Insurance Edge caught up Nick Boyer, Senior Director of Strategic Consulting at Conga, to find out more on the topic of pricing;
Conga‘s Commercial Operations Maturity in 2026 research highlights fragmentation across pricing, quoting and contracting. Why should this be seen as an operational resilience issue for insurance businesses?
“When people hear ‘operational resilience’, they often think about recovering from a major incident. But it is also about how quickly a business can understand what is happening, make consistent decisions and keep operating under pressure.
“Our research found that 55% of organisations have only partially integrated pricing, quoting, contract lifecycle management (CLM) and billing, while 93% said deals struggle to move smoothly between sales, legal, finance, pricing and IT. In insurance, that fragmentation can leave pricing decisions, contract terms and customer commitments out of sync just when they most need to be aligned.
“If teams have to piece together information across separate systems during inflation, regulatory change or a major claims event, decisions take longer and the risk of errors or missed obligations increases. That can affect an insurer’s ability to respond consistently, serve customers and maintain compliance. So, this is not simply a technology issue. It is about whether the business can maintain visibility, control and continuity under pressure.”
Where do disconnected commercial processes create the greatest risk for insurers, particularly around pricing, renewals, contracts and customer commitments?
“The greatest risk sits in the hand-offs between teams, particularly where an internal pricing decision becomes a quote, a contract and ultimately a customer commitment. A price may be approved in one system, appear differently in the quote and then be reflected differently again in the final contract. If renewal dates or obligations are tracked elsewhere, teams may not have one reliable view of what has been agreed.
“Renewals make those gaps especially visible because pricing, contractual terms and customer commitments all need to be reconciled at once. When information has to be gathered from spreadsheets, manual approvals or disconnected workflows, decisions slow down and the risk of inconsistent pricing, missed obligations or disputes increases.
“The damage is rarely caused by one dramatic failure. More often, small inconsistencies build over time, eroding margin, creating compliance exposure and damaging the customer experience.”
Your research suggests many UK businesses lack confidence in adapting pricing strategies during major disruption. Why is this really a question of visibility, governance and control, rather than simply pricing agility?
““Pricing agility is only valuable if a business understands the consequences of changing prices. Just a third (30%) of organisations are very confident their pricing strategy could withstand a major competitive shock, while less than a tenth (8%) can confidently measure the business impact of their pricing decisions.
“That is fundamentally a visibility issue. Before changing a price, a business needs to know which customers and contracts will be affected, how margins will move and whether the decision is consistent with existing commitments. The visibility gap Conga addresses is in the downstream commercial processes — quoting, contracting and billing — where fragmentation most often undermines confidence. Those changes can also carry consequences for customer retention and regulatory compliance.
“Governance ensures the decision is made by the right people and against clear rules, while control means understanding its wider impact and applying it consistently. Without those foundations, moving faster can simply mean making the wrong decision more quickly.”
From an insurer’s perspective, what can a company’s ability to quickly assess pricing exposure, margin pressure and contractual obligations reveal about its wider risk profile?
“It is a useful indicator of how well a company understands and controls its own operations. If leaders can quickly see where pricing pressure sits, which contracts are affected and how margins will move, it suggests the business has connected information and a reliable view of its commercial exposure.
“The opposite is equally revealing. Two fifths (40%) of firms are not confident they could produce a complete inventory of active contracts within 48 hours. If basic questions about commercial commitments take days or weeks to answer, that points to wider weaknesses in visibility and process control, making risk harder to identify, monitor and manage when conditions change.
“For an insurer, that is a warning sign. A company that cannot quickly understand its pricing and contractual obligations may also be less able to respond consistently during disruption, increasing its exposure to operational and compliance problems.”
Conga talks about connecting the ‘commerce chain’. What does that mean in practice, and how could it help insurers make faster, better-evidenced decisions under pressure?
“Businesses have spent years making their supply chains more connected and visible. The commerce chain applies that same discipline to the way a business sells – linking the teams, systems and data behind products, pricing, quotes, contracts, risk and customer relationships.
“In practice, it means everyone works from the same definitions and trusted information. An approved price should flow into the quote and contract without being re-entered or reinterpreted, while the related obligations, customer commitments and financial impact remain visible. Each interaction then adds to one connected view of the business, rather than creating another silo.
“For insurers, that makes it possible to answer more sophisticated questions quickly when conditions change – which customers and contracts are affected, where margin or risk exposure sits, and which commitments still need to be met. Because those answers are based on a connected record of transactions, agreements and decisions, they are not only faster but better evidenced.”
How can automation and real-time insight help insurers and insured businesses respond to disruption responsibly, without rushed decisions that damage margins, compliance or customer trust?
“The key is to help businesses act earlier, not just faster. Real-time insight can surface pricing inconsistencies, contractual risks or billing anomalies while there is still time to understand which customers, contracts and margins will be affected.
“Automation can then remove routine work, ensure the right approvals are followed and apply governance rules consistently. The appetite is clearly for decision support rather than decision replacement – nearly all (96%) of companies are comfortable with AI supporting human pricing decisions, while only a small minority currently use fully AI-driven pricing.
“That keeps people accountable for the final judgement; while giving them better evidence and a clear record of how the decision was made. For insurers and insured businesses, that is what responsible speed looks like: moving quickly without losing control of margins, compliance or customer trust.”
What practical steps should insurance businesses take now to strengthen visibility and control across their commercial operations?
“The first step is to trace a commercial decision from pricing through quoting, contracting and billing, and identify where information is re-entered, handed over manually or interpreted differently. Spreadsheets, email chains and manual approvals are usually the clearest signs that visibility is breaking down.
“Next, businesses need to create a common view of the data behind those processes. That means agreeing shared definitions for products, customers and contracts, and making sure an approved price, contract term or customer commitment can move through each stage without being recreated. This does not necessarily require replacing every system; often, the priority is better integration and clearer ownership.
“That foundation needs to be trusted before more automation or AI is added. Only a third (34%) of organisations are confident their data is accurate and consistent enough to support AI at scale, so otherwise businesses risk automating inconsistencies rather than removing them.
“Finally, governance needs to be explicit, who can approve changes, how exceptions are handled and how decisions are recorded. Technology can provide faster insight, but clear accountability is what gives insurance businesses the confidence to act under pressure.”
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