Insurers have to become more flexible, agile, proactive and efficient, delivering simplicity and transparency to retain and serve their customers.
This is according to experts set to address a webinar on insurance technology to be hosted by Hyland and Guidewire, in partnership with ITWeb.
The event will focus on SASRIA – South Africa’s insurer against public disorder, riots and terrorism – and how the entity successfully processed huge volumes of claims following the unrest in Kwazulu Natal and Gauteng. SASRIA had modernised its claims processing capabilities just prior to the unrest.
Unexpected events such as riots and natural disasters are becoming increasingly common, and insurers need to be ready for them, say Hyland and Guidewire.
Rene Schoenauer, director of product marketing for EMEA at Guidewire Software, says: “Because SASRIA had recently migrated from their legacy systems in which information was distributed across many systems, they were able to react to the situation in an efficient and customer centric way. With their integrated information and analytics capabilities, they were able to check coverage of claims situations and process claims quickly.”
Schoenauer says insurance companies need to prepare for exceptional situations. “For example, we are seeing more natural disasters, so insurers need to be prepared to act more efficiently. They need to be agile and able to scale their systems.”
Kyle Blair, leader of the Global FSI Practice at Hyland, says: “It becomes chaotic when natural disasters or riots occur − volumes and urgency increase, and while insurers are scrambling to meet the demands or customers, it is also important to note that they could also go beyond the capacity of their internal teams if they don’t have the right foundations in place.”
These foundations include advanced cloud-based solutions, as well as technologies such as analytics and predictive analytics, AI and ML and IOT that enable a more proactive approach to insurance and risk management, they say.
These new technologies not only help insurers manage the unexpected, but also position them to adapt to a changing market, in which insurers could become the hub of a larger insurance ecosystem, or could opt to become a service provider supplying a bundled insurance solution in another sector entirely.
Blair says: “New sales and distribution channels are being created, with changes in how and where people buy insurance, and insurance firms supporting the processing and service component on the back end. To support these changes, insurers need to be flexible and able to quickly integrate with external products and services. This means they need to take a cloud-based approach and deploy modern systems that adapt quickly to influences on the business. A big deficiency in legacy platforms is that they reduce the ability to make changes and adjustments on the fly.”
Webinar on 13 October, 10:00 (GMT+2)
Hyland, Guidewire and SASRIA will address a webinar entitled ‘Just in time: SASRIA’s response to the recent riots’ on 13 October.
This event for insurance industry decision makers will outline SASRIA’s modernisation and how it supported the riot claims processing, the benefits of intelligent content management for insurance, and emerging technologies to support insurers.
For more information, go to https://www.itweb.co.za/webinar/sasrias-response-to-the-recent-riots/
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