Authors
Louise Pryor, Richard Evans, Brian Foley, Michael Garner, Neil Hilary, Justin Skinner, Mark Shapland, Kathryn Staff, & James Ranser
Abstract
Software is a key part of our day-to-day work as actuaries. From the moment we sit down at our desks we are using e-mail, spreadsheets, databases and a host of other packages.
Yet despite its importance, relatively little time is spent discussing how software is used and what problems are associated with any particular package. Our aim was to start addressing these questions.
The first step in understanding actuarial software use is to find out what software is being used. We therefore decided to conduct a survey of actuaries working in general insurance.
Our request for survey participants was forwarded to their mailing lists by both the UK Actuarial Profession and the CAS. The response level was high, indicating that this is an issue of importance to many non life actuaries.
Sample
Nearly all actuaries in general insurance around the world use proprietary software packages as part of their daily actuarial routines.
Many, we suspected, enhanced the functionality of these standard tools with programmed add-ins or macros. As part of our survey, we sought to find out which programming languages were the most popular.
Excel/VBA is, by far, the most used programming language.
Publication
2006, General Insurance Convention, September
