Over the past decade, Riviera Insurance Services has experienced fast growth, evolving from a three-person team into an acquisitive brokerage with nearly 40 employees and a large book of business. Throughout this expansion, a focus on customer service has remained at the heart of the company’s mission.
We sat down with Tom Bragagnolo, the company’s Head of Commercial, to capture a case study about how Broker Insights VISION™ has supported Riviera’s significant growth and helped with the complexities that come with such quick business expansion.
The Challenge
In order to maximise opportunities and streamline operations during the company’s rapid growth, Riviera needed to clearly define their market position and insurer relationships across their various teams and offices. Key to this was having clear visibility and strategic insight at an executive level.
“We wanted to know where we stood with insurers: who we were working well with, who we had perhaps neglected, and where we had opportunities to consolidate and strengthen our book,” says Tom.
In addition, they were finding that demonstrating their book size to insurers and consolidating placement was taking hours, as they had to manually sift through different books and placement options.
The Solution
By leveraging Broker Insights VISION™, Riviera gained a high-level, data-driven view of their business and insurer relationships. VISION allowed them to answer key strategic questions:
- Are we spreading our placements too widely when consolidation could be beneficial?
- Could we structure a more effective placement strategy?
- Which insurers are we performing well with, and where do we have opportunities for growth?
- How can we optimise our commercial insurance business?
VISION has now become a big part of their strategic discussions at the senior management level. As Tom explains:
“It helps us make informed decisions, particularly during acquisitions, where we can see all our insurer relationships in one place without manually compiling lists, often sparking interesting conversations.”
In addition to strategic support, the team is exploring how to incorporate VISION into day-to-day operations, particularly with upcoming renewals to support communication and further enhance efficiency.
Result
Since utilising VISION, Riviera has seen transformative benefits across the business:
- Enhanced insurer relationships: “One of the biggest wins,” says Tom, “has been the ability to negotiate better terms and uncover new opportunities with insurers. Our Broker Relationship Manager at Broker Insights has introduced and reintroduced us to insurers we weren’t leveraging as much as we could have.”
- Strategic decision-making: Data insights have enabled managers to spot opportunities and drive valuable discussions. As Tom explains: “Just yesterday, one of our managers called after analysing VISION data and said, ‘This is really interesting – we need to look at this.’ That conversation, and many others like it, wouldn’t have happened without VISION.”
- Mergers and acquisitions support: The ability to harmonise business data has been crucial in planning and rationalising agencies, ensuring a smoother integration process.
- A personal touch from the Broker Insights team: “The platform itself is fantastic, but the people behind it make all the difference,” says Tom. “Our Broker Relationship Manager already has strong relationships with insurers we want to work with, making introductions much easier. There’s a warm, open feeling from the start.”
For Riviera, Broker Insights VISION™ has become more than just a data platform – it’s a critical tool for growth, strategic planning, and relationship-building as the business continues to expand.
UK Website
USA Website