Octo signs agreement with Hastings Direct

Octo Telematics has signed an agreement with Hastings Direct to provide its telematics brand Hastings Direct SmartMiles with a complete end-to-end telematics package, via the CDL Telematics Hub.

In particular, Octo will supply SmartMiles customers with 'black box' devices, including in-vehicle installation, and the insurance with a complete crash and claims data solution, including a new scoring algorithm, to improve its processing costs and efficiency.

"To date, our success has been built on the capability to understand insurance and the needs of insurance intermediary companies and consumers," explains Martin Williams, Managing Director, Octo UK. "This means conceiving, designing and implementing services that are able to reward good driving behaviour, improve the efficiency of the insurance claims management process, reconstruct accident dynamics and accelerate the claims process. Working with SmartMiles is a great endorsement of the work that Octo undertakes for insurers and intermediaries and we look forward to supporting the growth plans for this forward thinking brand."

Ben Tomasetti, Telematics Director, SmartMiles, emphasised: "Octo has a great track record and presented us not only with a telematics solution, but also with great insight into how we can utilise the vast amounts of data that the black-box delivers via its advanced analytical capabilities. As SmartMiles continues to grow, it's essential that we have a telematics provider like Octo that invests in relationships and can deliver a clear roadmap of innovation and development."

In 2014, Octo's cutting-edge innovative telematics solutions helped insurers reduce, on average, claims management costs by an unprecedented 25% and cut claims processing time by 40%.

Nigel Phillips, CDL Commercial Director, said: "The CDL Telematics Hub gives UK insurance retailers easy access to a range of fully automated telematics products that offer a competitive edge in the marketplace. Octo is bringing sophisticated new telematics capabilities to the UK and we're confident that Hastings Direct Smart Miles will benefit from the end-to-end telematics solution that they provide."

The importance of UX

Tracey Oesterle, CDL Internet Solutions Consultant and Direct Web Product Owner, discusses the importance of User Experience (UX) for insurance retailers, the benefits that good UX can offer and the reasons that CDL is prioritising UX within development of the next generation Strata User Interface (UI).

UX encompasses all aspects of a user's interaction with a company, its services and products, including the end customer's interactions with both software and contact centre operators. UX is a broad term that can be boiled down to two things - what emotional response does a software system elicit in its users and how can this response be improved?

Emotional response

Emotions are key to the concept of UX. UX asks the question of how visiting a website, or using software, might make a person feel. For example, does it make them happy or does it make them angry? Users need to have a positive experience to want to convert into a customer.

For retailers selling insurance products online, websites that make users angry or confused are unlikely to work effectively. Equally, if a consumer phones a contact centre and the operative is unable to achieve their desired outcome, their memory of the experience may leave a negative feeling about the brand.

Even if you're selling the best products at the best prices, an unfriendly user experience could deter potential customers from parting with their money. Equally, existing customers that have a bad experience are unlikely to remain customers for very long.

Reaching out to customers

During the early days of the dot-com era, successful online companies noticed that people using their websites behaved in strange ways. People would add items to their virtual shopping carts and abandon them before following through and paying for the products. This informed the idea that websites had to concentrate on how to convert users into customers.

The wider field of eCommerce demonstrates why insurance retailers should prioritise UX. Amazon.com, which was noted for funding UX over advertising 100% in its first year, continues to invest heavily in optimising the experience of the user and has benefited from the high conversion rate for customers that felt they'd had a positive customer journey.

Testing in the real world

User testing is one of the most efficient ways to improve UX. People don't always interact with websites or software in the way that we expect them to, and by identifying a user's key needs, CDL software developers can improve the performance of your websites, improve trust in a business brand and increase return visits. User testing can identify where processes aren't working within an operational environment, flagging up steps in the sales journey that add no value to consumers, or even hinder an operator's ability to provide a positive experience.

CDL is increasing its commitment to user testing, which includes observing operators while they work and engaging with brokers to identify areas that cause users to drop out and not complete the journey. In this way the customer journey can be streamlined and made as intuitive and easy for users as possible.

Strata UX

Consumers purchasing insurance policies over the phone will base their impression of a company based on the expertise of the contact centre operative guiding them through the process. One of CDL's key strategic objectives for 2015 is to deliver next generation User Interface (UI) in CDL Strata, through the new continuous delivery method of Strata updates. A significant part of the Strata UI development process involves enhancement of the UX for contact centre operatives that use Strata UI to deliver quotes and sell policies to consumers.

By streamlining the Strata UI sales and customer service journey for contact centre operators, CDL provides intuitive question sets and responsive software that allows operators to guide consumers through the sales process in an effortless way. Enhancing the UX for consumers in this way means that CDL can remove the barriers that stop people from purchasing policies, therefore increasing the conversion rates for insurance retailers.

A user's last experience with a company will affect their perception of the company as a whole. Good UX increases the conversion of potential customers to paying customers, improves retention rates and offers significantly increased efficiencies for developers and contact centre staff. To find out more about CDL's work in this field, please contact your relationship manager for more information.

Why CDL's agile approach makes for better software

CDL Developer Manager, Michael Lambert, sets out why embedding an agile approach to software development results in better outcomes for customers.

Agile has been around for a while as an approach to software development and, at CDL, it's a way of working that has delivered real benefits when it's done well. As we continue to expand, we have found that becoming ever more agile serves a real purpose in ensuring that our extra people translate quickly into more delivered value to our customers. Through a commitment to agile thinking and autonomous team structures at CDL, we are empowering our people to continue making and delivering great software.

What is agile?

The manifesto for agile software development emerged in 2001 as an alternative to rigid, process-driven approaches to software development. It contains four key ideas that sum up a different approach to producing software, and one which its 17 authors believed ultimately enables greater software to be created faster.

Being agile is defined as prioritising individuals and interactions over processes and tools, working software over comprehensive documentation, customer collaboration over contract negotiation and responding to change over following a plan.

Although the second categories are still relevant, the agile manifesto is based on the belief that a clear focus on the priorities in bold enables a different kind of culture and values from that which traditionally dominates software houses.

How is an agile enterprise organised?

According to the principles of agile software development, reorganising people into smaller, multi-disciplinary groups and allowing them the freedom and resources to exercise a more innovative approach at work, leads to intuitive, better software.

Agile is a highly people-centric approach to developing software, which brings individuals together and prioritises collaborative, self-directed methods of working. In order to achieve this at CDL, people in the development teams work in 'squads': small, self-contained units of around eight to ten people taken from across our development landscape. Each squad has its own Developer, Testing, Analysis and Product Owner disciplines and function autonomously, much like a mini start-up.

Individual squads have domain expertise and are responsible for carrying out as much of the work in their area as possible, including business functionality and problem solving, as well as architectural and deployment changes.

Agile principles

There are 12 agile principles but for CDL, the key one is 'satisfying the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software'. Teams are encouraged to break work up into the smallest marketable feature set and release small but frequent updates that deliver value to customers. This helps create a constant feedback loop from software users that can ultimately guide the development road map and is far more rewarding than locking the value away for months (or even years) in long major release cycles.

As the agile manifesto is about culture and values rather than a prescriptive way of working, different agile methodologies have emerged over the years. In keeping with agile principles, each CDL squad is free to adapt methodologies to suit the people working in it. The priority at all times is on delivering the best value to customers rather than sticking to rigid methods of working.

Agile CDL

By focusing on people, giving them the environment, resources and freedom to develop great software, we enable people to achieve their potential and get better results for customers.

Creating software is about discovery. Our belief is that by further embedding an agile culture at CDL - one where we empower greater flexibility, creativity and collaboration, we will produce more powerful, more elegant software - as well as delivering it to customers faster.

60 Second Interview

Name: Jon Morrell

Title: CEO Gocompare.com

How did you get into insurance?
When I was leaving school the careers advisors were recommending banks, building societies and insurance companies as solid career options. I got into insurance and never looked back.

What you love about it?
The market never stands still, so there's always a new challenge on the horizon but perhaps most of all, it's still a real people business and I've had the good fortune to meet some great characters along the way.

What you hate about it?
The look that you get at parties when you mention that you work in the insurance industry.

Best professional achievement?
I've thoroughly enjoyed the whole journey thus far, but I'll have to go with becoming CEO of Gocompare.

Biggest challenge facing the sector?
The industry is never short of challenge. Just when you think you've tackled the latest another comes along, but we are a very resilient bunch and I've no doubt that we'll always find an answer.

Biggest opportunity?
Great customer service.

Which gadget could you not live without?
iPhone.

Football team?
Liverpool FC.

Desert island discs?
Constantly changing, probably my three favourite tracks currently are: Howling by Ry and Frank Wiedemann, Travesura by Jose Luis Encinas and Prayer in C by Robin Schulz, but ask me again tomorrow and it'll probably have changed.

Biggest vice?
I've a motorcycle (V-Max) that I don't get to spend enough time with.

How do you unwind at weekends?
Family time, generally standing on the side lines cheering on the children (they are now 18 and 20 - it flies by!) in whatever they are doing.

CDL and IIL launch data enrichment service for brokers

CDL and data enrichment provider, Insurance Initiatives Ltd (IIL), are launching a new point-of-quote broker enrichment service.

The data enrichment solution will provide brokers with real-time access to public and private data sources that can be used across all insurance product classes, to dynamically adjust premium ratings and improve new business acquisition and renewal retention rates.

IIL Executive Chairman, John Hooper, said: "We are delighted to expand our partnership by launching this new solution to the CDL broking community. This is an invaluable tool that brokers can use to improve risk selection, flex pricing at point-of-quote and reduce the risk of fraudulent claims."

CDL Commercial Director, Nigel Phillips, said: "Following on from the launch of our enhanced insurer enrichment service with IIL earlier in the year, we're excited to offer this enhanced data enrichment service for brokers. The fully-automated solution, powered by CDL's real-time pricing module and enrichment hub, will allow brokers to enrich their quotes using data from a wide range of sources, enhancing their rating tools based on the customer's propensity to claim."

Strata Software Update:

As CDL continues with its release strategy of Strata Continuous Delivery updates, Product Owner, Paul Donohue, provides an overview of functionality available in the latest cycles.

MyLicence: driving licence data validation

Progress continues to be made with MyLicence integration via continuous delivery updates. Retailers are now able to record driving licence number data for the proposer and additional drivers within Strata. The system will automatically check for invalid number formats.

This is the first step in the full roll-out of MyLicence, an initiative which will provide the insurance industry with automatic access to driving licence data, increasing operational efficiency whilst facilitating more accurate pricing and reducing insurance fraud.

Scheme quotation modules: real time pricing (RTP) and short term policies

Products managed via the CDL schemes module (e.g. travel, pet or SME) are now able to benefit from real time pricing functionality, enabling intermediaries to alter loadings and discounts, add optional extras and select instalment schemes to optimise their policies' performance on price comparison sites.

A further Strata schemes enhancement is the ability to write short term policy periods, between one and nine months.

Renewals

CDL intermediaries are now able to benefit from increased flexibility around the presentation of renewal documentation to customers, with the latest Strata release enabling retailers to display only the cheapest alternative quotation if required (rather than both current insurer and cheapest alternative). Intermediaries are now also able to generate broker-led renewal invitations for insurer hosted pricing schemes.

If you would like any further information on these updates or the Strata roadmap for the year ahead, please contact paul.donohue@cdl.co.uk