Decision science
To the point
‘Decision science’ is a real thing. And this multi-disciplinary approach to applying quantitative methods is helping businesses to make better, more informed decisions.
As tech and innovation boom, it’s become more important than ever to understand the limitations (and the correct interpretation) of all the data that’s become available. Decision science takes a 360-degree look at business problems, and then analyses the available data to make decisions driven by quantitative methods. The actuaries, engineers and analysts that make up the Porcupine Union decision science team harness mathematics, stats, machine learning models, business tactics and behavioural science to help businesses make unbiased, data-driven decisions. In plain English, they make insights usable.
Some of our work
Self-service portal
We have successfully digitized most of our manual processes in King Price. We aim to have all our most requested sales floor features live by the end of 2022.
Our services, expertise and products
For us, the business problem comes first. So, it goes without saying that we make it our business to know your business before we look at anything else. We have long-standing relationships with a number of insurers, whose needs we know in-depth, and for whom we’ve custom-built:
Predictive pricing models.
Actuarial risk models.
Quantitative management solutions.
ML-based cost-benefit implementations.
In the course of executing these deliverables, our team worked with IT specialists to design a rules-based pricing engine that delivers just less than 100 complex calculations in sub-seconds. Still in the insurance world, we’ve also built an ML-based collection solution that quantifies the cost benefit of channelling individual policies through an early collection window. The bottom-line ramifications for our clients have been enormous and they love us for it.
Porcupine Union’s actuarial and decision science team has also helped marketing and sales departments implement pragmatic steps towards optimising what they spend on acquiring leads – thus honing their competitive edge.
While the applications for decision science are endless, the end-result is clear: Help stakeholders to make specific decisions by making data insights useable.
Our decision science specialist
‘It’s all about making sure we solve the right problems. The methods we use are secondary. 3 things we depend on are robust analytical skills, our willingness to learn, and a good dose of common sense!’
The Porcupine Union actuarial and decision science team is headed up by Nico Laurens (MSc in Quantitative Risk Management) who, for several years, worked closely with King Price’s actuarial team to implement pricing changes.
Nico Laurens
Head of actuarial and decision science