How Relay Differs from Other “Placement Platforms”
By Greg Boutin, CEO, Relay Platform —
We are sometimes asked why the world needs a new platform for Risk Transfer. There are already so many!
The Quick Answer
Let us start by saying that Relay isn’t just a placement platform. Relay is a SaaS platform that helps insurance and reinsurance participants with structuring and transferring risk faster, digitizing and augmenting their dealmaking network, and taking out the pain of managing all associated communications, reminders, reporting and integrations.
In a nutshell, Relay helps with the upstream data gathering, structuring and administration of risk placements. Everything that happens before any actual transaction is conducted. That is critical. Few platforms tackle those steps, which remain mostly manual, and this is why Relay is in fact fully compatible with most other placement platforms. We certainly handle the transactions themselves, and we handle them very well. But if all you need is a system to centralize risk transfer information, and then push it to third parties like brokers or a reinsurer, by email, MS Excel, XML, API or other formats, then you will find Relay to be a top choice, still.
We have found in our many discussions with brokers, underwriters and ceding teams, in fact, that even platforms that claim to tackle those steps are in fact primarily used after all the data gathering, placement structuring and even sometimes the actual transaction. Not with Relay. Because we make this process completely painless, and add incredible value to our users – saving our power users weeks of work every year, and still saving days of work for those handling less frequent placements.
Four Key Differences
Relay is the only platform that :
- Digitizes the typically neglected, manual “design and assembly phase” of risk transfers. That has massive ramifications in terms of user adoption, speed, reporting and security.
- Enables a secure, compatible transfer of placement data between ANY participant and proprietary application, providing full visibility across all risk transfers (critical for exposure and claim management)
- Offers an easy online sign-up along with a transparent subscription-based pricing structure (similar whether you cede, broker or assume)
- There is a fourth reason, and that’s our true “superpower”: we listen to our users and improve at an exponential rate. If you’ve seen Relay last month for instance, you should see it now as it has evolved already.
All this means that Relay, as an online Software-as-a-Service solution, positions you to take advantage of key innovations and unlocks speed and efficiencies in the risk placement process.
A Look at Each Difference in More Details:
Difference #1: We digitize the typically neglected, manual “design and assembly phase” of risk transfers
Relay focuses entirely on digitizing the “design and assembly stage” of risk transfers, whether in reinsurance or insurance. Unlike any other platform, it is not used after the fact to re-key and record a transaction, but during the “assembly stage” of the placement , to gather data and documents, define requirements and structure, and generally collaborate across parties, first internally, and then externally. To that end, it focuses on usability and fully integrates with email, spreadsheets, Acrobat and MS Word documents, ACORD forms, and third-party systems – providing the most useful risk transfer administration and collaboration platform to capacity seekers, providers and brokers.
The creation of risk transfers is the heart of your performance. It drives your cost and your exposure. It does not make sense to still have that done manually through spreadsheets, emails and shared folders. Connect it to your backend system, invite your broker as desired, and get going on end-to-end risk transfer digitization now or be left behind!
Difference #2: We enable a secure, compatible transfer of placement data between all participants and proprietary applications (critical for exposure and claim management)
Relay also differentiates itself in its ability to handle risk transfers across multiple participants who may or may not have a Relay account, also “relaying” information between the many proprietary placement systems that proliferate in the risk transfer business. Relay believes the current trend of building siloed applications that do not play well with each other drives massive inefficiencies for each party in the process, and makes it harder and costlier to secure, broker or assume capacity.
How many more proprietary close-knit systems can insurers, insurance brokers, MGA-MGUs insurers possibly have to deal with? It seems one is launching every other month. This is why we called ours RELAY and not SILO!
Insurers need visibility into their exposure across the board, and running their claims against a single “source of truth”. As soon as they use more than one broker, or go direct for part of their risk transfers, they lose portfolio visibility. Even when using a single broker, they typically do not have real-time visibility at their fingertips. We change that – and that is also true of Relay as a broker platform.
Difference #3: We offer an easy online sign-up along with a transparent, subscription-based pricing structure (similar whether you cede, broker or assume)
Relay is directly accessible at www.relayplatform.com as the first-ever risk transfer application with an online self-serve sign-up and fixed, transparent subscription-based pricing. Complete functionality can be tested in full for free for 30 days with free basic risk transfer functionality or an enhanced monthly subscription afterward
As such, Relay is the only risk transfer system where you can sign up online and be placing, brokering or assuming capacity on the same day, for FREE. No hidden charge. We make money only if you upgrade to benefit from added functions such as quote tracking (in addition to your inbox), reporting, integrations or white-labelling.
Yes, anyone can white-label Relay, including Brokers! We help and integrate with everyone. Reinsurance brokers use Relay to provide value to their clients while increasing visibility into potential opportunities. Packaging fac placements into a treaty is an example. With our online sign-up, they can add clients to the platform on the fly, combining flexibility, control and continuous innovation.
Difference #4: We listen to users and improve at an exponential rate
Now, many really dismiss that one, and that’s tragic… If the current situation with COVID-19 has shown anything, is that the singlest most important performance driver of an organization over the long run is its capacity to adapt. Yet we see – time and time again – managers and executives opting for rigid, static, clunky solutions that fail to evolve. In risk transfer administration and placement, most other platforms are outdated by most of today’s standards, and fail to innovate.
With Relay, you are not buying a product, or even a solution. You are buying a partnership. We don’t work to just meet basic needs and lock in your business, we work to keep you ahead and make you more competitive.
Since March 2020, we have released one major innovation every single month. We evolve from a simple, friendly, narrow use case in facultative reinsurance, to a multi-risk portfolio solution providing a single view across all placements. That is innovation – and we’re just getting started. We build our platform to be the most agile, collaborative, and social, because that is what will provide the most value in the months and years to come.
In our next posts, we summarize key benefits, and current traction – two questions we know people have.
We hope this provides you with an overview of how we can serve, and would love an opportunity to win not just your business, but your trust!
About Relay
Relay Platform (“Relay”) is an InsurTech venture making the process of structuring and securing reinsurance and large insurance placements simpler and faster. Relay helps reinsurance ceding teams, insurance underwriters and brokers quickly turn placement data into visual coverage towers, then use them to secure and manage quotes. This replaces a traditionally manual, painstaking process, and gives management better reporting on placements. For more information, please visit www.relayplatform.com.
Source: Relay Platform