Insurance is changing. Last year alone, the strategic impact that technology had on businesses was felt across the industry, and it is clear that to survive it needs to embrace a digital future.
As part of the keynote debate Maintaining London’s Position as the Centre for Global Insurance during the virtual TINtech London Market 2021, panellists Bart Patrick, Managing Director of Duck Creek Technologies in Europe, Matthieu Caillat, Chief Operating Officer at AXA XL, and Lyn Grobler, Howden Group Holdings Chief Information Officer, looked at how technology could shape the sector.
“It is not about business deciding what we should be doing and then tech catching up; it is not about tech defining what is possible and then business fitting in,” Matthieu said. “It is an on-going dialogue about strategic ambition and tech options.”
This balance, however, can only be achieved if the right staff are on board. “People are the key asset to success,” Lyn said, “Digital is about enhancing humans, not replacing them. So, what do we need to do to attract the best talent and fix the digital divide?”
The beast within
The solution, Bart stated, is for the market to unpick ‘the beast within’ and its inherent inefficiencies and tangled web of systems and standards. But there is pressure on spend and budget.
“We conducted a survey about the impact of remote working and we found that respondents wanted to see flexible technology to continue into the future,” Bart said. “In this new environment the right architecture must be in place to support end-to-end digitisation insurance processes, to continue flexible working, and help streamline the virtual customer experience.
“But the market needs to let go of the old paradigms to make this work,” Bart concluded. “We are in a market that is generally committed to innovation, but the key to all of this is to ensure that we are pointing in the same direction.”
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