The phrase 'data is the new oil' is a popular soundbite often heard in business today, but it's particularly true in the global insurance industry.

This is because access to new data, such as from telematics sensors, has the power to transform the sector by giving insurers deeper customer insight and understanding of risk.

Analytics is one of the most exciting areas of development in insurance, as new technologies emerge that provide tools to predict risks faster, build more accurate projections and better identify opportunities.

Bearing this in mind, InsuranceERM's judging panel agreed Willis Towers Watson's Radar Live was the winner because of its widespread adoption, its features and the way it has helped insurers to assess and implement pricing and underwriting decisions.

Radar Live is a rating and rules engine tailored to the needs of property, casualty and life insurance markets.

The solution allows prices, rules, adjustments, scores and other metrics developed in Radar to be deployed directly to a rating system calculated in real time.

What made Radar Live stand out is that as insurers look at how best to apply machine learning, the solution allows for deployment of complex machine learning models in minutes.

Its ability to help insurers achieve operational efficiency by cutting time and costs of rate implementation, as well as reducing overheads, deserve recognition.

The fact that insurers representing 75% of the UK protection market have licensed Radar suite software is also testament to the software's benefits.

Neil Chapman, senior director of insurance, consulting and technology at Willis Towers Watson, says: "One of the key things Radar live does is it allows you to go from an analytical environment through to portfolio analysis and then implement that in the marketplace."

He adds: "It effectively gives control to the pricing and underwriting teams to assess the analytics they want to deploy."