Biba 2025: SSP Broker boss vows to ‘do better’ after last place eTrading score

Martyn Mathews, managing director at insurance software firm SSP Broker, pledged to improve the customer experience and trading performance delivered by the business after it fell to the bottom of the rating table in the software house category of Insurance Times’ Five Star Rating Report: eTrading 2025, published in May 2025.

Based on a survey of 750 UK general insurance brokers conducted between January and March 2025, the report gave SSP Broker the lowest star rating out of a field of four software houses. It achieved a 2.62 score for 2025 – this is identical to its 2024 result and slightly worse than the 2.71 score it recorded for 2023.

Speaking exclusively to Insurance Times at the Biba Conference 2025 this week (14 and 15 May 2025), Mathews said: “I’m disappointed that the score hasn’t gone forward in the last 12 months, but any opportunity to learn from the market is a good thing.”

Mathews, who joined the software provider in January 2024 to lead its service turnaround, said this score was “motivation” to fuel further investment into broker services and customer experience improvements.

He added: “A lot of work to do – that’s how I characterise it. It fuels my motivation to try and do better – great start, heck of a lot more to do.”

SSP Broker – which provides a policy administration platform to more than 400 UK insurance brokers – has undergone a number of changes since being acquired by Canadian software firm Constellation Software in 2021.

For example, the company invested £6m into a major cloud migration project. This was designed to build a more resilient platform for regional brokers, which form the bulk of SSP Broker’s client base.

The project started in October 2023, accelerated in June 2024 and then concluded in March 2025.

Mathews told Insurance Times: “We’ve taken the business back, invested in the fundamentals and now it’s about helping our customers grow.

“We’re home to the regional broker – large and small – and that’s something we’re proud of.”

Listening and responding

Mathews credited broker feedback with shaping SSP Broker’s development road map, noting that requests around ease of doing business and insurer scheme access have driven the platform’s next set of priorities.

He said: “Our brokers have asked us to improve the ease of doing business, so we’re investing in bringing in new insurer schemes and making the process of writing business as effective as possible.”

While the annual results of the Five Star Rating Report: eTrading indicate a certain level of rockiness over the years, Mathews noted that the business has stabilised and is focused on retaining and empowering its existing broker base – rather than chasing growth for growth’s sake.

He continued: “Growth for us will come as a consequence of helping our 400 brokers access better, faster, leaner services.

“Our customers can feel the difference in the organisation now, even compared to two years ago.”

Despite the challenges of modernising a 40-year-old business, Mathews said he is proud of the turnaround achieved so far, citing a 29% improvement in profitability under his leadership to date.

He explained: “Without financial stability, we have no platform with which to build.”

Looking ahead to next year’s eTrading report results, Mathews said he hopes progress will be visible – not just in the scores, but in how brokers perceive the value of the SSP platform.

He added: “If our customers feel that their process of writing business is smoother, more effective – I’ll feel pretty good about that.”