Reflecting on BIBA 2023: Brokers want greater development and availability of InsurTech

The FullCircl team were thrilled to attend BIBA again this year. We were delighted by the sheer number of visitors to our stand, all of whom were keen to discuss the challenges they are facing - from winning more new business and retaining existing customers in a hard market, tackling underinsurance, and investing in future success whilst managing the impacts of a tough regulatory environment and the cost-of-living crisis. Likewise, the opportunity to hear from industry leading experts and make new connections is what the event is all about, and it certainly did not disappoint.

The standout headline for us was that attendees voted for greater development and availability of InsurTech to help with efficiency, evolving customer needs, and cost reduction in a poll during a session entitled ‘What’s Coming Up for Brokers’. This gained 25% of the vote, coming a close second to their top wish list item - a period of stability with no regulatory or legislative changes.

FullCircl is well positioned to assist brokers with both - but we’ll come back to that later.

A record-breaking success

It was fantastic to see the insurance community come together to ‘Rise to the Challenge’, as insurers, brokers, intermediaries, specialists, and service providers joined forces to debate the problems and solutions facing the industry as it looks to the future.

An exciting two days of networking, expert insights and challenging debate, this year’s event brought in record footfall with over 9,000 attendees. Summing up the event, Ashleigh Gwilliam, FullCircl’s Insurance Success Director commented:

“If you work in insurance, you must be at BIBA! Where else can you catch up with so many of your existing clients, prospects, and partners in two days. This year’s theme, Rise to the Challenge, is really defined by pan-industry collaboration, and a true sense that we are all in it together to deliver better results for customers. We are still feeling the effects of the pandemic, inflation, and the hard-market – with underinsurance still prevalent, it was great to have so many conversations about how brokers and underwriters can utilise data and insight to take proactive steps to protect and support their clients.”

Our key BIBA 2023 takeaways

So, what did we learn? Here are our top 3 key takeaways from the event.

1. Data will be vital in helping brokers deal with the vagueness of principles-based regulation. With the Consumer Duty set to raise standards and clarity around consumer protection (and consumer means all retail customers, including SMEs), data will play a key role in reducing the complexity, time and cost associated with fair value assessments. It will also be vital in terms of building a deeper understanding of the customer – what they need, why they need it – and helping measure, record, review, and improve across the entire customer lifecycle. As a fellow industry commentator recently pointed out “by streamlining the data acquisition process for brokers so that a 360-degree picture of an individual’s insurance background can be built instantly, customers can enjoy a smooth onboarding process, a better customer journey and overall experience”. We couldn’t agree more.
2. The relationship between insurers and brokers is more vital than ever – data can facilitate greater collaboration. It’s about harnessing technology to build an ecosystem of data-driven collaboration that will reduce complexity, boost efficiency and drive innovation. The more data, the more ideas, and the more opportunity to close the protection gap, tackle underinsurance, respond to emerging complex risks and exposures, and improve the customer experience. Leaders agreed that innovation and the implementation of technology is vital to the survival of the insurance sector and broker business. We agree! Greater access to Customer Lifecycle Intelligence allows brokers to make the best possible submissions to underwriters and armed with this better-quality intelligence underwriters can make more accurate assessments of risk and therefore provide better terms and prices to the broker’s clients. Better business, faster – brokers can rely on their underwriter relationships to insure their clients, and underwriters can rely on their broker relationships to present new opportunities for profitable growth in a hard market. Neither can thrive without the other, they must collaborate and innovate in unison.
3. The future of insurance service is going to be about finding the sweet spot between humans and technology. There is an urgent requirement to deliver greater customer experiences to improve the value proposition of the sector. Success drivers for brokers include customer focus, speed of response, knowledge, communication, and delivery, and all must be underpinned by strategic data-driven decision making. The challenge of course, is how to build the perfect hybrid solution. We believe a great personal experience has technology at its heart – that is the Customer Lifecycle Intelligence difference.

How is FullCircl helping the insurance sector ‘Rise to the Challenge’?

FullCircl is already helping 85+ insurance businesses, including 8 of the top 10 brokers to:

• Prospect with precision: Brokers can harness data on over 5 million companies in the UK and use powerful filters to narrow these down to a workable prospect list. In addition, the connected structured and unstructured insights provide new opportunities for brokers to engage and establish credibility through well-timed, highly relevant and differentiated outreach.
• Prepare better underwriting submissions: Brokers can leverage data-driven customer intelligence that ensures no knowledge gaps, and that the submission process is both aligned with customer needs and the requirements of tougher risk-averse underwriting conditions.
• Increase client retention: Brokers receive daily insights into changes in their client’s world, flagging potential issues and reasons to engage throughout the period of cover – e.g. changes in management; potential mergers and acquisitions; change of premises; relationship triggers; potential financial risks and market opportunities. 
• Cultivate existing book of business: Daily insights into the client’s world offer brokers the perfect way to trigger conversations about additional product lines. Upselling and cross-selling mean not only are policies per account more profitable, but a stronger sense of trust is fostered, establishing the broker as an advisor rather than simply a service provider.

We want to help you too.

FullCircl empowers your team with rich, contextualised company information on every business in the UK and Ireland. Information you can use for commercial insurance risk management purposes and to carry out deeper risk-based monitoring. With complete clarity on your market provided by sector specialism and vertical integration, you’ll always have the information - and the CLI tools - you need.

Get in touch with a member of our team today, to find out how we can work in partnership to ensure you ‘Rise to the Challenge’.

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