Australian Online Insurer Upgrades Capabilities

By Peter Bernstein
Senior Editor

The transformation of all aspects of the insurance industry thanks to the adoption of new technologies knows no bounds. Illustrative of this is news from Australia that 100 percent online automobile insurance company Progressive Direct Insurance has inked a deal with insurance solutions provider SSP to enhance its ability to provide superior customer experiences and grow their business throughout Australia.

As noted in a posting on Australian website Insurance Business, Simon Lindsay, country manager for Progressive Australia believes that the benefits associated with upgrading to SSP Pure Insurance aligns well with Progressive’s online business model.

“Being an online business, Progressive has to adapt and innovate quickly. Upgrading to SSP Pure Insurance was the perfect choice because the platform will make it faster and easier for us to add new functionality, respond to change and modify our processes in order to drive future growth.”

For those not familiar with SSP the U.K.-based insurance technology solutions company has more than 41,000 users in over 50 countries. It touts its 'carrier to consumer' proposition for providing all participants in the insurance chain the ability to improve communications and interactions starting with insurance underwriters or agencies & ending with consumers.  On the front end, the Group's solutions enable the consumer to purchase insurance products through a range of channels including intermediaries, brokers, contact centers, affinity groups and the internet. On the backend it provides insurers with back office and administration solutions.

SSP’s flagship is its Pure Insurance offering, a flexible, end-to-end core insurance system that can manage all lines of business. It includes product development, policy and claims management modules and will provide Progressive with a modern platform to manage their business from a single solution.

As noted in the Insurance Business posting, the General Manager of Asia-Pacific for SSP said of the deal with Progressive that, “With costly and inflexible legacy systems representing a long-term constraint, insurers like Progressive are now investing in IT modernisation projects. SSP Pure Insurance’s modern platform will make it faster and easier for Progressive to add new functionality, respond to change and modify its processes in order to transform the business.”

Pure Insurance will be fully integrated into the Progressive business by March 2015.