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Aviva Canada’s 24-hour Broker Hackathon results in small business online quoting and binding solution

November 25, 2016   by Canadian Underwriter


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Aviva Canada’s recent Broker Hackathon has chosen its People’s Choice and Winner from a total of 61 submissions: Commercial Catalyst, a “simple, quick and easy way for brokers and customers to quote and bind small commercial business” and a responsive web-based platform that allows brokers integration with Aviva’s rates.

The winning submission for Aviva Canada’s Broker Hackathon was Commercial Catalyst, an online quoting and binding solution. Photo credit: IBAO.

Aviva Canada’s first-ever Broker Hackathon, held in early November, garnered numerous ways to improve interactions between customers, brokers and Aviva, the insurer said in a press release last week.

Of the 61 ideas submitted, four ideas were chosen to move forward to the Hackathon, where each team of hackers had only 24 hours to turn their ideas into a working prototype, Aviva Canada explained in the release.

Jeff Roy, CEO of Excalibur Insurance, an Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario (IBAO) broker member, said in a post on IBAO’s website that his Commercial Catalyst idea is a small business online quoting and binding solution, where brokers are asked six to eight basic questions, a quote is provided and the broker can bind coverage and issue the paper immediately.

“The tool would be available to all brokers with Aviva contracts,” Roy said in the post. “For the purpose of this hackathon, we developed the solution for three classes of commercial insurance. With time, we’d want to see it launched for more.”

One of the other ideas Roy presented at the hackathon was Aviva Intelligence, an artificial intelligence chat bot to improve broker and client experience using guided statements and machine learning. Roy said in the IBAO post that the chat bot connects brokers and underwriters and was intended to improve communication. “Brokers ask questions through the bot and receive real time answers to commonly asked questions between broker and underwriter,” Roy explained. “Over time this could potentially reduce the number of underwriters, reduce cost and improve the broker experience.”

The two other ideas chosen to move forward included Digital/Mobile Pink Slips, from RDA Insurance, which provides flexibility to allow customers to download pink slips to their smartphone’s passbook/wallet as proof of insurance coverage and Pop-up Note Templates from Aviva Canada, which involve the creation of a common space in the broker portal to capture information that can be shared across the business and assist brokers, underwriters and claims adjusters.

Jason Storah, Aviva Canada’s executive vice president of broker distribution, said in the release that the insurer is “committed to backing these prototypes so we can innovate the way we deliver our services to brokers and customers digitally.”

Karin Ots, senior vice president of regulatory and government relations at Aviva Canada, added that the idea for Digital/Mobile Pink Slips “comes at the most opportune time in light of the recent announcement from Canadian Council of Insurance Regulators approving a plan to introduce an electronic option for proof of auto insurance. This is a good example of how consumers and technology are driving our business forward and the need for agile, nimble regulatory response. We look forward to offering Digital/Mobile Pink Slips to our customers and brokers in the very near future.”

 

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