When's the last time you saw a glowing statement about insurers in a national, non-insurance publication?
The insurance industry is good at beating itself up for not innovating faster — and many analysts, insurtechs and customers are all too happy to join in.
Paul Carroll in this article from Insurance Thought Leadership gives a more balanced view. Even so, there is another perspective.
When you look at the example given of innovation, the technology that lets customers take pictures of their damaged cars and have artificial intelligence instantly generate an accurate estimate, it has been in development for years. And still only delivers about 80% accuracy which means 20% inaccuracy. Still an impressive advance which lets claims handlers focus on those aspects of claims that require human intuition and empathy.
But COVID-19 no longer gives insurers years to test and deliver solutions. They had to cope with a travel cancellation claims surge that came out of the blue.
Then business interruption claims hit insurers and again they could not wait a year or more. They needed technology partners that could deliver in weeks and without eye-watering CAPEX. This is not a critique of insurers but rather if technology vendors used to charging large consulting and development fees to roll-out legacy code over lengthy implementation periods and then upgrade them in four of five years when they become obsolete.
Insurers deserve better and thankfully they are getting what they deserve. Unqork amongst others deliver solutions fast- literally in weeks. How?
It is the key benefit of No-Code software. Insurers own staff- both line of business and IT- are trained in just weeks and start building AND DEPLOYING new apps in weeks in plain English, Spanish, French, Italian, Chinese....
The change is revolutionary and the cost starts in tens of thousands of dollars rather than the customary $1mill for just a minor upgrade never mind a significant innovation.
This lead 360Globalnet to deliver Business Interruption Claims Management in weeks for two major global insurers just recently. And for one British insurer that just could not cope with the COVID-19 lockdown in April No-Code 360SiteView was the saviour. eFNOL for motor and home insurance deployed in a week and the full end-to-end claims management in twelve.
Insurers were held back by technology vendors as much as anything. As Paul Carrol and the NYT write, insurers have delivered innovation well within the limitations of legacy code platforms and software.
No-Code software lets them face the challenge of COVID-19 which every commentator states has accelerated the need for RAPID digital transformation and digitisation.
Senior citizens, isolated from friends and family by lockdowns, social distancing and restricted visitor numbers have taken to online banking and online grocery buying like ducks to water.
Elderly church, synagogue, mosque and temple congregations worship happily by Zoom and You-Tube.
Now they see how easy and effective online is they have joined the Millennials and Generation Z digital warriors and demand that insurers let hem manage insurance and claims in the same way. Digitally with a claims handler at he click of a mouse when required.
Last year insurers would have been held back by technology vendors adding time delay, cost and complexity to slow down innovation. This year the No-Code option changes that forever and insurers can anticipate, respond and innovate fast and furious. And No-Code is mature which means that the custodians of the IT Estate , Central IT, are assured of passing the compliance, scalability, security, resilience benchmarks that are mandatory. They have the governance and tools to maintain enterprise strength and wide platforms and software.
Integration was always a barrier to adopting new apps but with open API architecture No-Code removes that barrier at a stroke.
Better still it frees up central IT. Who in an insurer does not know the "Pit of Despair" factor.
Over one hundred IT projects only twenty or so that will ever get deployed- the other 80 consigned to the pit of despair.
No-Code allows line of business (LOB) and Central IT to work in parallel as so many more of the 80 projects van be delivered by LOB technology teams and others by central IT. Central IT can focus on the strategic innovation of core systems whilst LOB teams tackle significant innovation requirements like Business Interruption. rather than just digitally transform one line of business, say motor, they can tackle all lines of business; home, pet, travel, warranty, speciality, commercial.....
Are the leviathan legacy platforms on their last legs? And by legacy I mean any platform, including many modern platforms that require scripting and coding, most that is, as they immediately generate legacy code.
No-Code does not- all customers are on the latest version of the software including bug fixes. They they upgrades automatically every month or so and throughout the year.
No frozen software whilst a major upgrade is implemented at a major cost. It all happens every month under the hood so you never fall behind the current version.
In reality No-Code is a challenger to the traditional software platform vendors. Their solutions come with high ticket pricing and big ticket lead-times. Should insurers have to sustain the cost of these implementations and time to value?
No- whilst No-Code software started with smaller point solutions it now delivers complete platforms. It 'wraps round' core platforms with practical integration tools and APIs and the speed of replacing these legacy components ramps up with higher clock-speed.
Lower cost, faster time to market and rapid response to change are the hallmarks of No-Code applications and platforms.
- Solve business problems more quickly
- Deliver slicker services faster without lumbering insurers with cost
- The essential tool to deliver the digital transformation promise.
Which means insurers can continue to deliver good news stories of innovation in national and non-insurance publications.
Instech London hosted a marvellous 45 minute Live Chat on No-Code and the issues raised above. You can watch it here
The Times article said the most aggressive innovation is happening outside the U.S. because of the complications caused by state-by-state regulation in the U.S. The piece singled out Tractable, in London, as a leader in the technology that lets customers take pictures of their damaged cars and have artificial intelligence instantly generate an accurate estimate — cutting days out of the process by removing the need for an appointment with a human adjuster and for extensive back-and-forth between the adjuster and the repair shop. The piece cited Admiral Seguro, an insurer in Spain, as an early implementer of the technology; it may even offer payment of a claim within minutes. The Times said the innovations will move into production in the U.S. soon. The pandemic is speeding up the transition because it discourages face-to-face interactions.
https://www.insurancethoughtleadership.com/some-respect-for-insurance-innovators/
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