“Panorays has been instrumental to the success of Markerstudy’s supply chain management, particularly in the realm of cybersecurity and vendor risk function.“
Markerstudy Group: Leading UK Insurance Since 2001
For over 20 years, Markerstudy Group has been one of the UK’s most innovative and fast-moving insurance providers. Known for brands like Zenith, Lancaster, and Budget Insurance, the group serves millions of customers with products ranging from car and home insurance to travel and specialty policies.
Markerstudy has grown into a 5,500+ employee enterprise supported by over 1,600 third-party vendors. As its digital supply chain expanded, so did the pressure to secure it.
Legacy Gaps in Insurance Security
Insurance runs on trust, which increasingly depends on how providers manage their digital supply chains. Every vendor, even the smallest, needs to be accounted for and vetted.
With growing pressure from regulators, IT security teams now face the challenge of assessing and monitoring hundreds of suppliers, each with different levels of access to customer data and critical infrastructure.
That’s where the conventional approach of manual checks needs updating, driving pressure to automate at scale.
The Challenge
As Markerstudy has grown, so has its vendor network, and by 2023, the business had over 500 partners.
The IT security team was tasked with overseeing third-party risk, and Jason Crouch, IT Security Supplier Assurance Manager, comments:
“When I started with IT Security in 2018, I undertook circa 200 assessments a year using an Excel spreadsheet, which consisted of approximately six tabs. Our numbers quickly increased to nearly 500, and an annual assessment was needed for each. Every supplier questionnaire had around 350 questions that had to be manually assessed, which literally took hours”.
| Markerstudy Group’s Challenges | |
| 1 | Annual-only reviews meant vendors could go off the radar for 12 months |
| 2 | A growing supplier base managed by a one-person team |
| 3 | 350-question spreadsheets made assessments unscalable |
| 4 | New regulatory demands put additional pressure on the team |
Choosing Panorays
Whilst searching for a solution, Markerstudy had three non-negotiable criteria: implementing continuous monitoring and deep customisation, and the platform needed to offer good value for money.
Panorays gave us both automated questionnaires and continuous monitoring. Other solutions only provided partners access to their security findings for 90 days, which wouldn’t work for our ongoing assessments and remediation requirements.
| Markerstudy’s Checklist | |
| 1 | Automated questionnaires |
| 2 | Continuous cyber posture monitoring and real-time alerts |
| 3 | Custom assessments for niche suppliers (e.g. regional windscreen repairers) |
| 4 | Transparent pricing and value for money |
| 5 | Support for custom ESG compliance solutions |
Results
Today, Markerstudy Group assesses more than 500 suppliers annually while saving over 100 hours per week. Jason explains that achieving this without Panorays wouldn’t have been possible with the existing team resources.
“I’m now doing three times the number of assessments, and the extra workload would have needed a full additional team. The Panorays platform has saved us weeks per year.”
| Before Panorays | After Panorays |
| 200 supplier assessments/year | 500 assessments/year |
| Annual-only reviews, no ongoing visibility | Continuous cyber posture monitoring with real-time alerts |
| Manually vetted questionnaire | Built-in AI auto-validates or challenges responses |
| Low vendor compliance | Higher vendor engagement and compliance rates |
| Departmental silos | Cross-team adoption |
But as Jason notes, the special relationship they had formed with the Panorays team was another strong selling point and delivered more than was expected.
“We’ve requested specific features to meet our evolving needs, and Panorays not only listened, they built them. That level of partnership and responsiveness is rare, and I look forward to an ongoing relationship in the future.”
Summary
By choosing the right security partner, Markerstudy Group was able to turn the impossible task of assessing hundreds of suppliers with a lean team into an automated, scalable workflow.
As the insurance industry grows more connected and exposed, Markerstudy now scales confidently, responds quickly to change, and maintains deep control over third-party risk.