On the 14th of October, Steve Vinnicombe, our Head of Consulting and Solutions, had the opportunity to steer a panel of experts on insurance technology and business transformation during Delta Capita’s latest Webinar: Business & Technology Transformation: The Role of a CIO and COO Within Insurance.
Steve was joined by Bimal Umeria, Head of Wealth Management and Insurance at Delta Capita, Vince DiFiglia, from QBE, Stefan Verhoeven from AutoFill Technologies, and Shaymus Kennedy from Athora Holding Ltd.
The discussion was focused on critical issues, opportunities and threats facing insurance through the lens of senior operations and technology roles. In an era of unprecedented change, key points examined were specific issues facing technology and operations senior executives.
These issues included the approach to transformation and how that is being informed by the border market at Lloyd’s, how COVID-19 has changed decision making in short and medium terms, the role of insurtech for big insurance brands, and whether cost mutualisation offers value not yet realised for insurance forms.
Some of the key takeaways:
1. Understand your Business Model
Communicate your priorities to your potential insurance tech (insurtech) partner so that you can determine which processes should be kept internally and which ones should be outsourced. For example, some insurtech offerings might be more focused on automobile or housing markets but be less applicable to life insurance services.
2. Learn from Banks’ Mistakes
Insurance companies can learn from banking and other industries to find ways of more frequent interactions. The key here is to reduce total cost of ownership (TCO).
Insurtech is a few years behind banking. However, rather than investing resources in-house, CIOs and COOs can leverage proven SaaS or cloud-based models to save money on salaries and costly legacy systems that are no longer technologically viable. Developing tech inhouse is costly and time consuming. You can bring products to market factor with external providers and get everything you need and require.
3. Automate your Processes
Manual processes will slow down onboarding of your clients. The younger generation demands faster onboarding and response time or will favour the competition. Forrester reported that digital transformation efforts in more than 75% of enterprises will focus on automation in 2021.
Leverage the technology that is already available for other sectors. Clients are looking for straight forward answers and service. As well as cost reduction on the client side, make data more accessible and reduce cumbersome processes.
4. Define Boundaries
While digital transformation enables the workforce to operate seamlessly from home, be productive and access network and applications. However, IT can cooperate with other company stakeholders to encourage employees and contractors to work ergonomically and take breaks, without compromising on productivity.
Mental welfare is as important as technological training. Stepping up on technical training alongside life-family balance and self-development. For example, insurtech companies such as Lemonade, initiated a charity program for unused premiums.
5. Adopt Long-Term Solutions
Managing and mitigating risk is the bread and butter of insurance companies.
When employing insurtech, think in terms of long-term strategy, and not only ways of working at home during the initial phases of the pandemic.
While systems were not meant initially for working remotely, COVID-19 forced enterprises to implement solutions quickly. Insurance companies needs to adapt to long-term needs for an extended form in the new normal.
Growth in managed services is mature in other industries, whereas insurtech is catching up. Now is the time for IT to partner with business decision makers and evolve your strategy towards a global and long-term approach.
To learn more about your business transformation readiness, watch the whole webinar or contact us at marketing@deltacapita.com.
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