Making scheme implementation successful – Travelers

For some businesses, standard insurance offerings aren’t sufficient. Their unique risks require cover that a scheme can better fulfil. The Travelers schemes business focuses on providing specialised insurance options to these niche businesses.

But finding the right fit is crucial and careful scheme management is needed to ensure the broker partner and insurer share the right ingredients for success.

That’s why we created a 4D process for scheme implementation. We’re putting this process to the test right now at Travelers as we expand our footprint for delegated authority.

The process ensures we make ideal schemes matches – ones that help us harness our underwriting expertise and collaborate with brokers to deliver profitable growth.

The 4D Process

Here are the four D’s that guide every successful scheme implementation at Travelers:

• Discovery – We assess the proposition and ask questions. Is it a mutual fit? What are the customers’ needs? How successful has performance been historically? What does success mean for both partners? Having ample data available at this stage leads to a more successful scheme journey.
• Design – We refine the proposition to deepen our understanding. This includes identifying in-house experts to help design the scheme and collaborate with the broker partner through the implementation stage.
• Delivery – We activate the scheme, with clear milestones geared to launch requirements. Our experts support the scheme as it goes live. We agree the success measures and sign contracts to confirm the partnership.
• Development – We set a structure for ongoing review and collaboration so the scheme experiences continuous profitable growth.

In our experience, the design and delivery stages are especially important to understanding the best path to success.

Delegated schemes may cover a complex mix of products. At Travelers, we have both single-product schemes and others with 17 products and counting.

Quality collaboration through the design and delivery stages is needed to ensure we create the best roadmap based on the nuances of each business. While technical risk acceptance and management are critical, the overwhelming requirement for any successful scheme is the ability of the insurer and broker to work well together.

The best partnerships

Collaboration drives a scheme’s success on multiple levels. Engaged, involved stakeholders create efficiencies, enabling agile decision-making and reducing lead times.

Scheme implementation is detailed and complex. It requires operational, technical and regulatory considerations that impact such widely ranging areas as documentation, system development, underwriting guides, claims handling and referral management.

Regular joint project meetings are enablers and it’s critical to remember that it’s a joint venture, leading to success for both businesses.

As well as supporting and maximising our existing partnerships, our goal at Travelers is to grow in the delegated authority space through quality partnerships, so we are constantly assessing new opportunities. We have worked on two implementations in the last six months and the door is certainly open for more.