Patent Application
20140372150
There are many thousands of different types of businesses being conducted in commerce every day and many new businesses being started each and every day. Each of these businesses has very specific needs, requirements, risks and demands. Consequently, insurance coverage products, coverages, limits, options and combinations thereof for such businesses also number in the many thousands. Coverage for small specialty trade contractors, midsize to large contractors, and construction wrap-up projects may be completely different than coverage for wide array of professional services including but not limited to accountants, advertising agencies, answering services, appraisers, business & management consultants, commercial property owners & managers, employment agencies, insurance agents, interior decorators, law firms, meeting planners, notary publics, photofinishing labs, public relations services, research organizations, secretarial & court reporting services, telemarketing firms, and travel agencies. Similarly insurance coverage for manufacturing based business such as printers & publishers, food processors, metal manufacturers, electronics manufacturers, plastics manufacturers, specialized truck equipment, auto parts manufacturers, and industrial equipment manufacturers will also differ greatly from service bases businesses. Generally, the new business owner does not have familiarity with the variety of business insurance products, coverages and options that they would need for their specific business and many times would greatly benefit from education from an expert as well as knowledge of what other similar businesses are purchasing and risk they are concerned with.
Generally, a business owner will want to have property coverage for their basic property. This type of coverage insures physical assets the business owns such as a building, equipment, furnishings, fixtures, inventory, computers, valuable papers, records, and more and can include personal property of others in the business' care, custody or control. Business income coverage is a type of property insurance that helps cover the loss of income resulting from a covered loss (such as a fire) that disrupts the operation of the business. This policy may also cover the expenses of operating a business from a secondary or remote site. Comprehensive General Liability (CGL) covers a company in the event that it causes certain harm to others, whether that harm is to a person and/or a property. Such causes of harm might include defective products, faulty installations and errors in services provided. Generally, these three coverages are often sold together as a single Business Owner's Policy, also known as a BOP. Buying these coverages together is generally less expensive than buying each coverage separately. A typical BOP provides liability insurance and protection for business' property but since businesses are so different these need to be specifically tailored to the needs and requirements of each specific business.
Customers may also require specific business type coverages. If a business relies on doing business with major corporations, many of them will require bidders to have Errors and Omissions coverage, a type of professional liability insurance. This coverage helps to protect the business when an action, or failure to take action, in its professional capacity, results in injury or financial damage to a customer and is very important for companies with professionals who give advice, make recommendations, design solutions or represent the needs of others, such as attorneys, accountants, real estate brokers, consultants, software developers, copywriters, Web page designers, or job placement services. Such coverage typically covers the cost of legal defense plus the final judgment, up to a set amount, if the business owner does not win the case.
Additionally, other coverages such as commercial auto coverage and data breach coverage or other types of coverages such as Employment Practices Liability Coverage, Equipment Breakdown Coverage, Data Compromise and Identity Recovery Coverage, Livestock and crop insurance and many others are available for a business owner. As is evident, there are so many different types of policies, limits, coverages and options with need to be match reliability and quickly with the many different types of businesses out there.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a system that could provide business owners and agents with efficient, accurate and comprehensive coverage recommendations and selections in real time that reflect the current and relevant state of risk concern for each respective business.
In an embodiment, a system for recommending products and coverages for business insurance utilizing crowd sourced data includes at least one processor; a memory coupled to the at least one processor; and one or more programs, wherein the one or more programs are stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the at least one processor, the one or more programs including instructions for: receiving business specific information and risk concern information from a requesting user; supplementing the business specific information from at least one of a location based information service and a business information website; performing analysis of crowd sourced data with similar business specific information and risk concern information as the requesting user; selecting based on the analysis one or more products and coverages for the requesting user; and providing recommended coverages and products for display to the requesting user.
In an embodiment, a computer system for processing small business owner products and coverages requests in a multi-insurer environment includes a processor coupled to the multi-insurer communications network; and at least one storage device in communication with the processor; the processor configured to: receive product and coverage requests via the multi-insurer communications network from one or more small business owners; determining using a predictive model one or more product and coverage recommendations based on historical crowd sourced data on product selections and risk concerns; formatting in a tiered display configuration the determined one or more product and coverage recommendations; and binding the one or more product and coverage recommendations via the multi-insurer communication network to the small business owner.
In an embodiment, a computer-implemented method for processing crowd sourced insurance and risk data to recommend business insurance coverages to at least one user includes receiving, via a communications interface, a plurality of crowd sourced data related to business insurance requests and risk concerns; storing the crowd sourced data related to business insurance requests and risk concerns in a data storage device; configuring an information screen display for receiving business insurance request and risk concern data from at least one requesting user, processing, in a processor, the crowd sourced data business insurance requests and risk concerns to determine one or more business insurance coverage recommendations for the at least one requesting user, wherein processing includes accessing one or more predictive models to determine a correlation between the received business insurance request and risk concern data and the stored crowd sourced data; and configuring for display on a mobile display device the one or more business insurance coverage recommendations, wherein the one or more business insurance coverage recommendations are arranged in a location based configuration for selection by the at least one requesting user.
A more detailed understanding may be had from the following description, given by way of example in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:
Disclosed herein are processor-executable methods, computing systems, and related technologies for the administration, management and processing of real time business insurance products and coverages for customers and agents based on an analysis of crowd sourced perceived risk data and historical purchasing patterns of businesses with similar locations and industry/service classifications. Generally a business owner or agent will provide some basic risk classification and location information such as via a brief online survey on the types of risks that they are concerned about. The business owner's inputs are matched with historical perceived risk data and purchasing habits of businesses with similar characteristics, and recommended coverages and products are provided to the owner or agent. Direct customers, by receiving “agent-like” business insurance product and coverage recommendation based on crowd sourced data for similar businesses and agents, benefit by being provided real time product recommendations that are currently relevant for their customers in view of their industry peers. Recommendations may be provided to the business owners in a variety of formats and arrangements tailored to that business owner's needs and risk concerns such as by locality or geographic area, by sales volumes or company size or by other factors that intelligently link the businesses together. The present invention, in embodiments, is a real time dynamic system that progressively collects information from a variety of customers in real time and then also pushes recommendation data back to each new successive customer based on the historical viewing and purchasing patterns of prior customers and their risk concerns.
“Crowd sourced data,” as used herein, means data that is collected in a process of requesting a members of a group, such as business owners who apply for or inquire about business insurance, to provide information or respond to one or more questions, and receiving information and responses from the members of the group. The requesting and the receipt of information and responses may be carried out through any electronic arrangement. The persons requested to reply may exclude insurance company employees and consultants.
The term “small business” as used herein designates a business having no more than a maximum number of full-time equivalent (FTE) employees. The maximum number may be in the range from 15 to 500, and may be 50, 100 or 200, by way of non-limiting example.
The term “small business owner” as used herein designates any owner of a full or partial equity interest in a small business.
The term “business insurance” includes any insurance product, policy or coverage for use by a business. The term “business insurance” excludes any form of personal insurance, such as homeowners insurance, personal auto insurance, renters insurance, and personal umbrella insurance.
Referring still to
The business policy and coverage information database 116 may store information, data and documents that relate to corporate policies such as those related to Code of Conduct, Information Protection, Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action, Sexual and Other Unlawful Harassment, Drug Free Workplace/Prohibited Substances, Trading in Securities, Electronic Device Usage, Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance, Employee, Customer and Vendor Privacy, Improper Payments, Business Resiliency, Procurement and Operational Risk Management as well as many other areas. Crowd sourcing and historical information database 118 may store information, data and documents that relate to crowd sourced perceived risk data and historical purchasing patterns of businesses with similar locations and industry/service classifications. Business policy and coverage information database 116 and crowd sourcing and historical information database 118 may be spread across one or more computer-readable storage media, and may be or include one or more relational databases, hierarchical databases, object-oriented databases, one or more flat files, one or more spreadsheets, and/or one or more structured files. Business policy and coverage information database 116 and crowd sourcing and historical information database 118 may be managed by one or more database management systems (not depicted), which may be based on a technology such as Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle Relational Database Management System (RDBMS), PostgreSQL, a NoSQL database technology, and/or any other appropriate technology.
Communication between the insurance data system 110 and the other elements in the example architecture 100 of
Referring still to
In operation, client devices 130a-n and requesting user device 132 may be used to prompt users to provide business specification information, such as location and business type or classification information, services identification information, number of employee information, number of locations information, annual, quarterly or monthly revenue information, and to provide information relating to perceived risks or risk concerns associated with businesses, and to receive business and risk information, including perceived risk information or risk concern information, select, access and view one or more business insurance products and coverages in accordance with crowd sourced perceived risk data and historical purchasing patterns of businesses with similar location and industry/service classifications, and/or other similar characteristics, such as service identifications, periodic revenue information or employee counts. Selection via client devices 130a-n and requesting user device 132 may be accomplished via a touch-sensitive touch screen that provides an input interface and an output interface between client device 130a-n and the client or user. Client devices 130a-n and requesting user device 132 display visual output to the user for manipulation by the user. The visual output may include checkboxes, radio buttons, graphics, text, icons, video, and any combination thereof. The touch screen may display one or more graphics within user interface displayed on devices 130a-n and 132.
The web site system 120 may include an web application module 122 and a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) server module 124. The web application module 122 may generate the web pages that make up the web site and that are communicated by the HTTP server module 124. Web application module 122 may be implemented in and/or based on a technology such as Active Server Pages (ASP), PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP), Python/Zope, Ruby, any server-side scripting language, and/or any other appropriate technology.
The HTTP server module 124 may implement the HTTP protocol, and may communicate HyperText Markup Language (HTML) pages and related data from the web site to/from client devices 130a-n and 132 using HTTP. The HTTP server module 124 may be, for example, a Sun-ONE Web Server, an Apache HTTP server, a Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) server, and/or may be based on any other appropriate HTTP server technology. The web site system 120 may also include one or more additional components or modules (not depicted), such as one or more switches, load balancers, firewall devices, routers, and devices that handle power backup and data redundancy.
Referring still to
The example architecture 100 of
Each or any combination of the components/modules 112, 114, 122, and 124 shown in
Referring to
Storage devices 220 may include suitable media, such as optical or magnetic disks, fixed disks with magnetic storage (hard drives), tapes accessed by tape drives, and other storage media. Processor 210 communicates, such as through bus 208 and/or other data channels, with communications interface unit 212, storage devices 220, system memory 230, and input/output controller 240. System memory 230 may further include non-transitory computer-readable media such as a random access memory 232 and a read only memory 234. Random access memory 232 may store instructions in the form of computer code provided by application 214 to implement the present invention. System 200 further includes an input/output controller 240 that may communicate with processor 210 to receive data from user inputs such as pointing devices, touch screens, and audio inputs, and may provide data to outputs, such as data to video drivers for formatting on displays, and data to audio devices.
Storage devices 220 are configured to exchange data with processor 210, and may store programs containing processor-executable instructions, and values of variables for use by such programs. Processor 210 is configured to access data from storage devices 220, which may include connecting to storage devices 220 and obtain data or read data from the storage devices, or place data into the storage devices. Storage devices 220 may include local and network accessible mass storage devices. Storage devices 220 may include media for storing operating system 222 and mass storage devices such as storage 224 for storing data related to business insurance products and coverage, crowd sourcing data and historical purchasing data.
Communications interface unit 212 may communicate via network 206 with other financial services/insurance company computer systems such as business product and coverage data system 204 as well as other servers, computer systems of remote sources of data, and with systems for implementing instructions output by processor 210. Business product and coverage data system 204 may also be configured in a distributed architecture, wherein databases and processors are housed in separate units or locations. Some such servers perform primary processing functions and contain at a minimum, a RAM, a ROM, and a general controller or processor. In such an embodiment, each of these servers is attached to a communications hub or port that serves as a primary communication link with other servers, client or user computers and other related devices. The communications hub or port may have minimal processing capability itself, serving primarily as a communications router. A variety of communications protocols may be part of the system, including but not limited to: Ethernet, SAP, SASTM, ATP, Bluetooth, GSM and TCP/IP. Network 206 may be or include wired or wireless local area networks and wide area networks, and over communications between networks, including over the Internet.
One or more public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud and cloud-like networks may also be implemented, for example, to handle and conduct processing of one or more transactions or processing of the present invention. Cloud based computing may be used herein to handle any one or more of the application, storage and connectivity requirements of the present invention. For example one or more private clouds may be implemented to handle crowd sourcing processing and storage of the present invention. Furthermore, any suitable data and communication protocols may be employed to accomplish the teachings of the present invention.
With reference still to
Insurance administration system 209 may also be in communication with a policy holder reporting computer system 260 that is configured to receive data relating to policies from policy administration computer system 209. Policy holder reporting computer system 260 is configured to format documents related to policies for printing. In an embodiment, policy holder reporting computer system 260 may be configured to store formatted documents as image data files. Policy holder reporting computer system 260 may be in communication with or include data storage devices storing templates of policy-related documents, including policy contracts, riders, and correspondence directed to policy owners, such forms of notifications of renewals, premium changes and changes in policy terms. A template may be in the form of a document in a digital file format with fields designated for addition of data particular to the policy, such as name of insured entity, address of insured entity, address of insured property, type of construction of insured property, area of insured property, permitted uses of insured property, industrial classification of insured entity, VIN, make, model, year and/or mileage of covered vehicles, coverage limits, policy effective dates, names of additional insured individuals or entities, premium amounts, references to riders, and other fields. Policy holder reporting computer system may be configured to, responsive to receipt of data relating to policies from policy administration computer system 209, access stored rules for selection of one or more of the stored templates, select one or more of the templates in accordance with the rules, populate the templates with data particular to policies, and create formatted files for printing and mailing of policy documents to policy holders, or for providing of image files to policy holders. Policy owner reporting computer system may thus be configured to generate business insurance policies and policy documents, such as policy contracts, correspondence to officers and owners of insured entities, riders and other documents.
In an embodiment where the industrial classifications are provided by a third party, the insurance company may review the assigned classifications and confirm or adjust them. Additionally, more than one industrial classification may be assigned to an entity or user. For example, a bakery may fall under at least SIC codes 2050 (Bakery Products) and 2052 (Cookies and Crackers) if the bakery makes cookies as well as cakes and pies. Input of information in web form 310 may also initiate an automated classification process where a computerized predictive model processes the information to determine at least one industrial classification for the entity or user. The industrial classification may be a standardized classification code, such as a NAICS, SIC, or ICB code. Depending on available data and desired resolution, the computerized predictive model may return industry, supersector, sector, or subsector classifications. The computerized predictive model may first select one or more industries, then select one or more supersectors within the selected industries, and so forth, collecting additional data to achieve more specific classifications. The computerized predictive model may also calculate a value, such as a confidence level or likelihood, indicating how well a particular industrial classification describes the entity or user.
Here in
In one embodiment, the risk concerns and thresholds may be determined based on the historical business data and risk information using a predictive model. The predictive model generally takes into account a large number of parameters such as SIC code, industry, service, location such as zip code or geographical area, employee count, and perceived risk for data breach, non-owned auto, flood among others. The predictive model in various implementations, may include one or more of neural networks, Bayesian networks (such as Hidden Markov models), expert systems, decision trees, collections of decision trees, support vector machines, or other systems known in the art for addressing problems with large numbers of variables. Preferably, the predictive model is trained on prior data and outcomes known to the insurance company. The specific data and outcomes that are analyzed by the predictive model vary depending on the desired functionality of the predictive model. In particular, depending on the insurance product or coverage option which the predictive model is used to determine for the requesting user, the specific data and outcomes selected for training the predictive model are determined by using regression analysis and/or other statistical techniques known in the art for identifying relevant variables in multivariable systems. The specific data and outcomes can be selected from any of the structured data parameters stored in databases 116 and 118 such as illustrated in
In embodiments, in response to receipt of business specific information, values of the received business specific information may be employed in algorithms implemented by the predictive model to evaluate similarity of business entities reflected in the databases. By way of example, business specific information including zip code, SIC code, and number of employees, and risk concern data, is received. For each zip code, a similarity value is accessed or calculated. For each SIC code, a similarity value is accessed or calculated. For each value of number of employees, a similarity value is accessed or calculated. For each type of crowd-sourced risk concern data, a similarity value is accessed or calculated. The similarity values may be developed during training of the predictive model, for example. Weights, which may be determined in training of the predictive model, may be assigned to each similarity value. An algorithm may be employed applying the weights to the similarity values, and summing the resulting weighted similarity values to determine a similarity factor for each business in the database. The similarity factors may be normalized. Businesses meeting a threshold similarity factor may be designated as similar businesses. Crowd sourced risk concern data obtained from the thus-determined similar businesses may be displayed to the user. It will be appreciated that the business specific information is merely exemplary, as is the algorithm described above. One or more similarity values may be used as threshold values, by way of example.
The peripheral device interface 712 may be an interface configured to communicate with one or more peripheral devices. The peripheral device interface 712 may operate using a technology such as Universal Serial Bus (USB), PS/2, Bluetooth, infrared, serial port, parallel port, and/or other appropriate technology. The peripheral device interface 712 may, for example, receive input data from an input device such as a keyboard, a mouse, a trackball, a touch screen, a touch pad, a stylus pad, and/or other device. Alternatively or additionally, the peripheral device interface 712 may communicate output data to a printer that is attached to the computing device 710 via the peripheral device interface 712.
The display device interface 714 may be an interface configured to communicate data to display device 724. The display device 724 may be, for example, a monitor or television display, a plasma display, a liquid crystal display (LCD), and/or a display based on a technology such as front or rear projection, light emitting diodes (LEDs), organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), or Digital Light Processing (DLP). The display device interface 714 may operate using technology such as Video Graphics Array (VGA), Super VGA (S-VGA), Digital Visual Interface (DVI), High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI), or other appropriate technology. The display device interface 714 may communicate display data from the processor 718 to the display device 724 for display by the display device 724. As shown in
The memory device 720 of
The communication interface 722 may be, for example, a communications port, a wired transceiver, a wireless transceiver, and/or a network card. The communication interface 722 may be capable of communicating using technologies such as Ethernet, fiber optics, microwave, xDSL (Digital Subscriber Line), Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) technology, wireless cellular technology, and/or any other appropriate technology.
An instance of the computing device 710 of
Alternatively or additionally, an instance of the computing device 710 may be configured to perform any feature or any combination of features described above as performed by the insurance data system 110. In such an instance, the memory device 720 and/or the storage device 716 may store instructions which, when executed by the processor 718, cause the processor 718 to perform any feature or any combination of features described above as performed by the interface module 112 and/or the business rules module 114. In such an instance, the processor 718 may perform the feature or combination of features in conjunction with the memory device 720, communication interface 722, peripheral device interface 712, display device interface 714, and/or storage device 716.
Alternatively or additionally, an instance of the computing device 710 may be configured to perform any feature or any combination of features described above as performed by the web site system 120. In such an instance, the memory device 720 and/or the storage device 716 may store instructions which, when executed by the processor 718, cause the processor 718 to perform any feature or any combination of features described above as performed by the web application module 122 and/or the HTTP server module 124. In such an instance, the processor 718 may perform the feature or combination of features in conjunction with the memory device 720, communication interface 722, peripheral device interface 712, display device interface 714, and/or storage device 716.
Although
One or more steps of method 800 may be implemented as computer program instructions provided on a non-transitory computer readable medium for execution by one or more processors. As used herein, the term “non-transitory computer-readable medium” broadly refers to and is not limited to a register, a cache memory, a ROM, a semiconductor memory device (such as a D-RAM, S-RAM, or other RAM), a magnetic medium such as a flash memory, a hard disk, a magneto-optical medium, an optical medium such as a CD-ROM, a DVDs, or BD, or other type of device for electronic data storage.
An embodiment of a multi-insurer computing system is shown in
Systems of insurers X, Y Z 912, 914 and 916 may be configured to receive requests for business insurance coverage from current requesting user 970 based on business insurance product and coverage recommendations and to generate bindable quotes configured for display on a device of current requesting user 970 via network 920. Current requesting user 970 may accept one of the one or more bindable quotes, thereby binding the coverage with the one of insurer X, Y Z 912, 914, 916 that provided the accepted one of the bindable quotes. The acceptance of the bindable quote may require a premium payment, and the system may be configured to interface with banking and credit card networks as needed to effect a premium payment for the selected and binding coverage.
In various embodiments, multi-insurer computing platform 910 may include any suitable systems that may be configured to host web services or other types of computing resources. For example, in one embodiment a given server system may include a standalone or compartmentalized computer system including one or several processors (e.g., processors compatible with the x86, SPARC™, Power™/PowerPC™, or other suitable instruction set architectures), system memory, networking and/or other peripheral support. Further, in various embodiments server systems may be configured to execute a variety of operating systems (e.g., versions of Microsoft Windows™, Sun Solaris™, Linux, Unix, or other suitable operating systems) as well as applications configured for operation on a particular processor architecture and operating system. In some embodiments, server systems may be referred to as application servers. Generally speaking, the number and specific configuration of server systems may vary depending on the needs of an insurance entity, agents and its customers, and may range from a small number of high-performance systems to a large number of generic systems such a cluster or grid of commodity systems, or any suitable combination thereof. Requesting entities 930, 940, 950, 960 and 970 may operate devices that may include a type of application capable of generating web services requests and receiving responses. In some embodiments, such applications may include a web browser or other type of HTTP-aware interface, although it is contemplated that any type of application such as a custom/proprietary applications, office applications, etc. may be so configured.
Although the methods and features described above with reference to
