How to Choose the Right Insurtech in a Hard Cyber Market

The past year has been a tough one for cyber insurance. With successful ransomware attack rates more than doubling and aggressive nation-state actors increasingly targeting specific companies with sophisticated supply-chain attacks, enterprises are scrambling to protect themselves.

Although most are hardening their defenses to stop or mitigate breaches, they understandably transfer some of that risk through insurance policies. Predictably, rates have skyrocketed, and some companies have even found themselves unable to secure policies at any price. Carriers are also adapting by tightening terms and conditions.

With the emergence of even more troubling developments, such as criminal “ransomware-as-a-service” operations, brokers and agents need the right tools to price risk appropriately and efficiently. Ransomware-as-a-service or “RaaS” refers to a business model in which affiliates pay to launch attacks developed by ransomware operators. Think of it as a predatory variation of the software-as-a-service or “SaaS” model.  

As these actors continue to paralyze organizations of all types, the only constant will be change. In such a dynamic environment, legacy practices — like manually generating quotes and attempting to compare static .pdf files — are likely to create errors and complexity in comparing risks. Also, the legacy systems many agents and brokers use today are clunky and rely heavily on manual input and email. 

Thus, the key to success in this market is moving quickly and communicating accurately. Using a modern, data-driven insurtech platform to stay on top of the rapid pace of change is a critical piece of doing so. 

While being able to deliver machine-readable and continuously updated Instant Quotes via API is table stakes at this point, here are some additional requirements to think about: 

Is it easy to differentiate between various offerings?

The vast array of carriers and coverages available can make it challenging to decide which one is best for your customers. Comparing offerings across a variety of criteria will allow them to pick the one best for them without overpaying for unnecessary coverage, missing a critical risk transfer requirement, or both. 

Tools like Relay’s Competitive Differentiation Table™ enable easy comparison between policies, streamlining the selection and purchasing process. With a “single pane of glass” through which customers can understand their options, both you and they will be well-equipped to select the most appropriate coverage in the uncertainty that characterizes today’s cyber market.

Are customer proposals dynamically updated?

Ensuring that your prospective clients have access to the latest information is critical in the fast-paced world of cyber insurance. Nothing can be more frustrating than having to manually copy-and-paste information from various formats into customer-facing proposals. That’s why automating the generation of these deliverables is so essential. 

Relay’s Smart Customer Proposals^TM allows for this type of efficiency, providing buyers with a continuously updated and logically depicted snapshot of their options. Instead of wasting time cobbling together data from different formats, you can focus your attention on maintaining client relationships and staying abreast of the latest market developments. 

With some estimates suggesting that cybercrime will cost the global economy $10.5 trillion per year by 2025, managing cyber risk will remain top of mind for all enterprises. As these organizations seek to transfer this risk by buying insurance, getting them the most accurate and timely quotes — delivered in a machine-readable format via API — will be critical toward ensuring their success. 

As brokers and agents move further into an already unstable 2022, having a trusted insurtech platform with a robust set of features will be an absolute requirement for navigating these uncertain times. Book a demo now to learn how Relay Platform can help you adapt.