IB Australia 5-Star Insurance Innovators 2021

SPECIAL REPORT

INSURANCE INNOVATORS 2021

Insurance Business spotlights 22 organisations that are breaking boundaries to rewrite the future of the insurance industry

CONTENTS

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Feature article .............................................. 2 Methodology ................................................ 3 5-Star Insurance Innovators ...................... 5 Profiles .......................................................... 6

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SPECIAL REPORT BUSINESS STRATEGY

5-STAR INSURANCE INNOVATORS

RAISING THE BAR FOR INNOVATION OVER THE past year, the insurance industry has seen a host of fast and necessary changes. Amid the COVID-19-related challenges of lockdowns, travel restrictions, lack of face-to-face meetings and general uncertainty, insurance organisations have been forced to adapt to ensure they can continue to drive business growth and deliver the results their clients expect.

Plenty of companies – from insurers to insurtechs, brokerages to claims managers – met these challenges head-on, engineering creative solutions to the problems they and their clients were facing. To find out which companies are helping to push the insurance

sector forward, Insurance Business asked companies to share the visionary initiatives they’ve successfully launched over the past year. The efforts put forth by the 22 winning 5-Star Insurance Innovators offer a glimpse into insurance’s newest frontiers.

Advancements in AI Technology was, unsurprisingly, a huge factor in the initiatives undertaken by the 5-Star Insurance Innovators. While only five of the 22 winners classify themselves as insurtechs, the winning companies are all taking advantage of the possibilities of technology in myriad ways.

THE 5-STAR INSURANCE INNOVATORS BY LOCATION

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NSW

15

QLD

3

VIC

2

NZ

2

“[The COVID-19 pandemic] reinforced just how important digitisation is for the insurance industry workforce” Nick Herford, Hello Claims

Many talked about the business benefits brought by automation. Agile Underwriting, for instance, went from having only 5% of its interactions touched by automation in 2019 to having more than 95% automated on some level by 2020.

“This is the secret sauce to help us scale while providing better services to our customers, partners, capacity providers and brokers,” says co-founder Ben Webster. “Agile uses AI to free our underwriters’ time from data entry and manual work so they can spend more time with customers and brokers, to enable brokers to spend time on relationships, not process.”

At Blue Zebra Insurance (BZI), its cashmatching robot, BIANCA, matched more than $100 million in cash collections to its core transaction database, allowing more than

99% of transactions to be straight-through processed. BZI estimates that in doing so, BIANCA “performed the job of at least 10 people.” BZI also used automated underwriting to straight-through process more than 96% of its high-volume business in 2020.

Claims managers are also leveraging automation to save time and effort. Claim Central Consolidated successfully implemented robotic automation technologies to automate 23 different processes, leading to 541,796 successful transactions automated and an estimated 1,200 working days saved.

And on the risk modelling side, Reask used machine learning to create a global tropical cyclone risk assessment and calculation service for parametric insurance. The firm, which launched in 2018, has already partnered with two major global (re)insurers.

“Our approach to tropical cyclone modelling combines the physics of atmospheric science with the power of global climate data and machine learning to provide a single, consistent and truly worldwide view of risk,” says co-founder and chief commercial officer Nick Hassam.

“Traditionally, the insurance industry has been very protective of data and sharing insights. We believe that sharing data and analytics allows us to provide key insights to allow clients to make better and more informed decisions” Andrew Fluitsma, Honan Insurance Group Similarly, FreightSafe has automated the initial step in its claims process, employing ‘digital workers’ to handle tasks such as reading and extracting information from invoices and supporting documentation.

The file is then handed over to a human claims handler.

“The innovation initiatives over the last year in particular have meant that our team has been able to scale up digitally to handle the sudden boom in claims which resulted from the pandemic,” says FreightSafe operations manager Tiffany Sangster. “Our claims team now have the support of digital workers, operating 24/7 on new claim submissions, to ease their manual workload and allow them to process tens of thousands of claims at incredible speed and accuracy.”

METHODOLOGY Insurance Business’ 5-Star Insurance Innovators report recognises the companies that are moving the insurance industry forward, whether by introducing new technology or rolling out a groundbreaking product or distribution channel strategy.

Starting in July, IB invited insurers, brokerages and service providers from around Australia to submit a nomination, detailing the steps they’ve taken to introduce new innovations to the insurance industry.

Companies were encouraged to focus on initiatives introduced and results achieved in the calendar year 2020.

The IB team objectively assessed each entry for detailed information, true innovation and proven success – along with benchmarking against the other entries – to determine the 22 5-Star Insurance Innovators.

23% of this year’s 5-Star Insurance Innovators are claims managers

Diving into data Another notable trend among this year’s 5-Star Insurance Innovators is the use of technology to improve or rethink the process of data analysis. Software company Daisee, for example, has developed conversational analytics technology that allows businesses to analyse why their customers are calling.

According to Daisee, companies have historically used a 1% or 2% manual sample to evaluate how well they are servicing customers and complying with industry regulations; in contrast, Daisee’s technology allows 100% of calls to be analysed and summarised, which it says has resulted in a 22% boost in customer satisfaction and an 18% increase in sales conversions for its clients.

Melbourne-headquartered brokerage

32% are insurers or underwriting agencies

27% are software or tech service providers

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SPECIAL REPORT BUSINESS STRATEGY

5-STAR INSURANCE INNOVATORS

HOW LONG HAVE THE 5-STAR INSURANCE INNOVATORS BEEN AROUND?

14%

More than 50 years

32%

Less than 5 years

22%

21 to 50 years

18%

14%

Five to 10 years

11 to 20 years

“We have created a positive work environment where all staff feel comfortable to work when they choose to be on-site rather than working from their home offices” Dave Katschke, Avid Insurance Brokers

Honan Insurance Group, meanwhile, used historical and real-time data and insights to create an online claims and risk portal for a client, transforming more than 10 years of claims data into big-picture trend analysis and loss forecasting, which enabled the client to make high-quality, data-driven business decisions.

“Traditionally the insurance industry has been very protective of data and sharing insights,” says Andrew Fluitsma, CEO of Honan Insurance Group. “We take a different approach and believe that sharing data and analytics allows us to provide key insights to allow clients to make better and more 4

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informed decisions. This, in turn, allows for a high customer retention, as they understand the value a broker can provide them.”

The mother of invention When COVID-19 restrictions put an end to face-to-face meetings, organisations that were able to take advantage of communication technology to streamline or improve customer interactions did very well. Hello Claims offered support to the insurance and repair industry by making its proprietary live-streaming video assessment tool free of charge to all insurers, brokers and repairers during COVID-19 lockdowns.

“Such innovation enabled insurers, brokers, repairers and, most importantly, insureds to continue with their claims and get back on the road sooner in the most difficult of circumstances, whilst respecting the lockdown rules,” says Nick Herford, Hello Claims’ managing director. “This situation reinforced just how important digitisation is for the insurance industry workforce, confirming that a proactive approach is beneficial to all stakeholders.”

At NTI, the challenges of the pandemic brought the opportunity to introduce new digital processes. NTI’s Concierge service allows customers to upload images and information from their phone and complete repair quotes online. Not only did this enable businesses to continue working during lockdowns and other pandemic restrictions, but the enhanced process made the experience more than 60% faster for the customer.

According to NTI, 51% of eligible customers used the Concierge service, and the insurer received a 94% customer satisfaction score from these customers.

Another lasting impact of COVID-19 is that it forced companies throughout the insurance industry to reconsider their working environments. For Avid Insurance Brokers, this meant closing the company’s retail office and moving into a purposebuilt office known as The Bunker – and also giving staff the flexibility to work from home when needed.

“Now that we operate from The Bunker, we have created a positive work environment where all staff feel comfortable to work when they choose to be on-site rather than working from their home offices,” says Avid managing director Dave Katschke. “We’ve seen our productivity increase substantially, as we have less foot traffic compared to our previous office environment, which means that we’re able to action and address clients’ requests with quicker turnaround times.”

INSURANCE INNOVATORS 2021

Gallagher Bassett

ProRisk

Phone: 1300 975 609 Website: insurers.gallagherbassett.com.au

Phone: 1300 776 467 Email: enquiries@prorisk.com.au Website: prorisk.com.au

Honan Insurance Group

Stelvio

Phone: 03 9947 4333 Email: info@honan.com.au Website: honan.com.au

Phone: 02 9455 1000 Email: hello@estimage.com Website: estimage.com

NTI

WRM

Phone: 07 3292 9800 Website: nti.com.au

Phone: 1300 911 690 Email: julie@letsleapforward.com Website: letsleapforward.com

Agile Underwriting Services

FreightSafe

Ausure & 247 Systems

Grappler

Avid Insurance Brokers

Hello Claims

Blue Zebra Insurance

Honey Insurance

Claim Central Consolidated

Preventure

Crawford & Company Australia

Reask

Daisee

Swiss Re Australia

DigiSure

Upcover

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SPECIAL REPORT BUSINESS STRATEGY

5-STAR INSURANCE INNOVATORS

From left: Kerrie Challenor, chief people and operations officer; Tony Clark, CEO; Janelle Greene, chief customer officer

NTI Phone: 07 3292 9800 Website: nti.com.au

N

TI, Australia’s leading specialist insurer, stayed true to its commitment to keep Australia moving during the challenges of COVID-19. To continue to support the needs of transport and equipment operators, NTI introduced and continues to build on a new service called Concierge.

“Research shows that many transport operators don’t feel they have time to get repairs quoted or completed on a vehicle that is still drivable following a claim, due to being time-poor and unwilling to jeopardise fulfilling a contract,” explains Deb Robertson, customer and improvement manager at NTI. To address this, Concierge enhances and streamlines the process, from claims notification to repair assessment and authorisation, for vehicles that are still drivable following a claim. Customers can use Concierge to send images and information to NTI via an upload link. NTI’s experts then leverage the company’s relationships with repairers to complete a quote online or on-site at a location convenient for the customer.

Repairs can then be booked in at a location and time convenient to the customer’s work requirements.

Concierge has allowed NTI to get the exact information it needs to triage and fast-track repairs, speeding up the process by an estimated 60%. It’s also given NTI more reliable insights about whether the vehicle is truly drivable and has opened up an opportunity to educate drivers on potential safety issues.

“We continue to build on this innovation to ensure the process continues to cater to the unique needs of transport and equipment operators – especially during these stressful times,” Robertson says.

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HONAN INSURANCE GROUP Phone: 03 9947 4333 Email: info@honan.com.au Website: honan.com.au

H

onan Insurance Group was the first business in AsiaPacific to pilot and adopt Zoom’s fully integrated system for video, voice and call centres. That meant Honan already had remote communication tools set up and functioning several months before the COVID-19 lockdowns, which allowed for a seamless transition to remote working.

“These [tools] were critical for ensuring consistent communication, monitoring strategic performance, fostering connectivity and offering levity,” says Honan CEO Andrew Fluitsma.

In addition, Honan became one of the first insurance brokers to have its own dedicated benefits platform and adopted workplace analytics tools to deliver insights and aid in decisionmaking. Managers leveraged these tools to communicate and engage with their teams, as well as ensure that there were no burnout or wellbeing issues.

For its clients, Honan adopted multiple analytics tools to allow large data sets to be analysed quickly and efficiently and to drive product and pricing solutions, which has helped the company’s strata business grow by 30%. Honan also leveraged its existing technology to create a bespoke claims and risk portal for a client that transforms 10 years of claims and incident data into big-picture trend analysis and loss forecasting.

“We consistently hear from clients on new business tenders and competitive renewals that we are offering solutions that other brokers could not,” Fluitsma says. “[We] are constantly looking at ways in which we can provide insights to clients or provide them with solutions that allow them to service their clients and customers better.”

Hamish McDonald Nye, executive director

PRORISK Phone: 1300776467 Email: enquiries@prorisk.com.au Website: prorisk.com.au

P

roRisk has demonstrated an impressive range of accomplishments over the past year, including being named a 5-Star Insurance Innovator for 2021 by Insurance Business. These achievements clearly support the company’s goal of becoming Australia’s leading technology-enabled intermediated underwriting agency.

“We’re absolutely stoked. We couldn’t be happier,” says Hamish McDonald Nye, ProRisk’s executive director.

One major factor in ProRisk’s victory march: the 2020 launch of ProBind. The broker trading platform enables broking partners to quote, bind and renew policies 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It’s supported by a team of underwriters in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

“Our ProBind technology platform has been built from the ground up, in-house,” Nye says.

“This award is a credit to the engineers and developers who have worked tirelessly to bring ProBind to market. ProBind enables brokers to quote and bind in minutes from anywhere

they have a digital connection – it’s fully mobile and provides the flexibility for brokers to dial up or down policy limits and policy excesses, with premium calculated in real time.”

Each product on ProBind is specifically designed for platform delivery. Importantly, the platform is client-centric and presents brokers with products that clients qualify for without the need to re-key any data.

“The investment in technology has been expensive, but we’re now reaping those rewards,” Nye says, adding that ProRisk has a proud two-decade history of innovation, product development, profitable underwriting and growth. He puts the company’s success down to two main ingredients.

“We have an amazingly talented group of individuals who are all committed to bringing the best products and services to market and revolutionising the way in which we sell insurance, and an incredibly supportive board who share our vision for innovation.”

Over the years, ProRisk has seen many competitors fail and technology platforms that

have blown budgets by the millions. What the company has learned, Nye says, is that the best way to innovate is through an insatiable desire to serve brokers.

“At ProRisk, we only sell through intermediaries, so their success is our success,” he says.

“You can be the best innovator in the world, but if you don’t have access to a distribution network that will support you, you’re as good as dead.”

Through the challenges of the pandemic, ProRisk was very careful to take care of its most important asset: its staff. Each employee was offered funds to set up a home office. ProRisk also provides an employee assistance program, including free counselling services and care packages. This culture of caring has helped build a team that has gone above and beyond to deliver something they all truly believe in.

“We’ve managed to turn an old-fashioned underwriting agency into an insurtech that is poised to capitalise on the growing wave of technology platforms hungry for insurance solutions,” Nye says.

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SPECIAL REPORT BUSINESS STRATEGY

5-STAR INSURANCE INNOVATORS WRM Phone: 1300 911 690 Email: julie@letsleapforward.com Website: letsleapforward.com

W

Libby Roberts, CEO

RM has been delivering rehabilitation programs for more than two decades and today harnesses the power of technology to aid recovery, wellbeing and work fitness. In 2020, WRM developed and piloted LeapForward, a pioneering digital intervention for injury recovery.

“It is an accepted fact that the longer an injured worker is away from work, the less their chances of return to work,” says WRM CEO Libby Roberts. “But what if we could prevent chronic disability? The way someone responds psychologically to their injury can have a huge impact on their recovery.”

With that in mind, LeapForward’s six-week program combines the power of psychology, technology and coaching to get people back to work. The program helps injured workers build psychological resilience and positive behaviour by providing them with a toolkit for practical psychological skills. LeapForward engages the client in daily activities to develop skills to change their behaviour and improve their resilience in the face of adverse circumstances.

The program is driven by cutting-edge technological innovation, including educational videos, an interactive workbook, weekly telehealth coaching and daily evidence-based cognitive behavioural therapy coaching via an AI-powered 3D chatbot named Lucy.

“This model of continuous care allows us to create an infinite number of therapists’ worth of expertise,” Roberts says, “making health more personal, accessible, convenient and less costly.”

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INSURANCE INNOVATORS 2021

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