17 April 2008 - UniRisX/Quotes2Me partners with Open GI to provide online price comparison service

17 April 2008 - UniRisX/Quotes2Me partners with Open GI to provide online price comparison service

Thursday 17th April 2008

Quotes2Me partners with Open GI to provide online price comparison access to its entire broker base

Quotes2Me, the new online insurance portal for consumers and SME’s, have today announced an agreement with Open GI to provide access to the Quotes2Me platform to the Open GI brokers enabling them to compete more effectively in the online insurance market.  

Whilst the Quotes2Me service is available to all intermediaries the new agreement will allow Open GI brokers to automatically download online quote requests or “Quote Opportunities” directly into their broker back-office for quoting against even if they don’t have a website. 

The service opens up the online market for specialist intermediaries that are looking to focus on niche risks or the ones that wish to use their local office as a key differentiator.   

Simon Hughes, Sales and Marketing Director, Open GI, said: “We decided to work with Quotes2Me because we see it as an opportunity to further enable our whole user base to take advantage of changing consumer behaviour. We recognised that the majority of our brokers needed a platform to be able to compete more effectively and generate leads, particularly as more and more insurance is being sourced online.  Quotes2Me gives us a unique opportunity to give our brokers an additional competitive edge. By developing an interactive service that allows brokers to segment quote opportunities within their back-office using Open GI’s InStream technology, they can tap into new leads without the high costs of online marketing.” 

Manjit Rana, CEO, Quotes2Me, said: “We are very excited about the new dynamics that this will introduce into the insurance distribution domain and are looking forward to helping provide Open GI brokers with an additional competitive edge in the new online focussed world of insurance distribution.”   There are now around 15 million plus consumers and SME’s that are using the internet to source insurance quotes each month. The new service will offer access to the broadest range of quote providers in the market. Research shows that consumers are using between 2 and 3 price comparison sites now in a bid to find the best product from the widest range of providers because they do not believe any single aggregator covers a sufficient proportion of the market. With some aggregators claiming to cover over 90% of the market with around only 60 quote providers – the new Quotes2Me service that is accessible to over 1,500 quote providers is certainly going to stir up the market. 

 “While the larger, high volume intermediaries are investing heavily to get a seat on the online bandwagon – the smaller, local, specialist brokers often can not afford the expense of the technology or the marketing spend to create an online presence – with the Quotes2Me platform they don’t even need a website to participate in the online market – by creating a “reverse eBay” type model we effectively join together the online and offline worlds – something that the major search engines have been trying to do for the last few years.  Whereas in eBay the products sit in the centre and the consumer comes looking for what he can buy, in the Quotes2Me model the consumers requirements effectively sit in the centre and the suppliers come in looking to see who they can sell their products or services to. It’s a very simple idea but one that requires a very sophisticated technology platform, which we have invested heavily in creating.

We believe this could be more cost effective than Pay per Click which is the fastest growing marketing channel for companies looking to sell products or services.” Manjit Rana. 

“The Quotes2Me platform is extremely flexible – because we based the underlying infrastructure on proven UniRisX technology we can create and launch a new product within a matter of days.  We do not have to worry about complex integration into automated comparative rating engines which are still only available for a very small proportion of insurance products nor do we need to wait for the industry to agree data standards for products which can often take many years.”  Andrew Philpott – Operations Director UniRisX Limited 

Quote Providers can choose to “Pay on Success” – the model typically employed by the existing aggregators – or on a Pay per Quote basis. Brokers are also able to provide a branded version of the Quotes2Me service to their clients and prospects enabling them to maintain their brand in front of the consumer regardless of who they insure their various policies with, as well as receiving a share of the revenue generated by the “accounts” that they have introduced into the service. This effectively means that brokers can now generate revenue even if their client purchases a policy from Direct Line or one of the other aggregator sites. The Quotes2Me service is more cost effective than advertising in directories such as Yellow pages or using Pay per Click services because the broker decides which quote opportunities he wants to target rather than paying for traffic which he may or may not be able to competitively quote for. 

Industry commentators are stating that SME commercial will go the same way as motor but as yet none of the mainstream aggregators have been able to provide a similar service for commercial products. The Quotes2Me service gives the SME the ability to source quotes online whilst allowing the full spectrum of quote providers from the high profile brands to the local brokers to respond to their quote requests. 

- - - End - - - 

Contacts: 

Quotes2Me

Manjit RanaCEO

อีเมลนี้จะถูกป้องกันจากสแปมบอท แต่คุณต้องเปิดการใช้งานจาวาสคริปก่อน

UniRisX

Andy Philpott

Operations Director

อีเมลนี้จะถูกป้องกันจากสแปมบอท แต่คุณต้องเปิดการใช้งานจาวาสคริปก่อน  

Open GI

Caroline Hardiman

Marketing & PR Manager

อีเมลนี้จะถูกป้องกันจากสแปมบอท แต่คุณต้องเปิดการใช้งานจาวาสคริปก่อน  

About online insurance: 

Relevant statistics.

i. over a million consumers use aggregators to source quotes for their motor insurance each month

ii.                According to the telecommunications regulator Ofcom, broadband has become one of the fastest growing new consumer technologies. Developments in technology and reducing costs have seen broadband reaching the majority of households and businesses in the UK and this has been reflected in widespread take-up (there are now more than 14.5 million broadband connections in the UK)

iii.              Online advertising has grown from being the smallest market sector in 2003 to the third largest in 2007, with a new high of £2,812.6 millions. This represents a 38% year-on-year like-for-like increase, taking the medium to a market share of 15.3% (up from 11.4% in 2006). Internet advertising spend in 2007 exceeded the most generous forecasts and is now larger than press classifieds and regional newspapers. In just three years online advertising spend has increased by £2 billion. In a relatively buoyant UK advertising market the internet was the biggest driver of growth – accelerating nine times faster than the entire advertising sector, which experienced 4.3% growth to reach £18.4 billion. (IAB)

iv.              With over 5,000 Quote Providers able to provide the consumer with a quote for his or her motor policy less than 100 are typically providing quotes to the mainstream aggregators. About Quotes2Me Ltd Quotes2me Limited was formed as a joint venture between Polly-C Ltd and UniRisX Limited last year to create a next generation marketing utility that would take price comparison and online marketing services into the next generation. The underlying platform has had over $10m of investment and utilises the same operating infrastructure as some of the largest online brands in the world. The service enables the user to create a single, secure online account which he uses to manage his whole portfolio of policies – regardless of who they are insured with. The patent pending “e-wallet” technology and processes allows a consumer or SME to anonymously “publish” their specific requirements and sit back as potential suppliers provide the best solution that meets those specific requirements – like eBay in reverse. The core management team at Quotes2Me have extensive experience of the insurance distribution market both in the UK and internationally working with insurers, intermediaries and technology providers in the industry over the past 20 years. 

About Open GI  

Open International provides market-leading solutions for insurance brokers. It incorporates Open GI, one of the UK and Ireland’s largest broker systems specialists, the Countrywide network and London market technology provider MI Limited. 

Open International was acquired by Towergate, Europe’s largest independently owned insurance intermediary, on 24th September 2007 for £276m from Montagu Private Equity, with the Open management team retaining an equity holding. With a workforce of over 300 people in Worcester and London, and a 28-year heritage, the company enjoys a strong financial performance.  For the year ended 31st May 2007 it reported revenues of £35 million and an operating profit of £18.6 million.  

Open GI supplies IT systems to 2,000 broking sites in the UK and Ireland and enjoys partnerships with all major insurers. Open GI technology enables personal and commercial lines brokers trading in standard and niche markets to streamline business activity and become more profitable. There are currently 27,000 users of the system across a range of companies from single site businesses to major call centre operations.