Insurance in a “Connected World” – are you ready for it?

For those of you who think the pace of change has been quick in the insurance world, fasten your seat belts, as it’s about to accelerate to another level …

The end of separate “Siloed” markets?

For as long as I can remember the UK Insurance market has structured itself around how it wants to operate rather than “necessarily how customers want to operate”. Traditionally, Life, Healthcare, & General Insurance have been transacted in separate siloed businesses with at times complex processes, systems, & question sets that make the customer journey more complex than it could or should be & certainly less customer friendly than it is in some overseas territories.

Customers needs & expectations are changing & increasing

But interestingly, the worlds changing. A sizeable proportion of today’s customers, & a growing proportion of “Tomorrow’s customers” EXPECT:

• to be able to access all of their insurance needs in one place
• to access their insurance Solutions through their preferred communication channel
• a simpler & better customer journey using through using Data Smartly

Using Data smartly

The use of Big data & the Connected world creates a fantastic opportunity to enhance & reinvent the traditional insurance customer journey through:

• Reducing the question set the customer needs to complete where the information is available through another data source
• Using connected real time data to enhance dynamic pricing models
• Significantly reducing the impact of fraudulent activity in the market
  and perhaps most importantly:
• Making it much more easy for customers to access all of their insurance needs at each lifecycle stage in one place …
  Impact of Emerging Technologies

A final thought. New technologies are & will continue to have a significant impact on how Insurance products are, Designed, Distributed, Priced, Serviced, & delivered. Here’s a few that should be on your radar:

• Wearables will drive unique behavioural insights and help insurers design unique and personalised services
• The Internet of Things (IoT) will connect an ecosystem of devices and wearables to the Internet and allow enhanced decision making
• Drones will enable efficient claims management and processing
• Driverless cars will transform the way insurance is rated
• 3-D printing & Artificial Intelligence (AI) will help prioritise and replace things that need replacing, fast.

Those organisations, be they existing providers or new entrants, that grasp this as an opportunity will be the one’s that set themselves apart from the rest …

Author Derek Findlayson