Three ways collaboration will unlock innovation in 2023

Insurance companies are often organized in silos, making it difficult for different parts of a company to work together and achieve shared goals and the desired business outcomes. In practice, the policy team focuses on the delivery of integrated insurance products to customers and the claims team is responsible for the collection and analysis of insurance claims. These functions often carry on as two separate operations. With yet another team focusing on the experience for end users across and between the policy and claims needs. However, claims data from customers can help insurers fine-tune policies by providing supplemental coverage or add-on services and on the other hand, policy updates can result in changes to customers’ coverage plans and how claims are filed. 

Insurers are beginning to realize the untapped synergy between the various insurance operations. As a result, the industry is shifting towards embracing a more collaborative and fully integrated approach that is focused on closing the gaps between products with a deep understanding of the business needs and a modernized experience that provides decision support.

1. Collaboration with insurtechs 
Enter insurtechs. With digital technologies such as low-code and software-as-a-service (SaaS), insurtechs help enable modern and efficient operations. They enable carriers to execute their vision and innovate for customers. 

Low-code technology from insurtechs allow insurance companies to build applications using a template, development toolkits, and reusable components, with little need for coding or recreating the wheel every time a carrier needs a new insurance product. Inherently agile in nature, low-code technology helps insurance companies respond quickly to changes in the industry. Think of it like an app store for insurance: a platform that enables carriers to select the app or template of the product they want to create and fill in the specific information so their teams can move with ease to build scalable products and services for their customers.

Low-code technology and a focus on the cross-cutting experiences also allows insurers to iterate and create innovative solutions at a faster pace. This gives companies a competitive advantage by allowing them to bring products and services to market with speed. The growth of low-code technology will continue to accelerate. Gartner predicts that by 2025, 70% of new applications developed by organizations will use low-code or no-code technologies, up from less than 25% in 2020. 

2. Collaboration with customers 
Today’s most successful insurance operations are those in companies whose leadership understands the value of partnering with customers and evolving solutions for the market needs. In the new normal, nothing innovative really happens without mastering this feedback loop.

Customer engagement is moving away from a transactional approach and moving towards a strategic one that focuses on the entire customer journey. Customers are asking companies to “meet them where they are” when they interact with carriers. Whether on mobile or on the website, today’s insurance customers show up across a range of delivery channels that are accessible for all users. 

While omnichannel engagement brings efficiency, customers also long for humanized and personalized experiences. This is possible by combining both digital tools and the human element in insurance. Humanized interactions play an important role in the customer journey. The collaboration between customer and carrier results in empathy and unlocks better customer experiences across all channels. Empathy helps insurers understand a customer’s pain point from the very first touchpoint. It allows insurers to see things from the customer’s perspective, making customers feel heard and validated.  

3. Collaboration among employees
Humanized experiences also fuel collaboration internally. It fosters a culture that empowers teams to bring different voices and ideas to the table. As a result, insurance professionals can innovate more fearlessly. This is critical as demand for the best talent continues to be a challenge across industries. For insurance, the collaboration between technologists and domain experts is key in driving the industry’s digital transformation journey. Technologists combine technology curiosity with business acumen. Domain experts, on the other hand, have deep IT and specialized knowledge of specific solutions or systems. 

Technologists and domain experts work together as creative problem solvers, developing impactful innovations along the way. Technologists set a vision for the future of insurance, focusing on efficient, agile, and modern operations, keeping customers’ needs in mind. Domain experts bring this vision to life by developing innovative solutions that add value and future-proof an organization’s operations. 

Final thoughts
The insurance industry is continually looking to innovate and integrate advanced technologies into its offerings to make the customer experience more personalized and efficient. One way to achieve this is through collaboration within the industry and looking at patterns from other industries that will impact insurance. Closer collaboration with new incumbents, customers, and internal employees is a trend we will see take off in 2023.