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Our New Schemes Underwriting Manager & Platform Owner, Simon Dandridge, talks about the persistent tech challenges facing schemes brokers and an innovative way forward for the sector.
Nobody wants to do the same job twice. For schemes brokers across the UK, repeatedly keying the same data into outmoded management systems is part of the daily grind. According to our Insurance Schemes Study 2023, 89% of provincial brokers and 94% of super-regional brokers consider digital capabilities with their current provider to be ‘not excellent’.
Our schemes team shares their pain and has spent time watching, listening, and talking to brokers about the burden of pre-digital tech on the sector.
It can feel like Groundhog Day. You’ll type info into your back-office system, then input the same data into your pricing spreadsheet. You then might need to re-type it on a policy schedule — and again for the bordereaux. That’s potentially retyping the same information four times.
No room to grow
The admin burden directly impacts business growth. Brokers can struggle to find time to grow customer relationships, generate enquiries, pursue new revenue streams, and adapt to changing market and legislative conditions. Digital is sometimes seen as dehumanising, but the opposite is true here: old ways of working can be slow and manual, thus blocking human ingenuity and interaction.
Risk of falling behind
Insurance has always been behind on digital transformation, and schemes are behind even further. It’s contrary because this is just the kind of market — homogenous, high-volume, fast-moving, and interactive — that can benefit most from digital’s agility and aggregative power.
A collaborative response
We have been working closely with brokers and have developed a new, dedicated digital solution called Schemes+.
It takes away the friction and combines all the benefits of a digital platform with a full, in-house scheme offering from a highly rated provider. With Schemes+, you key in details directly into the system, which generates your quote, documentation, and bordereau. Importantly, the system can be tailored to the needs of each broker with bespoke question sets, documentation, and rating structures. Maximising time to focus on the human element – building relationships with customers and discussing growth with our decision makers and consultants.
We ran a pilot with Pound Gates, a specialist insurance broker based in Suffolk, who believe the system could give them a 33% improvement in processing time.
Travelling together
We didn’t necessarily set out to create a digital portal. Our starting point was engaging with brokers to identify pain points. Schemes+ is the outcome of that process.
Some brokers are great and comfortable with managing processes and systems, but for others, it can be difficult, and we built this solution for them. We are flexible with how we trade and where this is not an issue for a broker, we can still operate via other, more traditional methods.
Schemes+ launched in May 2024 and is already experiencing a lot of enquiries, particularly from brokers who hadn’t previously considered Ecclesiastical as a schemes partner. We’re excited to be at this point, and we want brokers with us as the journey continues.
Simon is responsible for the end-to-end management of our new schemes process, from review of new schemes opportunities through to project management and transfer. He also acts as a relationship partner in the initial 12 months after launch to ensure a smooth transition for both brokers and clients.
In addition, Simon and his team have spent the last two years building and launching a new digital platform which allows brokers to trade their delegated scheme digitally.
Simon has worked in insurance for over 10 years, initially working for a broker before joining Ecclesiastical in 2013, where he has spent the past 8 years focused solely on schemes, building a wealth of knowledge and skills.