I can almost imagine Adam Winslow, Aviva’s chief executive of general insurance for the UK and Ireland, reading this podcast hosted by Instech London's joint founder and partner Matthew Grant who shines a leading light on insurtech and the insurance industry.
Matthew: In the past five years there’s been around $30 billion in investments into new technology within insurers. According to Willis, only 18% of that has gone into claims. Insurers don’t seem to be focusing on using new technology for claims as much as they should be given the clear cost savings potential. Why do you think that is?
Jeremy: If insurers want to significantly reduce their loss ratio, claims is where they should be focusing. Over lockdown, there has been an increase in innovation in this area, mainly from insurers. I think innovation can still come from the claims handling companies themselves. The onus is on these existing claims companies to look at their own businesses to create software that's going to future-proof themselves.
Between 70% and 80% of insurers cash flows through claims so Hyam's advice is sound and appointment Waseem Malik reflects the the importance of managing claims effectively, efficiently and with customer's needs to forefront.
I thought I would look at how AXA and Aviva rank in the recently released Altus DigitalBar that ranks insurers across 19 digital capabilities. Not just claims mind you, but over much of the customer experience
Speaking on the new hire, Winslow said: “I am delighted that Waseem will be joining Aviva to bring his focus and expertise to our UK and Ireland general insurance claims business at a time when we are transforming how we work with our customers, both simplifying and digitising our operations.
“In motor alone, more than 65% of customers use our online capabilities to report their claim.
“Waseem’s extensive experience in claims will help accelerate this digitisation, as well as keeping us firmly centred on the claims needs of our customers and brokers.” Insurance Times 30th November
How do Axa and Aviva score in the digital maturity stakes?
Source: Altus DigitalBar
In car insurance AXA wins by a neck but in Home is back in the field at =15. Work to do there.
The DigitalBar offers valuable insights where the gaps appear across the 29 criteria for home insurance.
Now for AXA
When they tie in top places for car insurance you have to question why there is such a gap in home. My own view is that it stems from that perennial issue for insurers of core systems. AXA has implemented a digital transformation of car insurance based on its Guidewire insurance platform but even Tier 1 insurers can find the cost, time and sheer effort of repeating the effort for another claims line just too much. Especially when they are invariably on different technology stacks.
The DigitalBar offers fascinating evidence of an insurers digital capabilities even down to visualising the customer journey. Message me on LinkedIn if you would like more information on how to leverage these insights.
Meanwhile- if you are an insurer lagging in the digital maturity rankings you can always consider the new digital claims management platforms that will help you achieve the transformation you seek without the cost, time and effort that high-ticket and complex claims platforms require. Whether you are a Tier 1 or smaller insurer these are cost effective, been proven in scalable roll-outs by large and small enterprises and can be deployed as fast as your ambition and drive.
Claims Consortium Group is not only a leading claims services provider to the home insurance industry its success is based on the very digital claims platform technology that drive digital maturity. It recently launched a commercialised version for insurers - The Synergy transformation workflow technology for end-to-end claims- with the AA being the first insurer to deploy this to meet its own digital claims transformation needs.
Gary Barker, Claims Director at The AA commented: ‘It’s a rare thing in business for two organisations to find each other at a time when they have completely aligned mutual objectives, but that is what happened with this partnership with the AA and Synergy Cloud. Both teams have taken on a truly collaborative approach to the project and it has genuinely felt like we are part of one team, in fact, at times it has felt like one family! The product we have created between us creates a first in the UK home claims market, a system that provides a completely common platform for customers, suppliers and claims handlers alike, digitally-enabled incorporating the latest video technology and cloud-based but which is not ruinously expensive. Synergy Cloud is a first-rate provider and we are very excited to be working with them and proud of what we have produced together.”
Barker also described how the AA has to address industry challenges facing all home insurers.
For more on that topic see Home Claims, Industry Challenges and the role of Technology discussed at 'I Love Claims' Conference
Aviva has spent longer deploying digital claims technology in home claims and CoreLogic plays an important role there.
“Ensuring that we have good communication with our customers in their time of need is an essential part of the claims process. Not only does LINK provide us with a platform for this communication, but it also significantly improves the claims experience for our customers when they need us the most by providing clear and simple information.
Kelly Robson Director, Aviva UKGI Home Claims
When you have invested in a comprehensive home and property ecosystem technology platform like CoreLogic you would expect to evolve the digital maturity and capabilities as best you can. Recently CoreLogic released new low-code functionality to make it easier for insurers to validate and triage claims and speed up the estimation of time and cost to repair and replace loss and damage.
Both Synergy and CoreLogic enable insurers to securely integrate the internal and external data sources vital to not just provide a speedier resolution of claims but also to triage and orchestrate all the parties involved in putting home and content owners disrupted lives back together again.
Two different approaches and both leading to the same ends.
Of course they are not the only technology partners to choose from and as usual I include a selection of those insurer can choose from below.
Major core insurance platforms Guidewire, Duck Creek, EIS, Majesco, ICE, Pega, Innovation Group, Sapiens IDIT and so on. Good on breadth of functionality but sometimes lacking in specifics e.g., claim management. And traditionally involving Capex and high annual licensing costs though that is changing.
Duck Creek & EIS cloud based platforms, extensive API options to integrate best-of-breed insurtechs , low-code to make it easier for customers to customise and innovate. Whereas Guidewire strategy is to integrate insurtech via its marketplace i.e. your choice is limited to what's there
Quote & Buy, MTA & Renewal Platforms like Go-Insur, HUGHUB, iptiQ that enable an insurer to allow a customer to interactively manage all their policies from one dashboard
Digital Claims Platforms Synergy Cloud, RightIndem, Snapsheet, ClaimsGenius, Salesforce Industries, Five Sigma, 360Globalnet, Claims Technology etc
Home Ecosystems Providers: CoreLogic, Verisk
Auto Ecosystems Providers incl. telematics data exchanges: Verisk, Lexis Nexis Risk Solutions, Mitchell International, CCC Intelligent Solutions and Arity
Point Solutions: Weathernet, Tractable, Audatex/Solera, Shift, Friss Sprout.ai, Solera and many others
Telematics Service Providers: Octo, IMS, True Motion, Cambridge Mobile, Vitality Drive and The Floow
Shared Mobility Systems: Uber, Lyft, Enterprise CarShare, Zipcar, Car2go, GIG, Turo, Getaround
Combined claims services and technology providers Crawford & Company, Sedgwick, Davies Group, Claims Consortium Group. Control€xpert, Robertson & Company etc.
No-Code/Low-Code app building platforms from Unqork, Netcall…
Embedded insurance Wrisk, Qover, etc
Further Reading
Motor insurer digital maturity, touchless auto claims and customer satisfaction
“I have heard great things about Aviva UK and Ireland general insurance claims. I am looking forward to leading the team at a time when there is so much opportunity to advance the way we manage claims with customers, enabling them to engage with us in the way they prefer and to provide a fast and efficient service.”
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