About this event
The Digital Insurer was delighted to have attended and spoken at the recent InsuranceCom conference in Vienna, focusing on digital transformation opportunities for insurers in the CEE region. It was an excellent event, attended by over 100 senior insurance executives from CEE region and the day was filled with insightful and informative presentations from some of Europe’s top insurance executives. The Digital Insurer was pleased to have been able to bring an Asia perspective to discussions as well as share insights and examples of recent global insurance innovations as food for thought for the region’s senior decision makers.
Thanks to InsuranceCom for organising such an engaging conference.
Event Highlights
We have summarised below the highlights and key takeaways from those speakers whose presentations had a strong digital theme, including the slides that were presented by each speaker.
1. Introduction
Prof. Dr. Peter Maas
Member of the Executive Board, Insurance Institute University St Gallen
Key takeaways:
- The role of insurers is changing in Europe amidst a backdrop of an evolving risk environment
- Consumers are searching for brands that showcase trust
- Lifestyle and insurance are becoming increasingly linked
- Customer orientation (better customer relationships, better service quality, better understanding of customer needs) as well as automaton of processes and innovation are key strategic success factors (Reference Report on “Industrialising the insurance industry in a digital world”)
- Three strategic patterns for insurance companies to be successful in a digital world
- Operational Excellence
- Customer Intimacy
- Product Leadership
2. Strategic Growth Patterns in CEE
Dr Wolfgang Kindl
CEO UNIQUA International AG
Key takeaways:
- Customer behaviour and demands are changing
- 85% of Hungarians are online daily
- >50% of people in CEE have a smartphone
- 58% of MTPL (motor third party liability) policies are sold online in Hungary
- A paradigm shift is expected for retail business to go from being product-based to customer-based
- Rise of customer focused organisation
- Omni-channel capabilities
- Insurance product as a commodity
- Bancassurance is heading multi-channel & affinity model gaining prominence
- Disaggregation of distribution will enable insurers to scale rapidly in a cost effective manner
- Leverage technology for new markets
3. Bancassurance Model within PKO Bank Polski Group
Slawomir Lopalewski
CEO, PKO Ubezpieczenia
Key takeaways:
- PKO BP Bancassurance model has evolved from a non-integrated partnership model to an integrated model whereby the Bank and Insurance Company are within one Group
- Insurance products will be fully integrated into bank’s direct processes
- Focused on products and technological innovations
- Customer-centric initiatives
- New model based on 5 pillars
- Insurance offer – move to personalised offers
- Omnichannel – full availability
- Integration
- Customer Service
- Sales support
4. Strategic Business Transformation
Dr Luciano Cirina
CEO, Generali CEE Holding
Key takeaways:
- Digitalisation is a strong enablement driver to reach customers who are more than ever informed, demanding and protected
- The insurance landscape is changing in the CEE region; the future foresees
- Consolidation – fewer and bigger insurers
- New technologies and transformation of other industries e.g. banking and telecoms have raised consumer expectations who demand
- Simplicity and ease of interaction
- To make use of technology to interact anytime, anywhere, on any device;
- to make an integrated and interchangeable use of all available access modes/channels (research online, swap view on social media and buy on the phone or face to face
- More transparency
- Deep transformation of the distribution landscape – changing regulations which will reduce distribution network power
- Generali’s new approach the changing landscape
- To be Simple and Smart
- New products and solutions that are simple and transparent
- Multi-channel accessibility
- Modular and configurable products
- Behavioural based pricing
- Proactive and frequent interactions
- “Through connectivity we will revolutionise the way we interact with our customers”
- The connected car and home through telematics
- Connected health through wearables
- The mobile App
- An integrated sales platform that will bridge the gap between clients and distributors (CRM, client data, channel management and customer service)
- To be Simple and Smart
5. Digital Distribution in the Insurance Industry
Hugh Terry
CEO and Founder, The Digital Insurer
Key takeaways:
- Overall theme = “Everything has changed but some things haven’t!”
- Backbone of the huge transformation facing industry
- Digital convenience
- Digital connectivity
- Digital expectations
- Digital is NOT a new distribution channel; Digital enables customer (and distributor) engagement
- Insurance CEO’s face 3 choices
- Manage existing models for profit
- Transform existing face to face models
- Create or participate in new models (focus of presentation)
- Will insurance follow banking transformation?
- 8 digital distribution models for insurers to consider
- Examples of digital insurance in action around the world
- Zhong An – China
- CoverHound – USA
- Tune Insurance – Asia
- Vitalitydrive – South Africa
- The ingredients needed for digital innovation in distribution
- Customer centric
- Collaborative
- Agile frameworks and mindsets
- New challenger brands
- Data centric and scalable operating models
- Strong internal support with risk mitigation via piloting
6. Digitalisation: How current trends will impact the insurance industry
Peter Munzenmayer
Director, Group Underwriting, Head Big Data & Smart Analytics Centre, Swiss Reinsurance Company Ltd
Key takeaways:
- Internet, mobile and social media are on the rise – insurers need new ways of thinking to embrace new technologies
- Industry is facing a technological shift and a behavioural shift
- Is data “the oil of the future”?
- Today, the insurance value chain relies on data but little of it is used
- New technologies and capabilities will explode the amount of data available to insurers – the key to success is data application which is what will make it valuable
- Big data macro trends affecting the insurance industry
- Interconnectivity
- Interactivity
- Insights
- Ownership
- New risks
7. Digital Transformation – an evolution
Monique Shivanandan
Group Chief Information Officer, Aviva PLC
Key takeaways:
- “In order for insurance to transform, insurers must become more like tech companies”
- Example – how Capital One bank transformed from traditional bank to a digital bank
- Biggest thing insurers need to do is to focus on the customer
- Digital is a way of being. Digital thinking is
- Innovative
- Failing fast
- Being Brave
- 24/7
- Disruptive
- Hiring and nurturing the right talent is key to success
- Rewarding failure should be embedded in company culture
- Being agile is about incremental delivery, frequent releases and learning and adapting as you go along
- Technology should be focused on
- Data analytics capability
- Resilient ‘always on’ service
- Information security