Surely, Something Went Wrong vs. Surely a Better Way
In 2014, London-based Surely announced the launch of its cloud-based “Quote & Buy” platform, designed to enable insurers to rapidly launch insurance products into the market. The system presents pre-sales information, provides a quick quote capability, integrates a quotation and rules engine, generates required documentation, accepts payment using international debit and credit cards, and emails relevant documentation to the customer. Since then the software developer has expanded its scope of products to also include a Broker Portal for policy servicing capabilities and a Robo Broker, an automated personal insurance broker. According to its website, these are some of its partners:
In fact, even the emerging Sherpa is a client. Moving on. The tech provider also operates a D2C brand called Digital Cover. This is Digital Cover:
And here’s the problem: Digital Cover offered one product – caravan insurance via AmTrust Europe – till it didn’t. According to an announcement on its site, as of Jan. 1, 2017, it is no longer selling caravan insurance policies. The End.
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// Response from Surely founders Larry Shapiro and John Levin, submitted Aug. 23, 2017
Surely a better way
Dear Shefi,
Your article about us accurately summarised Surely’s cloud-based technology platform for insurers and brokers (comprising Quote & Buy, Broker Portal and Robo Broker) … but we don’t agree that “something went wrong” simply because our D2C insurance brokerage, Digital Cover, recently stopped selling caravan insurance!
As entrepeneurs, trying to help disrupt a conservative and slow-moving industry, we’re big believers in the benefits of “test & learn”. This applies both to us and to our clients. Operating our own regulated brokerage, with a small number of insurance products, has allowed us to prove our technology and learn first-hand the challenges of running a modern digital insurance brokerage, from product manufacture, marketing and pre-sales through policy servicing, renewals and retention, regulatory reporting, and product maintenance. By “eating our own dog food”, we’ve iterated our software and deepened our understanding of end-customer needs. And at all times, Digital Cover customers have received fully compliant insurance products with clear product information and a modern UX, serviced by properly regulated parties focussed on ensuring good customer outcomes.
In parallel, forward-thinking insurers, keen to improve their own product propositions and benefit from emerging InsureTech innovations, have been able to test new concepts rapidly and cheaply on our platform, some initially under our own broker brand and more recently under their own brands. Our SaaS commercial model lends itself perfectly to trialling the many facets that go into creating a successful insurance product, including marketing messages, core proposition, pricing, and underwriting questions … and then getting data-driven analytics to support product improvement. Surely, this represents progress in an industry with a legacy of 18-month product development cycles!
The fact, therefore, that a particular scheme has terminated is no failure; the learning period on a given product is simply finite.
Our core software business continues to gain traction in the market, achieving new milestones as we grow: in turnover and profit, in new blue-chip clients, in a growing staff, and in new software solutions. In addition to “test & learn”, clients are running real schemes on our platform too; the most recent example is CellPlan (www.cellplan.com), a global stem cell treatment insurance plan, which launched in July 2017. In short, Surely is thriving, building on our highly supportive clients and a huge amount of hard work by our talented team.
We hope to continue to be featured in Coverager … albeit with happier headlines!
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