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Technology is at the core of any successful insurance company – but for most it is a constraint as much as it is an enabler. Insurance companies and brokers must continuously refresh their technology strategies and navigate this complex topic where there are no perfect answers but only a never-ending set of trade-offs.

Oxbow Partners helps management teams bridge the gap between business objectives and technology. Our sector focus and strategy specialism mean that we have a deep understanding of what businesses are trying to achieve, and our technology experts are able both to influence the business and align the technology strategy.

Our work focuses on topics such as technology strategy development, architecture design, system selection and due diligence.

We are fully independent of all vendors and our clients value our objective analysis of their options. Our vendor knowledge is enhanced through Magellan™, our market-leading insurance technology navigator, which contains profiles of over 4,000 vendors that are relevant for the insurance industry.

WHAT WE DO IN TECHNOLOGY

Strategy design

We use our technology and business expertise to help clients set out strategic technology ambitions, architectures and roadmaps that deliver and support the business strategy

Architecture design

We help clients design bespoke technology architectures using our insights into the latest technology trends

System selection

We help clients find new technologies to help them grow using our proven methodology for quickly testing vendor capabilities and fit

Operating model design

We help clients design their technology, operations, and set-up to maximise strategic alignment and impact

Vendor due diligence

We help companies and investors with commercial and technology due diligence on vendors for partnerships and investments

OUR LATEST INSIGHTS

In praise of InsurTech due diligence

In praise of InsurTech due diligence

We have developed our InsurTech Diligence Framework, designed for early stage businesses with evolving business models

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InsurTech Insights Europe: Five key themes

InsurTech Insights Europe: Five key themes

Five themes from the InsurTech Insights Europe industry's technology innovators conference

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Underwriter Workbenches: Decoding the vendor landscape

Underwriter Workbenches: Decoding the vendor landscape

Discover which vendors could support you build your underwriter workbench

Read more
More insights

EXAMPLE ENGAGEMENTS

Built a technology operating model

A large reinsurer had developed a proprietary technology platform but found the technology team had become detached from the underwriting team as the business had scaled. We supported the business to build a better technology operating model connecting IT with the business which was subsequently implemented.

Supporting a carrier become truly data and digital first

A leading London Market syndicate wanted to put data and digital at the core of its strategy and operations. We worked with the underwriting teams and partnered with a systems integration consultancy to implement end-to-end underwriting infrastructure and processes organised around a new Underwriter Workbench.

Supported a UK retail insurer to stress test a technology selection

Our client is a large UK retail insurer who wanted replatform their core policy administration system. The CIO asked us to validate their choice of system and that the underlying business case stacked-up. Our findings allowed the decision to be signed-off by the board.

Helped a UK retail insurer set out their 5-year technology strategy

To support an ambitious growth plan, we helped identify the biggest opportunity areas and set out a fully costed architecture and 5-year roadmap. We worked closely with the non-technical leadership team and board to ensure full understanding and buy-in to the strategy.

Developed an InsurTech partnering approach

Our client was a top-tier reinsurer. We worked with the executive team to develop an operating model that enabled them to scale their InsurTech partnerships globally across the business.

Selected an InsurTech provider to support digital distribution

Our client is a leading Lloyd’s syndicate. Leveraging Magellan, we helped shortlist and select an InsurTech partner to support the client’s digital distribution business. The partnership is now live and trading over £150m GWP annually.

Oxbow Partners’ extensive knowledge of the industry and vendor landscape allowed us to quickly identify a technology partner to support our growth ambitions.

Marianne Harvey, COO, AEGIS London

RELEVANT PRODUCTS

Magellan

Magellan is our insurance technology navigator. Magellan contains detailed information on over 4,000 technology vendors targeting the global (re)insurance market. Magellan is designed to help business and technology professionals find the right short-list of companies to help with their specific technology requirements. We offer both a self-service subscription and a ‘Curated Search’ service delivered by our dedicated team of experts.
Find out more

InsurTech DD Framework

Diligence of a growth company must reflect both its track record and also its vision and opportunity. Our streamlined analysis covers the market, proposition, financial plan and execution capability and is designed to quickly help investors understand what they need to believe to make the investment viable.
Find out more

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Lead contact

Greg Brown, Partner

Greg leads engagements on digital, operational, and technology strategy and transformation. He spends most of his time in the Lloyd’s and London Market and European retail insurance.

Graduating with a degree in Engineering and Computer Science, Greg has a strong technical background which allows him to give his clients confidence in the feasibility of their strategic choices. CEOs often rely on Greg to look through the hype and advise them on the relevance of technical trends. Topics where Greg’s range of experience comes together include digitisation in the London Market and the impact of Lloyd’s Blueprint 2, strategic choices available to syndicates around the bifurcation of lead/follow, and using technology as a vehicle to drive underwriting transformation.

Greg is a regular commentator on transformation and digital topic, and often speaks at industry events. He has authored many pieces on the Oxbow Partners blog.

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Lead contact

Max Deacon, Principal

Max is our Enhanced Underwriting lead. He works with Corporate and Specialty clients developing underwriting strategies (risk-by-risk and portfolio underwriting) and designing and implementing digital underwriting propositions. Max also leads our Underwriting Workbench work, recently running a multi-year process to build an end-to-end underwriting tech infrastructure for PE-backed London and Bermuda (re)insurer. Max started his career at Oliver Wyman before working on various climate and tech projects in British Columbia, Canada. He now lives in London, UK.

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George Hanks, Principal

George oversees projects across strategic, operational and technology topics and spends most of his time working with specialty and reinsurance clients.

George joined Oxbow Partners as a consultant following completion of his first-class degree in Economics and Philosophy. On his journey to principal, he has worked on many of Oxbow Partners’ most challenging and high-profile projects. These projects include developing a group-wide strategy for a global reinsurer, completing an end-to-end target operating model review for a leading (re)insurer and developing smart follow strategies for multiple syndicates.

You can find George’s writing on his areas of focus on the Oxbow Partners blog, as well as in the trade press.

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