Insurance companies rightly to go to great lengths to identify, assess and mitigate risks that could affect their customers, as well as insurers' own business models.

Policies and procedures are put in place to minimise underwriting risks, market risks, operational risks and emerging risks. With the focus primarily on customers, internal threats can be overlooked though.

And according to California-headquartered Incisive Software, one of the most overlooked and potentially costly threats is end-user computing (EUC) risk, arising from the use business applications like spreadsheets.

For example, during the pandemic, Incisive Software says actuarial and financial assumptions had to be reassessed and calculations shifted. For firms relying on spreadsheets, this is a complex activity that opens the door to mistakes and a lack of accountability.

To help take the manual work out of monitoring the accuracy and compliance of spreadsheets, Incisive has created a solution to help insurance companies significantly minimise EUC risk, gaining clients including US insurer Safety National.

Incisive continues to build upon its spreadsheet risk management platform with features that further reduce EUC risk. In November 2021, the company introduced Locator, a reimagined spreadsheet discovery solution that delivers search and analysis capabilities that make it easier to keep track of spreadsheets.

Because Incisive's technology works within the familiar Microsoft Excel footprint, the company says end-users are happy to use it. The firm says its system is easy-to-use and requires no custom development, which means organisations can configure the platform as desired to support their business needs.

This year's UK & Europe award for Incisive Software comes after it was named operational risk solution of the year in the InsuranceERM Americas awards 2021.