Top 5 Technology Trends in the Insurance Industry

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Technology is evolving fast and many insurance organizations are challenged to keep up the pace. These technological advancements are driving the demand for software developers to acquire new skills and capabilities in the insurance domain. The global insurance industry is facing increasing demand from the established markets and severe demand from the emerging markets. To tap the demand, insurance companies across the globe are embracing newer technologies and digital transformation while adopting mobile and cloud-based technologies.  Global insurance players are focusing on refining the business processes and modernization of legacy applications to improve customer satisfaction through various distribution channels.

According to the 2015 Global Insurance Outlook by Ernst & Young, “Many insurers are investing in digital platforms that strengthen their relationships with customers across all product classifications and geographies. Their goal is to empower both businesses and consumers to better shop for insurance, making products more transparent, easier-to-understand and compare.”

So, what are the top 5 technology trends insurers are embracing?

1. Modernizing legacy systems for operational efficiencies – With operations spread across geographies, spanning over decades, insurance companies are inhibited with legacy systems, outdated technologies resulting in high maintenance costs. The proliferation of modern technologies like mobile and cloud computing has changed the way organizations do business. And, it’s time for insurance companies also to embrace the latest technologies, rather than being a few steps behind the times, and modernize their legacy platforms for operational efficiencies while considering the flexibility of consumerization.

2. Going mobile to offer on-the-go services – With increasing usage of smartphones in both developed and emerging economies, the insurance industry is steadily implementing mobility as part of their business strategy. Through the mobile apps, customers can easily request a policy quote, locate an insurance agent, calculate premium or retirement income, and store the policy data. Insurers just cannot ignore the benefits that the mobile applications offer in building the brand. With the growing internet consumption via mobiles, customers can be engaged through social networking and different other modes of communications.[notification type=”alert-success” close=”false” ]As per the Internet Society’s global report, “94% of the global population is covered by a mobile network, 48% are covered by mobile broadband, and 28% have subscribed to mobile Internet services.” [/notification]

3. Offering innovative and personalized services through digital touch points – The customers in the insurance industry are driven by various policies and their premiums, and the attrition rate is high as they have a number of options to choose from. In order to retain their customers and build deep customer relationships, the insurance companies are investing in customer engagement activities using various digital touchpoints say the web, mobile, social media, email, etc. For example, insurers are helping customers to develop and protect their assets like homes, vehicles, wealth, and health, usually by partnering with other service providers. Such digital services are provided through devising a digital strategy. 

4. Leveraging Big Data and Analytics – It’s all about the data in the current application-driven economy. Insurance is a data-driven industry and creates huge amounts of structured and unstructured data. Analyzing various financial data, actuarial data, claims data and risk data helps insurance providers to take important decisions. Big data analytics is playing a major role in the insurance industry that deals with an enormous number of claims to handle and evaluate. Leveraging analytics for the claims processing delivers a significant ROI and cost savings.

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5. Automating regulatory compliance requirements – Since Insurance is a highly regulated industry, insurance carriers have to incorporate regulatory compliance into their business processes. Also, they need to rapidly keep up their processes in compliance with the new regulations as and when enacted. Automating regulatory compliance helps insurance carriers with an immediate access to information while ensuring that the processes are followed consistently, minimizing the risk of non-compliance. Automation also provides needed information for the reports and documentation about a specific task performed. Modern systems make the regulatory automation easy while allowing for the change in the regulatory compliance, over the legacy systems.

To well implement these technology initiatives in the current fast-changing technology environment, software testing is essential.  To be able to manage the increasing complexity of systems and applications that support their business, insurance companies require a reliable testing partner. Testing of insurance applications effectively calls for certified test professionals and business analysts with deep insurance industry expertise.

We at Cigniti have a dedicated team of professionals who are experts in end-to-end policy life cycle management. We have built proprietary IPs and tools, test repositories and test automation frameworks that helped insurance companies across the globe.  Contact us to know more about our testing services for the insurance domain.