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The Future of Insurance – Limitless Possibilities
Wow. Wow. And Wow!
The ideas and limitless possibilities that are taking hold and reshaping the future of insurance were front and center this year at InsureTech Connect.
The impact and continued momentum for the future of insurance that we witnessed, heard and saw at InsureTech Connect 2019 this week in Las Vegas was amazing! Remember, in 2016, 1,500 gathered at the inaugural InsureTech Connect. Majesco was the lone core systems solution provider along with many InsurTechs in the exhibit hall, connecting and discussing technology, change and disruption. As InsurTech gained momentum, powered by the influx of capital into the market and the appetite for change with technology, MGA and insurance startups, we continued to see the growth of InsureTech Connect with 3,800 attending in October 2017 and over 6,000 in October 2018.
This week the industry reached a new high with over 7,000 insurance leaders, InsurTechs, technology companies and innovators from over 60 countries around the globe storming the MGM venue in Las Vegas discussing, connecting, collaborating and committing to rewriting the future of insurance to meet a new digital age. Four years ago, the stages were filled with tech and insurance startups like Lemonade, Ring and others. Today we still see the startups but we also witness the many insurance industry incumbent insurers innovating along with the InsurTech technology companies. We hear them talking about their “startup” greenfield operations, discussing new customer experiences or innovative new products such as on-demand, parametric, cyber and much more.
Every step along this four-year path, Majesco has been an early, active leader and participant in the InsurTech movement, working with InsurTech organizations like InsureTech Connect, SVIA, and GIA as well as InsurTech partners like Hazard Hub and Splice, InsurTech MGAs, insurer start-ups and incumbent insurers launching innovative products or new business models. Together, we are reshaping the future of insurance!
How can you reshape your future?
The answer to this question is what we addressed at our InsureTech Connect workshop on Monday with over 175 participants.
Leaders are Pathfinders for the Future of Insurance
With so much disruption and change – technological revolution, fast-changing customer needs and expectations, regulatory changes such as the AM Best innovation rating and shifts to an on-demand, sharing, Gig and platform economy – insurance leaders of the future must aggressively respond to reinvent themselves before someone else does it for them. This focus was the opening keynote titled “The Insurance Industry Needs Disruption. Let’s Do it Ourselves.” by Glenn Shapiro, President, Allstate Personal Lines, Allstate Insurance Company.
The good news is that insurance leaders are rapidly adapting. Many have moved from knowing to doing, something we have tracked over the last 4 years in our Strategic Priorities research, by leveraging InsurTech strategies and approaches to keep pace or lead. They are successfully managing the existing business and reinventing their future business – embracing a two-speed strategy that actively modernizes and optimizes their business today, while creating the business for the future to capture a new generation of customers with significantly different needs and expectations.
As we shared at our workshop these leaders stand apart from others in that:
- 42% are embracing ecosystems, InsurTech and partnerships
- 39% are embracing API and platform economy
- 37% are creating the business for the future
- 30% are focused on digital customer engagement strategies
- They are responding to technology and marketplace trends at a rate of 3-4 times more than the rest of the industry
These areas were on full display and in so many conversations and presentations. The “hot topics” for the conference were APIs, API gateway, SaaS, Cloud enabled, Cloud Native, microservices, InsurTech partners, partner ecosystems, marketplaces and so much more. And these are crucial to transition from today’s business to the future of insurance.
Creating a Two-Speed Strategy to Prepare for the Future of Insurance
These leaders are not just innovating their business, they are disrupting their own business by rethinking and reimagining the future as a digital insurer. Rather than holding onto decades of operational tradition built into their core systems which support their current business, they are making a “safe” transition. They are shifting their technological and administrative weight using a two-speed strategy for growth and future relevance:
- Speed of Operations for the traditional business model with mature systems and processes needing operational improvements, through modernization and optimization using modern cloud and API-based modern solutions that deliver in months vs. years;
- Speed of Innovation for agile, fast and MVP models to explore, test and learn new business opportunities – many in 12 weeks or less – by creating the new business for the future using next-generation native cloud, microservices and API-based solutions.
Our customer panels in the workshop and in the main event session with incumbent insurers and new startup insurers including MMG Insurance, Aon, AmCap Insurance, Munich Re, Hartford Steam Boiler, Safesite and Avinew highlighted how speed and responsiveness to the operation and innovation matters. These organizations are on the path to the future of insurance by modernizing and optimizing their current business and experimenting with new business models, products and services. These sessions along with our live hackathons were insightful and inspiring to those in the audience trying to define their path.
Listening to these leaders highlights why “fast followers and laggards” hold dwindling options in their hands and place their businesses at significant risk. For those who respond with speed, their leaders will be rewarded by the creative inspiration and excited optimism of their teams that we saw in the energy at the event this year. Why? Because initiative inspires initiative. Innovation inspires innovation. Success inspires success. And the secret sauce? Speed and leadership … a powerful combination. We saw this in spades during our workshop and throughout the conference … a new generation of pathfinders building the future of insurance.
They are adapting to what their customers want and expect, instead of requiring customers to adapt to the way insurance has always worked. These Pathfinders are using technologies like cloud, APIs, artificial intelligence, microservices with core and digital platforms to create the speed of operation and innovation in weeks and months versus years.
Placing your organization on this two-speed strategy isn’t always easy. It is a logistical hurdle. The weight of the organization is shifting its pillars of support while simultaneously attempting to improve in some areas, create new products and services, and dismantle others. If it could be captured in art, it might look like the Vegas Cirque du Soleil performance – a performance of incredible acrobatic feats, with an unrivaled level of artistry that transports to a world of wonderment and awe.
Looking Back and Looking Forward
Looking back, InsurTech has disrupted, challenged and inspired the insurance industry to think bigger, think broader and think from an outside-in perspective – the customer perspective – and that is a great thing! Looking forward, there is a world of limitless possibilities! But it takes leadership and responsiveness to capture those possibilities. And it takes encouragement, inspiration and support from a diverse insurance community — from incumbent Insurers to InsurTechs, startups, solution providers and regulators. Together we can and are reshaping the future … but we need to keep the intensity, focus and pressure on.
Whether you are defining your path or well on your way, speed and innovation are the fuel to power your growth strategy for the future of insurance. Agility and flexibility provided by a plug and play API and microservices-based architecture will allow your organization to adapt to continuously changing market dynamics easily. And speed can be achieved using a new cloud-based platform that will allow you to quickly catch up with current innovations by plugging in new capabilities and data sources, so you can personalize your customer experience, and create new products and services that will meet the demands of a new generation of customers.
Majesco’s platforms can help you power your strategy and position you as a pathfinder and leader. Our core insurance platforms for P&C and L&A and Group and our innovative Digital1st Insurance platform that is helping insurers create customer experiences, leverage a marketplace of innovative partners and enable innovative new products are helping incumbent and startups alike to lead the way to the future of insurance.
This is an exciting and pivotal time for the insurance industry. It is a time of limitless possibilities. It is a time to be bold and visionary. It is a time to rethink and reimagine a future that extends and expands the value of insurance to our customers.
Join the Future of Insurance shift and embrace the InsurTech movement as an opportunity for your future.