Driving digital transformation in financial services

Summary:

• Lauren Dally, Technology Director at Everywhen, explains a project to deliver a comparison platform for luxury goods insurance
• The challenge was to build the platform in 12 weeks, at low cost
• The project leveraged Mendix to build a fully functional quote-and-buy platform rapidly, with API architecture creating a highly adaptive, intuitive customer experience 
• The project has improved customer experience and trust and won a Highly Commended award at the UKIT Industry Awards

When specialist luxury insurance broker Stanhope Insurance, a specialist luxury insurance broker was acquired by Everywhen, which places £5billion in premiums annually (part of the Ardonagh Group), they brought with them a bold ambition: to create the first online comparison platform for high-value items like antiques, fine art and jewellery. The challenge? Deliver it in just 12 weeks, at a fraction of the cost of traditional builds, and meet strict compliance standards. Lauren Dally, Technology Director at Everywhen, explains the project in detail and shares her experience of the UK IT Industry Awards where the team achieved a Highly Commended in the Finance Project of the Year category.

Please introduce yourself and provide some background information.

I’m Lauren Dally, Technology Director at Everywhen, responsible for driving technology transformation across all our broking businesses. My role covers everything from application delivery to embedding innovative platforms that enable us to work smarter and faster. When I joined three years ago, the organisation was half the size it is today. We’ve doubled in scale, and I’ve led major initiatives, including a full rebrand and the integration of newly acquired businesses like Stanhope.

A big part of my strategy has been incorporating various emerging technologies, such as AI and low-code, as a core capability. This isn’t just about speed, it’s about creating an ecosystem where front-end and back-end systems communicate seamlessly. We’ve built a sophisticated integration layer that acts as an orchestrator, ensuring changes automatically update across platforms. That foundation was critical for the success of this project.

Can you introduce the project and explain the financial services challenge that it was created to address?

The project was born out of a very specific challenge. Stanhope wanted to create a comparison platform for luxury goods insurance — a service that simply didn’t exist in the market. Think antiques, fine art, engagement rings, heirlooms…items that carry not just financial value but deep sentimental significance. Before this platform, customers had to phone multiple insurers, often finding that they simply did not specialise in these products. There was no way to compare prices easily or transact online.

Stanhope had been exploring this idea since 2018, but the cost and complexity of building such a solution using traditional methods presented significant problems. Managing ratings across multiple back-end providers and integrating them into a front-end system was time consuming and expensive, especially for a brokerage of their size.

When Stanhope joined Everywhen, through acquisition, we saw an opportunity to deliver this vision using our low-code strategy. The challenge now was to build the platform in just 12 weeks, at a fraction of the cost of a traditional build, and go live by January to meet budget constraints. It was ambitious, but we knew our Mendix low-code platform and modern integration layer could make it possible.

What innovative approach or use of technology do you feel set this project apart from competitors?

We leveraged Mendix to build a fully functional quote-and-buy platform rapidly. Low-code wasn’t just about speed, but actually allowed us to integrate seamlessly with back-end policy administration systems through our orchestration layer. This meant changes in sensitive areas like rating or question sets could automatically update on the front end without manual intervention.

Our API architecture ensured that each question in the customer journey triggered a real-time request to the back end, dictating how the next question should be asked and how data should flow. This created a highly adaptive, intuitive experience for customers.

And then there’s the business side. Stanhope had built strong trust with insurers, securing delegated underwriting authority from four providers. This allowed us to design a customer-centric experience without being constrained by rigid insurer-driven question sets. It was a rare combination of technology and business relationships that made this possible.

How will the project improve customer experience or trust in financial services?

The impact on customer experience has been transformative. Before this platform, insuring multiple luxury items was a laborious process involving endless phone calls. Now, customers can complete the entire journey online, quickly, intuitively, and at any time.

One story stands out: just three weeks after launch, a customer insured 22 different items in a single transaction at 11pm without any call centre assistance. Watches, earrings, rings, all covered in one seamless process. That’s unheard of in this niche market.

The platform also supports an omni-channel experience. If a customer drops off online, a contact centre agent can pick up the journey in real time using the same interface. This consistency builds trust and reduces friction. And because Stanhope’s relationships with insurers underpin the platform, customers know they’re getting competitive, reliable coverage and not a one-size-fits-all product.

What are the measurable outcomes that demonstrate the success of the project?

The numbers speak for themselves. 60% of all quotes are now fulfilled online, end-to-end, with zero human intervention. Call centre productivity has increased significantly thanks to the shared platform. Quote times have dropped by 90%, and the business has generated over £600,000 in additional revenue within the first year.

Beyond the hard metrics, the softer outcomes matter too. The project didn’t just deliver a new channel, it expanded Stanhope’s capacity and value proposition. It created a foundation for continuous innovation, with enhancements released every 48 hours based on real-time feedback. That agility is rare in financial services.

How did the team ensure compliance with regulatory and security standards during development?

Operating within a large corporate structure meant we had robust risk and governance frameworks in place. Every change was documented and tracked in DevOps, adhering to our Software Delivery Life Cycle and IT cyber controls. No task was left undocumented.

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Key measures included design authority sign-off during discovery, personal information assessments conducted and updated throughout the project, and penetration testing before ‘go-live’. We also engaged our cyber and risk SMEs continuously, even under tight timelines, to ensure compliance wasn’t compromised.

From the business side, Stanhope’s strong reputation and insurer relationships added another layer of trust and governance. The biggest challenge for us was pace. We had to keep stakeholders updated constantly and secure rapid approvals without cutting corners.

What lessons learned from this project can be applied to future financial innovations?

Several lessons stand out. Success hinged on having a well-articulated goal from day one, enabling us to reuse functionality from prior builds to drive speed of execution. The Directors at Stanhope, Matthew Ashton and William Cooper, knew exactly what they wanted to achieve, and that clarity allowed us to align technology and business seamlessly.

Culture was another critical factor. Collaboration, trust, and a no-blame mindset kept momentum alive, even when challenges arose, like a payment issue that we experienced post-launch. Teams worked weekends to resolve it, not because they had to, but because they wanted to.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway for us was that agility beats perfection. In a large corporate, it’s easy to get bogged down in silos and ideal processes. This project reminded us that sometimes ‘perfect’ is the enemy of ‘done.’ Focus on delivering value quickly, then iterate.
Ultimately, this project reinforced why we do what we do: to make life easier for customers and to keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in financial services.

And finally, the project was recently awarded Highly Commended at the UK IT Industry Awards. What are your thoughts on the awards process and how did it feel to achieve such recognition?

It was a little unexpected, to be honest. We were the first session the judges saw on the day, and psychologically that feels like a disadvantage because you assume later entries will have more impact. Plus, when you compare Stanhope, a relatively small brokerage, to some of the large-scale corporate transformations in the competition, you wonder if your project will resonate.

But what made this recognition so meaningful was knowing the proportionate value we delivered. For Stanhope, this wasn’t just a tech upgrade; it was a game-changer for their business model. We achieved this with fewer than five development resources, while juggling over 40 other major projects in the same year. And we did it with a newly acquired company that wasn’t yet fully integrated.

Seeing Stanhope also win High Net Worth Broker of the Year at the UK Broker Awards 2025 reinforced that validation. It showed that both the insurance industry and the technology sector recognised the pioneering nature of what we achieved.