Faster, more accurate motor insurance quotes

[User12343]

BT 15 Aug

 

NEW motor insurance quotation system capable of calculating multiple quotes is set to cut waiting time and increase consumer choice.

 

The web-based software platform is expected to include big names in motor insurance as well as the niche players among the 27 insurance companies offering motor policies in Singapore.

 

The AMQS, or Automatic Multiple Quotation System, was developed by insurance agent Ken Loh Yoon Kian over four years. Mr Loh declined to reveal how much money he has invested in it but he said he is gratified by the response - the Association of Singapore Insurance Agents is now exploring the best way for its agent members to work with the system, and two of Singapore's biggest motor insurers are also said to be considering participating.

 

Mr Loh, a former Economic Development Board scholar, used to work in investment promotion. When he entered the insurance industry in 1999, he realised that offering a prospective customer a range of quotations involved a fair amount of manual calculations.

 

'If a customer wants a quote, an insurance agent has to give him a few to compare against. Such a comparison requires the agent's experience because he has to choose two or three quotes - from a pool of about five to six - that best suit the customer,' he said.

 

As a new agent at the time, Mr Loh questioned this reliance on an agent's experience.

 

'I came into the industry without a special network relationship or any other competitive advantage. So I decided to do things more efficiently,' he said.

 

He chose to go the way of computerisation but could not find software in the market to help him. 'So I got my hands dirty and became a new breed of agent - one that can write software,' he said.

 

The programming work was not easy for him, he claims, but he was competent enough as he had previous experience writing a computer program for his Master's thesis in electrical engineering while at university.

 

'It was an act of expediency,' he said. As a result, the old way of calculating 'dead' formulae was thrown out and a spreadsheet was used, allowing for several insurers' premiums to be computed at one go. But as insurance companies gradually went online or began computerising the premium computation formula themselves, it created a proliferation of separate software systems.

 

To overcome this new obstacle, Mr Loh developed a full-blown, web-based software to 'talk' to the various insurers' web-servers, thus creating the first online motor insurance quotation system that calculates multiple quotes with their premiums, excess values, workshop restrictions, and other details before ranking them for easy comparison.

 

'With these tabulated quotations, we can show a range of comparative quotes,' said Mr Loh. 'It is as good as having many agents simultaneously keying into different softwares to get quotations from several insurers and compiling the results into a single table, except that this is now done automatically and instantly.'

 

He said the advantages are speed, manual labour savings and accuracy. The traditional manual method of computing premiums takes 15 minutes per customer. The automated alternative does it in under five minutes.

 

All that is required is for the agent to input the necessary personal data, such as age and years of no-claims discount. The standard quote that appears is binding on the insurer, assuming that the information provided is correct.

 

Mr Loh said the main benefit of the AMQS is that it cuts down processing time and cost by providing an integrated interface for quick comparison.

 

'An agent using this system will have a better tool to do a quick analysis. As for the consumer, this will serve him better because it's a transparent system. Moreover, when agents achieve labour saving, cost goes down and consumers will also benefit.'