Last week, I spoke at the InsurTechTO conference in Toronto. The theme of the conference was “Driving Advantage from InsurTech,” with an eye on being ready for the insurance industry’s evolution. My main contribution to the event was a presentation on the impact of digital on the customer experience.
For many years, portals–whether for agents, brokers, or policyholders–have provided an interactive front end for insurers. Traditional vended portal solutions along with pure custom development solutions have long provided insurers with portal capabilities. However, in recent times, insurance CIOs have been seeking alternatives to traditional portal solutions that offer better flexibility, speed to deliver, and tools and methods to improve user experience.
Agile was a primary topic of concern for insurers at Novarica’s Regional Roundtable in Hartford, CT. Here are some of the key strategies for success that emerged from Novarica’s research on Agile and the discussion from attendees:
The cultural benefits that accompany Agile transformations are well documented. Done right, Agile can work wonders for accountability, morale and overall employee engagement, especially in organizations bogged-down with heavyweight process, centralized governance and bureaucracy.
There is a dark side though.
Retail brokerages and large commercial/specialty carriers have attempted to automate the heavy lifting of everyday new and renewal business transactions for decades. A handful of very large brokerages and carriers have developed point-to-point interfaces, but these were often complex and too costly to build or maintain.
In response, several new InsureTech startups have developed solutions to address pain points like gathering new business data, filling out the numerous types of insurance applications required by carriers, and tracking submissions and quote status. These platforms primarily fall into two categories: