Products > Case Studies > Comfort Insurance
For small or niche brokers, adopting new technology such as 3G or the latest broker system at an early stage can lead to a significant competitive advantage. Specialist motor caravan intermediary, Comfort Insurance, has been working with IT solutions provider, CDL, to implement the latest systems into their working practices and has been reaping the rewards.
Peter Cue, managing director of Comfort, explains: “When we launched, there was no ABI code for motor caravans so we decided to write our own group rating system. This proved to be a lot more complicated then we anticipated and we needed an IT system that would support this to enable us to grow the business.
“CDL’s Classic broking platform was able to provide the IT infrastructure we needed to support both telephone, and eventually online broking, something our competitors were not able to do.”
In 2001, Comfort went on to implement CDL’s suite of document management modules, designed to bolt directly on to CDL Classic: FileStore and DocStore.
Automatically storing all incoming and outgoing correspondence to the policy record, these modules ensure that brokers are armed with full data on customer interaction to comply with the FSA regulations and provide protection from the consumer in an increasingly complaints and compensation driven culture.
Comfort was also the first CDL broker to trial 3G technology and gain remote wireless access to their broking system at their Dagenham headquarters. Going a step further than conventional Citrix solutions which enable remote access from any site with an internet connection, the use of 3G technology delivers wireless access while on the road.
“Due to the nature of our market, there are a large number of shows and trade events which we regularly attend,“ explains Cue. “We recognised that 3G technology would allow us to turn these into genuine sales opportunities as opposed to speculative leads.”
Most recently, Comfort Insurance has become one of the first brokers in the UK to go live with CDL’s next generation broking platform, CDL Strata.
“When CDL brought Strata to our attention, we felt it would be ideal for our smaller commercial operation, which was still largely paper based. We agreed to pilot Strata and it soon became clear it would also be of huge benefit to our personal lines business and rolled it out accordingly.”
Cue continues: “The first thing we noticed about Strata was how easy it was to use. In the past, it has proved expensive to train staff to use green screen technology. Right from the start, Strata’s windows based design looks familiar and simple to use, which gives operators confidence. As a small business, our staff need to be multi-skilled and as a result, are sometimes called upon to carry out a task that they do not regularly do. This means that the technology we use has to be simple and easy to remember, which has proved to be the case with Strata.
Comfort’s team of 15 operators are now handling over 30% more business since the broker went live with Strata in March. It has also become involved in a massive marketing campaign with a major insurer that Cue believes will lead to 25% growth in the next 18 months.
“We now have opportunities to white label our products and aggressively market our insurance both on and offline because the new technology we have adopted means we can easily manage the increased volumes of business without the need to recruit additional members of staff. The reality is that our IT investment has more than paid for itself through the efficiencies and competitive advantage we have gained.”