Exposure Management Transformation

Vendor Selection RFP for a Very Large Lloyd's Syndicate

Designing and running a full-cycle RFP to identify the right replacement for a legacy in-house catastrophe pricing and portfolio management platform.

Overview

A structured vendor assessment grounded in the client's specific needs

Leadenhall Analytics was engaged to design and lead a Request for Proposal (RFP) process for a very large Lloyd's syndicate looking to replace its legacy in-house catastrophe pricing and portfolio management system. The platform had been central to the client's operations for many years but was showing its age: slow rollup times, fragmented workarounds, key person dependencies and limited scalability. The client needed a rigorous, independent assessment of the available options to determine the right path forward.

Project snapshot

Service Area
Exposure Management Transformation

Project Type
Client case study

Focus
Full-cycle RFP: market assessment, requirements definition, vendor evaluation framework and recommendation with business case

The Challenge

What needed to be solved

The client's existing system had been built and maintained in-house over many years. While it was deeply embedded in operational workflows, it carried significant limitations: lengthy processing times, manual workarounds across teams, heavy reliance on a small number of individuals, and an architecture that was difficult to extend or modernise.

The challenge was not simply to find a replacement tool. The market for catastrophe pricing and portfolio management platforms is thin, with no single widely adopted off-the-shelf product. Most of the client's peers still operate bespoke, in-house systems. Any assessment therefore needed to go beyond surface-level product comparisons and examine whether available solutions could genuinely meet this client's specific functional and non-functional requirements, or whether an alternative approach would better serve their needs.

Outcome

What the client gained

The client received a comprehensive, evidence-based recommendation on their preferred vendor, supported by a structured business case for implementation. The recommendation was grounded in what specifically worked for this client, not the easiest or most obvious answer.

A full market scan covering all credible vendor solutions, with a clear-eyed assessment of where each product was strong, where it fell short, and where significant customisation would be required.
A comprehensive requirements register spanning functional, non-functional and IT/architectural requirements, all prioritised using MoSCoW analysis.
A weighted scoring and evaluation framework covering functional fit, technical fit, cultural and people considerations, BAU support, implementation planning, commercial risk, coherence of response and cost.
A structured evaluation process including pre-recorded vendor demonstrations, formal RFP responses, live vendor demos, client reference calls and consolidated scoring across an evaluation committee.
A business case and recommendation suitable for executive and steering committee approval.

Our Approach

How Leadenhall Analytics supported the engagement

Step 1

Established the vision, strategic outcomes and design principles for the programme, linking each to specific functional domains including exposure management, catastrophe pricing, portfolio management, netting and retro allocation, reporting and workflow.

Step 2

Defined the RFP scope across legal entities, mapping current-state architecture against target-state requirements and identifying which systems, interfaces and processes were in scope for replacement.

Step 3

Conducted a thorough market assessment of available vendor solutions, evaluating each against capability dimensions including out-of-the-box readiness, model support, pricing coverage, portfolio management, extensibility and implementation timelines.

Step 4

Built the requirements register through a structured working group process, with SME reviewers from the business and IT validating and prioritising each requirement before design authority approval.

Step 5

Designed the evaluation framework, including category weightings approved by the client's procurement function and a 0-to-5 scoring methodology applied consistently across all shortlisted vendors and assessment phases.

Step 6

Led the evaluation process end to end: coordinating vendor engagement, managing the scoring across committee members, consolidating results and preparing the executive briefing and business case for the recommended solution.

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