In brief
- The insurance industry is expected to grow significantly by 2025, especially in emerging markets, with technology driving innovation and market disruption.
- Digital transformation will require investments in data analytics, automation, and customer-centric technology to streamline business operations and improve customer experience.
- Collaboration among insurers, technology providers, and regulators will be crucial to realizing the full potential of technology in the insurance industry.
In the first of two articles, Zoreza Global insurance expert Jeremy Owenson examines what we can learn from the industry challenges of the past few years.
In this new world of unrest and unpredictability, we have no way of knowing what the future will look like. So, how do insurers build products and services that will really matter to prospective customers?
One of the major obstructions to creativity is that technology designed for the old world is largely unfit for the new world. For instance, why don't insurers offer a 13-month insurance product? It would alter renewal dates and remove companies from aggregator renewal cycles. Well, the simple answer is that most platforms work on a 12-month basis.
So, how do you replatform? How do you use new front ends? How do you engage differently with customer data? In other words, how can technology and data analysts deliver sustainable growth for insurers?
Let’s first explore the lessons learned from the last few years in the industry — arguably the most unpredictable in history — before going on to examine how we can put those teachings into practice.
The globalization factor
Zoreza Global is a data analytics and digital engineering business. Historically, much of our delivery has come from Eastern Europe, particularly Ukraine; it's a significant portion of our business. But the Russian invasion in February 2022 changed our approach. Although we have delivery centers in Poland, we had to look at moving to alternative territories such as Egypt, Portugal and Romania — countries we wouldn't consider in other circumstances.
It's tough to forecast where the next pinch point will likely surface. Thanks to the business of war, technologists are more expensive and difficult to find. Belarus, a great source of technology experts for Western Europe, is another country in turmoil. So now, as the costs of delivering technology are rising fast, insurers need to be careful about choosing projects to back.
In addition, you need to make sure those projects deliver quickly — because, in the current climate, you can't afford to make a significant investment without a significant return. One possible route is as-a-Service, which decision-makers add to every project nowadays. But if you put all your eggs in one basket and your as-a-Service provider fails, you're in real trouble. That’s the funny thing — risk appears even when you're working hard to eliminate risk.
What can we learn from COVID?
On a more positive note, one benefit of COVID is that it helped people change their way of working. Thinking back to our Ukraine challenge, when the Russians first invaded, our people left Kyiv and other leading cities and headed west. Very quickly, we were able to redeploy them into internet cafes to continue remote working, getting the best out of those team members in a safer environment.
There’s a lot we can learn from the COVID experience, but we still have to resolve the challenge of roles that need to get back into contact centers and pick up where they left off. A notable generational trend for the insurance industry is that younger workers crave the social aspect of having collaborators around them. Promising prospective employees are as concerned about the organization’s environmental credentials and if the culture is fun as they are about the money on offer. Like technology companies, insurers are having to rewrite their recruitment pitch.
Read more in our next article, where Jeremy explores what steps insurers can take today to future-proof their interests.
Find out more
Visit Zoreza Global on LinkedIn or contact Jeremy for more insurance insights. See how we’re helping to future-proof the insurance industry.
Jeremy Owenson
During his 12 years with Zurich Insurance, Jeremy gained extensive market knowledge, from sales and the underwriting process to claims and even outsourcing (including offshore). Now, he’s concentrating on how technology can revolutionize the industry. Leveraging DXC Zoreza Global’s leading position in Banking and Capital Markets, Jeremy is determined to bring fresh ideas and ML-driven underwriting to the insurance sector.
