Self-service insurance management company Ferro will develop a new product for medium and small businesses after successfully testing its services through the Westchester Innovation Network (WIN).
The new product—Ferro Lite—will target smaller businesses to meet their specific needs within the context of their insurance brokerage. The insurtech startup based in La Vista, Nebraska, provides a self-service platform that enables insurance brokers, carriers, and policyholders to manage and renew insurance policies more efficiently.
“We’ve essentially trimmed down our existing offering to make it less cumbersome for smaller operations with fewer assets to manage and less need for high-level risk management,” said Ferro CEO Chris Senkbile. “The new product will be easier and more fluid for smaller users. We hope to have Ferro Lite ready for the market in the next 60 days.”
The idea for Ferro Lite came from Senkbile’s work with the Rey Insurance Agency in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y. WIN—a program aimed at driving economic development, innovation, and growth within Westchester County, N.Y.—orchestrated the pairing. The goal was to provide the local host companies with an opportunity to understand innovation within their industries and to provide valuable feedback to innovators who need to pilot or beta test in a prospective customer setting.
Laura Rey Iannarelli, the agency’s owner, shared the Ferro platform with her medium- and small-business customers for feedback.
“They really liked the platform and the communications, and they would love an app version of it,” said Iannarelli, who recommended to Senkbile the importance of a mobile version of the platform so that customers can access information out in the field.
Innovation Match Program’s goal is to continually host 10 innovation pairings with local businesses in Westchester County with discrete deliverables agreed upon at the outset of the relationship.
“We launched WIN to facilitate the development of new products and services,” said Marsha Gordon, the Business Council of Westchester’s president and CEO. “We are excited to see this innovation initiative bear fruit, and we are determined to attract more innovators to our county.”
Businesses interested in participating as either a host or an innovator to test products or services should email win@thebcw.org.
