Insights from Industry Leaders

12 Questions with Jackson Slavik, Institutional Real Estate Technology Evangelist and Consultant

In this Q&A, Jackson shares his thoughts on the rise of Blockchain/Web3 technology and how he’ll be keeping a close eye on Metaverse Real Estate.

Watch the Advisen 2021 Fireside Interview on The Imperative of Ensuring Resiliency

At this year's Advisen Property Insights Conference @ Home Virtual Series, Jeff Cohen, SVP at Zywave, interviewed Hemant Shah, CEO of Archipelago, in the Fireside Interview on The Imperative of Ensuring Resiliency. Watch the recording or view the transcript to catch the insights!

Advisen and Archipelago 2021 Property Risk Management Report

We are pleased to present the results of our first annual report on Property Risk Management from Advisen, a Zywave company, and Archipelago.

Strategic Innovation in the Large Commercial Property Insurance Business: Insider Engage Panel Takeaways

Insider Engage sat down with our CEO, Hemant Shah, and key leaders from the commercial property insurance industry to analyze the market’s trends and predict its incoming shifts.

[Virtual Event] Join Our CEO at Advisen 2021 Property Insights Conference

On November 11th, Jeff Cohen, SVP at Zywave, will interview Hemant Shah, CEO of Archipelago, at the Advisen 2021 Property Insights Conference @ Home Virtual Series. Make sure to sign up and tune in live or get sent the Fireside Interview after it airs!

Power of Data-Driven Differentiation in Risk and Insurance

Jeff Bray and Joffre Mishall spoke with Hemant Shah, co-founder and CEO of Archipelago about the power of data-driven differentiation, their shared experience on the Archipelago platform, and the value of “closing the loop” in the risk and insurance process.

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What Went Wrong in Surfside? A Risk Engineer’s Perspective

Archipelago co-founder and CEO, Hemant Shah, interviews Erin Ashley, Director of Risk Engineering, on the condominium collapse in Surfside, Florida. Hemant and Erin discuss the meaning of a progressive collapse, potential causes of the condominium's deterioration, and how evolving building codes played a role in overlooking structural issues.

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12 Questions with Seraina Macia, CEO & Co-Founder of Joyn Insurance

In this Q&A, Seraina shares her thoughts on what the insurance industry is capable of, remote work’s ability to make people more available, and the opportunity for innovation in middle-market insurance.

12 Questions with Kate Stillwell, Founder & CEO of Jumpstart Insurance

In this Q&A, Kate shares her thoughts on the potential to embed insurance costs in the initial point of purchase, the core mission of insurance, and the re-imagination of a new generation of home parks – targeted towards remote professionals.

12 Questions with Justin Levine, Co-Founder & CEO at Shepherd

In this Q&A, Justin shares his thoughts on the increasing need for tech companies to focus on improving risk management, making clean and usable loss data available in the insurance space, and the perfect work music he has on in the Shepherd office.

On Demand RIMS Webinar: Harnessing Your Own Property Data to Improve Risk & Insurance Outcomes with Blackstone and Archipelago

Learn about common challenges and opportunities to better manage and maintain high-quality data on your properties, why this data matters for better risk management and insurance outcomes.

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There's A Way To Stop Climate Change Risk Pushing Up Premiums

How can property owners work with insurers to create an accurate picture that includes climate change risk?

12 Questions with Kais Al-Rawi, AIA, Senior Associate at Walter P Moore

In this Q&A, Kais shares his thoughts on the world of 3D printing — its technological advancement, the potential to use it for making buildings, and the tools that his team uses for complex 3D models.

Beat the Renewal Rush Using Archipelago to Manage Properties

Archipelago moves upstream with new capabilities for you and your team to add, update, or dispose of properties. Work confidently and beat the renewal rush.

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12 Questions with Christine Sullivan, SVP, Risk Control Director at Sompo Global Risk Solutions

In this Q&A, Christine discusses the use of drones in the insurance industry, the need for more focus on large-scale catastrophes, and her favorite hiking app.

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InsTech London Podcast with Hemant Shah: Moving Upstream - Digitizing and Standardizing Customer Data at Source

Archipelago co-founder and CEO, Hemant Shah, joins Matthew Grant on InsTech London’s weekly podcast. Hemant discusses going upstream to digitize customer data, create insight, and connect large property owners, brokers, and insurers.

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12 Questions with Matthew Grant, Partner at InsTech London

In this Q&A, Matthew shares his thoughts on the concept of digital twins for property, insurance innovation teams, and an upcoming need for climate change risk analytical tools.

The Rise of Parametric Insurance in an Increasingly Disaster-prone World

Natural disasters are now occurring with a greater frequency and severity than ever. At the same time, populations and businesses continue to move to cat-prone geographies most at risk...

12 Questions with Gary Kaplan, President of Construction at AXA XL

In this Q&A, Gary discusses new risk-reducing technologies, the ever-changing insurance industry, and getting back into writing limericks.

Accelerating CRE’s Digital Transformation Through Risk Management And Insurance

"Digital strategies are finally transforming commercial real estate. After decades of having a reputation for being slow to adopt technology, CRE enterprises are now empowering digital leaders and embracing proptech innovations. Across the board, CRE firms are re-envisioning everything..."

12 Questions with Ronald T. Eguchi, CEO and Co-Founder of ImageCat

In this Q&A, Ronald shares his thoughts on access to smart data following natural disasters, transforming virtual meetings, and more.

12 Questions with Victor J. Sordillo,  EVP, Global Director of Risk Control Services, Sompo International Insurance

In this Q&A, Victor shares his thoughts on parametric insurance, emergent perils, and his favorite novels.

White Paper: Demystifying How Your Property Data Drives Your Insurance Outcomes

Download our white paper to understand and take control of how your property risk data impacts your commercial property insurance renewals.

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RIMSLIVE Recap: Property Data "Must-Haves" to Optimize Your Insurance Outcomes

Takeaways from a panel discussion with Marco Flores of Revantage (Blackstone) and Ian Ascher of JLL.

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12 Questions with Roger Platt, Senior Vice President, Strategic Partnerships and Growth at the U.S. Green Building Council

In this Q&A, we talk with Roger about electrical overload, mutual respect across the industry supply chain, and the value of green buildings.

Accelerating Impact: Announcing Our Series B Venture Funding

It’s been just eight months since we launched Archipelago, and I’m excited to announce the successful close of our Series B financing...

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12 Questions with Ken Radigan, CEO at Professional Risk Managers' International Association (PRMIA)

In this Q&A, Ken shares his thoughts on the implications of country-level debt, risk management as a core discipline of modern business, and promptness as a virtue.

Connecting Risk and Capital for Better Protection: Interview with Blueprint

Our CEO and co-founder, Hemant Shah recently spoke with Blueprint’s Vik Venkatraman for their Conversations with Champions video series. Hemant is excited to be one of the speakers at the Blueprint Conference 2021 coming up in October.

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12 Questions with Jeff Cohen, SVP at Zywave and former President of Advisen

In this Q&A, Jeff discusses rapidly occurring innovations in insurtech, maintaining relationships, and how proud he is to work in this industry.

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12 Questions with Tim Wright, Senior Advisor & Director at Archipelago

In this Q&A, Tim discusses his trick for writing To-Do lists, how to translate great ideas into new businesses, and why the industry is anything but boring.

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12 Questions with Mark Cravens, Principal at Cravens Consulting

In this Q&A, Mark discusses 

new norms, the irreplaceable value of working together, and ponders the nature of the "right answer."

12 Questions with Murat Melek, Design Manager at Walter P Moore

In this Q&A, Murat discusses technological leaps in the construction industry, product innovation over the next year, and getting into flow with background music.

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Inside Baseball: Lessons for Today’s Risk Managers from a Retired CUO

"In a recent conversation with Ken Jenkins, a long-time friend and former chief underwriting officer, I asked him about retirement and we ended up in a discussion related to lessons he learned over his 30+ year career as a property and casualty underwriter..."

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12 Questions with Jack Gibson, President & CEO at International Risk Management Institute (IRMI), CEO at WebCE

In this Q&A, Jack shares his thoughts on virtual learning in small bites, the dimensions of cyber risk, and scheduling quiet time.

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12 Questions with Greg Hendrick, Chief Executive Officer at Vantage Group

In this Q&A, Greg Hendrick discusses catastrophe insurance, the iPad, and how the "Vantage vision" brings people together.

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Soften the Impact of a Hard Market: Underwriters Reveal Their Thoughts on Data Quality

We asked underwriters and executives at major insurance companies throughout North America to share their thoughts on the impact of data quality.

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This infographic summarizes the biggest insights.

12 Questions with Alexandra Glickman, Senior Managing Director and Global Practice Leader in Real Estate & Hospitality at Gallagher

In this Q&A, we chat with Alexandra about commercial insurance as an "apprentice business," being an early riser, and the return of optimism.

CNA Taps Archipelago for Increased Data Analytics

To drive profitability and provide stability, the insurance industry must continue to digitize and maximize data and analytics, helping to quantify and better understand emerging risks.

12 Questions with Ibbi Almufti, Associate Principal at Arup’s Advanced Technology & Research Group

In this Q&A, we chat with Ibbi about climate-related risk, resilience, and design.

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12 Questions with Megan Miller, Executive Director of the Spencer Educational Foundation

In this Q&A, Megan Miller discusses the importance of leadership and supporting talent coming into the insurance industry.

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Best-in-Class Risk Managers are Multilingual 

After working shoulder to shoulder with risk managers for more than twenty-five years, I both have tremendous respect for the importance of their Swiss Army Knife-like roles and find them to be often unsung, misunderstood, and underappreciated.

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12 Questions with Frank Nutter, President of the Reinsurance Association of America (RAA)

In this Q&A, Frank shares his thoughts on underwriting, climate risk, and remote work.

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2021: A Year of Digital Convergence for Large Commercial Risks

"Over 25 years leading RMS, and now even more so with my new colleagues at Archipelago, I’ve developed an affinity for the built environment: the hazards and risks of these assets, the imperatives for resiliency...."

2020’s Most Viewed Articles

We thought it'd be fun to revisit the posts that you, our readers have found the most intriguing. Here are the five most popular posts of 2020.

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2020 Trends Set to Shape 2021

Here are six topics that are top of mind for the team at Archipelago as we head into 2021.

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Data Security is Paramount to Good Data Stewardship: How We Protect Data at Archipelago

"As an enterprise software company entrusted with storing and managing customer data, we consider data security of utmost importance. To help you formulate your data security practices, I'll share what we do at Archipelago to keep our data secure..."

It’s Time for Transparency

"Insurance is a data-driven industry, and it’s time we deliver data-driven transparency on what the relationships are between inputs, and outputs."

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Top Takeaways from Advisen’s 2020 Property Insights Conference

"Advisen orchestrated a virtual exploration of the hardening commercial property insurance market and the related impact on buyers, brokers, and insurers..."

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Use Your Data to Get Proactive

"By harnessing this, data you can take control of your risk management, be proactive with your insurance partners and drive results that are reflective of your individual, ever-changing risk profile."

In Trust We Data

"It’s understandable that many underwriters and their teams are skeptical of the information. It’s ironic: an industry built on trust lacks trust in the very data that defines what it does."

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Blue Ocean Opportunities

"...the availability of digital twins for properties, and their risk characteristics, opens up new possibilities for insurance to help with the risk management of properties. Connected data and real-time analytics can improve..."

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It’s Now Time for our Data to Catch-up

"I became a broker and ultimately, led the Real Estate and Hospitality practice for Willis Towers Watson. In this capacity, I saw CAT modeling transform commercial property insurance. As the models matured and advanced, reliance and acceptance grew significantly over the years. With hundreds of billions of dollars at risk..."

Standing out in the Hardening Market

"In our experience, accurate and plentiful data can be a great differentiator in this marketplace, separating quality customers from the rest of the market. Archipelago is a step ahead in the evolution of data and property insurance."

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Using Data to Unlock a Resiliency Dividend

"Today we launched Archipelago after 20 months in stealth. Archipelago uses AI to digitize risk for large owners of commercial property to increase their resiliency and lower their total cost of risk, including by improving their insurance outcomes. Our journey thus far…"

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My Business is Digitizing, Why Not My Risk Management Too?

"Does this sound familiar - an enormous undertaking annually to collect property information from disparate reports and asset managers dodging your emails? Being limited to the cells on a spreadsheet for the information used by underwriters to price your risk? Meanwhile vast amounts of new data is available for risk managers..."

Differentiating Your Portfolio in a Hard Market

"As Risk Managers, now more than ever it’s crucial we take proactive steps to prepare for our next renewal. How are you planning to differentiate your portfolio to your markets?"

Using Data to Drive Value to Our Stakeholders

"This is just the beginning of the new possibilities. Next steps for us include expanding utilization of the platform to our Asset Management business, and we believe there will be material cost savings in the future by us doing so."

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Using Data to Differentiate Our Assets

"When I had my first insurance renewal at a self storage company, I thought it would be pretty straightforward to insure some property and employees - I was wrong. As it turned out, most insurance carriers knew little about insuring the..."

Two Huge Markets to Benefit from a Digital Transformation

"The commercial real estate sector holds over $25 trillion in assets and the global insurance industry writes $1 trillion in annual commercial insurance premiums – and yet, where these two massive industries interact much of the work is manual."

If It Were Easy...

"But, as CUO, I developed a healthy appreciation for the real-world challenges that underwriters face. Underwriters, particularly those in large account commercial lines, are in a difficult position. It’s where the ideology of The Data meets the reality of The Business."

No Risk Is an Island

"Property owners and operators are moving quickly to embrace digital, data-driven decision making. We believe Archipelago will serve as the platform of choice for risk mitigation and stakeholder alignment among the world's most sophisticated owners."

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Things Go Slowly, Then They Go Quickly

"Perhaps the most lasting impact of the current capacity 'crunch' will be the changes in the way of working... a step-change in the capture and use of data, and the embracing of modern ways of working - digital and increasingly remote."

Building a Shared System of Trust

"Data is the lifeblood for the insurance industry, yet gathering, curating and publishing that data is a hard problem. We’re all familiar with folders full of Excel spreadsheets, PDF files, images and so on. Before the data is useful, it needs to be transformed. We set out to build a platform to do just that!"

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Transformation in the Large Commercial Insurance Sector Needs an Inside-Out Approach

"This requires an appreciation for the entire value-chain, with a healthy respect for why and how work currently gets done; not naively, as in 'I have an algorithm...' but how technology and data can slip comfortably into how the market currently works, and then drive change from the inside out."

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Know Your ‘Basis Risk’ in the Modeled Vulnerabilities of Your Customers' Exposures

"While [vulnerability curves] can work well in an aggregate analysis involving a diversity of property types and vulnerability classes, there are some cases where the default use of generalized vulnerability curves do not adequately address the performance of a particular construction style."

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We Know We Have to Change, So Why Is It So Hard?

"One large deal today can involve 500 individuals across 100 organizations over 3 months, bogged down in preventable and duplicative data processing activity. And the process repeats every quarter as portfolio updates are disseminated through the chain."

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The Possibilities Are Just Extraordinary

"Now more than ever, it's time to modernize and simplify these dynamics... to create a platform that will make it simpler, clearer and more compelling to convey the critical information needed by underwriters..."

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Using Applied ML to Solve Foundational Problems in the Insurance Industry

"AI is part of the solution to this semantic mess, but as I’ve learned through the course of investing in multiple analytics, AI and fin/insurtech start-ups, tech alone isn’t sufficient to change a business ecosystem..."

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