“In our experience, the end-to-end transformation of a Life & Annuities Insurance company must be executed through a unique human-centered design approach for digital assets.”
Victor Velasco - Head of Life, Pensions & Investments at NTT DATA Insurance EMEAL
The Insurance Industry is constantly changing; therefore, Insurance companies are forced to face different challenges and adapt to new customer needs. To improve the customer experience, generate added value and achieve internal transformation, companies in this sector must be increasingly agile in all their departments, ensuring efficiency in all company’s operations and an improvement in product development. This transformation must start by adapting to the new type of clients, savvy clients, that nowadays demand digital results and solutions.
It requires a definition of a strategy with a long-term vision, stressing those actions to be developed in the short term. In a fast-changing market, it is more important to take small steps than to change abruptly at all levels. This will provide the company with more flexibility and margins to reorient the strategy along each change.
The end-to-end transformation of a Life & Annuities Insurance company must be executed through a unique human-centered design approach for digital assets. Simplifying and being efficient are among the main goals pursued by insurers with the aim of avoiding those processes which do not give value to the company. It is very important for a company to know which activities or processes can be outsourced, and to know how to distinguish those activities that are indispensable, focus on core tasks, promote growth and ensure internal transformation.
How to start the digital transformation of a Life & Annuities company
Digitalization is transforming the relationship and interaction between insurers and customers, employees, partners and ecosystems, betting on this new model. Before implementing it, every organization must consider certain key aspects which accelerate this end-to-end transformation. For instance, using standardized digital assets in order to homogenize operations, improving the product time to market ore reducing development cycles through shared and multiple assets.
It is crucial that digital assets have a real impact and align its goals with the market trends. New customer needs arise, and insurers must satisfy these demands through a segmented journey with an omnichannel vision. Also, it is advisable to establish a relationship model between channels and the customer, through automation, self-management, and digital onboarding.
The evolution of Insurance Liquid Ecosystems must also be taken into consideration, and the ability to connect and collaborate with partners around the world through a simple process to accelerate and achieve the objectives of the strategy is very important. It is possible that if we were to go through it alone, it would take much longer or would require a much larger number of resources.
Steps to design a strategy that generates digital assets
It is also worth mentioning the four steps to be taken for defining the strategy which generates those digital assets.
- First of all, an exploration exercise must be carried out including the definition of the brand strategy.
- To address these activities and achieve real and tangible outcomes it is essential to design the value proposition which will be offered to the final client.
- Furthermore, it must be defined the objective of the digital assets, to whom it is designed, which products, which journeys, which channels; overall, which target.
- And after all these points are well established, the roadmap to development and implantation will be drawn.
This roadmap, combined with the collaboration with other players and partners, will allow Insurance companies to achieve the different strategic goals and speed up its transformation path. And, in the same way, promote the use of better technologies, as well as the agility, efficiency, integration and the generation of new ecosystems in an era characterized by co-creation and interconnected companies.
Discover the challenges and solutions for the Life & Annuities Insurance Industry, as it moves towards a digital transformation in this complete guide from NTT DATA.