Ctrl, enabling advisors to meet digital demands

Ctrl keeps consumers happy while helping advisors keep up with increasing digital demands.

The short-term insurance landscape is changing fast. Ctrl provides technology that helps advisors to add value for their customers and build businesses that are resistant to disruption.

The changing (non-life) car and household insurance landscape

Even before the catastrophic impact of Covid-19 and the subsequent lockdown, several traditional brokers started looking at ways to increase efficiency, reduce costs and adapt to changing expectations of their clients in a digital era, by using technology.

Many of them started having discussions with Ctrl Technologies, a software company that specialises in creating smart solutions for the insurance industry, about creating a software as a service solution for them.

“Lockdown merely accelerated this process and also convinced others who were hesitant that they needed to transform their traditional practices,” explains Ctrl co-founder Pieter Erasmus. “This year alone Ctrl has launched a digital solution (which includes a white-label app, broker portal and backend automation) for two established brokerages, namely Indwe Risk Services (Blupixl) and Overberg Wealth and Risk Management (OWRM digital), signed a third and we’re currently in discussions with many more.”

What is a digital advisor and how does it work?

Ctrl Financial Intermediaries, a sister company of Ctrl Technologies, was launched in 2018 as the country’s first fully digital insurance advice app. Consumers can compare real quotes from different insurers side by side after only completing one set of underwriting questions at their convenience.

An actuarial algorithm makes a recommendation based on the insurance products and the user’s financial needs. Each quote gets a rating, making it easy for the consumer to choose the best quote. A qualified authorised advisor is also available to chat if there is a need for that.

Unlike conventional aggregators, a quote can be accepted directly on the platform (without follow up phone calls or paperwork) after which Ctrl becomes your digital insurance advisor, available to help with general advice, claims, as well as home and roadside emergency assistance.

Enabling the advisor

This is radically different from the way things were done before, and it’s evident that apart from the obvious benefits to the consumer, brokers would also benefit greatly by taking advantage of the efficiencies that the system creates.

“Ctrl Financial Intermediaries was essentially the first B2B client of Ctrl Technologies, creating an ideal opportunity to test consumer pain points, getting feedback and making real-time improvements to the app. It was also the perfect way to ensure the app is 100% compliant from an insurance point of view,” Erasmus continues. “The idea was not only to improve the user experience from the client’s perspective but also to enable the advisors to become more efficient and to give them the tools needed to remain relevant in the digital age.”

More than a mobile application - the Ctrl system

This is done by transforming their traditional brokerage into a digital insurance advisor in a very short time. The system includes a white-label app, broker portal (and soon to be released client portal), as well as a relevant backend automation.

By giving clients an app, the underwriting process is streamlined and policy amendments (endorsements) are turned into a self-service function, minimising human involvement and error. Certain compliance functions like annual renewals and the record of advice are automated, freeing up the advisor to engage meaningfully with the client as well as the insurer, making sure everyone is getting the best products, feedback and services possible.

“As you can imagine, moving these workflows away from the agent makes him/her supper efficient and changes the cost structure of your brokerage completely,” Erasmus concludes, “At Ctrl, we believe it’s possible to make insurance better for all by using technology in a way that benefits the consumer, the advisor and the insurer”.

Both Ctrl Financial Intermediaries and Ctrl Technologies form part of Ctrl Investment Holdings which was founded in 2017 by Pieter Venter, Francois Venter and Pieter Erasmus.