34 Finance Monthly. Bank i ng & F i nanc i a l Se r v i ce s You believe that innovation is not just for the big industry players. Can you elaborate on this? There are many opportunities and solutions available with insuretechs, and they run the gamut of what’s of interest to the big industry players as well as what might be of interest to someone smaller. A lot of insuretechs and innovators out there are looking to partner with someone a little smaller, with whom they can get their foot in the door and learn from in a more focused way. Utilising the “software as a service” model also allows for flexibility in pricing, and this can enable smaller companies to become involved in the insuretech space and innovate at scale. What are the benefits of partnering with an insuretech? One of the biggest benefits of partnering with an insuretech is that, depending on where they are in their journey, they’re open to feedback from customers along their roadmap. Becoming involved with insuretechs has allowed us to partner and identify avenues of innovation we can pursue to bring collective value. It also allows us to influence where insuretechs are spending their time and resources and enables both organisations to learn as we go. We’ve built strong relationships with our insuretech partners: they appreciate companies that took a risk on them in the early days and want to truly partner and make changes or adjustments that would bring value. Insuretechs can help insurance carriers think differently— sometimes we get stuck in our traditional ways of thinking and are risk-averse. Insuretechs can push you to realise what’s possible. The relationship provides benefits and opportunities for both parties: many insuretechs are just starting out, and it’s easier for them to get in and focus with a smaller regional carrier who can help them learn and grow as they go along and provide immediate feedback on what works and doesn’t. The biggest challenge when exploring insuretechs can be deciding where to focus your time and efforts. I spend a lot of time looking at potential solutions through the lens of 1) what’s the problem to solve, 2) what’s the constituency that will benefit from this (such as our customers and their journey, or our claims staff by automating processes so that they have more time), and 3) how will it improve outcomes. At Amerisure, when we began exploring opportunities, we established a roadmap that determined where we wanted to focus and where were the solutions we wanted to look at; conducted evaluations with consultants; and focused on “moments of truth” in our claims journey, with the bookends of claims submission and resolution. We spent a lot of time focusing on those areas; now we can focus on additional enhancements in the journey to help everyone. To keep learning about the benefits of insuretechs, I leverage industry events such as webinars, conferences and expositions, as well as vendor demonstrations (I am excited in-person events should be starting up again in the second half of 2022, as they are very valuable to help us determine who we may want to move forward with). “Insuretechs can help insurance carriers think differently — sometimes we get stuck in our traditional ways of thinking and are risk-averse. Insuretechs can push you to realise what’s possible.”
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