Open GI and PowerPlace launch real-time commercial rates

Open GI has launched an online platform that will allow insurers to update their commercial rates instantly.

The technology, Mi PowerPlace Studio, also allows insurers to add new products onto PowerPlace and change policy wordings.

At the moment insurers have to ask the software house when they want to change their rates – and it can take months for complex rates changes to be built into the new system.

“This gives the insurers the ability to change rates in real time, as opposed to waiting for the work to be prioritised or delivered,” PowerPlace chief executive Nick Giddings told Insurance Times.

PowerPlace has made the move in response to the growing amount of SME cover being bought online.

“Insurers have said for a long time ‘if we’re going to trade on the internet we need to be able to trade our rates in real time’,” he added.

AXA will be the first insurer to go live with the system early next year, beginning with property owner and tradesmen cover.

In June Open GI and Powerplace launched software that lets brokers sell SME insurance through a white-labelled portal on their own website.

AXA began rolling out a programme to offer real-time pricing on personal lines for brokers in August.