Boxer Mike Tyson famously said: "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth."

Covid-19 proved to be that punch for insurers in 2020 as the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns forced them to swiftly enact business continuity plans and switch to remote working to minimise disruption.

Operational resilience and the need for robust business continuity planning (BCP) that can survive a test like Covid-19 have certainly emerged as key lessons from the pandemic.

There is also increasing regulatory focus on operational resilience. The UK's Prudential Regulation Authority, for example, has said building operational resilience will be one of its insurance supervision priorities for 2021.

This changing environment makes the need for reliable operational risk solutions critical and the judges selected ViClarity as the winner in this category for the valuable support it provides insurers.

ViClarity offers an audit, risk and compliance solution to help insurers effectively identify, monitor, score and report on their operational risks.

The business says its technology can be customised to suit every organisation. In addition, its colour-coded dashboard enables risk officers to monitor risks and mitigation controls over time, location and business area.

The regulatory technology solutions provider counts over 50 European insurance organisations as clients currently using its software for operational risk management.

Having won the InsuranceERM operational risk award for the second year in a row, the provider is also proud of its 97% customer retention rate over the last five years.

Ogie Sheehy, global CIO and CEO of the European business at ViClarity, says there has been a substantial increase and focus on BCP since the pandemic. "As a result of that, we developed a product ourselves and offered it for free to all parties," says Sheehy.

With the emphasis now on remote working, Sheehy adds the focus is now on looking for "better and smarter ways to collaborate".

He comments: "We have experienced a really strong growth in customers from an insurance perspective, both in Ireland and the UK.

"We see that people have adapted very well [to the crisis] and it has not stopped insurers from moving forward with more robust solutions."