"Traditional insurers, wishing to make a significant improvement to their claims processing have historically adopted a highly traditional approach to systems development."
Simon Yun-Farmbrough Exec Chairman 360Globalnet
He goes to say:
Many of these insurers have been constrained by legacy systems of record. However, a new breed of Software As A Service (SAAS) platforms creates an opportunity to move to an agile approach to development, as well as allowing insurers to deploy all the key functionality they need, and which is not available from their legacy systems.
In this scenario projects are characterised by:
- Small teams led by operating staff;
- Incremental changes delivered rapidly and continuously;
- Constant testing of the customer experience;
- Close attention to the financial benefits;
- Multiple iterations and adaptation;
- Empowered teams authorised to deliver change;
- Modest roles for internal IT teams;
- Light touch project management methodologies with an emphasis on delivery; and
- Integration with other systems is not pursued for its own sake.
This chimes with research and subsequent July 2019 paper from pwc "The untapped potential within the UK insurance market".
In it pwc answer the question:
What do insurers want from the Insurtech industry?
- To marry expectations with what can be realistically achieved
- To replace old legacy seeking ways to drive down combined ratios without total replacement or complete re-platforming
- Developing solutions that are scalable and can be implemented, integrated and supported by a viable technology partner
- Enable the agile approach proposed by Yun-Farmbrough even with a cultural mindset that is more risk averse.
This requires the technology partner that starts with the digital claims that deliver fast results without disrupting the organisation or its customers. That revolutionises the customer experience and journey in an evolutionary manner for the insurer.
This means keeping current legacy systems in place whilst still delivering an Amazon quality customer experience and journey. That lets the business configure and innovate in plain English ( or French, Italian, German etc) from the desktop or laptop without the need to code.
A partner that need only train a small number of people in the business to constantly iterate, innovate and deliver competitive advantage within a few months.
Over the first 12 months the majority of perils can be transformed with the one digital claims platform implementing home, auto, pet, travel, speciality and commercial.
That gives the insurer the time to consider what it should keep in its current core systems estate and what needs replacing. Take a strategic approach rather than tactical tinkering.
Above all the insurer needs to know the technology partner offers a scalable solution. Most insurers do not want to be early adopters or first movers. They prefer some other enterprise to have taken the risk, helped the partner sort out the gaps and bugs in the solution and offer an industrial strength platform.
It is no coincidence that Simon Yun-Farmbrough's company 360Globalnet offers all this and more having deployed 360Siteview and 360Retrieve in large and global insurers.
Unsurprisingly, given the complexity, projects were often delayed, frequently overran their budgets, and benefits were often elusive. Many of these insurers have been constrained by legacy systems of record. However, a new breed of Software As A Service (SAAS) platforms creates an opportunity to move to an agile approach to development, as well as allowing insurers to deploy all the key functionality they need, and which is not available from their legacy systems.
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