Successful initiatives in Insurance?
Ten years ago BlaBlaCar was founded and now is a trusted community marketplace that connects drivers with empty seats to passengers looking for a ride. With 25 million members in 22 countries. Where BlaBla means “can be chatty”. It’s one of the many so far successful initiatives using technology to bring together supply and demand. What about insurance initiatives?
When will the customer will be served with appropriate insurance cover and services for a safe environment based on real time individual risk profiles?
Are there successful equivalents in insurance as well? There are a few interesting ones but those are so far not coming from the industry itself. Not because there is no recognition of what is happening. There are many
- trials and pilots (in car-telematics already for 10-15 years);
- conferences and summits where new technology is discussed as a true disruptor;
- billions reserved for getting FinTech and InsurTech initiatives under control;
- warnings from regulators and consultancy firms that business models are under pressure;
- studies and whitepapers from the industry-inside;
- insurance companies setting up or expanding innovation labs.
And yet we hardly see any serious change in the insurance offerings in the last decades. Creativeness does not go beyond a discount on a traditional product/premium when good behavior is proven. Good for a start but of course a dead-end street.
So will real innovation/disruption come from the inside or the outside?
As a business engineer with 30+ years’ experience in insurance innovation and digital transformation I’m following global insurance business and all kind of new initiatives closely.
2 important findings (by the way with respect to most of them):
- the initiatives are often thin (scratching the surface and lacking insurance substance) and
- fragmented (touching only a part of the overall customers’ insurance & claims needs)
And being part of worlds’ first digital insurer and working together with Intsure Technology Solutions on projects like
- My Insurance Kit
- Pay-per-mile car insurance
- Digital Advisor and
- InConnect (Intelligent Insurance for Smart Living)
it is rather obvious for me that the insurance future is in real Customer Centricity and Engagement (where else?) and that technology (with a personal touch) provides the means to achieve personalized, dynamic and engaging solutions in a new and sharing economy.
Some of the key requirements:
If you do the tick-list the outcome will be that there is a strong reason in clever teaming-up between start-ups and existing insurance companies. Where a NewCo can develop at arm’s-length of the insurance company with full consent and maximum of freedom (but compliant). In Insurance it seems that “Construct” is more promising than “Disrupt”.
Where Bla Bla in BlaBlaCar refers to the level of chattiness, let’s hope for not too many Bla’s in Insurance and that it soon will come to action. Resulting in nice future proof insurance solutions with happy and engaged customers. As a consultant I’m ready, as a consumer I’m waiting.
And anyhow there is so much happening and so much to learn that any delay is waste of time.
Sources: https://www.blablacar.com/ and image big data elephant from http://www.datascience.ae/
