Insurance

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) has made prescriptive parameters for insurance products, marketing and distribution more rigorous, and customers, having been empowered by the knowledge eco-system, have become far more discerning and demanding. Enterprises intent on carving out a larger piece of the pie for themselves are embracing technology initiatives to differentiate themselves from competitors.

Right now is the best time for insurance companies to remodel legacy systems and tune in to digital technology if they are to stay ahead of the chasing pack. Legacy systems inhibit customer service and entail a higher cost burden. Modernising the platforms and integrating with mobile and cloud technology is inescapable to promote enhanced customer experiences, cost economy and cut down on maintenance costs.

Given the logarithmic growth in the use of smartphones, mobile technology must be a vital element of business strategy for insurance enterprises. Savvy customers are on the look-out for opportunities for direct purchase of insurance on the go. Enterprises can exploit mobile app technology to allow customers to access their policy data, compute insurance premia, measure retirement annuities, view policy premia quotes, and locate the most proximate physical touch-point. Internet enabled mobile technology is the future of brand building, outreach to customers through social media for product and service offerings, customer feedback and word-of-mouth advocacy.

Multiple systems integration is a feature of adoption of cloud technology. Once customer history is captured on a centralized data base, it can be accessed anytime from any device without the need to open multiple systems thereby bringing down customer response time and reducing operating costs. Analytical interpretations flowing from the centralized data, offer management a better understanding of the impact of pricing policies enabling insightful tailoring of products. Enterprises adopting cloud technology are advantaged by the ability to attract customers with low cost offerings.

In an increasingly competitive and demanding market, where frequency of customer migration is escalating, the use of multi-channel digital connection points to establish, nurture, reinforce and consolidate customer relationships is imperative. Engagement through enterprise websites, personal email exchanges, social media posts, comments, like, shares, and knowledge enriching blog posts contribute to evolution of customer relationships. Partnership with allied digital service providers enables delivery of a bouquet of asset protection services – wealth, health, life, home and vehicle.

Analytics will help make sense of structured and unstructured data – risk data, actuarial data, claims data, and financial data. Advanced analytics is the critical driver in informed decision making, audacious marketing and operational efficiencies. With the tremendous deepening of the insurance market, the claim volumes have also spiralled. Exploiting analytics to accelerate claims processing, obviates interest costs linked to delayed settlement and advances the frontiers of excellence in customer service.

Automation is the essential prerequisite to ensuring consistent compliance with regulatory instructions. Automated fail safe procedures could red flag product features that fall short of regulatory demands and pause processing of proposals that are inconsistent with regulatory procedures, external or internal.