“Making sense of our world”
Consortium Charter
Introduction
The future of risk management for commercial properties and industrial sites will change radically through the availability and monitoring of real-time data from a wide variety of new and existing Operational Technology (OT) devices and Internet of Things (IoT) sensors. In the same way that telematics is changing how motor insurance is risk assessed, priced and the opportunity for added value services, then these same forces will radically affect the risk profile and management of commercial buildings - globally.
Who We Are
The SENSE Consortium is a not-for-profit organisation that started in late 2020. It has expanded into a global network of companies and individuals interested in driving forward the adoption of IoT and similar sensors and the use of real-time data to better manage commercial property risks - globally.
The SENSE Consortium is a trading name of Merlin Digital Consulting Ltd whose Managing Director is David Clamp and whose Personal Assistant is Sue Collins.
Vision
The end-to-end proactive use of timely, granular and accurate data, such as from IoT sensors, OT devices and building control systems, to drive the right business knowledge and insights, to halve the $60bn of commercial property losses and to respond to ESG commitments across the whole value chain of running and insuring commercial property, world wide.
Purpose
We are a consortium of people driving forward the end-to-end use of better data to improve how commercial property risk is managed and insured and therefore reduce the total cost of risk to all stakeholders. This community of like minded individuals have come together to improve how commercial property risk is assessed, managed, insured and any losses mitigated.
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The SENSE Consortium provides external events, thought leadership articles, a strong and growing social media presence as well as a Corporate Membership scheme for companies to join and accelerate their IoT and real-time data journeys. We have a very active and strong Advisory Board under the leadership of the SENSE Consortium President, Helene Stanway.
Scope
Scope to include:
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Commercial Buildings and industrial sites (including mechanical & electrical equipment)
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Buildings contents/machinery
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Natural Perils
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Supply chain contingent business interruption
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Failure of power
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Fire control, detection & suppression
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Cyber threat (as well as physical) - through the use of sensors
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The building's "digital twin"
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External exposure to the building i.e. the environment the building is located in
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Complete / holistic picture
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Focus on meaningful data vs interesting data
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ESG commitments of monitoring power and water usage
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Out of scope:
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The following topics are considered out of scope:
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Third party liability exposure
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Infectious Disease exposure
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Domestic properties
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Vehicles
Objectives
Potential objectives:
Overall goal being to reduce the total cost of risk to all stakeholders for commercial risks, globally:
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Raising awareness of IoT devices and real-time data usage in managing risk through knowledge sharing and a use case database
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Raising awareness of the business benefits of IoT and real-time data
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Help drive the adoption of this new approach and overcome the inherent challenges
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Developing standards (similar to NFSC Building Information Management (BIM) standards), for example for data sets, data definitions
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Creating tailored business models of how to provide value across the corporate and insurance value chains
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Sharing best practice
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Discussing and overcoming challenges (e.g. cyber risk, climate change/sustainability) in terms of approaches, implementations, deployments, industry specific etc..
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Collaborating on the topic of ESG commitments and IoT/ real-time data
Potential Themes
The potential themes include:
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Creating ecosystems - composite of different aspects (internal existing devices, internal new IoT sensors, external sources of data, external sensors - 360 degree view of a risk); what new services might be needed alongside the insurance product
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Risk management - shifting from an in-person only (10% properties surveyed) to 100% 24/7 monitoring + the in-person surveys for trickier properties
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Creating compelling business cases (operational alerts, risk management, better underwriting, better claims management, energy efficiency, hitting sustainability targets)
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"API pairing" - Ingestion of data APIs and then also sharing of data APIs
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Data / risk information aggregation
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Focus should be on the affect on insurance pricing (similar to health and motor IoT)
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How to monetise this new approach - creating the right business models
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Less focus on IIoT, rather more on the business outcomes that add value
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Importance of having accurate data - how to prove and the resulting underwriting scoring changes
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How to overcome legal implications, sharing data, fearing of exposing data to others in the value chain
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Proactive real time Risk Management and Risk Mitigation
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Risk based pricing
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Opportunity to drive greater efficiency in the transfer of underwriting data between Insurers and their clients
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ESG focus - impact more broadly on client and insurer commitments and how IoT addresses these, how they factor into IoT business cases
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The ‘hows’ not just thought leadership, giving clear pathways for adoption
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Solving for the adoption challenges together
No explicit selling - rather thought leadership.
Funding
This consortium will be self-funded through the Corporate Membership scheme and event sponsorship.
Other/Misc
We agreed that the term "IoT", whilst headline grabbing, is actually quite limiting. I.e. it is a mechanism, an enabler, one of many tools to extract data - but really the power is in converting data into information, sharing it and then turning it into real knowhow/insights and then monetising these insights/tangible business benefits/added value services. How commercial property risk will be managed and insured in the future will be very different - hence new products will be at the core.
Covid has increased importance of remotely managing corporate properties - buildings are either a lot more empty at the moment, or they are maxed out (e.g. hospitals) and hence access is limited.
What lessons can be learnt from the digitisation of manufacturing ? (i.e. not just automation, but "what happens to the production line when supply chains are altered/disrupted"
The outputs are not static - rather, living, dynamic, even sometimes real time insights.