

In addition to the range of data points covered by the platform, interoperability is another important consideration, as Schepanek explains. “The platform allows for integration with other third-party data providers and their systems. This is an important measure because it helps companies to be more confident with the data they are using and the insights that the platform provides. Risk can no longer be viewed in information silos, and it is important to have a holistic view from a range of different providers.”

The platform also enhances collaboration among different stakeholders and teams within an organisation. Thanks to its usability and accessibility, it can help streamline workflows and operations by serving as a simple way to consolidate, improve and manage risk data in a single system rather than a complex collection of different and disparate systems, spreadsheets and applications.

This means that RDS not only works more effectively as a risk assessment platform, it also serves as a single source of understanding.

The ultimate aim of the platform is to ensure that risk management is central to a company’s decision making, says Schepanek. “It is about turning risk intelligence into actions to build business resilience. For example, the platform can be used to develop reports that can provide inputs for better business decisions.”

According to Schepanek, RDS demonstrates how we can think beyond insurance. “Rather than simply offering a pool of capital that helps repair damage after an event, we can instead offer what I’ve come to see as resilience-as-a-service, giving our clients the data and tools they need to better understand their risks, and the opportunity to mitigate those risks before losses materialise,” she says.

“The world is becoming more interconnected, more complicated, and in some respects, more perilous. But if we harness the power of data and new technologies with our clients, we can visualise and plan for more of the eventualities that the future may hold,” adds Schepanek.