The power of continuous improvement

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Blue Zebra Insurance has a winning digital strategy and a dynamic product line-up. Mark Polglase reveals the thinking behind the company’s success in the insurtech space

SINCE THE soft launch of its small-to-medium enterprise (SME) and commercial motor products during the uncertain, early days of the pandemic, Blue Zebra Insurance (BZI) has reformed and refined both lines numerous times. This is not due to any flaw in either of the products, but rather because of the market’s rapid evolution since 2020 and BZI’s commitment to the continuous enhancement of its offerings to make them more useful to brokers and end-users. Mark Polglase, chief underwriting officer for SME at BZI, admits that a certain amount of product line improvement was planned from the start, especially given the murky outlook in 2020.

Blue Zebra Insurance (BZI) is an insurtech underwriting agency that caters exclusively to brokers and their clients. BZI also offers its technology platform as a service (PaaS) to selected insurance partners. The company wrote its first policy in April 2018 and offers a full suite of personal lines products, SME, commercial motor, personal accident and cyber insurance. With over 170,000 customers, BZI leverages big data sources to assist the quote process and enhance its understanding of the underlying risk. Its small and highly empowered team deploys technology tools to streamline and automate back-end processes while delivering great service and efficiency.

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“[Our] commitment to continuous improvement reinforces Blue Zebra’s position as an industry leader and a preferred partner for brokers seeking innovative solutions”

Mark Polglase, Blue Zebra Insurance

“Our intention has always been to progressively expand our appetite to enable us to address the needs of brokers’ diverse portfolios,” he says. But across four short years, it has become clear that BZI would not be in such a strong position today had it not embraced the idea of continuous change as part of its DNA. “This commitment to continuous improvement reinforces Blue Zebra’s position as an industry leader and a preferred partner for brokers seeking innovative solutions,” Polglase says. The company’s leadership through this tumultuous time is underscored by Insurance Business Australia awarding it the prestigious Best Digital Strategy accolade for five consecutive years – a remarkable feat considering that the firm only launched in 2018 and built its entire insurtech system from scratch.

The commercial motor product, for example, has undergone a range of evolutions. “We have expanded the number of vehicles available to quote in a single transaction from 10 up to 20, increased the size of available vehicles from five tonnes to eight tonnes, and expanded vehicle types to include electric vehicles [EVs],” says Polglase. BZI also plans to expand coverage to include plant and machinery in time for the June marketing season. While expanding tonnage or bringing EVs into the fold may

Continually being at the forefront of change allows a firm to anticipate possibilities – perhaps another reason why BZI has been successful in digital strategy innovation for so many years in a row. One key change in the post-pandemic insurance world is the increasing speed with which brokers can respond to inquiries. “Our data shows that the sooner a broker can have a confirmed quotation on hand, the [greater the] probability of converting that opportunity for both Blue Zebra and the broker."

Blue Zebra has heavily invested in the use of third-party data to pre-populate its system with underwriting questions and rating algorithms that allow brokers to validate information rather than type in a response to every question. As a result, the company saves time, reduces the need for rekeying, and increases the probability of conversion. “This expedites the quote process and reduces data input error,” he says. Not surprisingly, BZI also leads in exploring possible uses for AI in the quote-and-bind process. The company uses AI-driven process automation for word scanning of referral text to identify patterns and produce immediate quote responses, and is also experimenting with the

same capability for document upload and ingestion into the BZI platform. Polglase says, “That will further improve efficiency and eliminate the manual input of more complex data such as multi-vehicle schedules and extensive claims history.”

Such features have the potential to make a huge impact given that almost 98% of Australian enterprises are SMEs and account for one-third of the national GDP. Regulation is also an important engine of change. Following feedback to industry from the Australian Securities & Investments Commission, BZI was able to quickly enhance its commercial motor target market determination. “[This] is a prime example of our initiative to stay ahead. This

White Mouse Cable Forming an Umbrella Symbol On Blue Background

The importance of marginal gains

Charting a steady course ahead

Published 22 APRIL 2024

“By embracing agile development methodologies and continuous improvement based on customer feedback, Blue Zebra ensures that our technology remains responsive to evolving market dynamics and broker preferences”

Mark Polglase, Blue Zebra Insurance

Source: Blue Zebra Insurance

Number of vehicles available: maximum of 10 Size of vehicles available: maximum of 5 tonnes Type of vehicles available: Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) Plant and machinery: None

At soft launch in 2020

Now

Expansion of Blue Zebra’s commercial motor product

Number of vehicles available: maximum of 20 Size of vehicles available: maximum of 8 tonnes Type of vehicles available: ICE and EV Plant and machinery: Operational from June

Source: Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman, 2023

Number of enterprises

SMEs’ place in the Australian economy

2.5m

Number of people employed

5.1m

Combined value to the economy

$506bn

not seem like earth-shattering developments on their own, these changes matter. In a culture that celebrates dramatic breakthroughs, the reality is that major leaps forward are the sum of years of effort, practice, and ongoing improvements. This approach is known in professional sports as marginal gains theory – the idea that small yet significant improvements can lead to monumental results. While this theory has recently been picked up by a few thought leaders in management circles, it is most famously associated with British Cycling and its phenomenal turnaround in performance from an also-ran team to one that now often dominates the Olympics and the Tour de France. BZI is on the same continuous improvement arc as it optimises its performance in such a way that there is no upper limit – only the next refinement. “By embracing agile development methodologies and continuous improvement based on customer feedback, Blue Zebra ensures that our technology remains responsive to evolving market dynamics and broker preferences,” Polglase explains. “Through thousands of updates and enhancements, Blue Zebra has maintained a competitive edge.”

The future of commercial insurance

Pushing the envelope on what is possible with tech to improve the broker/customer experience also means navigating the market’s ups and downs. Economic stress is making current market conditions quite choppy, which might leave less-adept insurers struggling to calibrate an appropriate response. “We understand that cost is a key driver for business insurance purchasing decisions, and due to the increasing prevalence of extreme weather events, claim and supply cost inflation, and subsequent reinsurance cost increases, there is widespread acknowledgment that insurance affordability is impacting the purchase and adequacy of insurance coverage,” says Polglase. However, he sees this choppiness as one extra reason to push ahead with tech solutions to help alleviate the pressure. That’s why BZI allows premiums to be paid by instalments – similar to premium funding solutions – which helps business owners optimise cash flow. This is especially beneficial to SMEs, which often have less leeway with liquidity. “All of our products now offer the ability to select payment by instalments to ease the upfront burden of premium payment and assist [in managing] cash flow, as well as the flexibility to custom design coverage limits and excesses to ensure the most viable solution is available for the client,” Polglase explains.

The years since 2020 have been some of the most hectic and consequential for insurers in terms of keeping up with market change and technological innovation. Many of the evolutionary drivers have now taken on their own momentum. Think AI, for example. Polglase sees some drivers as constant, especially those relating to customer and broker expectations and the need to respond to them. Some examples he presents are the modification of BZI’s occupation descriptions to be more accurate and refined, so there is no confusion about acceptance intentions, introducing an automated address-matching system, or allowing the input of multiple occupation selections due to the increasing prevalence of businesses conducting more than one activity. “We also allow brokers to select combinations of commercial, residential, and vacant tenancies for property owner customers, who are a really important segment of the small business market,” he says. “This feature gives brokers the confidence that the risk is well understood, and a referral is not required for confirmation of acceptance.” These might be incremental and seemingly minor changes to the threads of the tapestry when viewed up close. But many of these enhancements keep BZI ahead of the curve. They also trace a bigger picture when viewed from the standpoint of progress by maintaining a steady efficiency for brokers in a tough market while also meeting customers’ evolving expectations to provide certainty of coverage at claim time. “Our goal is to ensure that our offerings are known for their innovation, compliance, and excellence, providing customers with insurance solutions that are intelligently designed and user-friendly,” says Polglase.

has not only sharpened our target market precision and enhanced our distribution controls but also introduced a simplified table view for existing eligibility criteria and product details, fostering better compliance and decision-making ease for our brokers and customers,” says Polglase.

Reading the economic and regulatory winds

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