Case Study
Case Study |
How Pelican Insured is Driving Growth, Efficiency, and Compliance with nCino SmartBroker × Acturis
Pelican Insured is a refreshingly ambitious, fast-growth commercial insurance broker. For them, innovation is about building the best-of-breed technology foundation to scale without limits.
In just six weeks since going live with nCino SmartBroker × Acturis, Pelican is seeing measurable impact. How their brokers acquire clients, manage renewals, and meet compliance obligations has been completely transformed.
The Challenge: Technology to Drive Growth
As a scale-up broker with an above-average policy count and an ambitious growth target of £3.5 million additional premiums, Pelican needed a technology stack that could genuinely keep pace with their ambitions.
Pelican’s existing data solution was simply not built for the scale they were targeting. As client numbers grew and sector targeting became more sophisticated, the limitations of their approach were fast becoming a critical issue.
“We’re an ambitious business. But our previous data solution was simply not built for the scale we’re targeting. We needed a lean best-of-class technology foundation, aligned to our ambition. One that would build our presence as a broker that truly understands our clients and the risks they face, delivering the best outcomes and a level of service that guarantees placing insurance is never a chore.”
— Chris Braniff, Managing Director, Pelican Insured
Introduced to nCino through the Aviva Club 110 programme, which offers BIBA members trial access to SmartBroker, Pelican evaluated the market carefully before committing. nCino immediately stood out as “the only commercially viable offering.”
A Unified Intelligence Ecosystem
The nCino SmartBroker × Acturis integrated ecosystem delivers real-time business intelligence on over 5.3 million UK companies, combining company data, financial signals, client and sector risk profiles, and compliance monitoring into a single, unified workspace. Pelican’s brokers benefit from enriched data directly within the workflows they use every day.
Segmentation: Identifying and targeting specific sectors and companies that match their appetite, creating a structured, data-driven nurture pipeline full of reasons to engage.
Monitoring: Ongoing monitoring of their client base, including sanctions screening and corporate change alerts.
Intelligent engagement: Rich intelligence equips brokers to reach out proactively, and positions them as a trusted risk adviser.
Richer underwriting submissions: More complete risk presentations to underwriters mean faster responses, better terms, and improved outcomes.
Measurable Impact Across Growth, Efficiency, and Compliance
Within just six weeks of going live, nCino SmartBroker × Acturis is already delivering impact across Pelican’s three strategic goals:
1. Growth: Segmentation and intelligence capabilities have transformed their acquisition process, enabling structured sector pipelines and nurturing prospects with timely, relevant intelligence.
“nCino has made client acquisition much easier. It’s truly impactful — we’re targeting specific sectors and building out a strong nurture pipeline full of reasons to engage.”
— Chris Braniff, Managing Director, Pelican Insured
2. Efficiency: Elimination of duplicate data entry, pre-populated forms, and automated compliance gives brokers more time for relationship-building and complex client work. Continuous monitoring means they arrive at renewal conversations already armed with up-to-date intelligence.
3. Compliance: Sanctions checking, corporate change monitoring, and fair value evidence trails have removed the manual burden and eliminated the risk of gaps.
“Compliance is critical to us, and nCino is really ticking the boxes on this front. It gives us true peace of mind.”
— Chris Braniff, Managing Director, Pelican Insured
Why This Matters for Brokers
Pelican now has the right technology foundation to grow without limits. For smaller brokers with big ambitions, it demonstrates how nCino SmartBroker x Acturis delivers the right combination of intelligence, proactivity, and compliance to help them not only compete on a level playing field with bigger players but also fuel growth and differentiation in a competitive market.
“There’s no cap on the scale we can reach now that we have the right technology foundation. We’re selecting good business, really understanding our clients, and going the extra mile to deliver the best possible outcomes.”
— Chris Braniff, Managing Director, Pelican Insured
Want to learn more about how Pelican Insured is transforming broking? Read the full case study to discover the complete story behind the Pelican Insured and nCino partnership.
