By Bits promises to transform customer experience and bring fair and transparent pricing to drivers. 

It enables motor insurance providers to create innovative, personalised services for customers and bring usage-based policies to market in a fast and cost-effective way.  

In doing so, insurers can meet heightened consumer demand for pay-by-mile insurance products, a trend that has been accentuated during the COVID-19 pandemic, when millions of people have continued to pay the same insurance premium despite doing significantly less driving. 

“Motor insurance pricing is seen as opaque and unfair, and consumers are overwhelmingly dissatisfied with the level of service they are receiving,” said Callum Rimmer, founder and CEO of By Bits.  

“Because it is mandatory if you own a car, motor insurance feels like a tax rather than a purchase decision. This needs to change.  

“Insurance companies urgently need to put the customer first or they risk losing market share and becoming irrelevant.” 

As well as facilitating and accelerating the development of usage-based insurance products, By Bits says it also enables insurers to develop customer-centric products and services.  

The platform can integrate data and generate insight to support compelling mobile applications which give customers real-time data on car usage and savings, and tailored communications at each stage of the customer journey.  

By Bits says this allows providers to establish more meaningful, long-term relationships with customers, helping to address extremely low retention levels across the industry.  

The By Bits platform is delivered through a software as a service model and can be integrated into existing technology systems or used as a standalone white label solution.  

Rimmer continued: “Our tried and tested platform future-proofs insurers in an unpredictable market where mobility, customer expectations and democratised data are dictating innovation.  

“This pandemic has changed driving habits for millions and the need for the whole UK car insurance industry to catch-up to customer expectations, grow with the changing mobility landscape and create the freedom to innovate has never been more pressing.  

“We hope that in 10 years’ time people see the launch of By Bits as an inflection point in the way motor insurance is delivered, in the same way that retail banking has been transformed over the last few years.” 

A recent study found that the average insurer spends around 3.5% of its total Gross Written Premium (GWP) on the technology needed to manage its product portfolio, which is over £700 million per year.   

Available to insurance companies both nationally and internationally, By Bits provides two main services – an insurance rating engine and an insurance policy management system. The By Bits rating engine enables insurance companies to calculate insurance premiums using modifiable underwriting and rating rules.  

For insurers implementing a pay-per-mile product, it will split the premium into a fixed amount and a per mile amount. The policy management system enables insurers to manage every aspect of the lifecycle of a car insurance policy ranging from quotation to policy and renewal. Both services are able to be deployed as modular solutions that can be integrated with existing software or used as standalone products. 

Phil Ost, head of personal lines at Zurich Insurance Group, said: “Whilst price will always remain hygiene, we see a move away from a pure price dominated model with its ‘arms race’ to source incremental data to compete for the best risks and its reliance on price ranked comparison engines.  

“In the new environment, in order to attract and retain customers for the long-term, the market will have to shift its thinking to the wider customer proposition including the service it delivers and the services it offers.  

“As a key enabler, technology and digital delivery will undoubtedly play a significant part in this journey, whether it’s the smart use of telematics across the value chain or tools to speed up the settlement of claims.”  

Since launching to the public in July 2018, By Miles has sold tens of thousands of policies. 

Source: Business Cloud