Brightside forms strategic partnership with CDL

Brightside Group has signed a strategic partnership with CDL, which will see it migrate its inhouse 'eSystem' platform to CDL's Strata solution over the next 12 months.

Brightside, a top 20 UK specialist in personal lines and SME cover, is one of the fastest growing insurance broking and financial services businesses in the UK, servicing affinity brands such as ASDA Money.

Brightside Group CIO, James Fairhurst, said: "The capability of our IT systems and technology is fundamental to our success and we're confident that this new strategic partnership with CDL will deliver a scalable platform to support our ambitious growth plans and will also significantly improve the customer experience."

Brightside customers will be able to access Strata's online self-service portal, allowing them to make mid-term policy adjustments and accept renewals online, as well as securely store policy documents electronically.

CDL Group Managing Director, Gary Johnson, said: "We are delighted to be working in partnership with Brightside during such an ambitious period of growth. The CDL Strata platform offers increased operational efficiencies to Brightside and together we will give digital consumers access to the comprehensive level of self-service that they demand."

Service update

Taking advantage of the opportunity afforded by the move to The Codeworks, CDL has made some major changes to its Service Management function, which is now housed in a dedicated area of its new building. For the first time, specialists from across the business will be seconded to the team on a regular basis. Clive Simpson, Head of Service Management, discusses the changes.

"When Stuart Bishop took up the post of Director of Service, he set his stall out to make CDL known as a provider of world class service," explains Clive, "and we are turning that from rhetoric to reality. Customer expectations are higher now than ever before, and we operate with the top tier of retail brands, banks and financial services providers. We're working to ensure that the CDL customer experience lives up to the best of them.

"Of course, innovation and the quality of our solutions is vital, but software is an industry where your competitors will always be hot on your heels. Service is an equally important way in which we aim to differentiate ourselves."

Specialist input

"Last year, we typically fulfilled our service level agreement (SLA) for 95% of incidents logged. For some customers it's already 100%, but if we're serious about our ambition of world class service, the goal has to be 100% for every customer."

A historical analysis of support logs highlighted that 40% of past incidents required input from specialist teams outside the Service Management team. Once referred outside the service function, people working on the support logs were more likely to have competing pressures on their time, juggling deadlines for project delivery with deadlines for SLAs, which led to some SLAs failing on the grounds of elapsed time.

"The answer was clear," says Clive. "We have the skills to resolve these issues, we just needed to free up the resources to allow us to prioritise better. We needed the Service Management function to be able to own, manage and resolve all customer support."

As a result, around 60 specialists will now be working in the Service department alongside the core team at any one time. A resource manager has been put in place to manage the rota and staff are seconded to the team from the various technical teams around the company, typically for around 4-6 weeks, though there is flexibility around the length, depending on business needs.

Results

"The change has been pretty much immediate," reports Clive. "Working on the same floor space means you see people physically getting up, walking across the room and talking through issues with their colleagues."

One of the real opportunities created by the change is increased understanding. "When people go back to their specialist teams, they will leave with a better understanding of the support function and the customer's needs. It gives them a real life appreciation of issues at the coal face that they can feed back into their development work when they return to their teams."

"The emphasis now is very much on ownership and accountability," continues Clive. "We've taken away the barriers that were there previously and hopefully we'll see real results. In any case, we'll be monitoring things closely and reviewing any future changes that have to be made to fulfill our SLA for 100% of customers."

MIAMI and the automation of the Connected Home

In 2014 CDL launched a research and development project to explore ways in which insurance products based on Connected Home data can work for the mutual benefit of insurers and consumers. Pilots to integrate data from home devices into Strata, using the rule-based MIAMI (Mid-term Automated Middleware) module, have been successful, demonstrating the potential to expand the use of MIAMI in future.

What is the Connected Home?

At the simplest level, the idea of the Connected Home for insurance is that consumers can be offered incentives by way of premium discounts, or added value such as home monitoring, when they install connected devices that enhance safety, eg smoke alarms that call you when they sound or sensors to detect water ingress.

At a more advanced level, the concept of a Connected Home is the idea that you can build a picture of what goes on in a home and relate that to insurance risks, on an individual level rather than generalised risk based on postcode and demographic profiling. In this regard, it is directly comparable to the way telematics based policies score drivers on their own driving behaviour.

Integrated automation

CDL is treating Connected Home R & D as a new branch of its telematics capability and there are a number of parallels in terms of how the technology works.

The initial project has seen CDL successfully use the MIAMI module to integrate Connected Home data to the Strata solution. Data from home devices has successfully triggered workflow actions against a sample consumer's Strata record, and a number of scenarios have been created and tested to demonstrate this capability.

Live demos

Incoming 'humidity' messages have been set to trigger automated customer emails, to alert them of possible water leaks. More complex rules can also be set up; for example, to alert the policy holder if the temperature is below zero and the thermostat is switched off.

More creative scenarios include programming rules so that if the smoke detector issues more than three battery alerts, a message is sent to MIAMI to automatically order replacement batteries with an e-commerce partner. These would be sent directly to the consumer, who would be charged accordingly.

Beyond the Connected Home

The 'internet of things' is a term that has been used to describe our increasingly connected world, encompassing telematics, Connected Cars, the Connected Home and much more. CDL's research and development has extended further than just the connection of automated home devices.

Potentially, there are a multitude of other data sources that could be used to trigger alerts. These include: Met Office weather warnings, alerting customers in certain postcode to take flood precautions; social media-based activity, sending automatic emails containing discounts to customers using a specified hashtag; health warnings to customers whose fitness tracking devices show decreased levels of exercise; or even recommending pet insurance to customers whose GPS activities suggest that they might have started going on regular dog walks.

Some of the key principles of CDL's approach are:

• Device agnostic: CDL can integrate any connected device to its telematics hub, including thermostats, smoke alarms, motion sensors, cameras, water sensors, door and window locks, lights and so on.
• Uses existing technology: devices send data to the telematics hub; rules are then applied via MIAMI, which then generates tasks or workflow in the Strata sales administration system.
• Processes are fully automated, which helps keep implementation and administration costs down.
• Automated real time alerts offer extended benefits for the consumer.
• Insurance retailers define the rules: CDL is providing a powerful toolkit which enables insurers to create insurance products or services based on connected home technology; the nature and control of the products however lies with the retailer

The technology exists but the project is still very much in the research and development phase. There will be a number of legal and compliance issues to work through around data rights and usage before it can be brought to market. In tandem to this; the next challenge is for the industry to explore public appetite for this type of evolution and design products that consumers want.

To find out more about CDL's research and development around MIAMI and the Connected Home, please contact luke.anyon@cdl.co.uk for more information.

CDL formalises partnership with the Chartered Insurance Institute

2015 sees CDL strengthen its associations with the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII), becoming sole sponsor of the Insurance Institute of Manchester's (IIM) programme of continued professional development events.

Stuart Bishop, Director of Service, explains how CDL and the IIM began working together and why the time was right to formalise that relationship:

"CDL Production Services is one of the key entry points to the company for people joining CDL. Software Technicians in this area work closely with insurers to create insurance products, and as such need a strong grounding in insurance alongside their knowledge of technology. In order to deliver excellent service to clients, we need to ensure that new recruits can speak the same language as the insurers that they'll be working with.

"A key project for the Production team over recent years was to introduce a more formal professional development programme, including the need for Software Technicians to achieve insurance industry knowledge alongside their technical and soft skills. This involved working closely with the CII from the outset, and all Software Technicians now study for the Certificate in Insurance as part of the Software Technician Excellence Programme (STEP).

"CII qualification automatically qualifies you for membership of the local branch, which in this case is Manchester. The IIM is working with CDL and other South Manchester insurance organisations to improve access to CII resources and events such as lunchtime lectures, which also provide opportunities for networking with colleagues from other areas of the insurance industry.

"Our decision to sponsor the IIM events programme for 2015 was an easy one. The education and training that they provide is exceptional and we're proud to contribute to the professional development of insurance professionals across Greater Manchester. The IIM also shares CDL's values in relation to the wider community, with a lot of common ground in the social and charitable organisations that both organisations support.

Martin Jackson, President of the IIM, describes what CDL's sponsorship means to the institute:

"Continued professional development is central to the work of the IIM. We run an extensive series of events, such as lectures, masterclasses and even exam technique sessions, throughout the year, covering topics that range from the very specific, such as professional indemnity and cyber liability risks, to more general customer service and presentation skills.

"There are regional branches of the Chartered Insurance Institute all over the UK, but the Manchester branch is particularly large, comprising over 4,500 members. A good number of these members volunteer to help organise and run professional development events in their free time, for the good of the insurance community, but there are always additional costs involved in setting up the sessions.

"We're delighted that CDL have agreed to sponsor our continued professional development programme, as well as our 2015 Jubilee Awards. This is the first time that a technology provider has sponsored the IIM, which really demonstrates CDL's commitment to the industry that it serves."

60 Second Interview

Name: Mark Bower-Dyke

Title: Chairman, Be Wiser Insurance Ltd

How did you get into insurance?
I looked into the available career options for me and somebody talked me into a career as an Insurance Underwriter.

What you love about it?
Every day is different.

What you hate about it?
The lack of quality and knowledge within the industry.

Best professional achievement?
My best professional achievement is Be Wiser.

Biggest challenge facing the sector?
The biggest challenge is the lack of training and development of staff across the insurance sector.

Biggest opportunity?
The biggest opportunity is our staff and the training and development of them to keep building the knowledge and success of the sector.

Which gadget could you not live without?
iPhone.

Football team?
Reading FC.

Desert island discs?
I have a varied music taste but currently I would take The Eagles, Rita Ora and Ed Sheeran.

Biggest vice?
My biggest vice would most probably be golf and Rita Ora!

How do you unwind at weekends?
Being a slave to my wife and daughter!

Software Update: Sabre launches vehicle data checks at point-of-quote

Sabre Insurance Company Ltd has gone live with point-of-quote data enrichment checks in partnership with CDL and data enrichment provider, Insurance Initiatives Ltd (IIL).

Sabre is the first CDL insurer partner to go live with the new enrichment solution, which provides real-time access to comprehensive vehicle data sets that Sabre uses to dynamically adjust premium rating before a policy is sold.

Rhian Farley, Product Development Analyst at Sabre, said: "Vehicle purchase date is one of the key factors that we look at when setting a premium for our customers. Historically we assessed the accuracy of the information given to us, after a policy had been purchased. By accessing accurate data from CDL and IIL at point-of-quote, we have eliminated the need to check data and potentially adjust premiums after policies have been purchased, significantly enhancing the customer journey."

The new enrichment solution takes advantage of CDL's Vehicle Information Service (VIS), providing insurers with access in real-time to extended amounts of vehicle data that CDL gathers from datasets including: the DVLA, Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), Motor Insurance Anti Fraud and Theft Register (MIAFTR) loss history and finance data. This information can then be correlated with the insurer's existing risk and claims data to enrich their rating process, and pricing and acceptability criteria.

Vehicle lookup data is retrieved from CDL VIS by IIL. Lawrence Caley, Head of Software House Development at IIL, said: "This is the first time that we've processed vehicle data sources in real-time before a policy has been sold and we're very excited about the possibilities that it opens up for insurer partners. Insurers using the solution will gain access to a myriad of data types and the ability to customise their pricing structures for each type of data."

Nigel Phillips, CDL Commercial Director, said: "Eight out of nine of the UK's largest price comparison sites already use CDL VIS data to speed up the quotation process by automatically populating data fields in online forms. In partnership with IIL, we're extending the vehicle data service to insurers at point-of-quote. Insurers can now use data fields that they have found correlates to a policyholder's propensity to claim, such as whether a vehicle has outstanding finance, as a rating tool to influence the premium offered to consumers. This has the potential to transform the way that any insurers set prices."