Another year of the INSTANDA INSPIRE Awards has come to a close, and we are thrilled to celebrate the incredible innovation and excellence demonstrated by our clients. The awards recognize those who are pushing the boundaries of insurance, using the INSTANDA platform to build transformative products, streamline processes, and create exceptional customer experiences. This year’s nominees showcased remarkable ingenuity, making the judges' decisions tougher than ever.
Let's explore the outstanding achievements of the finalists and winners in each category.
Most Unique Coverage, Product, or Distribution Journey
This award honors projects that stand out for their innovation in addressing market needs through unique products, coverage, or distribution strategies. This year’s finalists, Hamilton Fraser and SES Risk Solutions, both delivered groundbreaking solutions that redefined their respective markets.
Winner: SES Risk Solutions
SES Risk Solutions took home the award for their QUBIE (Quote, Bind, Issue, Endorse) platform, an automated insurance solution for passive real estate investors. QUBIE addresses a significant gap in the market, providing tailored, accessible insurance for investors with one or two properties - a segment often overlooked by traditional insurers. By using machine learning and third-party data integrations, QUBIE streamlines underwriting and delivers automated quotes in seconds.
The judges were highly impressed. As lead judge and VP of Customer Success at INSTANDA, Katy Murray noted, "It's a textbook example of a tech solution solving a real-world insurance gap with measurable impact." Returning guest-judge, Managing Director and Founder of The Camelot Network in the UK, David Clamp added, "Simplicity, ease and speed of the quote and bind process... dynamic real time data access and full end to end automation are all key components of driving success in lower value premiums, high volume businesses. Not easy - but you've nailed it. Well done to the SES team."
Finalist: Hamilton Fraser
Hamilton Fraser was recognized for its Total Property hub for UK landlords. As part of this initiative, their Total Landlord Insurance (TLI) brand built a customer-first insurance platform on INSTANDA to accelerate growth and redefine the customer experience.
The results were outstanding, with a 44% year-over-year increase in new policies. Guest judge and Global Head of Celent, Juan Mazzini, praised their work, stating, "Hamilton Fraser's achievements in launching the Total Property Hub are commendable and reflect a strong commitment to innovation and customer-centricity." Similarly, Patti Harman, Editor-in-Chief of Digital Insurance was particularly compelled by their methodology, sharing, "Hamilton Fraser’s use of the A/B testing to help optimize their offerings...helped to shape their product and saved valuable time in getting it to market."
Best Configuration Project
This category celebrates projects that demonstrate exceptional skill in configuring the INSTANDA platform to solve complex business challenges. The finalists, AiA and Universal Insurance Programs, both leveraged configuration to drive significant operational improvements.
Winner: Associated Insurance Administrators, Inc. (AiA)
AiA won for their transformative workers’ compensation underwriting portal. In just six months, they replaced a manual, email-based process with a streamlined system that provides real-time quotes. What once took 2-3 days can now be done in under five minutes, with some quotes generated in as little as 100 seconds.
The project delivered dramatic results, including a 209% increase in new business written premium and a 91% rise in application counts from 2023 to 2024. Judge Michael Keating, CEO of the Managing General Agents’ Association highlighted the dramatic impact, noting "a 20% increase in new business, 2-3 days processing reduced to under 5 minutes and critically, through a 30% reduction in decline rate, it shows how this initiative reaches more customers in a very efficient model." Likewise, judge and Editor of Modern Insurance Magazine, Hayley Dalton was also impressed, stating, "The portal clearly improves efficiency, agent experience, and new business growth, and the no-code setup makes future updates easy and agile."
Finalist: Universal Insurance Programs (UIP)
Universal Insurance Programs (UIP) was a finalist for its enhanced rating and online quoting system for its tanning salon, salon, and day spa program. The new platform, built on INSTANDA, streamlined quoting, invoicing, and policy document access. It introduced real-time feedback that prevented underwriters from wasting time on applications that would be rejected. Judge David Clamp commended the project's spirit, saying, "The CARE mantra (recovering the lost art of customer service) clearly was embodied by the whole project team to achieve these impressive business outcomes." Jenny Bortman, President of UIP, shared her pride: "Team Salon hit all of our deadlines – we probably could have even beat them if we pushed a little bit harder...as well as we performed under budget.”
Best Configuration Team
This award recognizes the teams behind the code, celebrating their collaborative spirit, innovation, and expertise in bringing complex projects to life. The finalists, Across America and Coplus, are prime examples of how small, dedicated teams can achieve incredible results.
Winner: Coplus
The Coplus team earned this year's award for delivering three transformative projects at an unprecedented scale. Their internal core team architected a comprehensive broker distribution system for 180+ brokers, built an enterprise fulfillment engine processing a huge volume of policies annually, and developed a direct-to-consumer innovation hub through INSTANDA.
The judges were in awe of the team's efficiency and impact. Michael Keating called it an "Extremely impressive submission straddling 3 different but critical projects." David Clamp noted, "Deploying pricing and product modifications within hours instead of months is groundbreaking." Katy Murray summarized their achievement perfectly: "The Coplus team demonstrates exceptional innovation, delivering three highly complex insurance platforms...Their use of INSTANDA to accelerate time-to-market and scale at pace is a benchmark for the industry.”
Finalist: Across America
The Across America configuration team, comprised of just two part-time configurators, was honored for revolutionizing their trucking quoting experience. They replaced a fragile Excel-based system with a unified rater that allows brokers to get quotes from up to 10 carriers for three lines of business in under seven minutes.
This new platform directly supported the company's explosive year-over-year premium growth. Judge Hayley Dalton commented, "I’m really impressed by how this small team delivered a complex, multi-line rater in under five months and continues to iterate rapidly." David Clamp praised their agility: "I really admire what this small team of Configurators have been able to achieve, not just in implementing the 3-month project, but, importantly, in maintaining a very responsive cadence of change."
Celebrating a Culture of Innovation
Congratulations to all our winners and finalists! Your work embodies the spirit of the INSPIRE Awards and showcases the incredible potential of collaborating with INSTANDA to drive meaningful change. You are not just building insurance products; you are creating more efficient, customer-centric, and resilient businesses. We are proud to partner with you on this journey and can't wait to see what you build next.
