Insurers are discovering the power of partnerships to unlock the digital revolution’s full potential

TORONTO, ON, DECEMBER 5, 2022/insPRESS/ – Insurance organizations are facing an array of challenges as the pace of change in today’s hypercompetitive business landscape accelerates.

Unlocking the power of digital transformation. Turning data and analytics into timely customer insights. Enhancing cybersecurity as attacks soar. Acquiring critical new skills in the digital economy. The race is on to evolve, compete and succeed.

Consumers want innovative products, self-serve capabilities, personalized services and more. In today’s reality, insurers are recognizing the power of innovative partnerships to drive change, profitability and growth.

Product vendors are helping to replace legacy applications and systems with modern platforms and cloud services that enhance efficiency, scalability and access to game-changing technologies. Insurtechs are providing critical support in data use to enhance digital offerings and marketplace insights. And system integrators are accelerating the implementation of digital strategies and capabilities, including automation, to enhance IT and business ecosystems.

Each year, CGI meets with global client leaders for their views on current trends affecting their organizations and industries. Through CGI’s Voice of Our Clients program, we analyze these findings to provide actionable insights, best practices and the attributes of today’s digital leaders. In 2022, we met with 1,675 business and IT executives across industries, including 72 Property and Casualty executives and 53 Life and Pension leaders.

Our complete findings are available at CGI Voice of Our Clients – Life & Pension Insurance | Property & Casualty Insurance. Overall, insurance executives are reporting significantly enhanced results from their digital strategies when implemented through partnerships.

Among P&C businesses, about one-third (32%) of digital leaders consider themselves to be ‘highly agile’ compared to competitors that are still pursuing digital transformation, and nearly two thirds (63%) report ‘deeply integrated’ IT and business operations. More than one in four (27%) digital leaders also report enhanced results from digital strategies implemented through partnerships and just one in five are facing legacy challenges – far fewer than the 59% of their slower-moving competitors.

Among digital leaders in Life and Pension, 40% report positive results from their 2022 digital strategies – compared to just 27% last year. Nearly two thirds (63%) also say they now have ‘deeply integrated’ IT and business operations. Among all L&P insurers, modernizing applications and infrastructure is cited as a top IT priority and IT budgets are on the rise for 89% of businesses.

Insurers are facing an array of challenging pain points

CGI’s latest research shows that insurers overall are placing a sharp focus on modern customer experiences, data and analytics, modernizing IT capabilities and skills, cybersecurity and migrating to cloud services. But the challenges of transforming in today’s hypercompetitive digital economy are significant and insurers are navigating pain points that include:

Delivering a modern customer experience – Competing in today’s fast-evolving environment is not just about generating sales. It also demands personalized digital services and a frictionless claims experience to drive customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Talent shortages – The critical need for talent continues to have a serious impact as insurers race to acquire modern digital skills and analytics expertise.
Cost pressures – As the pressure to reduce costs rises amid the need to maintain and upgrade outdated legacy systems, businesses need to implement digital capabilities that will increase operational efficiency.
Speed-to-market – The need for speed is key to success in today’s marketplace. Acquiring the flexibility and agility to bring products to market faster than competitors is now critical.

As more insurers are discovering, innovative partnerships are positioning their businesses to compete in a new era. To accelerate client transformation, CGI today partners with over 150 technology providers, including Guidewire Software Inc., an innovative platform that supports the entire insurance lifecycle for leading P&C insurers in 38 countries. As a strategic partner to Guidewire, CGI is collaborating to deliver multiple digital initiatives that are putting businesses across the globe on new paths to growth and success.

A timely guide to navigating today’s dynamic landscape
How best to meet the priorities of today’s insurers? CGI offers these recommendations:

Establish or refresh your digital-transformation plan. The transformation journey is ongoing. It’s therefore imperative to maintain a holistic, ‘big-picture’ view of the current ecosystem and the desired future state while pursuing customer-centric digital initiatives.

Create a data-based view of the customer. Deriving value from data to improve the customer experience demands smart data use that reveals customer needs and cross-selling opportunities. As insurers pursue a digital customer experience, understanding the end-to-end customer journey is paramount – and partnerships can play a crucial role.

Enhance cybersecurity as threats soar. As cyber attacks proliferate, executives face pressure to strengthen cybersecurity. Data security, in particular, is critical as executives invest in data strategies and a digital customer experience. Partnering with a cybersecurity expert can provide rapid access to the latest data protection technologies.

Assess and address talent needs. As insurers face critical IT talent shortages, addressing the challenge begins with a thorough IT workforce evaluation. What work needs to be done? Where should it be done? Who should do it? Diagnosing your IT workforce leads to better decision making in the race to acquire modern skills.

Develop end-to-end customer and partner journeys. To gain and retain customers, it’s crucial to understand the importance of agile, end-to-end customer and stakeholder journeys. How effectively do your customers interact with your organization during the customer journey? How easily and reliably do agents and brokers interact with your business to deliver optimal service? Could a strategic partner help to drive progress?

A smart cloud migration strategy is critical. Embracing cloud computing and IT modernization are essential to today’s new business models. Enterprise‑wide cloud migration strategies are indispensable and success demands the right partner, platform, governance model and security capabilities.

In conclusion, as the race to transform and compete in a new era continues, CGI is partnering with clients and bringing them together with best-of-breed technology and expertise to maximize their prospects for growth and success.

For more insights from CGI 2022 Voice of Our Clients for insurance, download the reports – Property & Casualty, Life & Pension.

Authors:

Suresh Nittala, Vice President of Insurance, P&C Sector, CGI

Ashok Reddy, Vice President of Insurance, Life & Health Sector, CGI