fintechbenchmark.com: The Fintech Benchmark

Back to Experience Study Tools products

Applications that analyze historical policyholder data to compare actual outcomes with expected results, helping actuaries refine pricing models and assumptions.

Every feature we track for Experience Study Tools products, with a description of what each one means.

Analysis and Modeling

Features supporting statistical, actuarial, and experience analyses to compare expected versus actual results.

Credibility Adjustments: Supports actuarial credibility theory techniques to adjust actual experience or develop blending.
Custom Assumption Modeling: Permits users to define and apply their own actuarial assumptions within the analysis.
Expected vs. Actual Calculation: Automates the calculation and comparison of expected and actual experience for policies or claims.
Experience Analysis by Segment: Enables breakdown of experience by policyholder segment, product, geography, etc.
Model Sensitivity Analysis: Evaluates the impact of varying assumptions on outcomes using sensitivity or scenario analysis.
Mortality/Morbidity Analysis: Supports analysis of mortality, morbidity, or other relevant risk metrics.
Projection Capabilities: Ability to project experience into the future based on historic data and assumptions.
Run Time for Analysis: Time it takes to process an experience study with standard data volume.
Statistical Test Suite: Includes statistical tools for significance testing, e.g., Chi-square, t-tests.
Trend Analysis Tools: Provides graphical/analytical tools for identifying trends over time within the data.

Assumption Management

Tools for managing, storing, and versioning actuarial assumptions used in experience studies.

Approval Workflow: Enables review and approval steps before assumptions are used in production.
Assumption Documentation: Supports detailed documentation of assumptions and rationales.
Assumption Import/Export: Allows import/export of assumption sets for collaboration and sharing.
Assumption Library: Central repository for storing standard and custom actuarial assumptions.
Audit Trail for Assumptions: Maintains a log of changes, who made them, and when.
Change Impact Analysis: Evaluates effect of changed assumptions on past study results.
Link Assumptions to Studies: Can associate specific assumption sets to particular experience studies or projects.
Number of Supported Assumption Types: Total unique assumption types that can be defined (e.g., mortality, lapse, expenses).
User-defined Assumptions: Permits creation of new or custom assumptions for use in modeling.
Version Control: Tracks historical changes and previous versions of assumptions.

Auditability and Governance

Features ensuring transparency, traceability, and strong governance for models and data.

Audit Trail Retention Duration: How long audit logs are retained and available for review.
Automated Data Lineage: Shows data flow and sources within the system for governance and troubleshooting.
End-to-end Audit Trail: Tracks and records all changes made to studies, models, and datasets.
Locked and Certified Study Versions: Allows ‘locking’ final study versions and marking them as certified.
Model Governance Frameworks: Supports established model governance processes and documentation.
Model Validation Templates: Pre-built templates for model validation and documentation.
Regulatory Reporting Exports: Generates outputs in formats required by insurance regulators.
Role-based Sign-off Workflows: Supports sign-off steps by different roles for studies and assumption changes.
Study Approval History: Saves complete history of each approval step for studies and assumptions.
User Access History: Report on who accessed specific data, when, and what changes were made.

Collaboration and Workflow

Supports teamwork, communication, and workflow management within the actuarial and finance team.

Activity Feed: Displays a real-time log of recent activities by users and teams.
Commenting and Annotation: Allows users to leave comments and annotate directly on reports or input data.
Discussion Threads: Persistent and organized threaded discussions attached to studies or projects.
Maximum Concurrent Users Supported: The number of users who can work collaboratively at once.
Notifications and Alerts: System sends email or in-app alerts for key actions, completions, or comments.
Real-time Collaboration: Multiple users can work on or view the same study or report simultaneously.
Task Assignment: Assign and track workflow tasks related to experience studies.
User Role Assignment: Granular assignment of access and responsibilities by project or study.
Versioned Team Workspaces: Team folders or workspaces with version control for group studies.
Workflow Automation Rules: Configurable triggers and workflows for approvals, reviews, and follow-ups.

Data Integration and Import

Features related to bringing historical and current policyholder and claims data into the application from various sources.

Automated Data Refresh: Ability to schedule and automate regular data imports or syncs.
Batch Processing Capacity: Number of records the system can process in an import batch.
Data Encryption During Import: Ensures sensitive data is encrypted during transfer and import processes.
Data Transformation Tools: Provides utilities to cleanse, reformat, and transform data into required structures.
Data Validation Rules: Checks imported data for completeness, accuracy, and consistency against configurable rules.
Error Reporting for Imports: Generates detailed logs and reports on data import errors or warnings.
Historical Data Archiving: Ability to store, access, and restore historical experience datasets.
Multiple Data Source Support: Ability to connect and import data from various formats and sources, such as databases, spreadsheets, CSV, or external APIs.
Real-time Data Integration: Supports real-time or near-real-time data updates from operational systems.
User-defined Data Mappings: Allows users to create custom mappings from source data fields to application fields.

Integration and API

Links the tool to other insurance, actuarial, or enterprise systems for seamless workflow and automation.

API Documentation Quality: Completeness and clarity of documentation and developer resources.
API Rate Limit: Number of API calls allowed per second for integration needs.
Custom API Endpoints: Permits defining custom data endpoints for unique integration needs.
Data Import/Export API: Enables programmatic import/export of datasets.
Data Push to Data Lake: Supports automated push of data into internal data lakes or warehouses.
Integration with Visualization Tools: Direct integration with tools like Tableau or Power BI.
Pre-built Integration Connectors: Out-of-the-box connectors for common industry systems (e.g., policy admin, claims, GL).
RESTful API Support: Provides industry-standard REST APIs for integration.
Single Sign-On (SSO) Integration: Supports authentication with enterprise identity providers (e.g., SAML, OAuth).
Webhooks for Event Triggers: Allows external systems to receive real-time notifications of key events.

Reporting and Visualization

Features that facilitate the presentation, visualization, and export of results, trends, and insights.

Ad-hoc Query Tool: Provides easy-to-use interface for generating ad-hoc queries and analyses.
Annotations and Collaboration: Allows users to add comments and collaborate within reports and dashboards.
Custom Report Builder: Allows users to create reports with custom metrics, layouts, and filters.
Drill-down Capabilities: Allows users to click through high-level metrics into more detailed breakdowns.
Export to Multiple Formats: Enables exporting of reports to Word, Excel, PDF, or image formats.
Interactive Dashboards: Supports creation of interactive charts, visualizations, and data exploration tools.
Mobile Access to Reports: Reports and dashboards optimized for mobile devices.
Report Scheduling: Ability to schedule generation and distribution of regular reports.
Standard Reporting Templates: Provides built-in templates for common experience study reports.
Visualization Library Size: Number of different types of charts/plots/visualizations available.

Scalability and Performance

Measures of the application's ability to handle increasing data volumes, user loads, or complex models efficiently.

Average Analysis Run Time: Median time needed to run standard experience studies at average data volume.
Batch Processing Throughput: Records processed per hour in batch jobs.
Concurrent Job Execution: Number of studies or analyses that can be processed in parallel.
Concurrent User Limit: Maximum number of simultaneous users before performance degrades.
Disaster Recovery Support: Automated failover and data backup for system outages or failures.
Elastic Resource Scaling: System automatically scales resources up/down based on load.
Geographic Data Center Options: Choice of hosting in multiple geographic regions for performance or compliance.
High Availability Uptime: Service reliability, usually measured as percentage uptime per year.
Latency for Report Generation: Average time to generate or refresh standard reports.
Maximum Dataset Size Supported: Largest dataset size that can be imported or analyzed without performance degradation.

Security and Compliance

Ensures data privacy, regulatory compliance, and secure system access.

Audit Logging: Records all user activities and data accesses for compliance.
Automatic Data Redaction: Automatically hides or redacts PII in reports and exports.
Compliance Frameworks Supported: Lists standards like GDPR, SOC2, HIPAA, etc., supported by the system.
Data Encryption at Rest: Stores sensitive policyholder data using encryption.
Data Encryption in Transit: Encrypts all data communications between client and server.
Data Retention Policy Configuration: Supports customizable data retention and deletion policies.
Multi-factor Authentication: Requires two or more authentication steps to access the system.
Regular Vulnerability Scans: System automatically scans and reports vulnerabilities on a regular basis.
Role-based Access Control: Enforces permissions based on user roles for data and feature access.
User Activity Monitoring: Allows real-time or near real-time monitoring of user activities.

Support, Documentation, and Training

Measures and resources for training, supporting, and onboarding users.

24/7 Technical Support: Round-the-clock support availability via chat, phone, or email.
Customer Community Forum: Online community or forum for customers to share knowledge and solutions.
Dedicated Account Manager: Named contact for account and issue management.
In-app Guidance and Tooltips: Contextual help and tooltips within the interface.
Knowledge Base Articles: Number of indexed self-help articles or FAQs.
Product Update Frequency: Average frequency of releases and improvements per year.
Service Level Agreement (SLA): Clear documentation of support response and resolution time commitments.
Training Programs Offered: Number of distinct user training workshops or webinars offered annually.
User Documentation Completeness: Comprehensiveness of provided user guides and reference manuals.
Video Tutorials Library Size: Number of instructional videos available to users.

User Experience and Accessibility

Measures ensuring the application is intuitive, user-friendly, and accessible to all required users.

Customizable Dashboard Layouts: Users can tailor their interface to highlight relevant metrics and reports.
Customizable User Preferences: Users can set their own preferences, such as themes, languages, and date formats.
Help & Tutorials: Built-in help, guides, wizards, and video tutorials.
Keyboard Navigation: Fully usable by keyboard for improved accessibility.
Mobile/Tablet Friendly UI: Optimized layouts and controls for mobile and tablet usage.
Multi-language Support: Ability to use the software in more than one language.
Navigation Ease Score: Measures the average number of steps required to access frequently used features.
Screen Reader Support: Optimized for screen readers to aid visually impaired users.
Search Functionality: Provides in-app search across data, reports, and documentation.
Session Timeout Configuration: Configurable periods before an inactive user is logged out.

Experience Study Tools features explained

for Actuarial Department