To launch a digital insurance solution do you license or produce the operation in-house? It's easy to fall into the trap that the latter is more superior however, the truth is digital is not only digital and when you license a software-as-a-service like Habit Analytics, insurers play a pivotal part in the cross-path between the physical and digital. A hybrid approach where you reap the benefits of being agile, quick to adapt, fast to launch new solutions and yet the mechanics, the nuts and bolts, are actually manifested by insurers.
Why digital?
Customers are tech savvier than ever before and are drawn to convenience. Convenience comes in the form of what you can access quickly on your mobile phone. Usually insurance contracts are very long, people need to go through their emails to find them. In a digital solution this is at the touch of a button. Just think of how many hours we spend on our mobile apps? Insurance should be on par with how easy it is to book an Uber or use a service like a banking app; clear, informative, simple language, easily accessible and truly puts the customer first. And in the words of Lemonade, a US-based digital-first insurance company, ‘Turn insurance into a social good rather than a necessary evil’. We couldn't agree more: to build a reputable insurance solution you must combine both insurance expertise with digital.
What does it take to launch a new insurance solution?
There are many stages of building a solution; the insurance product and its operation.
The product
Define the product
Create value proposition on insurance, services, assistance
Create and implement the insurance pricing model
Create and implement the customer journey (digital and physical)
Analyse the liability, risk and justify the underwriting
Get your underwriting approved; maybe work with a RE insurer
Launch
And now, steps to operate the product
Set journey for claims and how this is handled
Payment and buying process
Customer churn recovery
Reporting and regulatory compliance
Now that you know what is involved, do you have the time?
If you do not currently have a digital solution then the answer is already no - you do not have time and your competition is already steps ahead. If you are a long established insurer you are likely to carry with you legacy systems and processes, and if you are a new insurer, to get regulated may have already taken you some time and been a complex journey. In both cases you are the insurance experts and the missing element is digital. By using Habit’s platform you can launch to market within a few weeks, allowing your customer to buy a policy, manage policy and submit claims - zero paperwork and instant insurance.
How to use business rules for defining your solution?
At Habit we offer the opportunity for you as the insurer to be truly unique. It's a common myth to think that by outsourcing you are giving away your ‘secret solution’ because our capabilities allow you to build a complex set of business rules that only apply to you. If you take claims for example, we are the enablers of the platform for which you then dictate exactly how you react to the data we enable, either into your platform or through our white label solution. You define;
- What the question sets (relevant to your market)
- What are the important data points to you
- Which triggers you use to communicate to your customer
- How fast you want to react to the real-time data you receive
All of the above go hand in hand with your in-house solution and the insurance expertise you possess. We enable you to be different and versatile and no two operations can be the same because they are dependent on each other - outsourcing a platform or within house intel. Data also sits with you, Habit are merely the processors of it and we are fully GDPR compliant.
Dare to be different - Be first to reinvent insurance
If you are able to create a digital team to build your platform in-house, the question is then do you have the internal expertise to build a solution that allows you to act on customer habits for a customer first product? With Habit you can go one step further and disrupt insurance by applying behavioural economics and underwrite purely on customer data using a connected device. This does not have to be daunting either; you can gage your customer appetite first and add this service as a premium solution- building and scaling over time.
Licensing pros and cons
Pro
Launch faster to market using existing technology solutions
Quality is often better when leaving expertise to the technology experts
Insurers can spend time on their core activities (is your pricing model competitive enough to compete in the market and is the solution focused on customer loyalty and retention?)
Lower overhead cost and responsibilities (Reduce costs, save money and scale at your pace without the burden of set up costs which take time)
Agile, adapt and plug and play only the components needed
Cons
Intel shared to competitors - Myth; At Habit we take insurers product privacy seriously and ensure you launch a solution unique to your business.
Less control over operation of solution - Myth; Habit works hand in hand with insurers to offload the heavy burden of resources and put your product specifications at the heart of what we deliver.
Forced to use new systems and technologies - Myth; At Habit we can provide the white-label + SDK or API’s for embedding into your existing or future app.
So, is your insurance solution lacking digital? Do you want to launch a new product line, for a new market but have limited resources, you can overcome these challenges and make a real impact to your business without the presumptions surrounding outsourcing or licensing. We encourage insurers to be bold, agile and integrate digital to enable insurers to go beyond digital.
At Habit we enter into an enterprise partnership and encourage you to grow and scale at your pace, we enable a Proof of Concept launch, or mid-term solution for entering into a new market. Start now and see how you can digitally transform your insurance solution.
Come and take a look with a free demo on habit.io/contactus
We look forward to hearing from you!
-The Habit team