Today, any article you pick on insurance, is talking about digital transformation. While it is true that the global insurance industry is undergoing a radical transformation across all segments, it is imperative to understand the focus areas and how insurers need to work towards improving the underwriting space.
Before we go further, let us list the two main objectives of going digital:
- Streamlining the core insurance processing system, which will in turn lead to automation, better decision-making, reliable analytics and use of collated data.
- Facilitating seamless transactions, continual generation of insights, and ultimately rich customer experience.
Now the foundation to any insurance business is “underwriting” is the and therefore needs to be top priority. If you were to assess the general scenario, the digital disruptions specifically, it is clear that the focus on underwriting has slipped down a few notches, considering the growing volume of data that is available to insurers today.
We need to start by understanding the major factors that are driving the transformation when it comes to underwriting:
- Advances in Technology
Technology plays a very important role In underwriting transformation across all segments of the market. The touch points that have a major impact on underwriting include data insights, analytics, automation and other solutions. These play a vital role in creating the risk portfolio of a customer and assessing the insurance products that suit their profile. The ability to collate both structured and unstructured data is helping insurers to offer suggestions and personalized products to the customers. It also gives them the ability to innovate, incorporate dynamic pricing and connect better with the customers.
- Digital Tools
With new technology solutions emerging, insurers today have access to tools and solutions to create a differentiating factor when it comes to services. Insurance companies are today investing in partnerships and insurtech to create an edge over competition. Some of the key technology solutions are:
- Predictive analytics — risk assessment and policy pricing
- Artificial Intelligence [AI], RPA [Robotic Processing Automation] & cognitive automation
- Location based data for analysis & mining
- Big data capabilities
- IoT enabled data capture & analytics and Cloud
- Microservices and API integration
- Omni-channel and multi-channel access
- Web and mobile applications
- The underwriting process itself
When you look at the traditional methods of underwriting, it was focussed on only two areas- one was to manage the people who did the underwriting, and other was to ensure there was continuous business for the company. However, times have changed. Today the entire focus has shifted from the business to customers and there are new solutions available to enhance the same.
The underwriters today have access to data gathered from various sources, including connected wearables. They are able to analyze and study the data to understand the prospective client, their lifestyle and which policy would suit them as well. Using the automated systems, risk evaluation is done by the insurer before reaching out to the customer. Along the journey, several automated solutions are in place to help the customer make informed decisions when it comes to insurance policy purchase.
To sum it up, with these disruptive technologies, individuals are privy to assisted decision-making. The underwriters can also work towards creating cross-selling opportunities, customer retention and new customer acquisition, gain competitive edge over others and improve their performance in the process.
Successful underwriting starts with a clear road map to help navigate critical stepping stones, and this includes legacy system modernization, integration & deployment of digital solutions, and equipping the insurers to work with new products and changes without any hiccups.
At Neutrinos, we have an experienced team and a full suite of solutions and services designed exclusively for insurance enterprises. We are helping insurers overcome challenges and deliver applications that rate high on customer satisfaction. Leading insurers have leveraged on our low code platform and distribution sales to deliver better service with greater efficiency. Are you curious to know how to enhance your underwriting process? Talk to our experts for more details.