ebroker is a startup that has evolved from the conception of a simple software for insurance brokers and its management to a global solution for the implementation of the business strategy of ebroker insurance brokers. Its founder, Higinio Iglesias is a Social Graduate from the Social School of the University of Oviedo, a Titled Insurance Mediator (Insurance Broker), and a degree in judicial expertise in insurance.
“Those were the years of Windows 3.11, DBase IV and Clipper; internet did not exist. In 93, a small group of insurance brokers from different parts of Spain came together to cooperate professionally and business and founded E2000 Cooperativa de Corredores de Seguros, and in 2001, after several negative experiences in the search for IT solutions For our group, we decided, based on the software I had created for my brokerage, to develop a technological project with business support based on the idea of an ERP created by brokers for brokers, open to the market, which we baptized as ebroker », Higinio says.
Since in 2001 ebroker took the witness of that program, has not stopped in its evolution and contribution of operational innovation to mediation companies, especially insurance brokers. For Hygin, all this is thanks, in large part, to the passionate spirit of the team that, from different areas, is in the day-to-day development of the product, as well as the investment support that the merchant has given to it since then. located business, E2K.
What does ebroker contribute to the world of insurance brokerage?
Today ebroker is a clear technological reference in the Spanish insurance sector. A strategic partner for the accompaniment of insurance distribution companies in their digital transformation process.
ebroker brings to the world of brokerage an approach in which the priority is the reduction of administrative burdens as a mandatory path for the release of administrative resources and their consequent reorientation towards commercial work and the increase of interaction with the client in order to to increase the level of empathy and loyalty of this.
For its extensive functional capacities -in constant evolution and innovation-, for its modern technological architecture, for its information security environment, for its adaptation to the sectoral regulation and applicable regulations, for the reliability of the business model that supports it, for being a broker project for brokers, today more than 600 insurance distribution companies rely on ebroker as a technological partner.
What services do you offer to the more than 600 insurance mediation companies that work with you?
ebroker is the sum of an ERP, a sectoral connectivity environment, a marketplace, and a set of 360º value services for insurance brokers.
- Un Vertical ERP for insurance distribution, which ranges from the usual business operations of mediation, to integrated financial management, transversal document management, oriented to the relationship with the client through native CRM with integrated messaging system, automation of events and workflows, and a comprehensive mobility environment (APP "My Corridor") that enables communication with clients in real time through instant messaging, video calls, sending alerts ... It also includes a set of resources for business intelligence practices ranging from deployment and customization of KPIs, to the monitoring of dashboards, through an intelligent customer segmentation system based on real-time results of KPIs.
- Un sector connectivity environment, which automates and integrates business processes with the main insurers in the Spanish market, both in the field of commercial transactions for the offer / contracting of policies, and in bidirectional exchange of information related to policies, receipts and claims. ebroker is fully committed to the application of the EIAC sector standard in its connectivity processes.
- Un marketplace, ebroker Store, that, by means of the implantation of insuring products totally integrated in the operative one of the ERP. promotes, encourages and promotes commercial relations for the supply and contracting of insurance among our collective of 600 insurance brokers-ebroker users and insurance companies.
- 360º Services, which add value in the professional field beyond the benefit of ebroker as a software product. For example, we provide contact center services specialized in improving the quality of customer databases to make business intelligence practices and CRM strategies more efficient.
In addition, ebroker is a system designed to be used on the web under different licensing modalities that include its exploitation in cloud (cloud computing), easily integrable with other systems through its webservices interface, developed following industry standards such as Java programming language, robust and recognized databases such as PostgreSQL and technologies with the innovation gap as blockchain.
Apart from these companies, what other market agents can benefit from the use of your software?
ebroker is specifically oriented to insurance distribution companies in any of its modalities or formats. It can also be very useful for the control of insurance contracts and the integration of processes with insurers by the risk management departments of large companies or corporations.
In addition, you have created ebroker Store, where products from various insurance companies are offered, what kind of services can be found here? Who are they destined for?
We offer insurers our ebroker platform as a marketplace in which insurers can visualize and operate their products in an integrated manner, reaching efficiently and evenly the full potential of distributors that operate with our system. Insurers not only have the possibility of operating the offer and contracting of their products, but they can also deploy marketing actions and marketing support. We connect insurers and distributors.
The company started its activity in the Asturian town of Pravia in 2001, how much money did you need to start up the company?
In its origins, ebroker relied on a self-financing model based on the social capital contributed by its shareholders, which were mostly insurance distribution companies.
Have you made any investment round or received external support? Who has participated in them?
We finance ourselves with the result of the activity itself. The only external support we have received to date have been the innovation and R & D & I grants from public bodies for the incentives that come from the Government of the Principality of Asturias.
Do you plan to call a round or open up to new investors?
In these moments it is not valued.
Currently you still have the Technological Center in Pravia, do you plan to move to a better connected city?
Not at all. For many reasons Pravia is in our DNA. Despite what you may believe, Pravia is a very well connected town. It has everything we need. It is a small town that was the beneficiary of a fiber optic cabling project in which we participated in a relevant way in 2005. Asturias airport is located 7 minutes from Pravia and connects us with Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville , Lisbon, London, Paris ... The University of Oviedo (30 minutes from Pravia) graduates in multiple engineering degrees, including computer science. Pravia is a town of 3500 inhabitants with an environment that favors productivity due to the quality of life that it offers to all of us who make up the team. If you come this way it is perfectly understood.
You were born in the middle of the internet 'boom', how has technology changed the world of insurance brokers? Where do you think it is going?
ebroker begins to build on the time of CGI and Javascript, first technologies that made the web began to stop being static HTML pages. That's where we come from. We come from a vision in which the software for insurance brokers was something whose only use was to know how many policies you had, how many premiums you paid and how you settled your obligations derived from them with the companies. Little more. From there, step by step, it has evolved towards a vision of technology at the service of efficiency in the integral management of the business, the promotion of commercial activity and the promotion of relations with the client.
The insurance industry has changed, and more than that will change. The world of insurance has become multi-channel, omnichannel, connected, in constant battle for the trust of an increasingly infidel client, and it is expected that the insurtech environment will help to live and coexist in this new ecosystem of the insurance sector.
In 2015 you gave the jump to Latin America in the hands of JLT Peru, have you encountered any socio-economic, political or cultural difficulties in this process of internationalization?
In the insurance business each country has its regulation and its market uses, especially outside the EU, and in Peru we have acquired much knowledge and experience in a very attractive emerging market, especially when you enter it with one of the biggest brokers in the world as JLT.
What is your expansion plan?
We grow at a good pace in the Spanish market and for us this is the priority market. We are attentive to new opportunities that may arise and we do not rule out anything if there is a good plan behind the opportunity. This year we have started a new international project to support the implantation in Spain of the Bulgarian insurer EUROINS, and on this last I can not count much more.
What other plans do you have for 2018?
Grow as a team and advance ebroker from an innovative attitude committed to the reality of our customers and the market. The rest will come only.
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