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The 125 year competition is now closed.
Congratulations to the winners of the £125 Amazon vouchers!
Paul Farrant – Gill Noble
Linda Wilson – WH & R McCartney Insurance Brokers
Josie Bearne – NLIG
Denise Platt – County Insurance
The 8th October 2019 marks 125 years of NIG protecting and supporting businesses, helping them flourish through the high times and navigate the low.
We’ve been here across two world wars, weathered recessions and made our way through unprecedented technological changes. We were one of the first to incorporate risk management in our business policies and we continue to adapt to an ever-changing world, giving our brokers and UK businesses the confidence that we will evolve to meet their needs.
The evolution of NIG
Whilst we’ve kept the same name, we’ve had a few different parent companies over the 125 years. Founded in 1894, our mission was to provide independent and forward-thinking insurance solutions to both personal and commercial customers.
As part of the Churchill group, after being purchased by its parent company Winterthur in 2000, and then a member of the Direct Line family we’ve made our name as an insurer that always has the customer at heart, is never afraid to adapt when change is needed and rises to the challenge.
We’ve been consistent in our approach to working with brokers. We build great partnerships that last for the long-term and help us make the most of every opportunity.
In 2010, we focused our attention solely on the commercial market and continue to develop our expertise in this area.
Championing UK business
So much of our focus at NIG is on nurturing UK businesses, armouring them with the tools and cover they need to manage risks they may face.
We really believe in getting to know not just the brokers we work with but their clients too. Members of our risk management team often visit customers with brokers to help them find better ways to reduce and manage their risk.
But it’s not just businesses we want to see thrive – it’s people.
Only last December we were thrilled to become the first insurer to launch an apprenticeship programme, so we can encourage more young people to grow and flourish in this exciting and fast changing industry.
NIG today
Today, we’re as committed as ever to growing and evolving. In 2017 we opened our centralised National Trading Centre (NTC) in Manchester as part of our ‘effortless’ strategy and it continues to go from strength to strength, complementing our regional structure. The NTC is just one part of delivering a trading model that works for our brokers. This extends to include the launch of the National Schemes Centre and a dedicated Real Estate Proposition.
In e-trading we’ve continued to develop our products to make it easier to upload data and review cover and have shortened question sets to make things even more efficient.
The introduction of a new 360 digital claims platform has also been a great success. This allows customers to quickly and easily submit images and videos to support their claims, providing a better customer experience and flexible settlement solutions.
With You in Five (WYi5) is another digital initiative, which simplifies and speeds up the claims process. Since its launch it has significantly reduced the claims lifecycle on property claims.
Continually improving
We’re continuously seeking to improve our products and the way we work. As part of an ongoing transformation programme each of our complex products is undergoing a significant review. In particular, we’ll be looking at how they compare to the wider market and how effectively they meet the emerging needs of our clients and UK business.
We recently launched our new Motor Trade One product, bringing two policies into one for added ease and also offering enhanced limits and a greater range of cover as standard. It’s the first complex product to launch on our new easy-to-use system for regionally-traded products, which offers improved and instant documentation.
Earlier this year, our continuous improvement was recognised and rewarded when we were the only insurer to achieve a five-star rating from The Insurance Times eTrading Survey, for both TheHub and Software Houses – a welcome testament to all the hard work in recent years.
Looking to the future
These are just some of the things that we’ve been working on. Over the next few years we’ll find more ways to make us easy to do business with. We look forward to standing as a pillar for commercial businesses for many years to come.