The 2013 Calgary floods were the costliest in Canadian history,with overall damages estimated at $5 billion and insurable damagesestimated at $1.7 billion. Massive amounts of rain, unexpected windpatterns, and two weather systems converged to create floods thataffected 75,000 people, requiring the largest evacuation order inthe city's history. As flooding began, Canadian insurers scrambledto find policyholders who were in need of assistance and assesstheir exposures.

This case study describes how some customers used technology togain the insights needed to proactively respond to the catastrophe.Guidewire Live Claim Canvas is a cloud-based analyticsapplication that enables claims management and catastrophe responseteams to view portfolio exposure in the context of other internaland external data.

Getting help to those who needed it most

A typical first step in preparing a catastrophe response is toaccurately identify policyholders who have flood coverage in floodevacuation zones. However, it can be difficult to obtain a timelyand accurate list using traditional reporting methods. For example,using a list of affected zip codes to identify impactedpolicyholders is inaccurate because post codes can span largedistances and floods don't respect their boundaries.

Within an hour of the start of the Calgary floods, insurers wereable to use Claim Canvas to visualize flood evacuation zones andrelevant policies on a map. This allowed them to easily triage andcontact the hardest hit policyholders and start providingassistance when it was most needed (e.g., pre-booking a hotelroom). In addition, insurers were able to determine the locationand better forecast the number of adjusters needed in affectedareas based on the number of anticipated claims.

Streamline the claims process

In the aftermath of the Calgary floods, claims management teamswere inundated. While quick response to catastrophe-related claimswas vital to getting customers back on their feet, this was easiersaid than done. How could a claims team reliably expedite genuinecatastrophe-related claims while flagging claimants who may betrying to take advantage of the tragedy?

By visualizing claims on a map along with flood evacuationzones, insurers easily identified which claims were in the floodzone and which ones were not. This allowed them to prioritizegenuine claims while flagging those that were out of the flood zonefor further investigation.

Accurately tag claims for reinsurance

Considering the magnitude of claims, reinsurance teams had toensure that claims associated with the catastrophe were properlytagged so that opportunities were not lost. One customer estimatedthat without geo-visualization they had miscoded about $12.5million worth of claims. At the same time, reinsurers wanted tomake sure they only paid for claims in the designated floodzones.

Reinsurance teams utilized Claim Canvas to overlay flood zonesas defined by the reinsurer on a map. When this flood data layerwas visually compared with claims from the Calgary floods, it waseasy to see which claims were inside and outside of the floodzones. As a result, both insurer and reinsurer were confident thatclaims were properly coded.

The instant insights gained from geo-visualization and portfolioexposure allowed for improved quality and efficiency in response tothe 2013 Calgary floods. Insurers were able to be more proactiveand provide faster service to their policyholdersm while realizingcost savings through efficient allocation of scarce field resourcesand identification of reinsurance opportunities.

Amit Shah is the product marketing manager for GuidewireLive. He can be reached at [email protected].