“The company has always built specialised solutions for insurers and delivered a unique set of services to its customers. Historically, this has seen our policy administration solution, Exergy being deployed on-premise using customer infrastructure,” says Lee Kuyper, COO at SilverBridge.

However, with the cloud becoming a strategic priority for many organisations, the groundwork the organisation has done with its partnership with Microsoft over the years is positioning it strongly for the next phase of its journey.

“This has seen SilverBridge working closely with Microsoft to re-architect our solutions for the cloud. Three years ago, SilverBridge moved its first customer to the Microsoft Azure cloud. The timing was opportune as this was the same time that Microsoft was changing their business model to a cloud consumption business. Since then, Microsoft has invested heavily a local data centre, which together with their focus on security and compliance, has allayed any concerns financial services providers may have when migrating to a cloud environment. With Microsoft as a secure and available platform, SilverBridge is highlighting the ability of the cloud to provide insurers with a more cost-effective, secure, and powerful alternative to traditional hosted solutions.”

Subsequently, as a Microsoft Managed Partner, SilverBridge has continued to work closely with the organisation and has resulted in Exergy becoming a Microsoft Prioritised Co-Sell Ready solution for the Middle East and Africa region. This means that Microsoft will incentivise its own sales teams to sell the Exergy solution.

“We are excited with these partnership developments, with Microsoft backing SilverBridge as a leading solutions provider in the insurance industry. This puts us in a great position to assist our clients in getting value from the cloud in their businesses. SilverBridge is in a position to continue, with Microsoft, to bring solutions to the insurance industry which not only benefit from SilverBridge’s industry specific experience and expertise, but also Microsoft’s leading technology,” concludes Kuyper.

About SilverBridge

SilverBridge has over 23 years’ experience as a leading provider of insurance software solutions in the African financial services industry. Our footprint extends to 14 African countries. SilverBridge’s digital insurance suite allows financial services companies the opportunity to respond quickly to changing markets. With customers throughout Africa, SilverBridge has the knowledge, experience, and technology capabilities to help its clients do better business.

Nelson Camara, marketing at SilverBridge

With consumers expecting their service providers to deliver more tailored products providing better experiences at more cost-effective rates, insurers are under pressure to adapt their business models to ones better suited to this new environment. Given its mainstream appeal and success in driving adoption of mobile apps, the marketplace model has emerged as such an enabler.

While end-users understand how marketplaces work (think the Apple App Store and Google Play), it provides insurers with an opportunity to create an enabling platform for future growth. For example, in the music industry EVAmore has emerged as a convenient way for people to book musicians for their events. Previously, the process involved either knowing someone in the industry or having to go through agents which typically charge premium rates.

However, EVAmore adopted a marketplace model that lets customers create free listings including time, location, budget, and music genres required, with artists able to search for and ‘pitch’ to play at the gigs. The marketplace platform manages all the back-end payment and messaging between customer and artist to remove the cumbersome traditional way of making bookings.

With the marketplace model presenting insurers with opportunities to better engage with customers and meet future demand, decision-makers need to carefully asses how best to integrate it into its existing operations.

Customisation

Most insurers already offer a unique suite of products. Typically, these are developed in-house and are nuanced to meet customer demographic requirements. However, no insurer can be the best at every solution or even cater for every possible client requirement.

Whether through lack of resources or just difficulties in keeping up with continually evolving trends, insurers are realising that they need to rethink how they approach meeting customer requirements in the modern world. This requires the organisation to take a step back and focus on how it will meet customer needs to create a more enabling experience, reduce cost of development, and minimise churn.

Going to market

The marketplace model provides insurers with an exciting new option to enhance their existing business models. In this dynamic, an insurer will provide customers with access to third parties that have the best products in each segment as the means to complement their own solutions. Think about it as a one-stop shop where a customer can go for the best insurance experience at the lowest costs and able to select an offering tailored to their specific needs.

So, just like with a mobile app store, the end-users get continuous access to the best products and services in the market. For the insurer, it is an effective way to reduce churn while at the same time build a reputation as a solution provider that empowers its customers with the best possible products.

The marketplace model is poised to positively impact the insurance market. We expect to see movements in the industry that will result in many of the incumbents partnering with emerging insurtechs. These will be mutually beneficial agreements focused on delivering more value to customers.

About SilverBridge

SilverBridge has over 20 years’ experience as a leading provider of insurance software solutions in the African financial services industry. Our footprint extends to 14 African countries. SilverBridge has introduced an enhanced service offering allowing financial services companies the opportunity to respond quickly to changing markets. With more than 30 customers throughout Africa, SilverBridge has the knowledge, experience, and technology to help its clients do better business.