In this exclusive Executive Insights interview, we speak with Dani Katz, Co-founder and Director of Optalitix about modernising insurance pricing and underwriting technology and improving how models are operationalised. An actuary with over 20 years of experience in insurance, data analytics, and software development, Dani specialises in helping insurers deploy and scale complex pricing and risk models. Before founding Optalitix in 2013, he worked as a corporate actuary at PruHealth (now VitalityHealth) and is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. 

Last year you started to make a big push into the reinsurance space, following your success with Pool Re. Why was this, and what do you see as the key differences between working with reinsurers vs insurers?

Our work with Pool Re was an important milestone because it showed that even very complex reinsurance processes can be modernised relatively quickly when you have a capable system and an existing underwriting platform. Reinsurance organisations often rely heavily on multiple different models that have been developed internally and evolved over many years. Those models are extremely valuable to the reinsurer as they contain a lot of domain expertise, but the surrounding data processes are often manual. That means emailing spreadsheets around, reconciling different versions of models, and limited visibility over how pricing decisions are made. What we demonstrated with Pool Re is that you don’t need to throw those models away to modernise the workflow. You can take the existing Excel models, deploy them in the cloud, and build structured underwriting and pricing processes around them. This functionality was further developed with our other reinsurance clients, MS Re, SiriusPoint, and TMHCC who all had slightly different use cases that we were able to support. In terms of differences between insurers and reinsurers, reinsurers typically deal with fewer transactions but each one is much more valuable and complex. There’s more focus on portfolio-level risk, catastrophe exposure, and treaty structures, which means transparency and governance around pricing models is extremely important. At the same time, reinsurers need flexibility because every deal can be slightly different. The challenge is balancing structure with flexibility, which is exactly the kind of problem we like solving.

Your partnership with Intermont aims to transform its pricing and underwriting operations by replacing legacy Excel models with cloud-based systems. What are the most significant operational changes this modernisation will bring to Intermont, and how will it reshape the end-to-end underwriting experience?

 The biggest change is moving from spreadsheet-driven processes to a structured digital workflow. Today, in many organisations, underwriting still involves a lot of manual steps, such as exporting data, updating spreadsheets, emailing files, and copying results into other systems. This is time-consuming and it also makes governance and reporting harder. By moving these processes into a cloud platform, the models remain the same but the way they are used becomes much more structured. Data flows automatically into the pricing models, quotes can be generated directly in the platform, and decisions are recorded in a consistent way. For underwriters, the experience becomes much simpler. Instead of managing spreadsheets, they interact with an application that runs the models for them and presents the results clearly. At the same time, the organisation gains much better visibility over pricing activity and portfolio performance.

Optalitix Quote and Optalitix Models are central to this initiative. How do these products support both technical model management and underwriting decision making, and what feedback have you received from early adopters about the shift from manual to digital workflows?

 The two products solve slightly different problems but they work very closely together.  Optalitix Models focuses on the technical side. It allows organisations to take models built in Excel, Python or R and run them reliably in the cloud. This means you can control versions, manage updates, and ensure everyone is using the same model. Optalitix Quote sits on top and provides the underwriting interface. It’s where underwriters run pricing scenarios, generate quotes, and capture decisions. One of the things we hear most often from early adopters is that the shift isn’t really about replacing models – it’s about improving the workflow around them. The models themselves are often already very good. The challenge is how they’re operationalised. Once those processes become digital rather than spreadsheet-based, organisations immediately gain better visibility into pricing activity, better auditability, and a much richer dataset that can be used for portfolio analysis.

Intermont describes the partnership as a step toward becoming a more data-driven MGA. From Optalitix’s perspective, what organisational or cultural shifts are necessary within insurance teams to fully capitalise on real-time portfolio insights?

 The technology is only part of the story. Becoming a data-driven organisation usually requires some changes in how teams work together. Historically, underwriting, actuarial, and analytics teams often operate quite separately. When models are embedded in spreadsheets, collaboration between those teams can be quite limited. Once models and data are available through a shared platform, it becomes much easier for those groups to work together. Underwriters can access pricing models directly, actuaries can update models centrally, and management can see portfolio metrics in real time. There’s also a shift from looking at portfolio performance retrospectively to managing it continuously. When underwriting activity is captured digitally, you can start to monitor exposure and trends as they develop rather than months later. That’s where the real value of data-driven underwriting comes from.

Establishing a flagship use case in the Netherlands marks a milestone for Optalitix’s international expansion. How does this implementation inform your broader growth strategy, and what lessons are you applying to future regional rollouts?

 One thing we’ve learned is that the core problem we solve, modernising spreadsheet-driven pricing processes  is very consistent across markets. Insurance organisations around the world operate very similar pricing principles, and rely heavily on Excel because it’s flexible and familiar. The challenge is that as businesses grow, those spreadsheet processes become harder to manage. What we do is preserve the flexibility of Excel models while providing the infrastructure around them that large organisations need: governance, automation, and integration with other systems. Projects like the one in the Netherlands help demonstrate that this approach works across different markets and regulatory environments. Each implementation also helps us refine the platform and the implementation process, which makes future deployments faster and smoother.

We last saw you at ITC Vegas. What’s the next event on the horizon, when is the next opportunity for people to meet the Optalitix team in person?

 Events like ITC are always useful because they bring together people from across the insurance ecosystem who are thinking about similar challenges. Over the coming months we’ll continue to attend a range of insurance and reinsurance industry events, the next one being Insurtech Insights in London in March. They’re a great opportunity for us to share what we’re seeing in terms of pricing modernisation and to hear directly from organisations about the challenges they’re facing.

About Optalitix

Optalitix is an award-winning software provider that offers a low-code pricing and underwriting platform for global insurers, reinsurers and MGAs. Their software converts pricing models in Excel, Python, and R into cloud-hosted APIs within minutes, enabling compatibility with existing underwriting workbenches and policy administration systems.  The platform includes a pricing front end that underwriters can log into with advanced tools like claims forecasting and reserving as well as simulations, enhancing efficiency and innovation in pricing and underwriting. Optalitix products are easy to use and enable insurers to understand and manage their risks better, with pricing models that can be used everywhere to boost pricing accuracy, improve underwriting performance, increase productivity, and reduce costs. The company’s achievements have been recognised by various prestigious programmes, including the Lloyd’s Lab, Mass Challenge and Oxbow Insurtech 25 as well as winning a number of prestigious industry awards.

Discover more: www.optalitix.com