In pricing, time really is money. Every week spent waiting on new data or rebuilding a model is another week of missed opportunity. When I joined Red River Mutual as VP of Data and Analytics in 2021, I wanted to close that gap. We needed a faster, more reliable way to move from data to decision, which became the foundation for rebuilding our pricing approach.
Today, with PricingCenter, our team can build, test, and deploy models in a fraction of the time it used to take. But that kind of progress doesn’t happen overnight. It started with setting the right foundation.
Building a Pricing Function from the Ground Up
When I joined Red River Mutual, there wasn’t a dedicated actuarial team yet, and most of the analytics work lived within IT. The company saw an opportunity to change that by making pricing a strategic focus and investing in the people and tools to support it.
I now lead three connected teams (insights and analytics, actuarial pricing, and insurance products), all focused on bringing more precision and speed to every pricing decision.
As the company has grown, this structure has become essential. Back in 2017, Red River Mutual had about 60 employees and around $60 million in written premium. By the end of this year, we’ll be close to $300 million with more than 200 employees. As the second-largest writer in Manitoba, we’re competing with some of the biggest insurers in Canada, so we have to stay agile.
That’s what led us to start exploring new pricing tools. Something that would help our team move faster without sacrificing accuracy. The search brought us to a product called Quantee, now known as PricingCenter.
Cutting Months of Model Work to Days
From the start, my goal was to create a pricing foundation that kept the team from rebuilding tools and models from scratch each time. PricingCenter gave us that. It takes care of the basics so our actuaries can focus on analysis, modeling, and pricing strategy.
It’s made onboarding easier, too. We brought in a co-op student who was new to the industry, and within just a few weeks, they were working confidently in the system. That kind of accessibility makes a big difference when you’re growing a team and want everyone contributing right away.
Another major benefit has been how much faster we can update our models. PricingCenter makes it easy to bring in new data and refresh our work without starting over. When other internal projects paused our implementation for a bit, we were able to pick it back up later, add the latest data, and keep going. That continuity helps us keep momentum, even when priorities shift.
PricingCenter has also improved how we move from analysis to execution. Once models are developed, the system connects our actuarial work more closely with our rating engine and policy systems. With the push of a button, we can now move rates and models straight into production, so we can act on new data faster and keep our pricing up to date.
It’s a simple change, but it’s made a big difference for our team and how we compete.
What’s Next for Pricing at Red River Mutual
I’m excited about how PricingCenter continues to evolve within the Guidewire ecosystem. As modeling, product design, and implementation come closer together, it’s going to make moving from idea to market even smoother for teams like ours. I believe nothing but magic can come from it.
For Red River Mutual, adopting PricingCenter has strengthened how we price and given our team the foundation to keep growing.
This blog is inspired by a conversation between Brian Desmond, CMO of Guidewire, and Amanda Evenson, VP of Data and Analytics at Red River Mutual. Check out the full conversation here.
Listen to additional Guidewire Conversations here.