Transforming Insurance ‘Quote and Buy’ Platforms with Markerstudy Distribution

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Introduction

NashTech collaborated with Markerstudy Distribution to develop a modern, cloud-based architecture that allows for rapid deployment, cost savings, and improved performance.

Client Overview

In June 2024, Atlanta Group (a NashTech customer) merged with Markerstudy to create one of the largest personal lines insurance broking businesses in the UK, Markerstudy Group. Now, Markerstudy Distribution (a division of Markerstudy Group) provides motor, home, SME, and pet insurance products in partnership with several of the best-known brands in UK financial services and retail, and through its brands including Swinton, Carole Nash, Marmalade, Budget, Lancaster and Purely Pets to name a few.

Markerstudy Distribution (MSD) has worked with NashTech for over three years (as Atlanta Insurance) to modernise and optimise its digital ‘quote and buy’ platforms.

‘Quote and buy’ platforms are consumer-facing websites that allow a consumer to go on to a website (either directly to the insurers’ website or via an aggregator website e.g. Money Supermarket), receive an insurance quote, and purchase a policy.

The background

In 2019, MSD found their ‘Motorhome insurance’ channel of business was having to rely on less optimal digital solutions for its customer journey. They needed to build a new quote and buy engine.

With a significant portion of its business driven through aggregator websites, such as Compare the Market or Money Supermarket, MSD needed to enhance its technology infrastructure to improve the user experience, reduce costs, and accelerate the time it took to get new product lines and acquisition brands to market with a dedicated quote and buy website.

The Challenge

MSD wanted to create an optimal digital journey for its Motorhome insurance customers, whilst also increasing the number of user journeys that were completed, ending in a policy issued and a sale made.

MSD also recognised that the legacy systems built for car, home, bike, and van insurance had also become disjointed for several reasons.

One of the biggest challenges was that the platform ‘Autonet’ had become clunky over time. As an affiliate-driven business with around 100 different partners, each requiring a separate quote and buy engine, any change—no matter how small—had to be implemented across all of them. This meant making 100x updates for a single adjustment, which was simply not practical.

MSD had also acquired several businesses that, while using the same underlying technologies, relied on different third parties or had been built in varying ways. As a result, when changes were needed, they had to engage multiple third parties, making it difficult to align everything into a cohesive system.

MSD recognised the need for a solution that was agnostic to the underlying systems and services in use. As a broker operating across multiple policy administration systems – they needed a flexible architecture capable of supporting various versions of the same system while accommodating different policy administration platforms.

By adopting a more strategic approach to system architecture, MSD saw an opportunity to develop a unified solution that could work across multiple platforms while still allowing for slight variations in customer journeys, such as branding, colour schemes, and question formatting. Motorhome insurance became the proof of concept, demonstrating not only how to build a streamlined quote and buy system, but also how to establish a modular, componentised architecture. This approach laid the foundation for scaling the solution across a broader range of insurance products and policy administration systems.

MSD needed to replace its outdated quote and buy platforms, ensuring:

Migration from legacy technology to modern cloud-based solutions

Improved mobile responsiveness and customer experience

Faster deployment of new quote and buy websites

Cost efficiency through code reuse and streamlined maintenance

Enhanced ability to scale and integrate new acquisitions seamlessly

MSD began to tender out for the work and discovered NashTech as a provider of custom software development.

The NashTech Solution

“We tended out for the piece of work and, thankfully, we chose NashTech, because the partnership has flourished into one of the most important relationships that we have.”
Jeff Mountford, Broker Systems Director at Markerstudy

NashTech collaborated with Markerstudy to develop a modern, cloud-based architecture that allows for rapid deployment, cost savings, and improved performance. Key areas of impact include:

Common Platform & Architecture: NashTech built a standardised quote and buy framework that enables MSD to launch new propositions much faster, reducing time to market from months to weeks.

Improved Conversion & Customer Journey: The new system provides a smoother, mobile-friendly experience, leading to higher journey completions and improved quote-to-sale ratios.

Cost Efficiency & Scalability: By creating reusable components, NashTech significantly reduced development costs and maintenance efforts across multiple platforms.

Enhanced Fraud Prevention & Tiered Offerings: The introduction of tiered pricing (Bronze, Silver, Gold) and fraud prevention mechanisms further optimised customer acquisition and revenue generation.

Over time, the quote and buy engine has been continuously refined—introducing new components, innovative thinking, and streamlined processes to simplify and accelerate change. A key measure of this progress has been the ability to onboard new affiliates efficiently. Previously, launching a white-label version of the engine with only branding adjustments, such as colours and logos, required four to five months due to the complexity of the architecture. Today, that same process can be completed in just two weeks, serving as a strong testament to the effectiveness of the improved system.

Results & Business Impact

MSD has seen a rise in conversion rates, driven by ongoing improvements to the customer journey, user interface (UI), and user experience (UX). A key advantage of these enhancements has been increasing the autonomy of the marketing team, allowing them to make updates without relying on developers.

The company’s quote and buy engines are deeply integrated with its content management system (CMS), enabling non-technical users to adjust elements of the journey. This shift allows developers to focus on more complex and innovative coding tasks rather than routine changes, ultimately leading to greater job satisfaction and motivation.

The transformation delivered outstanding results for MSD, including:

47% increase in journey completions

65% more customers now complete a quote

226% increase in quote-to-sale ratios

26% reduction in cost per quote

New quote and buy engines can be launched in two weeks instead of four months

New product propositions can be built in 5-6 months instead of 18 months

Aggregator to click-through sales increased

30% uplift in quote-to-sale for car insurance

40% uplift for van insurance

Maintenance cost reductions

Significant savings on hosting and maintenance of legacy engines

Estimated savings of several hundred thousand pounds annually

“What NashTech delivers is of high value and high quality. The speed, efficiency, and innovation from their teams have surpassed anything we’ve seen before, even compared to UK-based teams. We now have complete confidence in their ability to drive our business forward.”
Jeff Mountford, Broker Systems Director at Markerstudy

A Future-Proofed Solution

MSD and NashTech still have a significant amount of work to do together. They have new offerings for businesses they’ve acquired, which are being introduced alongside the quote and buy system and the customer portal. With this new system, customers will not only be able to purchase a new policy but also self-serve. They will have the ability to print documents, make changes, renew policies, and file claims, all through a single portal. This will be integrated into the existing landscape, with components being utilised as part of a unified shared service.

The difference is, MSD no longer needs to have various engines on different code bases, and no longer needs to use a multitude of varied third parties. That allows them to make changes on a regular basis far faster, and far slicker, and deliver the best customer experience across all platforms.

“In the past, we would roll something off the production line and let it stagnate, quickly falling behind in the digital space. However, we no longer operate that way. Today, we are constantly iterating and improving, with each enhancement cascading across all our systems. This approach has delivered significant benefits, driving ongoing growth and innovation.”
Jeff Mountford, Broker Systems Director at Markerstudy

A Partnership Built for Growth

The collaboration between NashTech and MSD has evolved into a strategic partnership, significantly influencing MSD’s development culture and approach to technology. With a dedicated team of nearly 60 IT professionals in Vietnam, NashTech has become a critical enabler of MSD’s digital transformation.

“NashTech has become an integral part of our delivery, significantly shaping our culture and the evolution of our development and technology functions. The maturity of their work in Vietnam and beyond has had a profound impact on our ways of working, influencing not only our approach to coding but also how we collaborate—both internally across teams and externally with third parties essential to our success.”
Jeff Mountford, Broker Systems Director at Markerstudy

Conclusion

Through its partnership with NashTech, MSD has successfully modernised its quote and buy platforms, achieving faster deployment, increased conversions, and significant cost savings. As the company continues to expand and acquire new businesses, NashTech remains a key technology partner in its digital evolution, driving continuous improvements and innovation.

Need our help?

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