PPL’s Mason: Focusing on obligation to market key to platform regaining trust

John Mason, CEO of Placing Platform Limited (PPL), has said the company is working to restore trust following the challenges presented by the launch of the Next Gen platform by concentrating on its obligation to the “80 percent” of the London market it serves.

Speaking to The Insurer TV on the subject of trust and to what extent this had been compromised by the Next Gen launch, Mason acknowledged the need for rebuilding.

“I think it would be churlish of me to probably say, ‘no’,” he said. “I think we did have to rebuild that trust, and I believe we’ve been doing that over the last six to nine months with our clients. We just need to ensure that we stay focused on that,” he added.

“Trust is hard won, easily lost. And so we have to keep our focus on that. I don't think we can be complacent and say, ‘Our last release went well. Thumbs up.’ We have to maintain that focus and that's an obligation we have to our client base. That's an obligation we have to the market, when somewhere between 80 and 85 percent of the market infrastructure is still placed over PPL,” said Mason.

Mason joined PPL as CEO in April this year, having previously served as group head of platform at the London Stock Exchange.

During the interview, he highlighted that a significant hurdle during the Next Gen launch was the inability to schedule downtime, complicating the transition process.

“Next Gen was a significant implementation, and it was all done in-flight. There was no drop-off in operating from day zero to day one. And when you think of the numbers involved – over two million transactions a year, over 450 active companies on the platform, 25,000 active users on the platform – those are significant numbers to translate into a new implementation,” said Mason.

He noted that “some important lessons” had been learned from failures around the Next Gen launch, which have informed improvements to the company’s latest offerings.

“We had a lot of client feedback around Next Gen, in terms of ease of use and entering contracted information. People felt it went over too many screens. It was somewhat cumbersome.

“We've taken that direct feedback, and the release of our express contract builder has a much faster way of entering contracts,” Mason explained.

Restructuring to level the playing field

In August, PPL underwent significant structural reforms, transforming from a company limited by guarantee and without share capital into a conventional UK limited liability company, enabling it to raise external capital. Mason explained that this move was designed to allow PPL to respond to competition.

“The structural reforms were really about levelling the playing field. The industry wanted competition, and the structure we had didn’t allow PPL to be as dynamic as it could have been in terms of its strategic direction. It needed more autonomy around its commercial propositions,” said Mason.

This competitive field includes Verisk’s Whitespace, with players such as Ardonagh Specialty, Marsh and Oneglobal shifting portions of their business to the competing platform. However, Mason remained unfazed by this competition

“Well, competition has been a fact of life for me, given the background I've come from … I certainly don't spend all my day thinking about what the competition are doing. My priorities are around what our clients are after and where we can take the business strategically. Competition, as I say, is just a fact of life.”

Watch the full interview to hear more about: