The face of insurance is quickly changing.
As better technology, such as artificial intelligence and image recognition, becomes more viable for commercial uses and consumers get more technically savvy the business of claims must keep pace. Luckily, there is no shortage of new incumbent companies in the insurance space taking full advantage of the latest and greatest in these technological advances.
As new companies come into the insurance space creating exciting Insurtech products, carriers could get worried about cannibalism of their business. It seems like a valid thing to worry about; new technology gets a lot of play in the media, so you’re constantly bombarded with news about all these new players entering the space. However, most of these fears are actually unwarranted.
According to the latest data from McKinsey, while the number of Insurtech incumbents is on a steady rise, most of those new players are not looking to steal customers, but rather add value to what the current carriers are already doing. In fact, most new Insurtech companies are helping carriers to do their jobs better and more efficiently. In their data, McKinsey points out that 61% of the Insurtech companies they’ve looked at are adding direct value to a carrier’s value chain. Another 30% are disintermediating parts of the value chain, but that still means they are making it essential that carriers own a major part of the process rather than eliminating them or take away their customers.
So, rather than be worried about new players in the Insurtech game, carriers should be carefully watching these new entries and thinking about which ones they could possibly partner and work with to create a better experience for their customers and efficiencies and cost savings for their own business.
Here’s three things to consider when looking for an Insurtech partner:
What does your business need most?
This question is always the best place to start when considering how to move forward. With all the news and information floating around out there about new technology and what can be done these days, it’s very easy to get swept up in a lot of the hype. However, while a lot of things sound exciting and may make you want to jump in head first, it’s important to first determine your priorities. Look at your business and start to think about what areas are a priority for you and what can be done in these areas. Maybe it’s the way your customers submit claims, because your old way of doing so is slow and expensive. Maybe the way you track claims fulfillment is a manual process but you could save time and money by automating it. Once you determine the areas you’d like to start to improve you can start looking for the right partners that can help you achieve your goals.
Does this partner fit in easily with our current business?
Once you’ve decided to start looking for a partner to help you achieve your goals, whatever they may, it’s important to think about how that partnership may look. This can be looked at in two different ways. First, does this partner share a similar vision to ours? Working with partners is a two-way give and take situation that is not just about money. It’s important to know that you want to work towards a similar goal and do great things. If you want to create a better experience for your policy holders than you want to work with a partner who puts customer thinking first. If you want to improve efficiency then you should look for a partner that believes in the power of data and will use that to help improve your business.
Second, does the way the partner’s technology works fit with your current business system? Your business has a way that it’s been operating for years and needs to continue to operate while you move forward. It’s important to know if a partner’s system will work with your current systems or if there will be an easy way to transfer systems and data. The more complicated these things are, the longer it will take to get them to market and the headache may not be worth it in the long run.
Why do we even need a partner?
This is the second most important question you’re going to want to ask. A lot of the time once you realise that you need a specific solution the first intuition is to try and take on a project in house. While it may sound like we’re shooting ourselves in the foot telling you this, we believe that partnering for the right reasons is very important. A lot of the time the right reason will be that a partner has been working on their specific piece of technology or in a specific area for a long time, giving them the team and expertise to do things right and faster. Building things from scratch in-house can be long and expensive processes, but finding a partner that knows what they’re doing and already has established systems that can fit in nicely with your current business can help you get to market faster and take advantage of what consumers want and need right now.
Want to know if Symbility is the right partner for you? Keep an eye out for our Claim The Future Tour later this year where we would love to show you all the latest things we’ve been up to and how they can work with your business.