Applied CEO: Purchase in Ireland has benefits for UK brokers too

Reid French, chief executive officer of Applied Systems has hailed the purchase of Relay Software in Ireland from private equity firm HgCapital as "a good day for Applied Systems".

"We are happy to add the Republic of Ireland through this Relay transaction," he told Insurance Age.

"We will bring forth some of the products that have done well in the UK into Ireland."

Stay tuned
The company bought Insurecom in August 2013 and French said the latest deal was a continuation of the US headquartered firm's international growth strategy.

In a statement the business had said that it was "committed to making further investments in the Irish and broader UK markets" however French was coy as to whether this could involve more acquisitions.

Asked directly about potential buys he responded: "I'd say stay tuned... There may be."

Relationship
Alastair Bell, managing director of Relay Software noted that the two businesses had previously worked together in 2001-04 and more recently.

"We have a strong knowledge of the Irish market and shared history with Applied in Northern Ireland and Insurecom in Brighton," he explained.

He detailed that 18 months ago the two businesses launched joint products into the Northern Ireland market with its largest customer being Willis in Belfast and listed that the company also does business with JLT and Aon.

Overall it has 350 broker relationships in the Republic.

"The bulk of our customers are in the Republic of Ireland so we are really looking forward to servicing the Northern Ireland market," continued Bell.

"This joining together accelerates this process for us.

"Frankly the service by the UK [technology] providers is very poor into the Northern Ireland space."

Benefits
Reid also argued that UK brokers using Applied will see benefits from the deal.

Firstly with 75 staff in Dublin and 25 spread across the Belfast and Galway offices the deal has added capability to the firm according to Reid.

He noted: "The synergy relative to the UK is that this acquisition more than doubles our presence across Ireland and the UK in terms of broker and user account.

"As a result of that we have more to offer to the insurers. It helps us to continue with the growth of our trading relationships.

"We are excited about that and think it will add value to our UK brokers."

Management
The management structure for users in the UK though will remain unchanged.

Jeff Purdy who runs the international operations stays in charge working with Joe Sultana, managing director of Broker Solutions and Chris Moseley, managing director of insurer solutions.

Reid was upbeat about the progress in the UK stressing the business has added more brokers and users to its base over the past 12 months describing it as a "significant uptick".

"We have added significantly to our commercial lines panel in partnership with a number of insurers too," he continued.

"That has been a big success and we are going to keep after that."

He concluded: "We are doing very well executing our strategy in the UK and in adding the Republic of Ireland. We want to bring through technology value to both brokers and insurers. We want to make their IT easier."

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