Matt Ruccacles, Navigate Programme Director on behalf of MIB, has shared the latest update with MIAFTR users.

You can read, and share, the update here.

Matt writes: "Thanks for being part of our programme to replatform MIAFTR to Navigate.

It’s our second phase – we already moved the MID (Motor Insurance Database) to Navigate last year - and we’re making encouraging progress. Be assured that all our work has your needs front and centre.

We’re committed to being as open and transparent on our progress as we possibly can be. Putting forward an achievable delivery plan for the year ahead is important both for our team and yours. 

 To support your own planning, I appreciate that many of you want to know our Go Live date as soon as possible. For those of you who joined our Webinar earlier this month you’ll know I shared that we’re still aiming for a Q4 Go Live.  

With our existing MIAFTR provider, we continue working through the practicalities of how we migrate data and validate that Navigate works as intended. I’m cautiously optimistic with progress and we’re aiming to share a Go Live date with you by the end of Q1. 

Our Engagement team is working closely with many of you already and I urge you to stay in touch. Please tell us what you need via your dedicated Engagement lead, and we’ll support you however we can."

Need to catch up with our latest webinar?

More than 160 customers from over 80 organisations joined our second webinar on 21 January to hear what’s changing for MIAFTR users. 

The event shared the key changes for customers and demonstrated key functions of the Navigate portal. Click here to see the 10 minute demo we shared. 

Our next event will be in Q2 to provide a progress update on the programme. We’ll also be hosting smaller, specific workshop sessions to support you and your teams through testing and training activity. Details of these will be shared shortly. 

Support for legal acceptance

Our Engagement team continues to support all MIAFTR customers with their legal acceptance. 

Many MIAFTR user organisations need to accept a new legal agreement before they can access Navigate. Thanks to all customers who have reviewed and accepted their new legal agreements so far. Our team is continuing to support this process, we’re currently on track to have everyone over the line by the end of Q1. 

Dedicated support

Each customer has a dedicated Engagement Lead whose role is to support you every step of the way, to Go Live and beyond. Do please email engagement@mib.org.uk if you haven’t been in touch already. 

Progress for customers who connect their systems to MIAFTR

Since mid-2024 our team has been working closely with those that use an API to submit and enquire on MIAFTR data. 

An API (Application Programming Interface) is a communication interface between two software applications that’s used to share data, access resources, and perform actions. In practical terms it means that a customer can access, submit, update and search the MIAFTR database directly from their own system. 

For our API customers, we’re providing a new Navigate API (V2) that offers significant performance improvements. It will continue to support all existing functionality and comply with current industry standards. 

We won’t be supporting the previous (V1) API in Navigate, so the team has been busy engaging with affected customers to help them manage the change. 

Development and testing 

We’ve agreed with each API customer a defined development and test window. This means we can ensure that each customer gets the technical support they need, as they set up their Navigate API. 

So far, 13 of those customers have successfully connected to Navigate.  

four of them have started work in their development window, two of those are already substantially complete. 

We’re also creating a comprehensive API testing guide. This will be issued early in February and posted on our microsite. 

Preparing customers who use Portal to interact with MIAFTR

At our webinar on 21 January we shared a short demonstration of the Navigate portal (spoiler: it’s very similar to MIAFTR!).  

During Q2, the first customers will start their Portal testing, which we expect to provide reassurance that the Navigate interface is simple and intuitive to use. Customers will also be testing their system access, and functionality, to prove that everything works in the way that it should.  

We’re creating a Portal testing pack, which will be ready for the start of testing. We’ll also have dedicated pages on our microsite with additional information. 

In the meantime, you can share with your colleagues the stand-alone demo video that we shared at the webinar. They can also sign up for this regular Bulletin using this form.

Supporting police forces' transition to Navigate

As part of the MIB’s ongoing purpose to make our roads safer, we’re working closely with the 48 police forces that use MIAFTR.  

We’re hosting dedicated workshops to support forces' transition to Navigate, sharing the process improvements demonstrated in our recent webinar on 21 January and supporting them with the legal acceptance process.  

Supported by the MIB’s own Law Enforcement Liaison Officers, we are also sharing how MIAFTR data can help police forces with enforcement activities. As a result, we’ve added another 85 police users to the system. 

The next police workshops are: 

• 13 February 2025 at 10am  Police forces register here 

• 27 February 2025 at 2pm  Police forces register here

• 13 March 2025, at 11am  Police forces register here 

Contact engagement@mib.org.uk for further information.

Dedicated approach to data recipients

We’re working with Data Recipients to ensure they’re fully prepared ahead of Go Live. 

The main purpose of MIAFTR is to provide insurers with a way to fulfil their regulatory obligation to update the DVLA with information on total loss events. 

Alongside the DVLA, there are several other customers, including provenance companies, Thatcham and the IFB (Insurance Fraud Bureau), who receive regular data extracts. 

Whilst we expect the only technical change for most data recipients to be the location of where they collect their data files, we also need to ensure that the files we send from Navigate hold the right data. 

We’ve created a dedicated workstream, headed up by Adam Hayes, who will work closely with all data recipients; supporting onboarding to Navigate and their testing activity, to ensure they’re comfortable with the integrity of data before we go live.