Swiss Re CorSo looks to increase clients’ resilience through a digital twin

A big push for Swiss Re Corporate Solutions (CorSo) is its Risk Data Services (RDS) platform, which helps companies build a digital twin of their assets to gain a better overview of their exposure, with Allen Kwan telling The Insurer the benefits include developing insights that inform insurance-buying decisions.

Swiss Re believes the RDS platform helps companies become more resilient by making better, data-driven business decisions.

The company suggests sustainability managers can greatly benefit from better analytical models to assess climate-related risks, while supply chain managers could use clearer oversight of hidden risks to anticipate supply chain disruptions.

CorSo officially launched RDS in October 2022 with three solutions: property exposure management, sustainability compass and supply chain resilience.

The platform helps companies build a digital twin of their assets to gain a better overview of their exposure and then create simulations based on real-world scenarios and access to risk insights.

RDS clients get access to Swiss Re’s select models, meaning they can view their exposure in context.

Kwan, who is head of customer and distribution management for North America at CorSo, told this publication there is a gap for clients in bringing together models and systems to give a holistic view. He said the RDS platform can help fill this gap.

“What we noticed is that a lot of insureds don't buy the modelling because their insurance companies do it, and it doesn't make sense to buy a licence for a single insured,” he said.

In addition, Kwan said the systems clients use to organise risk and keep track of claims do not provide an overarching view.

“Where there is a gap for insureds is they don't have a place that would help them figure out how much insurance to buy, how they could look at their supply chain, and how they can see what their future risk would be when it comes to climate,” Kwan explained.

He continued: “There wasn't a place where an insured can go to load all their information and turn what's usually a very static annual process of taking values, trending them and figuring them out, into bringing a little more colour and a little more depth.”

He added that a benefit of the platform is it provides for the structured storage of risk data in a secure and private space.

The RDS platform allows clients to start to develop insights that help them buy insurance, Kwan said. He suggested that current market conditions increase the need for the platform even further.

“For a long time, as the market remained soft, people just kept buying insurance the way that they always did,” he said. “There wasn't pressure to think about how to buy insurance strategically, what you do with it, and how to maximise economic efficiency.”

Three solutions

The digital twin is created through clients loading factors such as all of their assets and suppliers globally, and creating a digital representation of them. Further information is then added depending on which solution is being used.

For property exposure management, this would include natural catastrophe insurance layers and aggregations.

“It starts to show you how things respond to different events, and how you can build more resilience around how you map out your real estate footprint or how you buy aggregates of natural catastrophe insurance,” Kwan said.

He gives an example of a company in California being able to assess the probability of locations in Los Angeles and San Francisco both being taken out by the same event.

“It also gives you a sense as to how much insurance you should buy because it gives you access to our different models,’ he said.

For climate sustainability, Swiss Re’s experience of climate risk is overlaid on top of the digital twin. As a result, Kwan said the future probability of a company’s “wet score” and “dry score” can be calculated. This is helpful for industries that are really sensitive to water and temperature, and informs companies before they make capital expenditures or commit to certain facilities.

A manufacturing company, for example, can use RDS insights to identify, assess and mitigate climate-related risks.

For supply chains, the digital twin can be used to then look at first, second and third tier suppliers. The product allows clients to uncover hidden vulnerabilities across their supply chain network, simulate potential disruptions and prepare accordingly.

“So if you make a widget that has five pieces, you can track back where all the different pieces come from, you could overlay different nat cat events such as seeing if a supplier was impacted by an earthquake, how much you have in stock on hand, and what your delay will be in putting those widgets out,” Kwan explained.

“It visually shows you what you make today, where all the different pieces come from globally, and where they're going,” he added.

CorSo also believes its RDS concept can be expanded in the future.

“Eventually we are looking to see how we can open it up and let people connect it to other things,” said Kwan.