Setting the ‘new normal’

Some time ago we won a new insurance company customer in Australia.

Virtually building

Following a ‘Request for Proposal’ process and multiple platform demonstrations, our initial meeting with the customer was held in Australia during October last year. The delivery agreement was signed in February 2020 and we began building the solution configuration for the company in the same month. There is a meaningful amount of work involved in configuring and integrating the solution including activities such as business product design, deploying the policy admin, claims systems and creation of a completely new eCommerce site.

When we won the business, we expected that a team from the UK would be required to spend multiple weeks on site with the client to ensure a smooth installation and deployment of our Aquarium platform. Obviously, due to the current restrictions on international travel, it quickly became clear that this would not be possible. This posed a new challenge for us: building the entire platform remotely. It was something we had not considered before but now it was the only reality that made deployment possible.

Communication is key

Despite these challenging circumstances, we managed to deliver the platform within two weeks, with the team at Aquarium working remotely with their Australian counterparts via early morning and late night calls.

In many ways the time difference worked as an opportunity rather than a hindrance. We were able to roll out different elements of the platform to share with our Australian colleagues in evening conference calls, so they would have a response or provide additional input by the time we started working on the project again the next day.

Driving progress in difficult times

We are now entering the final phase of delivery ready for a launch at the beginning of summer.

Although the global pandemic caused by COVID has resulted in limitations, we have been surprised at how agile two teams working on other sides of the world can be, powered by the right technology to help drive effective and efficient procedures. This has been a great accomplishment for us as a business and we aim to replicate this success for other overseas customers in North America.