25% underwriting productivity improvement in commercial lines
A top-20 global insurer used Bramble to reveal hidden capacity loss across their commercial underwriting operation — and convert it into sustained productivity improvement within one quarter.
Underwriting throughput was declining — but nobody could explain why
The underwriting team was experienced, well-staffed, and working full days. But submissions were backing up, cycle times were creeping, and premium-to-underwriter ratios were drifting below target. From the outside, everything looked like a capacity problem.
Existing BI dashboards showed the symptoms — declining throughput, rising cycle times — but couldn't explain the cause. The data pointed to outcomes without revealing the operational friction that produced them. Leadership was caught between hiring more underwriters or accepting slower growth.
Every week the root cause went undiagnosed, the operation absorbed more hidden cost: duplicated risk assessments, unnecessary referral loops, and capacity trapped in low-value administrative work that experienced underwriters shouldn't have been doing.
- Risk assessment rework rate28%High
- Avg. submission cycle time14.2 daysHigh
- Referral loop frequency3.1×/caseMedium
- Underwriter time on admin tasks34%Medium
- Capacity utilization on core work52%High
The underwriting operation didn't have a capacity problem — it had a friction problem
Within the first 30 days, Bramble's operational baseline revealed that experienced underwriters were spending more than a third of their time on work that didn't require their expertise — duplicated data gathering, unnecessary referral loops, and re-evaluation triggered by upstream information gaps. The operation had enough capacity. It was just being consumed by friction that no dashboard could see.
From baseline to sustained improvement in one quarter
Bramble deployed in three phases — each building on the last. No process mapping workshops. No change management theater. Just operational visibility that led to measurable improvement.
Establish Baseline
Bramble connected to the underwriting management system, policy admin platform, and workforce data to build a trusted operational baseline — no process mapping workshops required.
Reveal Friction
The baseline exposed the friction patterns that BI dashboards had missed: where rework was originating, which handoffs were creating delays, and how capacity was being diverted from core underwriting work.
Sustained Improvement
Targeted interventions launched in priority order. Rework triggers were eliminated, referral loops were restructured, and administrative tasks were reallocated — with capacity recovery measured continuously.
Results measured within the first quarter
These aren't projections. They're measured outcomes from a live deployment across the insurer's commercial underwriting operation.
“We'd been looking at this as a headcount problem for two years. Bramble showed us that nearly half our underwriting capacity was being absorbed by rework we couldn't see in our dashboards. Once we could see where the friction was, the fixes were straightforward — and the results were measurable within weeks, not quarters.”
See where your operations are losing capacity
We'll map your operational workflows, identify friction points, and show you the capacity recovery path — with industry-specific benchmarks from deployments like this one.
For COOs, VP Operations, and Operations Leaders.