British Insurance Awards 2021: Technology, Digital and Outsourced Partner Awards

Technology Award 

Winner: Flood Flash

Flood Flash was rewarded with the Technology Award for using IoT sensors and data science to address two key issues: scarcity of flood risk cover for SMEs and the fact traditional flood claims are expensive to administer and often take months to pay out.

The insurtech’s customers select their payout values and trigger depth during the quote stage.

Flood Flash then installs a sensor at the client property, which has high-accuracy depth measurement technology and mobile connectivity. When the sensor installed at the client property measures flooding at the client’s selected depth, it sends the data to Flood Flash HQ and it begins the payout.

The data from the sensor network feeds into another important technology pillar – its cloud-based underwriting platform. This uses the latest data science to write flood risks accurate to any building in the country. That means Flood Flash can issue risk-based quotes to any business, regardless of flood risk or claims history.

Flood Flash has experienced huge growth since a pilot in 2018, expanding its broker distribution base from one partner broker to over 300 offices across the UK, including partnerships with a raft of major national brokers.

Customer feedback has also been remarkable. Of claimants surveyed, clients and brokers gave an average 10/10 when asked how likely it would be for them to recommend Flood Flash to another business.

Indeed proof of the concept came following Storm Christoph in January 2021.

“It was absolutely excellent. We hadn’t even had time to contact yourselves. Obviously there’s no need to with the sensor. It just all worked absolutely perfectly,” commented one policyholder.

“[I loved] the ease of getting the claim settled. The fact that it was purely done on the basis of the sensor reading obviously means that we didn’t have to provide any documentary evidence to justify the levels of indemnity or anything,” added another.

Others noted: “You contacted me and told me the claim was underway before I even had time to contact yourselves. It all went smoothly through all your hard work and efficiency. It was brilliant,” and: “It doesn’t compare to any [other insurers] because it was so much quicker and more efficient that there’s barely any comparison to be made. It was very good.”

With these testimonials it is no surprise its premium renewal rate sits above 100%, meaning customers get more cover when they renew or reinstate cover. 

As one judge remarked: “This is changing the way Insurance is done, I’m impressed and sure this is going to really take off”. 

Digital Innovation of the Year

Winner: Ecclesiastical

Finding ways to protect the irreplaceable calls for some smart thinking. Specialist insurer of listed buildings, Ecclesiastical, partnered with Shepherd, experts in property performance management, to come up with an innovative digital solution that won the Digital Innovation of the Year Award.

Ecclesiastical notes one of the greatest threats to listed buildings is fire. Since the 2019 Notre Dame blaze, fires have damaged over 400 historic buildings in the UK, often totally destroying buildings and their irreplaceable contents.

Ecclesiastical’s award winning solution is designed to combat this threat – and other serious risks such as water damage. This helps to cost-effectively protect, maintain and preserve historic buildings for their clients and for generations to come.

In 2019 Ecclesiastical and Shepherd joined forces with English Heritage. Together they devised a new approach for reducing insurance risks and lowering maintenance and operational costs.

First built in the early 18th century, Kenwood House in North London was chosen by English Heritage, for the pilot, as it is complex to look after and has high maintenance needs, due to its size and large visitor numbers. Like many heritage buildings, Kenwood House relies heavily on its income, so it needed to be open and operational, with its assets protected and maintenance costs reduced.

Shepherd’s technology shifted the focus from a reactive to a proactive property management approach. Through the use of wireless non-invasive sensors and integration with the existing building management infrastructure, this solution uses real-time monitoring and machine learning to analyse millions of bits of data each month and build up a pattern of normal operation. It then uses data-driven insights to focus on the probability of certain events happening, triggering alerts to the building management team who can then investigate and undertake maintenance.

As a result Ecclesiastical and English Heritage can now identify a build-up of heat in the electrical system as well as monitor the humidity of rooms containing irreplaceable artworks. Moisture sensors are fitted to pipes in key areas to provide early warning of any leaks. One such area is the main staff room, which has several sinks and sits directly above the main art exhibition.

Vibrations or erratic system patterns can be an early indication of potential machinery issues. With the sensor coverage, the partners can now monitor this equipment to detect potential issues allowing for predictive maintenance.

As to evidence of success, just one month into lockdown, water was detected in the staff room. An alert was issued to the Kenwood maintenance team who were able to inspect and immediately fix the leak before it could cause damage to the building or artwork in the room below. Trend analysis has also identified operational inefficiencies, which English Heritage were able to address, resulting in an immediate reduction in energy consumption and downtime. 

Insurtech Start-up Award

Winner: Yu Life

Yu Life won the Insurtech Start-up Award for it’s a success in harnessing the latest technoIogy, gamification, app development and data science to turn insurance into a force for good.

It has done this by transforming the nature of life insurance by offering tangible incentives and rewards to policyholders who make positive behavioural changes in order to lead healthier lifestyles. You Life also provides a simple, cost-effective way for businesses, from high-growth fintechs to established brands, to provide financial security as well as help their people improve their wellbeing.

The judges were particularly impressed by how Yu Life provides strategic solutions to several overlapping pain points, including low customer engagement levels with life insurance products.

It was noted that these had become less appealing to the public, with the result that fewer people were safeguarding their financial futures – largely because policies seemed to offer little value on an ongoing basis.

Yu Life combats this by leveraging digital technology and gamification to create multiple and ongoing touchpoints with policyholders, This gives them the sense that insurance policies not only bolster financial wellbeing but also improve policyholders’ mental and physical health.

The insurtech’s unique approach has been vindicated through several industry recognitions, including having been accepted to Tech Nation’s Upscale 6.0 cohort. This is comprised of 33 of the UK’s best-performing tech companies, the goal of which is to promote networking and share best practice among member companies.

Its corporate clients have also won awards for demonstrating notable improvements in their lifestyles and have reported feeling much happier, energised and positive at work and at home as a result of using Yu Life.

As one commented: “We were facing increasing group life costs as a result of adverse claims experience when Yu Life contacted us to explain how they’d like to break the mould of traditional underwriting. We were all ears. Hearing how they wanted to create healthy habits in colleagues, by focusing on their total wellbeing, with a view to being able to dynamically underwrite group life really sang to us. Partnering with Yu Life will not only strengthen our existing wellbeing offering, showing how much we care for our colleagues’ wellbeing, but potentially has the ability to reduce costs over time – a win-win.” 

Outsourced Partner of the Year

Winner: Motor Repair Network

A well-orchestrated response to a supply chain failure was the calling card for Motor Repair Network winning Outsourced Partner of the Year. The Activate Group business stepped in at 24 hours’ notice to manage an additional 60% of an insurer clients’ vehicle collision claims, increasing volume by 200%.

Faced with this significant challenge when Nationwide Accident Repair fell into administration, MRN pulled together as a team to deliver for this client at a time when they needed them most. Completing the transition seamlessly, maintaining service levels and the customer experience throughout, MRN cemented its role as a valued partner to this client.

Indeed strategic goals were exceeded, with an improvement in NPS, leakage reduction and seven figure savings.