It's time to see a new digital reality in the insurance industry. In the post-digital transformation era where you need to go the extra mile, a lot of insurance companies are struggling with many challenges. These include managing the number of channels they use to interact with customers, new competitors from surprising corners, or evolving organizational needs.
Our Digital Flow philosophy means you no longer have to choose between all of the challenges, while investing time and energy in four crucial activities (Inspire – Integrate – Operate – Optimize) helps you to avoid standing still. It's all about adopting an infinite digital attitude and creating a Positive Digital Flow to drive operational excellence, enhance the customer experience and ultimately rediscover the human touch in insurance.
This philosophy was the common thread throughout all the topics covered.
Technology as an enabler for progress
We kicked off the event with a session with Stephan Linenenbank, chairman of the supervisory board at Aegon Cappital. He immediately faced a serious issue, 'How do you become the top dog amongst insurers, without losing the human touch?' He believes that technology will play a major role in this. He thinks there will be an impact on how insurers interact with their customers and distributors, focusing on creating customer journeys with a perfect customer experience. To achieve this, the best option is to go online, offline and mobile, as well as to include all the hybrid forms in between. By following customers through their journey, you collect data that you can analyze and use to enable self-service or personalized services, for example. Be careful, however, when it comes to new business models, as danger is often lurking around the corner. Do you know the piranhas on your market?
There will be a constant pressure to digitalize. Digitalization is a strategic topic and concerns the entire value chain. New business models contain opportunities but also create competition for established values. It's easy to come up with new ideas; the hard part is letting go of what you worked on two years ago, but will soon become outdated. Don't be afraid to test and innovate.
Stephan Linnenbank
Technology also plays a key role in the field of risk forecasting and management. By collecting data, analyzing it or even implementing a smart algorithm, you are able to better assess risks and therefore reduce your capital reserve.
To make all this possible, many insurers are switching to a cloud model, where you will find data, computing capacity and new technologies on demand.