Breaking the Fatigue and preparing for a Blueprint Two revolution

Expleo’s CEO, Rajesh Krishnamurthy on making the most of the Lloyd’s market’s Blueprint Two delay and the company’s partnership with the AdvantageGo Ecosystem.

Delays to major technology programmes like Blueprint Two are rarely met with enthusiasm, particularly when so much time, resource and expectation is already invested. But for Rajesh Krishnamurthy, CEO of Expleo, the recent slowdown could be exactly what the London market needs.

He points out that for many firms, the delay is a rare chance to prepare properly.

“Most carriers haven’t had to test market messaging since their policy admin systems were implemented, in some cases more than a decade ago,” he says. “They’re now being asked to validate new messaging standards without the artefacts or documentation to support them.”

That’s where Expleo and AdvantageGo have focused their joint efforts: helping firms use the time available to build a structured testing strategy from the ground up. That includes defining realistic test scenarios, ensuring traceability, writing acceptance criteria and building a roadmap towards a clean cutover.

The delay also brings an unexpected benefit in terms of technology.

“Phase two has been pushed back far enough that some of the original assumptions no longer apply,” says Krishnamurthy. “The tools and technologies available today are very different to when the design was conceived.”

That has opened the door to a reappraisal of what phase two could look like—one that puts data at the centre, he suggests. Rather than simply aiming for Blueprint Two compliance, Krishnamurthy argues firms should be aiming to become data-first businesses. Compliance, he says, should be the byproduct of that shift – not the goal in itself.

Recent remarks from Bob James, Chief Operations Officer at Lloyd’s, appear to support this change in direction. A new working group has been announced to rework phase two’s original concept.

This time it will work with the benefit of real-world usage and new technologies like generative artificial intelligence. Krishnamurthy believes this could simplify data flows significantly and reduce the scale of market-wide workflow changes originally proposed.

In the short term, however, there are still major challenges to address before phase one goes live. Chief among them is data.

“There’s a lot we still don’t know, and Velonetic [the Lloyd’s market’s technology partner] have been open about that,” he says. “There’s no fully documented ‘as-is’ platform to test against. They’ve had to reverse engineer a lot of what’s in the mainframe.”

That creates a problem for firms across the market – for practitioners and their service provider partners – trying to map out a ‘to-be’ state and plan migrations or validation accordingly.

On top of that, carriers face a significant technical hurdle in understanding their existing data—how it’s structured, how it flows, and what changes need to be made.

“Something as simple as a date format—say moving from ‘dd/mm/yy’ to ‘dd/mm/yyyy’—can have major downstream impacts. You can’t afford to find those issues after go-live,” Krishnamurthy warns.

His advice is clear: use the time now to assess and document every element of the current data environment. That work becomes the foundation for broader test strategy and assurance planning.

That notion of assurance is one Krishnamurthy returns to repeatedly. Expleo has built a reputation in the market as an independent assurance partner, having led Blueprint Two testing work at Lloyd’s and with several other market firms. But what does “independent assurance” actually mean?

“It’s simple,” he says. “Don’t mark your own homework.”

He sees assurance as a way to mitigate risk, validate assumptions and ensure firms aren’t caught off-guard when technology is delivered by Velonetic. Expleo works on the client side, supporting carriers through readiness planning, test execution and cutover preparation.

Recent guidance from the Lloyd’s Market Association has reinforced the value of that approach. Law firm Clifford Chance was commissioned to review the Blueprint Two assurance process, and recommended that carriers seek independent validation, rather than rely on peer testing or shared market results.

“Some firms are relatively advanced in their preparation,” says Krishnamurthy. “Others are starting from a blank page. Either way, independent assurance brings clarity and confidence—especially when it comes from someone who has already seen the full picture across multiple market reviews.”

That’s where the partnership with AdvantageGo adds weight, he explains. As a platform provider, AdvantageGo is making system-level changes to support Blueprint Two, particularly around messaging. Expleo’s understanding of those changes allows them to offer more precise guidance and assurance.

“We’re not just coming in at the end with a checklist,” says Krishnamurthy. “We assess where the firm is today, understand where they need to get to, and then help them bridge that gap in a practical way.”

With go-live still on the horizon and phase two entering a period of redefinition, Krishnamurthy believes the market is at a turning point. The firms that use this window to rethink their approach—particularly around data—will be the ones that emerge strongest.

“Blueprint Two isn’t just a compliance project,” he says. “It’s a chance to modernise the entire foundation of how carriers operate. But that only works if you prepare properly.”