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How insurers can outpace aging tech for improved digital experiences

Authors

  • Neeraj Gupta

    EY Americas Guidewire Delivery Leader and Insurance Technology Executive

  • Shishir Parikh

    Managing Director, Insurance Technology Transformation, Ernst & Young LLP

08 minute read 29 Oct 2024

It’s time for insurers to reevaluate legacy technology and enter the consumer convenience age.

In brief
  • Consumer demand for agile, mobile experience is changing the industry.
  • Generational change in the workplace is driving new technology expectations.
  • A good automation layer and core tech platform are essential for digital transformation.

The pace of change in technology today is a problem for insurers for two particularly important reasons. First, consumers across all sectors demand fast, mobile convenience and access to information; and second, this is happening at a time when many insurers are either using outdated legacy platforms or ones that are aging very quickly. All of this is outpacing insurers’ ability to keep up. The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) process automation tools helps organizations better integrate the components of aging systems and provide more efficient overlays. User experience is becoming the real determiner of customer preference and loyalty. Insurers should now take a closer look at these accelerating service demands as well as the emergence of new tech solutions like AI to counteract them. Integrating AI and automation technologies into your end-to-end processes is critical for accelerating operations, improving agility and enhancing the customer experience. Equally imperative is choosing a strategic partner with experience helping to build and integrate automation technologies, optimizing sophisticated business processes in the insurance sector and supporting strategic workforce transformations to bring a culture of employee empowerment, enablement and data-driven critical decision-making.

How EY can help

  • EY-Guidewire Alliance

    EY and Guidewire can help transform your property and casualty insurance operations for better efficiency, profitability and, customer service. Learn more.

    Read more

Generational workplaces pressuring change to process automation tools

In addition to aging technology, other factors will soon threaten insurers’ ability to serve, retain and attract new customers. The rapid integration of AI into a wide variety of business processes and technologies is adding mounting pressure for organizations to keep up. There are impending challenges to the maintenance and management of legacy platforms as the retirement of long-tenured employees with the crucial first-hand experience of these systems will soon lead to a problematic knowledge gap. As younger workers make up a significant percentage of the workforce, their preference for self-guided digital tools and seamless mobile experiences will also soon demand a shift in tech architectures for insurers – and a move to process automation tools that can solve these challenges.

 

Evolving systems to facilitate automation

A roadblock to legacy modernization for many insurers lies in the lack of a good automation layer that can orchestrate work between humans and digital workers like AI and robotic process automation (RPA), ensuring organizations get the best out of both. A data fabric is also a crucial component. This enables organizations to discover, unify, secure and optimize enterprise data. It combines data management, integration, automation and low-code development tools to build impactful and data-rich digital solutions. Together, these technologies are highly scalable, making insurers more competitive and faster to adapt to ongoing market changes. Once implemented, these platform additions can also help with cybersecurity provisions and mitigate the escalating risk from using aging systems. Low- or no-code functionality is easier and faster to use and offers consistency across channels to further improve the experience. Recommended solutions include:

Onboarding both a feature-rich core system and an agile data fabric overlay like Guidewire and Appian can solve multiple challenges. The feature-rich core system enables greater adaptability. Customers that implement Guidewire and Appian gain access to processes that cut across systems to include email, external databases, multiple core systems and customer relationship management systems (CRMS), among others. These systems together may manage non-core business processes or non-P&C business units such as life, health or banking. 

Example use cases for Appian + Guidewire include:

  • Improvement of internal processes/workflows that touch multiple back-end systems, such as other core systems, CRM, HR, financial and compliance systems.
  • Automated task assignment and coordination between various business functions, such as the service center, back office, middle office, agents and customers.
  • Unification of data and digital experiences that span different business units, such as P&C, life, health and banking.

In addition, digital experiences created with Guidewire’s Jutro Digital Platform can be seamlessly embedded into Appian to gain development efficiencies and streamline the overall experience.

What to look for in enhanced digital experience solutions

Insurers looking to improve the digital experience of their users and customers and remain relevant as needs change should first consider the factors that impact experience. What are the conversion rates? Are users starting, but not completing, a quote? It is important to get a full picture of experience roadblocks and challenges before determining the best solutions. The next step is deciding the required outputs from improving the digital experience. Steps insurers should follow include:

  • Core platform – ensure there is a direct connection between core product model, modern web development and design tools, as well as integration of analytics and cloud infrastructure.
  • Digital experience layer – this needs to be agile to cater to changing demands with low- or no-code user interface and improving delivery time, but also full development flexibility to account for the complexity in P&C insurance and differentiated brand and customer experience.
  • Hybrid solution – blend digital experiences from core vendors that can be embedded into enterprise digital experiences provided by process automation platforms. For example, Guidewire’s Jutro Digital Platform allows building digital experiences that are natively integrated with the core and embeddable in other applications.
  • Internal data access – ensure users can access data from the entire ecosystem beyond the core platform and visualize in one easily accessible space. For example, Appian can be used to tie data back to the data fabric.
  • Improved customer journeys – can frictionless experience be facilitated from the creation of a claim through final processing?
  • Upsell ability – does your tech solution offer the ability to upsell products like pet insurance or process backlog items with automation tools?

Takeaways as insurers transition tech

Regardless of which digital experience solution is selected, success starts with an execution plan. Insurers must define both employee and customer journeys and understand each of the connectors and touch points along those journeys. All interactions, such as the creation of a claim, first notice of loss and claim processing, require efficient APIs, smooth consumer experiences and seamless connection to the core – and can be optimized by solutions like Guidewire and Appian. As organizations begin the transformation of their digital experiences, it is beneficial to work with tech providers that have an established ecosystem and pre-built connectors able to help fully leverage the efficiencies and value of process automation. Additionally, they should be able to leverage the latest in AI and automation tools to further accelerate digital transformation and improve the customer experience. 

How EY, Guidewire and Appian can help

With experience helping several hundred insurance clients around the world in solving their most critical problems or executing their most complex transformation journeys, EY teams understand the challenges insurance companies are facing — from scaling technology to create purpose-driven digital experiences, to empowering the workforce to make analytical, data-driven decisions while automating repeated, mundane tasks using advanced automation platforms; and from competing in a demanding marketplace to generate personalized quotes quicker, to automating survey ordering for specific risk classes. Our experience in multiple front- and back-office insurance sector roles and technology, along with our intricate system implementation experience with Guidewire and Appian platforms, provides us a unique appreciation of business processes, technological possibilities and benefits realization that are crucial for success.

The EY, Appian and Guidewire teams and technology resources help insurers transform their operations to access unrealized efficiencies and opportunities. Guidewire has a strong, feature-rich cloud platform that seamlessly integrates with the Appian platform, which helps insurers design, automate and optimize their most complex, mission-critical processes from end to end. This provides the latest in private AI, data fabric and intelligent process automation to improve the effectiveness of both digital and human workers. Guidewire can help organizations maintain regulatory compliance and ensure robust security measures that are critical when transitioning from legacy systems to modern digital platforms. Protecting sensitive customer data should be top priority, especially in EMEA with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirement. The Appian platform helps insurers design, automate and optimize their most complex, mission-critical processes from end to end. This is done by providing the latest in AI data fabric and intelligence process automation to improve the effectiveness of both digital and human workers.

Together, the EY, Appian and Guidewire combined approach helps clients accelerate user experience, increase speed to market and unlock more value for their businesses. 

Authors of article include:

  • Jake Sloan, Vice President Insurance, Appian
  • Petya Sabeva, Senior Director, Go-to-Market Strategy, Guidewire
  • Anurag Gupta, Senior Manager, EY
  • Dev Sundarasekhar, Senior Manager, EY

Summary

Insurers must meet changing expectations from consumers and employees. That means onboarding and integrating the kinds of platforms and digital experience tools necessary to effect real transformation.

About this article

Authors

  • Neeraj Gupta
    EY Americas Guidewire Delivery Leader and Insurance Technology Executive
  • Shishir Parikh
    Managing Director, Insurance Technology Transformation, Ernst & Young LLP
Related topics
Insurance
Financial services
Alliances

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