UK Insurance Provider

The Challenge

• Unable to connect 3rd party pricing applications to deliver customers real-time quotes on any channel

• Lack of full range in-house expertise to address architecture and security requirements

• Project running behind in terms of time and financial commitment

One UK Insurer wanted to make insurance easier and better value for their customers. To achieve this, they put in company-wide focus on driving improvements in customer experience and better outcomes. Included in a number of initiatives, the Insurer identified that digital transformation throughout the organisation would help to deliver their services - faster, more efficiently, and at better value - to customers via their preferred channels. The organisation was committed to meeting the ever changing needs of customers and exceed expectations, whether through the products on offer, the service provided or the price delivered.

As part of these digital transformation projects and to achieve their commitments, the Insurer implemented a programme to overhaul their pricing platforms. This programme would allow them to provide internet-based insurance services so customers can get real-time pricing information for insurance policies when people go online via price comparison websites, for example Compare The Market etc. These 3rd party pricing engine applications were being built in Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud environments. This would provide existing customers and those looking for new quotes with the ability to choose their preferred channel, including direct online, over the phone with the call centre agent and via price comparison websites (PCWs).

However, the internal development team didn’t have the full range of in-house technical expertise to address key architecture and security requirements which were essential to be able to connect the 3rd party pricing applications across the various channels and deliver their customers real-time quotes on any channel - the key aim of the initiative.

The project itself was running behind plan, both in terms of time, and financial commitment. The team were getting dangerously close to their go live date, and still no connectivity solution had been found. A fresh approach was needed.

Members of the development programme at the insurer were familiar with Cloud Gateway, and were aware of work they had recently been doing with a large government department, which assured the provision of the level of security that was required for the organisation. They invited Cloud Gateway to offer some potential solutions that they hoped would meet their requirements:

• Filling a skills gap: The development team needed cloud and network expertise to establish the right architecture design

• Security: The solution needed to abide by a strict set of security policy requirements

• Speed to market: The AWS application needed to be launched as soon as possible

Cloud Gateway initially produced a high level architectural overview, to show their understanding of the Insurer’s ecosystem, but also to showcase the benefits of the product features and capabilities that were available for the team.

Once it was established that Cloud Gateway could indeed meet the needs for the project with the secure connectivity platform, named PRISM, detailed workshop sessions were arranged with key stakeholders in security and architectural forums at the Insurer. Over the course of these sessions, the full Cloud Gateway integration was mapped, and subsequently signed-off at the first stage.

The high level solution was to provision the internet-facing security perimeter for the Insurer’s pricing platform providing next-generation threat management, web application control, deep packet inspection as well as secure and agile connectivity to multiple environments. Along with this, provide policy enforcement via a centralised egress capability to meet security and audit requirements.

As a cloud-native solution, and thanks to the extensive work in the mapping sessions between the Insurer and Cloud Gateway at initial engagement, implementation and onboarding was a rapid process.

The first PRISM tenant was up and running 3 weeks from the very first engagement. The standard security suite within the platform exceeded the Insurer’s requirements, and policy could be easily augmented to fill gaps left by their security operation center.

The Solution

• Deployment of the internet-facing security perimeter for the pricing platform providing policy enforcement via a centralised egress capability

• The Cloud Gateway platform provided next-generation threat management, web application control, and DPI as well as secure connectivity to multiple environments

• The platform integration was up and running 3 weeks from the very first engagement

The Impact

• Customers have been able to receive real-time quotes via the channel of their choice

• Acceleration of launch and time and money saved from the speed of deployment

• Resources can be reinvested to further improvements in customer experience and better outcome initiatives

Using the Cloud Gateway connectivity platform, the Insurer was able to accelerate their launch to the cloud, something that their outgoing incumbent supplier could not replicate. The time and money saved from the speed of deployment means that the Insurer is able to reinvest those resources to further customer experience and better outcome initiatives. Customers are now able to receive real-time quotes via the channel of their choice.

Above all, Cloud Gateway’s modular architecture means that the same model can be reused with little effort, affording the Insurer a foundation from which to expand and launch further applications. For this project AWS was the chosen provider, but it is now just as easy to provision applications with any other service provider, including Azure and Google.

The Insurer can now select the right tool for the right job, safe in the knowledge that they will be consistently managed and secured from Cloud Gateway’s central enforcement point. As a group that operates some of the biggest insurance brands in the UK, it is essential that the solutions they employ are able to grow alongside them. Cloud Gateway has given the Insurer the ability to add value to their own investment, spreading the benefits across the entire business at a pace they couldn’t previously achieve.

The full gamut of cloud is instantly available for all customer experience improvements, allowing the Insurer to give their customers the best experience and value they can offer.

Over time, the Insurer aims to move other products, including Home Insurance, renewals, MTAs, as well as other brands in the group onto this new centralised platform to continue to offer better outcomes to more customers across the group.