The collaboration will accelerate PPL’s transition from a transaction platform to a data-driven trading hub.
Placing Platform Limited (PPL) has today announced a multi-year agreement that will integrate Microsoft’s data and AI capabilities and productivity tools into the flow of work on PPL’s specialty insurance trading platform.
This collaboration will advance how brokers and carriers use and interact with the platform as they trade and bind risks. The move will speed PPL’s transition from a document-led, administrative placing process to an intuitive trading platform and intelligent data hub.
The creation of a family of PPL productivity tools using Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365 Copilot, and Microsoft Power BI will be a powerful accelerator of data-driven trading. This will enable brokers and carriers to be more responsive, creating time and space for the high-touch, high-value relationships that the London market is known for.
The collaboration is set to deliver:
- Enhanced collaboration in the market, driving relationships through a PPL market directory curated on Microsoft Teams and managed across Microsoft 365. This will enable quicker contact and response times, as well as simplifying the capture of trading activity, currently completed outside of the platform.
- Powerful and actionable broker and carrier insight delivered by bespoke PPL Copilot prompts, enabling users to compare, analyse, and gain insight in real time to inform next actions.
- End-to-end trading data housed in an intelligent Microsoft Fabric-powered data hub, providing PPL clients with easy access to structured, secure, and rich data to inform and support business decisions.
John Mason, CEO of PPL, underscores the value of the collaboration to the industry:
I am hugely excited about the opportunities that this relationship brings for the London market, he says. This is a transformational deal, and one that relies not on costly untested development processes, but the use of existing well-tested tools that almost everyone already knows how to use.
In collaboration with Microsoft, John Mason continues, PPL has the ability to create a step-change in how our clients interact with each other across the end-to-end trading cycle. We have engaged some of our key clients early in this process, allowing PPL to test our theories and focus on how we can empower and strengthen digital connectivity between market participants. We’ve been delighted with their feedback and are now focused on detailed design and delivery.
Rest assured though; this does not mean we will take our eye off the ball with respect to our core mission of delivering a high functioning front-to-back placing platform. We will continue to focus and prioritise the core engine and clients can expect to also see further enhancements to the platform throughout the next 12 months.
Bill Borden, Corporate Vice President, Worldwide Financial Services, Microsoft also sees the relationship with PPL as a prime example of how to use the latest cloud technologies from Microsoft to innovate and deliver compelling business outcomes.
This latest initiative between PPL and Microsoft is rooted in our shared vision of empowering the insurance industry with innovative tools that boost efficiency and unlock new avenues for growth,” he says. Through a simplified collaboration platform and dynamic, data-driven trading environment, we aim to streamline processes and provide real-time insights that enhance decision-making across the market.
John Neal, Lloyd’s CEO said:
Transitioning to a data first digital trading environment will help drive London Market growth and innovation. This partnership has the potential to accelerate and capture this opportunity.
Watch the launch video here