In India’s rapidly evolving and de-reregulating insurance landscape, medium-sized non-life insurers are faced with a myriad of opportunities to provide new products to more policyholders through increasingly diverse distribution channels.
To make the most of these, many insurers need more capable modern core delivery insurtech that allows them to design innovative coverages, as well as offer the expected customer experience and support back-end delivery.
Though, due to having more constrained resources (compared to their larger competitors), medium-sized non-life insurers may find it difficult to revolutionise their full core delivery insurtech in order to capitalise on all these opportunities.
Instead of persisting with the old legacy insurtech, one of the most effective ways to receive the benefits of modern core delivery insurtech from a more limited investment is through the adoption of modular SaaS core delivery solutions. By taking a modular SaaS approach, instead of an end-to-end upgrade of on-prem or legacy solutions, medium-sized insurers can more efficiently and effectively enhance their offerings and streamline operations, ultimately driving growth and profitability.
The Modular Approach
Modular solutions in insurtech refer to the ability to implement specific components of core delivery insurtech—such as policy administration, claims management, or billing—independently. An insurer can implement a single new solution, or a mix of two or more at once, or stagger implementation over a period of time. This flexibility allows insurers to tailor their technology stack to meet specific needs without having to overhaul the entire system at once.
For instance, a medium-sized insurer might choose to implement a new claims management solution while retaining their existing policy administration system, allowing for a phased approach to their digital transformation.
Key Benefits of Modular Solutions:
For India’s insurers who are looking to grow but need to use their resources and capacity intelligently and strategically, a modular approach may be the best path forward. For medium-sized non-life insurers, a modular approach could support:
Targeted Investment: By focusing on specific modules, insurers can allocate resources more effectively into areas that will deliver bigger returns. For example, if the regulator is mandating claims outcome SLAs and the medium-sized insurer identifies claims processing as a bottleneck, they can prioritise investment in a claims management solution that automates and streamlines workflows, leading to quicker claims settlements, regulatory compliance, and improved customer satisfaction.
Faster Speed to Value: The modular approach can enable quicker deployment and increase speed to value. Insurers can benefit from the enhanced functionality of a single SaaS-delivered module, such as a claims management solution, without waiting for an end-to-end system upgrade. This agility allows insurers to respond to market demands and customer needs more swiftly.
For instance, a medium-sized insurer could implement a new billing solution to their existing insurtech mix to offer more modern and flexible payment and claims settlement options, enhancing customer convenience and satisfaction as well as revenue.
Efficient Scalability: As an insurer grows, adding new SaaS-solutions as needed could ensure that their technology evolves with their business, not in excess of it. This could prevent the major disruption of an end-to-end overhaul, or over-investment in an end-to-end solution they can’t fully benefit from.
For example, a medium-sized insurer may have successfully achieved a target volume of business through the launch of new coverages thanks to the previous introduction of a SaaS-delivered policy administration system module. But now the volume of claims is exceeding the existing technology and manual capacity, and slow claims resolutions are resulting in customer dissatisfaction and attention from the regulator. This could be the point where the insurer brings on a new SaaS-delivered claims management solution to improve speed and outcomes.
Clear Point-of-Difference: By focusing on one, or a handful of modular SaaS solutions, an insurer could carve out a distinct coverage- or service-based point-of-difference and excel at meeting the evolving needs of their customers. This could ultimately allow them to out-compete their competitors.
For example, a medium-sized insurer could deploy new SaaS-based, cloud-native claims management and billing solutions, allowing them to deliver faster and more consistent claims outcomes and more timely claims payments. These solutions could then be enhanced with peripheral insurtech such as digital customer service or fraud detection technology, further improving the policyholder’s experience. This would allow the insurer to build a brand around customer service, customer care, and trust.
Easy to Integrate
You may think that a modular approach could create extra technological complexity compared to an all-in-one solution, or an end-to-end transformation using products from a single insurtech provider. This isn’t the case with modern, digital-native core insurance delivery technology.
Thanks to abundant open and transparent APIs, these modular solutions can be integrated with other SaaS solutions from other insurtechs, as well as existing legacy, in-house, and on-prem solutions. Data can flow freely throughout, allowing for workflows and straight through processing.
Maximize ROI from a more modest investment
The evolving and de-regulating market is creating new opportunities to cover more policyholders and grow market share, but it’s also requiring modern core delivery insurtech. For medium-sized insurers, adopting a modular SaaS-solution approach is a strategic move that could allow them to benefit from modern insurtech and maximize ROI from a more modest investment, in line with their size. By focusing on specific modules within their insurtech mix, insurers can enhance their operational efficiency, respond to market changes more swiftly, and ultimately drive growth and profitability.
