Bringing Howden’s AI-powered Tilt insurance app to life.

For Tilt, a new digital-first insurance proposition backed by Howden, the ambition was clear: create an experience that matched the expectations of modern customers, while operating safely within a regulated insurance environment.Tilt was conceived as more than a transactional insurance product. It needed to give customers confidence, clarity, and control, while also reducing the operational friction that has traditionally characterised insurance. We partnered with Tilt to bring this vision to life, building a cross-platform mobile app that enables customers to manage their insurance digitally, supported by targeted automation and deep enterprise-grade integration.

Overview

Policies, endorsements, claims, and documentation are often fragmented across systems, with many customer journeys still dependent on phone calls, emails, and manual processing. For Tilt, the challenge was not simply to <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/develop/mobile-apps">build an app</a>, but to establish a digital foundation that could support a new way of operating. The experience needed to feel effortless for customers, while meeting the demands of regulation, data integrity, and internal governance. Automation had to be introduced carefully, ensuring that AI-supported journeys enhanced trust rather than undermining it, and that human expertise remained available when it mattered most.At the same time, the platform had to be capable of evolving. Tilt was designed to grow, with new products, features, and customer journeys planned over time. The technology underpinning the app needed to support that ambition from day one.

The challenge

Our focus was on creating a platform that balanced simplicity at the front end with robustness behind the scenes.

We built a cross-platform mobile application that gives customers visibility and control over their insurance, while <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/integrate">integrating seamlessly</a> with Tilt’s core systems and enterprise back end.The app was built within Microsoft’s enterprise ecosystem, combining secure authentication, AI-assisted customer support, and real-time data synchronisation. This approach ensured the experience remained fast and intuitive for users, while maintaining accuracy, oversight, and compliance across the insurance lifecycle.

The approach

In insurance, customer support is central to trust.

Rather than positioning AI as a replacement for human expertise, it was designed as a practical layer that helps customers get answers quickly while ensuring appropriate oversight remains in place.The Tilt app provides customers with always-on assistance that can respond to common queries and surface relevant information using policy and customer context. Where conversations require judgement, reassurance, or deeper investigation, they are seamlessly routed into Tilt’s Microsoft Dynamics environment, allowing support teams to step in with full visibility of the customer’s history.This blended approach shortens resolution times for routine interactions, reduces unnecessary handoffs, and ensures that more complex or sensitive cases receive the attention they deserve.

AI-enabled customer support

Tilt was built around the principle that customers should be able to manage their insurance on their own terms.

The app is designed to enable users to view and manage policies, start a claim, and access documents at any time, without relying on phone calls or manual follow-ups. Additional servicing capabilities will be introduced over time, further reducing the need for offline interaction.Commercial insurance often involves more than one person within a business, so flexibility was a key consideration. The app includes permission controls that allow policyholders to invite colleagues with clearly defined levels of access, supporting collaboration while maintaining overall control.By automating routine processes such as renewals and payment handling, Tilt removes much of the administrative burden traditionally associated with business insurance, freeing customers to focus on running their businesses rather than managing paperwork.

Self-service by design

Seamless integration was essential to the success of Tilt.

The <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/integrate">app connects</a> directly to Tilt’s enterprise platforms, including Microsoft Entra for authentication, Microsoft OpenAI for intelligent support, and Dynamics CRM as the system of record.Insurance data is complex, and inconsistencies can quickly erode trust. To address this, we implemented real-time data transformation and synchronisation logic, ensuring that policy updates and customer changes are reflected accurately across all systems. This eliminates manual rekeying and reduces the risk of discrepancies, providing a consistent experience for customers and internal teams alike.

Enterprise integration and data integrity

Tilt was designed with long-term evolution in mind.

The modular architecture allows new functionality, products, and journeys to be introduced without disrupting the core platform. The notification infrastructure supports future customer communications, from service updates to promotional messaging, while maintaining compliance and control. This foundation gives Tilt the flexibility to adapt and expand the proposition as customer needs and market conditions change.<h3>Impact</h3>The app has enabled Tilt to launch a genuinely digital insurance experience. It provides customers with greater autonomy and transparency while reducing reliance on manual servicing. It establishes a scalable platform that supports both operational efficiency today and continued innovation in the future.

Built for growth

Tilt is a digital-first business insurance platform, built to give customers greater control, clarity, and confidence when managing their insurance. Backed by Howden, Tilt combines the speed and simplicity of a digital product with the strength and credibility of an established insurance group. Founded in 1994, Howden is an independent, employee-owned insurance brokerage with a global footprint and a strong client-first ethos.

More work

Bringing Howden’s AI-powered Tilt insurance app to life.

Tilt combines AI-assisted support and self-service to deliver digital-first insurance, built for trust, scale, and regulation.

Tilt

Lead Designer

Sam Leonard-Rendell

Plenty of articles online tell you your <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/design/branding">brand should</a> be consistent. Use the same colours, same fonts, same logo. All the time. Everywhere. And it’s not bad advice. But it’s not the whole picture.<a href="https://brandingstrategyinsider.com/the-invisible-power-of-brand-consistency/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">71% of consumers</a> say inconsistent branding causes confusion, but the real culprit isn&#39;t inconsistency. It&#39;s the lack of a clear identity to be consistent with. The confusion isn’t caused by inconsistency alone. It’s caused by a brand that doesn’t know what it stands for. And that’s a cohesion problem, not a consistency problem.Consistency is about rigid rules and unbreakable brand boundaries. Cohesion is identity. One tells your design team what to do, while the other shows your audience who you are.

Consistency is all about being the same across every touchpoint. The logo is always the same size. The hex code value never changes. Every email uses the same sign-off.Cohesion is about pulling everything in the same direction, even when it looks or sounds different. Your social post doesn’t read the same as your website, because it shouldn’t. But both should feel unmistakably like you.Think about how you speak. You don’t talk to a prospective client in the same way you talk to a colleague you’ve worked with for six years. But you’re still recognisably the same person in both conversations. That’s cohesion.A consistent brand follows its rules. A cohesive brand doesn&#39;t need to.

Consistency vs cohesion, what's the difference?

In our experience, more brands accumulate rather than build. A logo gets designed first. A tagline gets added later. The website content is written by someone different from the social content. The tone changes depending on who’s writing. And over time, the brand becomes a patchwork. Technically consistent in places, but fundamentally incoherent.<a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-survey-finds-brands-struggle-to-keep-up-with-content-demand-personalized-content-could-increase-revenue-by-48-on-average-301362339.html">68% of companies</a> report brand consistency contributed to revenue growth of 10% or more. What they&#39;re actually describing is the commercial value of a brand that knows what it is, not from enforcing a style guide.It’s a trap that’s easy to fall into, and it’s not always a quick fix. But recognising it is the first step, and knowing what to look for makes it a lot easier.

So why do so many brands get it wrong?

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What are the giveaways that your brand is lacking cohesion? <h3 style='text-align: start;'>1. Your brand looks different depending on where people find you</h3>This isn’t just about visuals; we’re talking tone too. Your website sounds corporate. Socials sound casual. Sales decks sound like they’re written by a totally different company. That’s not a consistency problem; it’s a cohesion problem. Brands that maintain cohesive presentation across all their platforms see up to <a href="https://brandingstrategyinsider.com/the-invisible-power-of-brand-consistency/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">23% more revenue</a>. And they’re <a href="https://www.envive.ai/post/brand-voice-consistency-statistics-in-ecommerce" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2.4x more likely</a> to outgrow competing brands.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>2. You&#39;ve evolved, but your brand is still where you were three years ago</h3>When businesses evolve, it’s easy to forget to evolve your brand, too. Introducing new services, new clients, and new ambitions means your brand and positioning can quickly feel irrelevant. <a href="https://www.crowdspring.com/blog/branding-statistics/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">74% of S&amp;P 100 companies rebrand</a> within their first seven years of business, showing how business changes impact brand direction. Fostering business growth demands that your brand keeps pace too.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>3. You&#39;re attracting the wrong clients, or not attracting the right ones</h3>If your visual identity and tone of voice don’t clearly communicate and reflect who you are and what you stand for, you’ll end up either attracting everyone or attracting nobody. Both of these can waste valuable time and resources internally. <a href="https://www.crowdspring.com/blog/branding-statistics/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">64% of consumers</a> form loyalty to a brand based on shared values. If your values aren’t visible, you’re invisible to the people you actually want.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>4. You feel uncomfortable sharing your own materials</h3>If you’ve found yourself apologising for <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/develop/websites">your website</a>, or reluctantly sending out marketing materials because they don’t feel good enough, that’s the clearest sign your brand isn’t up to standard. If you’re embarrassed by your own brand identity, your customers and clients are probably questioning it too.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>5. Your competitors have moved and you haven&#39;t</h3>If you’ve noticed your competitors shifting in new directions and feel more credible than you, even if your work or products are better, that’s a clear brand cohesion gap that’s costing your business.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>6. Internally, the team is confused about your brand</h3>If your team is asking questions like “which logo do I use?” or “what tone should this be written in?”, you’re not noticing a training problem; you’ve spotted a brand clarity problem.When your brand works across multiple departments, like sales, marketing, and digital, the materials they produce should look and sound like they belong to the same company. If they don’t, then you’ve got a cohesion problem.<a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-survey-finds-brands-struggle-to-keep-up-with-content-demand-personalized-content-could-increase-revenue-by-48-on-average-301362339.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">77% of companies</a> regularly see off-brand content coming from their business that’s been created internally. So this is a widespread problem, and one that’s a telltale sign of brand cohesion issues.

The real signs your brand needs attention

A rebrand done well isn’t about starting from scratch or chasing what’s on trend. It’s about building a brand with a clear enough identity that it can flex without fragmenting.Every rebrand starts with positioning, finding your business’s white space.

Cohesion is what a rebrand should actually deliver

Full rebrands should take between 12 to 18 months from start to finish. It’s a long and highly considered process, not just a simple logo swap. It’s about spending the time getting the brand into the place it needs to be for the next decade.

There’s a clear distinction between a rebrand and a brand refresh. A refresh makes sense if the foundations are solid, but the execution has drifted. Fixes could be as simple as updating visuals, tightening content and copy, or a revitalised tone of voice.A rebrand makes sense if the foundations are the issue. An unclear position, a name or identity that doesn’t make sense, or a brand that never properly fitted in in the first place.

Rebrand or refresh? Which do you actually need?

<h3 style='text-align: start;'>Strategy</h3>The foundational stage that everything else is built on. This is a vital stage, and comes before anything visual or verbal is explored. Rebrands need to start with the honest questions, like “where is the business now?” and “where does it need to be?” and “what’s stopping the brand from getting it there?”. This stage is pivotal to the success of any rebrand, and starts with a <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/discover">comprehensive discovery phase</a>, which dives into the competitor landscape, industry insights and clearly defining what a successful brand looks like for the business. Without this stage, everything else is complete guesswork.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>Positioning</h3>Once you establish the groundwork, you need to position your brand. This is about finding and owning the white space in your market, who you’re for, who you’re not for, what you stand for, and why customers should choose you over your competitors.Positioning can often feel like an uncomfortable process because you have to work at a level of specificity that most businesses find awkward. But it’s important to specify at this stage. Trying to appeal to everyone and everything is the quickest route to a brand that resonates with nobody. And this is where a lot of brands stall, because committing to a clear position means accepting that it won’t be for everyone.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>Visual identity</h3>This is probably the most exciting stage of a rebrand – bringing the foundational work to life with a logo, colour palette, typography, graphic devices, and so much more. The visual identity phase should reflect the strategy work that took place before it, not precede it. This is another stage where businesses can often stumble. They start with the visual identity and work backwards, leaving them with a finished brand that looks stunning but feels hollow and fails to resonate with the customers they want.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>Tone of voice</h3>Beyond how your brand visually looks, tone of voice is where brand cohesion lives or dies. Tone of voice defines how your brand sounds across everything from your website, social media, proposals, emails, and even down to error messages on a digital product.A visual identity can be consistent while the tone is all over the place. And it’s that disconnect that people immediately feel, even if they can’t articulate it.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>Guidelines</h3>Some agencies create guidelines that are taken as a set of rules, and there are always hardline rules in guidelines. But in reality, guidelines should be a reference point, rather than a hard and fast rule book. Your guidelines should give readers enough clarity to make considered and good decisions independently. They shouldn’t be a list of restrictions that require sign-off on every bit of output. If the guidelines are so complex that nobody is reading them, they’re not working.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>Rollout</h3>One of the most underestimated phases of a rebrand is rollout. Rolling out a new brand is a complex task and requires a deep understanding of the identity. So a rebrand that launches inconsistently immediately undermines all the work.Rollout needs a clear plan to cover every touchpoint and clear internal communication to ensure the team is on the same page as you. You’ll need a realistic timeline too. A full rebrand should take between 12 and 18 months, and a considered rollout should be a methodical part of that timeline, not a single launch moment.

What does a rebrand actually involve?

Brands that endure aren’t the ones with the strictest guidelines. They’re the ones with the clearest sense of who they are. And they’ve got the confidence to express that across every touchpoint, every time.If your brand no longer feels like you, it’s worth <a href="https://sidigital.co/contact">having a conversation</a> about it. We help businesses figure out what’s working, what isn’t, and what to do next.

Ready to build something that actually feels like you?

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Stop chasing brand consistency, and start building brand cohesion

Founder & Managing Director

Steve Piper

Say hello to Faraday, our custom middleware solution to connect your SaaS systems with your website or app. In a world full of software, subscription services, and SaaS products, it’s easy to watch your business&#39;s infrastructure go from zero to 100 overnight. You might use one CRM service here, an ERP there, a stock management system elsewhere, an accounting package somewhere else. Each platform selected carefully to fit the business&#39;s needs. But it can feel like it’s all held together with string.Data duplication across systems, manual re-entry that nobody wants to do. A website that knows less about your customers than your CRM does. Why? Because nobody’s figured out how to connect them all properly.Most businesses accept this kind of friction as ‘normal’. It’s not seen as a solvable problem. The SaaS integration issue isn’t line one on the budget; it’s buried in development hours, support tickets, and the quiet decision not to upgrade a platform because it’ll break the website.This is where <a href="https://sidigital.co/faraday">Faraday fits in</a>. A custom middleware hub that connects your SaaS systems with your website or app for smooth data transfer. No more duplicated data, no more manual re-entry.

It’s a pattern we’ve seen time and time again across all sorts of different client projects. <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/integrate">SaaS tools that power the business</a>, but they’re stuck in data silos. Or websites hardwired to a single system that held the business back when it was time to evolve and grow.The real cost of those problems goes beyond just development and build time. It’s lost agility, data inconsistencies, and businesses making platform decisions based on what their website or app could handle, rather than what the business actually needs.When clients came to us with problems like this, we used to go away and look at off-the-shelf solutions like Zapier or native API connections, but it always became obvious quickly that these just weren’t up to the job. They’re designed for simple point-to-point integration. They can’t handle the complex, bespoke digital products we were going to connect them to.So, we built our own, totally bespoke solution to this problem. A custom middleware integration that acts like a data hub, connecting all these disparate SaaS products with a <a href="https://sidigital.co/develop">website, or app, or portal</a> for seamless, reliable data flow and workflow automation.It’s this that separates Faraday from off-the-shelf options like Zapier. Built bespoke to connect your digital world completely.This is Faraday.

The origins of Faraday

It all <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/discover">starts with discovery</a> and asking the questions that matter. “When did you last audit your tech stack?”, “how many places does your team manually re-enter data that already exists somewhere else?”, “how many third-party systems have direct access to your website&#39;s database, and could you list them all right now?”.It’s these questions that tease out the real pain points. And they might be difficult to answer, but it all plays into a comprehensive solution.Once we’ve got a solution everyone is happy with, we begin working out how the data is mapped across different systems and platforms. Customer emails input into the website need mapping across to your CRM, but also your accounting portal. Order numbers need adding to your stock management system and your ERP, but it needs formatting differently. It’s this step that reduces the need for manual re-entry of data across platforms.Then, we begin making the connections. We bring the data through Faraday and out into the respective website, CRM, DAM or ERP in the correct formats and in a way that individual platforms need it. No compromises on data integrity or quality. It just works.

How custom middleware works

Faraday sits between your systems, just like a hub for your computer. It stops systems talking directly to one another and acts as a central dock to control data flows and ensure they go to the correct places every time. It allows all your data points to flow into a central place and back out, keeping your data clean, secure, and up-to-date.And it all works in real-time. No delays. A customer updates their address on your website? That goes straight to your warehouse management system ahead of shipping their order, and to your accounting platform for invoicing.

A lot of our client websites handle sensitive user data, and it can be worrying to let a third-party system manage that data. But even though Faraday is handling the data, it’s working using a centralised connection model. Instead of having dozens of direct API connections, each of which is a potential security vulnerability, Faraday creates a single, GDPR-compliant middleware layer. Fewer entry points mean tighter data control, giving you a secure SaaS integration.Then there’s data access permissions. Faraday is built around your business and your systems, so we work with you and your team to define precisely what each system can see and do with the data. No system gets more access than it needs, helping reduce the risk of data leaks or information being shown to people it shouldn’t be.And if your business is compliance-conscious, Faraday gives you visibility over what data moved where and when, giving you a complete audit trail to work against.For the security-conscious, direct integrations can be a headache. If a data breach occurs in one system, it can quickly cascade across everything connected to it. Your website, your app, your CRM. Everything. So custom middleware can help alleviate those headaches from the get-go.

Security at the core

We’ve been <a href="https://sidigital.co/work/harwin">working with Harwin</a>, a global connector manufacturer, to connect their complex Salesforce CRM system with their website. But we didn’t stop there. We also integrated their Bynder DAM to pull through product imagery, TraceParts to display 3D product models, SamacSys for CAD drawings, and a whole host more. And we connected it all together using Faraday.Faraday is ultimately the reason Harwin has seen a 97% increase in filter interaction time. It allows products to pull through faster and more accurately from Salesforce and Bynder, giving users what they want, when they want it.If you’ve got a SaaS set up similar to Harwin and want to connect it with your website or app, <a href="https://sidigital.co/contact">get in touch</a>.

Harwin, powered by Faraday

<h3 style='text-align: start;'>What is custom middleware?</h3>Custom middleware is a layer that sits between two or more systems, allowing them to share data and communicate quickly and easily. Think of it like a translator.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>How is custom middleware different from Zapier or Make?</h3>Off-the-shelf Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) systems like Zapier and Make are built for simple point-to-point integrations and often don’t extend beyond that. Custom middleware is built around your business’s tech stack, handling complex logic, proprietary APIs, and multi-system environments to seamlessly flow data between various SaaS platforms and end points like your website.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>How long does it take to build a middleware integration?</h3>This depends on the complexity of the build and tech stack. But we run a <a href="https://sidigital.co/services/discover">rigorous discovery process</a> to get a full understanding of how your business’s systems are built and work before we write a single line of code. This ensures the architecture is correct from the start.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>How much does it cost to build a custom integration?</h3>Again, this depends on the complexity of the build. As it’s completely custom and bespoke to your business, SaaS integrations using Faraday aren’t a one-cost-fits-all scenario.If you want to discuss your project in more detail, <a href="https://sidigital.co/contact">get in touch with us</a>.<h3 style='text-align: start;'>Is my data secure when using middleware?</h3>Yes. Custom middleware is built with security as a core requirement. Data passing through the integration layer is encrypted, access is controlled through authentication protocols, and audit logging provides visibility over every transaction. With Faraday, that also means GDPR compliance is considered by design. So, sensitive data moves between your systems safely and accountably.If your SaaS systems won’t talk to your website or app, we should talk. <a href="https://sidigital.co/contact">Get in touch.</a>

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for brands that
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Services

Discover

Design

Develop

Integrate

Tilt

Bringing Howden’s AI-powered Tilt insurance app to life.

From the studio

The digital agencyfor brands thatdemand more

Services

Discover

Design

Develop

Integrate

Tilt

Bringing Howden’s AI-powered Tilt insurance app to life.

From the studio

The digital agency
for brands that
demand more