4299 Altus Insurance Whitepaper FINAL SPREAD - Flipbook - Page 32
Chapter 6: Conclusion
A key reason that insurance remains a distinctly unmodern sector is that
transformation seems to have become an end in itself, backed by a belief that
technology is the only way to achieve that transformation.
Billions have been invested, and while transformation
has failed to realise the full bene昀椀ts of that
investment, all is not lost. Incremental, thoughtful and
targeted change, applied across business operations
and with the full architecture of a business in mind,
will result in transformation.
To successfully modernise, insurance
has to rediscover its North Star, its
reason for transforming in the 昀椀rst place.
To successfully modernise, insurance has to
rediscover its North Star, its reason for transforming
in the 昀椀rst place. Every business will approach this
in a di昀昀erent way, for di昀昀erent reasons and to deliver
di昀昀erent outcomes – but whatever the motivation,
whatever the North Star, the end result is the same –
modernisation.
The need to do this is more pressing than ever.
Today’s regulatory landscape is unrecognisable to the
one existing processes, capabilities and technology
were designed to manage. Regulators have been
clear that e昀昀ective communication of data is key to
compliance, and those that can’t meet those demands
will 昀椀nd themselves exposed to greater cost and
regulatory risk than their peers.
Customers from across the spectrum of insurance
are demanding a more personalised, protection-昀椀rst
approach, and rapidly digitising third parties require
the same from their insurance partners to deliver the
true value of their services.
Connections are the key
Satisfying all these needs is essential for any
insurance company to remain competitive, and there
are two factors that will do this – good data and how
that data is communicated within and outside the
organisation. More than the people, the technology
or the processes, the way in which the constituent
parts of a company are connected and how they
communicate are the twin tracks to successful
modernisation.
The only way these connections can be established,
assessed or modernised, is by going back to the core
of process and capability, and the best place to start
that exercise is at the heart of any insurance company
– the underwriting.
Insurance has historically taken a siloed approach
to its business operations, with physical, cultural
and technological barriers preventing insurers from
operating as one entity. Modernisation is dependent
upon these barriers being broken down – culturally
and technologically – to allow the free flow of
information throughout the organisation.
Underwriting may be the core, but it
cannot stand alone – it requires the
support of an entire organisation that
has been well designed and has the
right capabilities in place to support
the right processes.
As the heart of insurance, underwriting has received
a lot of transformational attention in the past, and
while there have been signi昀椀cant improvements to its’
operations, they have been implemented in isolation
and without considering the wider business, its
processes and how they support or hinder each other.
Underwriting may be the core, but it cannot
stand alone – it requires the support of an entire
organisation that has been well designed and has
the right capabilities in place to support the right
processes.
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