Bike Insurer Services Ltd was launched in 2004 as the 1st website in the World to offer a motorbike insurance comparison service.
The company was formed by Alex Stone, who had been working in motorbike insurance for many years, and previously has created branded insurance schemes for the likes of Honda, Yamaha and Kawasaki.
"The main calls I used to get were from the Marketing Manager of Yamaha or an Area Manager from Honda saying that we were too expensive here or there" commented Stone. "I realised that no motorbike insurance broker could hope to be competitive in every area of the market and I guess at heart I am a glorified market trader who wants everyone to get the best deal, regardless of who they are."
At the time, the concept of offering a motorbike insurance comparison service had not been thought of by anyone else, so we just set out to create a product that was easy to use and ploughed through all the complexities of trying to get a quote on the web at that time. We were all frustrated riders who at one time or another had paid more than we needed to for our motorbike insurance and so we figured there would be a demand for this type of product.
And so it proved. In year 1, over 100,000 riders had used the service that was offered and we quickly realised that there were areas we had not thought of or we wanted to make better.
At that time, Phil Wilding was appointed as IT Director for the company and this proved to be highly succesful decision, as Wilding's background in creating complex web solutions, combined with his commercial awarensss gave the impetus for creating a stronger team to build the motorbike insurance comparison platform from scratch again, utilising better technologies that enabled the company to make changes to sections of the platform quickly and without impact on other areas of the application.
"The appointment of Wilding was possibly the best move the company could have made at the time as he showed endless enthusiasm combined with huge awareness of what we wanted to achieve as a company. We basically wanted to be the biggest motorbike insurance provider in the UK and Wilding shared and embraced our vision."
Jump forward 2 years and The Bike Insurer is providing over a million motorbike insurance quotes per year with a growth forecast of 30% in 2008. Strong working relationships have been established with many leading brands including Tesco, Elephant, Admiral and Money Supermarket and by working with these brands and others, The Bike Insurer is in a great position for the future.
Concluding, Stone commented "All I wanted to do at the start was show riders there was a better way for them to get cheaper quotes by creating a motorbike insurance comparison website. My expectations were not to be as dominant as we are not but now we have a great reputation as the place to go to get cheap bike insurance. Im a rider, most of my colleagues and and obviously all our customers are. So to me this isnt a job, its a fun way of helping everyone get a better deal."
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