CGI (NYSE: GIB) (TSX: GIB.A) today announces it has gone live with a significant new contract to transform the way ERS interacts with its broker partners through Insurer Hosted Pricing (IHP).
ERS is a leading specialist motor insurer providing cover for vehicles from classic cars and super cars through to ice cream vans. The insurer’s business is conducted through its network of trusted brokers with many product pricing and quotations provided to those brokers via ERS’ relationship with several broker software houses, such as Open GI. ERS is seeking to transform how it responds to quotation requests from its brokers by establishing links with each of the broker software houses, and has contracted CGI to build a new ‘market-based’ IHP system. Open GI is the first broker software house to be connected to ERS’ new IHP system, which went live in March 2017, with the remaining broker software houses expected to be migrated before the end of the year.
The new IHP system, provided by CGI as a managed service using its IHP Evolut1on cloud hosted platform, will provide significant benefits to ERS, its brokers and ultimately its motor insurance customers in multiple ways:
Real-time pricing performance: the new system will establish technical links to the various broker software houses that act as intermediaries between ERS and its brokers. This means that all quotation requests will pull pricing directly from ERS’ centrally controlled model, rather than prices loaded onto software house systems. ERS will now have complete visibility of the entire quote and buy process, and will gain much greater understanding and control of the business undertaken through software houses. Most importantly, ERS can manage the competitiveness of their pricing against their risk appetite in real time, rather than waiting for software houses to makes changes to rates. This is a major shift from the previous model, the ability for insurers to adjust pricing in response to market developments was constrained by the speed at which software houses could schedule changes, and hindered by the level of data available to the insurers on quotation performance.
Issuing a single, consistent, price centrally: previously ERS was required to submit its pricing for products multiple times to each of the broker software houses with which it works. This meant there were inevitable delays in deploying prices, potential inconsistencies in the prices issued, and a substantial maintenance cost for the deployed pricing models.
Pranay Manocha, Head of Digital Products for ERS, commented: “The way insurers communicate product and pricing information to brokers has not improved significantly for a long time. Whilst existing processes have served the industry well there is now a requirement for a responsive, market-based IHP system like CGI’s Evolution IHP service. In today’s digitally enabled world customers want the best cover at the right price, tailored to their needs. As a specialist motor insurer we need richer data and direct links in order to best assess risk. For ERS this is particularly important as we grow our niche segments in the future.”
Neil Sadler, UK Vice President of Banking, Financial Markets and Insurance at CGI, commented: “Insurer Hosted Pricing offers significant benefits and helps insurers to manage the intermediated channel in a way that is closer to the way they manage direct and online channels. For insurers looking to build a multichannel distribution strategy it is a transformative development.”
CGI is a provider of consulting and IT services to seven of the top ten insurers in the world. CGI has also partnered with more than 160 property, casualty, life and group insurance companies, as well as with other insurance organizations and brokers worldwide.
About CGI
Founded in 1976, CGI Group Inc. is the fifth largest independent information technology and business process services firm in the world. Approximately 68,000 professionals serve thousands of global clients from offices and delivery centers across the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific, leveraging a comprehensive portfolio of services including high-end business and IT consulting, systems integration, application development and maintenance, infrastructure management as well as a wide range of proprietary solutions. With annual revenue in excess of C$10 billion and an order backlog of C$20 billion, CGI shares are listed on the TSX (GIB.A) and the NYSE (GIB). Website: www.cgi.com
For more information
Paul Corrall
UK External Communications
Paul.Corrall@cgi.com
+44 7341 782 985
