Interview: Ice InsureTech and Aviva, UK IT Industry Awards finalists
'We're seeing a shift from technology-led to outcome-led transformation'
Andrew Passfield, Co-Founder and CEO of ICE InsureTech, tells us about his company’s work to reach the shortlist for the UK IT Industry Awards 2025.
IT has grown in prominence over the last two decades. No longer seen as a cost centre, it's now widely accepted that IT helps people to improve their creativity, productivity and knowledge.
The UK IT Industry Awards, the largest and most well-known event in the technology industry calendar, celebrate that growth. Owned and operated by Computing and BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, the awards enjoy an unmatched level of professionalism and industry knowledge.
This year's winners will be announced at a live awards ceremony on Wednesday 12th November in London.
We talked to Andrew Passfield, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of ICE InsureTech, to find out more about the company's biggest challenges and achievements over the past year.
Andrew has led ICE from a startup in 2002 to a trusted transformation partner for Tier 1 and Tier 2 insurers. Under his leadership, ICE has delivered enterprise-scale implementations for major insurers including Aviva, RSA and ERS, setting new benchmarks for speed, cost efficiency and collaboration.
Andrew is passionate about building long-term partnerships that empower insurers to own and evolve their technology independently. He's a strong advocate of ICE's principle of being "big enough to deliver, small enough to care," a philosophy that underpins the company's success and culture.
Why do you think awards like the UK IT Industry Awards matter?
These awards celebrate what's best about our industry - collaboration, innovation, and delivery that makes a real difference to customers. For us and Aviva, this recognition highlights what can be achieved when two teams align around shared outcomes, not contracts. It's a way to showcase positive transformation stories at a time when large-scale change is often associated with delay or failure.
What would winning this award mean to your company?
It would be a huge milestone for both organisations. For Aviva, it's validation that large-scale transformation can be delivered fast, safely and with measurable customer outcomes. For ICE, it reinforces our belief that technology partnerships built on shared accountability, not supplier dependency, can redefine Tier-1 delivery. It's recognition for the hundreds of people across both teams who made this happen.
What would you say is your company's proudest achievement over the past year?
Delivering a full digital transformation with Aviva in just 12 months. From discovery to go-live, both teams worked as one, replacing legacy systems with ICE Policy and ICE Digital - a cloud-native, white-labelled platform enabling faster, smarter, more accessible customer journeys. Together, we've built a scalable foundation that allows Aviva to launch new affinity partners at pace.
What have been the biggest challenges of 2025 so far, and how have you overcome them? How have your people helped with that?
The main challenge has been balancing speed with governance, delivering at Tier-1 scale while maintaining control, resilience, and compliance. By embedding ICE's consultants directly within Aviva's delivery teams and working with trusted partners for programme governance, we achieved both agility and assurance. Our people were the difference, motivated, accountable, and empowered to make decisions in real time.
How do you think the industry has changed over the past year, and what changes do you think it still needs to make?
We're seeing a shift from technology-led to outcome-led transformation. Insurers no longer want multi-year programmes with outsourced delivery chains. They want partnerships that empower their own teams to own and evolve platforms independently. The industry still needs to move further towards this model, smaller, integrated teams working in agile frameworks, focused on business impact, not just IT change.
What do you see as the main opportunities for the industry in the coming year? How do you plan to capitalise on those opportunities?
The biggest opportunity lies in scalable digital ecosystems, technology that connects partners, data, and distribution at speed. For ICE, that means continuing to help Tier-1 insurers deliver cloud-native transformations faster and at lower cost, while expanding intelligent automation through our AI ecosystem, Alice. For Aviva, it means using this new platform to lead in the affinity market and deliver better customer outcomes across multiple channels.
The UK IT Industry Awards will take place on 12th November in London. Click here to view the shortlist and here to book your table.