Refining the current methods

Published On: April 17, 2019

How can the traditional ways of claims and policy management be redefined in this digital age?

 I once had a colleague who used the expression “If the only tool in your toolbox is a hammer then every problem is a nail”.  If you just take what is there and digitise it then there’s a good chance that you’ll make some incremental improvements but just as good a chance that you’ll miss the transformational changes.

 

There’s a strong possibility that you’ll make incremental improvements but if you just look at the problem from your own point of view then there’s every chance that you’ll build something that makes things worse!  Let’s look at some examples in our own industry that have failed to deliver:

 

• The insurer that says to brokers, “we’ve built a portal for you to report claims into”, so the broker needs to type the claims info into their own back office system and then the insurer wants them to add 15mins by logging into an insurer portal and retyping the info.
• The Broker that pushes clients to log into a system to view their policy details, as it’s more efficient, when actually what the client wants is a personal service.
• The Insurer that builds a claims app and says to brokers you should use this as it links into our back office system, whilst the broker sits there and thinks what if I want to move that account to another insurer next year.

Often these things come about because we are not having strategic conversations where the client wins, the broker wins and the insurer wins – tick benefits to all and you are on to a winner.  The technology just follows on, it’s there to serve you not the other way around.

Blockchain, AI, claims paid instantly, drones, cars automatically reporting accidents, embedded software in goods – brilliant but does it benefit all the parties?  Don’t just do things to be in vogue.

Virtually anything is possible digitally but stand back and make sure it’s benefiting the full value chain.  Have honest conversations all going in the same direction and delivering value.