Brolink continues to grow from strength to strength
As Brolink celebrates their 21-year anniversary, the company reflects on their growth over the past two decades as a leading short-term insurance administrator.
“In the early 1990s, service levels from insurance companies were not as efficient as they are today”, says Clipstone Webber, Chief Executive Officer at Brolink. “After extensive planning and consultation with a range of experts in the insurance industry, we knew we had the ideal concept for a short term insurance administration business”, says Webber.
At the time, one of the biggest challenges faced by insurers and intermediaries was the laborious claims process, which directly impacted on service levels. “We worked with an IT specialist to develop an application that could be accessed by both insurer and intermediary, which would simplify processes and eradicate unwarranted duplication”, says Webber.
“The initial hurdle to overcome was convincing insurers to outsource the claims management to a then very small, unknown entity,” says Webber. “We registered in March 1994, and three months later we collected the first premiums.”
Today, Brolink manages premiums in excess of R3 billion per annum on behalf of a number of major insurers. A large portion of the business originates from insurers, national brokers and 400 independent brokers across South Africa.
“Our early milestones include our first appointment from a national broker in 1995, the launch of our in-house developed IT platform, Websure and pioneering client profiling and claims prediction methodology incorporating credit data”, says Webber.
“Recent milestones include Websure being selected as their IT platform by a major direct insurer, the launch of Commercial Lines multi-quoting and the acquisition of the issued share capital of Brolink by Santam in 2014.“
“Brolink continues to expand and grow relationships with various insurers to enable us to provide a multi-insurer offering on both personal and commercial insurance,” says Clipstone Webber. “Due to the consolidation of Orico and portions of the Riscor business, Brolink now supports additional IT platforms. This allows for further opportunities to expand,” adds Webber.
“Brolink is built on the principles of honesty and integrity, and the basic rule that we add value to warrant our inclusion in the value chain, while always focusing on innovation to deliver on the changing needs of the insurance industry,” concludes Webber.
