Executive summary
Bermax Specialty ran multi-million-pound reinsurance placements on spreadsheets and email. Redian delivered a purpose-built MERN platform that captures the full workflow — submission through binding — with a 3-step Excel import wizard, per-reinsurer offer tracking, treaty accounting, secure document management, six-role access control, and a full audit trail hardened for production.
About the client
Bermax Specialty Underwriters is a Sharjah, UAE-based reinsurance and insurance firm building custom risk-transfer solutions for the African market. The team places specialty covers across multiple commercial sectors — property, marine, aviation, energy and more — working with cedants and multiple reinsurers on each risk, with a finance function that tracks premiums, commissions and treaty statements in multiple currencies.
The challenge
Every submission, offer, binding and premium record lived across Excel files, email threads and shared drives. Completeness of a submission was only discovered when an underwriter raised gaps late in the placement. Migrating years of legacy data meant painful manual re-entry, and there was no audit trail queryable for regulators or internal governance.
- No central system of record for risks, offers or premiums — data siloed across individuals and spreadsheets.
- Completeness of risk submissions surfaced late, causing rework and slipped placements.
- Legacy Excel migration required manual re-entry that introduced errors and delays.
- No audit trail for regulatory or internal governance use.
- Ad-hoc document management with no version control or access restrictions.
- Reporting required manually assembling data from multiple sources every time.
Our approach
Redian modelled the placement workflow end-to-end and built a MERN application around it — React 18 + Vite on the front, Node.js + Express on the back, MongoDB Atlas for persistence. Every module was mapped onto an actual reinsurance activity: risks, offers, premiums, treaties, claims, documents. The Excel import wizard was built as a safety-first 3-step flow — parse, map, preview — so no legacy row is written until it is validated. Production hardening (JWT revocation, rate limiting, Helmet CSP, mongo-sanitize, prototype pollution guard, full audit trail, fail2ban) was part of delivery, not an afterthought.
What we built
- MERN placement platform modelling the actual reinsurance workflow, from submission to binding.
- Risk register with auto-generated reference numbers and real-time completeness scoring (0–100%).
- 3-step Excel import wizard — parse, map, preview — with row-level validation, duplicate detection and skip toggles.
- Per-reinsurer offer tracking with participation percentages, retention amounts and independent offer status.
- Premium and treaty accounting for proportional and non-proportional arrangements, with statement generation.
- Secure document management with type tagging and role-gated serve endpoints.
- Full audit trail on every create, update and status change — user, timestamp and diff, queryable and exportable.
- Six-role RBAC — Super Admin, Admin, Senior Underwriter, Underwriter, Finance, Viewer — scoped precisely per module.
- Production hardening — JWT revocation, rate limiting with progressive slowdown, Helmet CSP, mongo-sanitize, fail2ban, prototype pollution guard.
Implementation
- 01Phase 1 — Core Risk and Offer modules. Risk register with completeness scoring, per-reinsurer offer tracking, insurer and cedant management, role-based access across six user types.
- 02Phase 2 — Workflows, Claims and Documents. Claims module with coverage breakdown, document management with secure serve-gating, workflow engine, notification system, endorsements.
- 03Phase 3 — Import, Export and Treaties. 3-step Excel import wizard with field mapping and validation, PDF/CSV/Excel export for every entity, treaty management, statement generation, FX-rate integration.
- 04Phase 4 — Security hardening and production. JWT revocation, password complexity enforcement, rate limiting with progressive slowdown, Helmet CSP headers, MongoDB injection prevention, full audit trail, fail2ban, prototype pollution guard.
Outcomes & impact
- 100% of the placement workflow captured digitally — no more spreadsheets in the placement path.
- Zero manual re-entry for bulk migration — the import wizard handled legacy Excel data directly.
- Real-time completeness scoring surfaced missing information before placement, not after.
- Full audit trail on every record — who changed what and when, exportable for compliance.
- Multi-currency placements handled end-to-end with FX-rate-integrated reporting.
Technology stack
The platforms, frameworks and tools behind this engagement — grouped by role.
- Languages & Backend
- Node.jsmongo-sanitize
- Frameworks
- React 18React RouterReact Hot Toast
- Data
- MongoDB Atlas
- Platforms & Tools
- ViteTailwind CSSExpressMongooseJWTMulterExcelJSPDFKitHelmetPM2nginxUbuntufail2ban
The full story
The challenge — a specialist underwriter running on spreadsheets
Bermax Specialty Underwriters manages complex reinsurance and specialty placements across multiple commercial sectors — property, marine, aviation, energy, and more — with a particular focus on cedants in the African market. Every submission, offer, and binding was tracked manually across a tangle of Excel files, email threads, and shared drives.
- No central system of record for risks, offers, or premiums — data siloed across individuals.
- Completeness of risk submissions unknown until underwriters raised gaps late in the process.
- Importing legacy and new data required manual re-entry, introducing errors and delays.
- No audit trail for regulatory purposes or internal governance.
- Document management was ad-hoc — no version control or access restrictions.
- Reporting meant manually assembling data from multiple sources.
The solution — a platform built for the reinsurance workflow
Redian designed and built a complete placement management system from the ground up, modelling Bermax's actual workflow — from initial risk submission through reinsurance offer collection, premium recording, and claims handling.
Risk register. Full lifecycle tracking with auto-generated reference numbers, real-time completeness scoring (0–100%), multi-currency support, and 11 status stages from Draft to Expired.
The risks list — every placement in one queryable view, with completeness bars flagging any submission that isn't fully populated.
Risk detail with per-reinsurer offer tracking. Manage offers from multiple reinsurers against each risk. Track participation percentages, retention amounts, and offer status independently per reinsurer.
A single risk drills into everything at a glance — cedant, broker, class of business, currency, deductible, plus every reinsurer's participation and offer status.
3-step Excel import wizard. Bulk-import risks from existing spreadsheets. Intelligent column mapping, row-level validation with colour-coded preview, duplicate detection, and skip toggles before committing a single record.
The safety-first import: parse, map, then preview every row with validation errors surfaced before a single record is committed. Duplicates and errors can be skipped without losing the rest of the import.
Document management. Secure upload and retrieval of supporting documents per risk — slips, surveys, correspondence — with type tagging and role-gated access.
Premium and treaty accounting. Record original premiums, RI premiums, and commission rates. Treaty management for proportional and non-proportional arrangements, with statement generation.
Full audit trail. Every create, update, and status change is logged with user identity, timestamp, and change diff — queryable and exportable for regulatory requirements.
Reports and exports. PDF risk slips, CSV data exports, and Excel reports — all generated on demand. FX-rate integration for multi-currency reporting across placements.
Role-based access control. Six roles — Super Admin, Admin, Senior Underwriter, Underwriter, Finance, Viewer — each with precisely scoped permissions across every module.
Built to production standards
The platform was built on the MERN stack and hardened for production — not left as a prototype.
Results — one platform, every placement
Bermax Specialty's operations are now fully digital. Risks are created, tracked, offered, and bound entirely within the platform, with a complete compliance-ready audit trail on every action.
- 100% of the placement workflow captured digitally — from first submission to final binding, without spreadsheets.
- Zero manual re-entry for bulk data migration — the import wizard handles legacy Excel data directly.
- Real-time completeness scoring on every risk — underwriters see exactly what information is missing before placement.
- Full audit trail on every record — who changed what and when, queryable and exportable for compliance.
