What does digital insurance really mean?

Less than 20 years ago, retail banking meant bricks, mortar and paper checks. 

To arrange an overdraft, mortgage or whatever, customers were obliged to don hats and coats, unfurling umbrellas as they joined the fractious bus lines en route to a nervy, prearranged grilling by their bank manager. 

Digital technologies changed all that. Now, most customer interactions are conducted via mobile apps which provide instant gratification. The ability to make immediate transfers digitally has seen off the checkbook. If you happen to receive a paper check, using the phone’s camera to pay it into your online account transforms the paper IOU into a digital transfer instead of a legacy piece. 

Turning our backs on hard cash after centuries of habitual use obliged banks to change their manual processes, just as the virtual elimination of checks reduced the need for high street branches. Gone forever is the familiar check-handling process where a teller examined the slip of paper and compared its signature to the customer’s bank records — in effect, a 2-day clearing process. 

Digitalization in insurance and other strands of the financial services industry was inevitable. 

Zoreza Global has guided countless global banks from traditional to modern in three ways. 

The CX/UX visual journey. As with the change from processing paper checks to doing everything on mobile apps, the front end is all about the digital experience. Zoreza Global has a considerable track record in building mobile banking apps, creating visualizations and bringing innovation to the insurance app space. 

Data analytics. Understanding the data is key. Take automotive as an example. Our automotive team knows how onboard computers can be used to enhance insurance rating capabilities. Data and predictive analytics professionals understand the ins and outs of pulling in separate big data sources from here, there and everywhere. However, just like scanning bank checks onto a mobile app, you still need to interpret and verify the information, then turn it into usable digital data. Zoreza Global can do that for you. 

Technology modernization. Although firmly embedded, digital transformation for insurance still has to include clunky check-management procedures. But scanning checks onto a banking platform mainframe means the mainframe must be able to connect to various new banking apps. Insurance platforms need to connect to new front-ends and insurance apps digitally. 

Digital engineering is something we're very good at. Zoreza Global has modernized or made many old applications talk to their modern counterparts. Instead of replacing mainframes, we make apps interface with the original banking systems of record. Banks and insurers simply can't pull the plug on their core systems. 

Nowadays, virtually everything technology-led is called digital. But what do we mean by “digital?” And what’s the real impact of digital transformation in the insurance industry? 

I don't regard things like moving to the cloud as true digital transformation. To my mind, digital means data analytics. Are you creating front and back ends in a digital way? Are you designing products so you can sell them through digital channels? Here’s what we believe “digital” really means in four business areas: 

1. Digital design or journey (digital-first customer interface)  

While looking for commercial building insurance quotes, one company (that claims they have digital processes) required me to complete a lengthy online questionnaire only to be informed, “we’ll ring you with a quote in 24 hours.” That's not improving customer engagement. That’s not a digital strategy for insurance. 

An insurer with multiple legacy platforms created a business case to replace them with a more modern platform. However, they proceeded to cannibalize the funding to keep the old platforms afloat. The “run-the-business” operations ended up consuming the total new platform budget. This is a common issue. 

Let’s stop calling them legacy apps. Let’s call them “heritage” apps instead. They're still being used, and instead of modernizing, we enhance them. If legacy apps aren’t providing the required interconnectivity, we focus on understanding the underlying app and business requirements, then implement critical fixes rather than reengineering the whole thing. We ring-fence the “change-the-business” money to deliver incremental improvements to products and services, offering low-cost fixes.