Innovation needed for growth
Innovation is the way to go as the industry moves through a period of slow growth and tight margins, according to speakers at the Australian Insurance Summit in Sydney on Friday.
Accenture Australia MD Andy Parton says the claims area is a key to innovation and customer focus to “make a material difference to the bottom line of an insurance organisation”.
With claims costs representing something like 70% of premiums, improving claims outcomes is by far the biggest lever in achieving cost effectiveness.
He says automating administrative tasks will help claims professionals of the future focus less on processing and more on decision-making. This would see claims moving away from a back office function into being a business in its own right with a more outcome-focused approach.
Mr Parton says claims needs to be “made more interesting” to attract young blood into one of the less attractive areas of the insurance industry, with communications making work hours and places more flexible.
“In the extended enterprise model the customer is actually in the process, transacting business, providing information and potentially making decisions about how they want their claims to be handled,” he said.
“If a customer can track a parcel on Fed Ex I’m pretty sure they ought to be able to track a claim with their insurer.”
Marsh MD Placement Services Scott Leney says innovative products, services and modelling techniques are needed to push the boundaries of what insurance can do.
“Very few insurers are talking about doing new things,” he said. “Many have withdrawn capacity from the more innovative areas of the insurance market – products that were around before all this trouble with the subprime crisis started.”
Mr Leney says the current situation begs the question – where will growth come from if the commercial insurance market doesn’t have a significant turn in the near future and if the major world economies don’t recover in the next couple of years.
Accenture Australia MD Andy Parton says the claims area is a key to innovation and customer focus to “make a material difference to the bottom line of an insurance organisation”.
With claims costs representing something like 70% of premiums, improving claims outcomes is by far the biggest lever in achieving cost effectiveness.
He says automating administrative tasks will help claims professionals of the future focus less on processing and more on decision-making. This would see claims moving away from a back office function into being a business in its own right with a more outcome-focused approach.
Mr Parton says claims needs to be “made more interesting” to attract young blood into one of the less attractive areas of the insurance industry, with communications making work hours and places more flexible.
“In the extended enterprise model the customer is actually in the process, transacting business, providing information and potentially making decisions about how they want their claims to be handled,” he said.
“If a customer can track a parcel on Fed Ex I’m pretty sure they ought to be able to track a claim with their insurer.”
Marsh MD Placement Services Scott Leney says innovative products, services and modelling techniques are needed to push the boundaries of what insurance can do.
“Very few insurers are talking about doing new things,” he said. “Many have withdrawn capacity from the more innovative areas of the insurance market – products that were around before all this trouble with the subprime crisis started.”
Mr Leney says the current situation begs the question – where will growth come from if the commercial insurance market doesn’t have a significant turn in the near future and if the major world economies don’t recover in the next couple of years.