A 4-Phase Plan for Insurers to Adopt to the Digital Age

While insurance as an industry has not undergone major changes in terms of product offerings, the digital era has ensured disruptions in the way the sector operates. Now, insurers definitely need to consider how they will approach transformation, and prepare their company for a digital future. And, this transformation cannot be a one-time occurrence, but rather an adoption of continuous processes for improvement, while keeping an eye on driving core innovation.

Here are 4 key phases insurers can embrace for a digital future:

Invest in digital technologies for lowering cost of core operations

Implementing technologies that help make core business capabilities more efficient at a reduced cost can help pace up operational output as well. These funds can then be used for innovation projects. This provides flexibility to insurers to free investment capital for new inventive projects.

Ensure continuous business growth and meeting of revenue targets

Often insurance businesses tend to chase innovation, while sidelining quarterly targets. Digital transformation is an ongoing process, and continuous digital upgrades to be customer-centric are required. Investments that enhance customer experience while enabling agility in business operations are the foundation on which innovation projects will build, and hence cannot be ignored.

Scaling pilot innovations into business operations 

Migrating a successful innovation into the business operations and ensuring adoption from employees is the toughest part of the transformation process. Stakeholders need to chalk out a roadmap on how the tech architecture will be brought into large-scale operations from its pilot or beta phase, as this will generate and drive future revenue streams. Involving third-party tech partners in this phase as strategically required can help the traditional insurance business shift seamlessly to the new innovative entity.

Time the transformation optimally

To bring about transformation from the old ways of business operations to new process models, it’s important to use the investments and capital wisely. Also, innovations must be implemented with a thought to when it would be ideal to make them routine procedures without disrupting everyday business and revenues.

Automation, AI, data analytics are all digital technologies that can help insurers get better customer engagement and open up new business avenues. An agile, innovative insurance business that embraces new technologies can ensure survival in the long run.