Patent ID: 8200511

Claim:
A system for calculating the relative importance of one or more individual input variables to an overall insurance policy profitability score, comprising: a database for storing values for various input variables; a display; and at least one data processor configured to: receive an insurance policy profitability scoring formula, said insurance policy profitability scoring formula comprising a sum of a plurality of predictive input variables each having a weighting co-efficient, values for some or all said variables being stored in the database; calculate a score using said scoring formula and a set of input variable values corresponding to a particular proposed or actual insured insurance policy; calculate a partial derivative of the scoring formula with respect to each of the input variables in said set; calculate a deviance value for each of the input variables in said set; calculate the relative importance of each of the input variables in said set to a score calculated using the scoring formula by multiplying the partial derivative and deviance values for that variable; create a rank for each of the input variables in said set based on its relative importance to the score; and display the score, and one or more of said input variables in said set, its value and its rank to a user.