reaffirming its global footprint
02
digitally transforming into a truly global brand
03
WRITTEN BY
AMBER DONOVAN-STEVENS PRODUCED BY
ANDREW STUBBINGS
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COVER-MORE INSURANCE GROUP
Nicki Doble and the members of Cover-More’s executive technology leadership team share insight into how the company is strengthening its global presence though its tech transformation to provide a seamless customer experience
N
icki Doble (GAICD) is the Group CIO of Cover-More, a subsidiary travel insurance and assistance company of Zurich, which
operates across 22 countries. Doble specialises 04
in the implementation of digital transformations across businesses, and raises companies’ awareness of cybersecurity and data governance risks, as well as maintaining cost control of IT. With more than 25 years experience in IT, Doble was approached by Cover-More to assist with global strategy and alignment of their technical areas, and has been working from the company’s headquarters in Sydney, Australia since March 2019. Doble considers working with Cover-More to be one of her greatest opportunities over the last few years. “It is wonderful to work with a team that is truly customer-centric, and I have had excellent support from the executive leadership team, who are all on board with the transformation.” Not only does Doble work with a great team, but she derives a strong sense of job satisfaction from the role. “When you assist
05
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COVER-MORE INSURANCE GROUP
a business which relates to medical emergencies, knowing that you have had a part in being responsible for the delivery of the technology that helps to protect people gives you a nice, warm feeling when you go home at night.” As [FinTech/ Business Chief ANZ] sits down with Doble, she is in the midst of hosting the first Cover-More CIO Global Alignment Workshop which spans four days (6-9 August 2019). Cara Morton, the Group Chief Operations Officer based out of 06
Australia has joined several other regional CIOs in attendance to confer on the company’s current roadmap. Others in attendance include Paras Kothari, IT Director responsible for Cover-More India TrawellTag; Steve Frazen, the CIO of Travelex Insurance Services, who operates from the US Office; Raffaele Loiacono, Director of IT at Universal Assistance SA; Glen Broadhurst, GM of Global Digital and Direct, who looks after digital direct and optimisation from London; Jeremy Clutterbuck, the CTO of EMEA insurance services; and Mark Carnahan, Director of Infrastructure Services, who specialises in digital
“ The core of the business strategy is the unification of the company as a single global enterprise” — Nicki Doble, Group CIO, Cover-More
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘IT VENDOR MANAGEMENT IS MORE THAN ‘GIVE AND TAKE’ – NICKI DOBLE, GROUP CIO, COVER-MORE 07 and cloud services from the Cover-
including Halo Insurance, Universal As-
More Washington location.
sistance, Travelex Insurance Services, Blue Insurance and Travel Ace As-
BECOMING ONE GLOBAL ENTITY
sistance. The workshop taking place at
“We’ve been operating as different
the Zurich building, London, UK, ena-
businesses in different countries,”
bles Doble and the rest of the team to
begins Doble, “and the core of the
reevaluate the company’s centralised
business strategy is the unification
and regional functions, and ensure that
of the company as a single global
the acquired companies are receiv-
enterprise with consistent products
ing the support needed to standard-
to accelerate technology and remain
ise products. “These companies will
customer-centric, while leveraging
assist with Cover-More obtaining a
the expertise of our parent company,
truly global footprint, as they are digital
Zurich.” Cover-More made a number
and complementary to the traditional
of acquisitions over the last few years,
function of Cover-More,” says Morton. w w w.c o ve rmo re grou p . com
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Streamlining customer and employee experiences As companies focus on the possibilities of digital transformation, many are realising that these efforts must go further than just what is visible to the outside world. Transformation demands more than just embracing new customer channels or demonstrating new technologies. Organisations must transform processes – the ways in which customers are served, promises are fulfilled, and operations run. Robotic process automation (RPA), AI, and intelligent automation is key to this strategy, but must be delivered within a total process framework. Alignment across organisational silos, thinking end to end from a customer’s perspective, and establishing capabilities for rapid development and design thinking are at the core of transformation. Your success depends not just on automation, but also on managing exceptions and optimising human resources. Combining existing operations with the potential of emerging technologies, like AI and RPA, through advanced workflow will deliver operational transformation results at scale. An automation first approach can’t be focussed solely on cost reduction but is viewed as an integral part of designing and implementing customer and employee experiences that are streamlined and remove friction. This is at the heart of e5 Workflow’s Priority Processing solution.
‘Cover-More is one of the many organisations that have chosen e5 Workflow to reduce complexity, empower employees and deliver customer promises.’
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How does this work? Many managers are expected to cope with increasing workloads and a shrinking workforce, so we created a configurable enterprise workflow platform, with industry solution templates, to help organisations manage high volumes and consistently deliver increased productivity. Wrapping e5’s capabilities around the core organisational technology reduces operational complexity because each journey is directly linked to an end to end process, covering each of the parts that contribute to providing the outcome for the customer. These journeys can be as simple as a straight through travel insurance application, to complex long running commercial claims that span time and include many contributing actors. This brings businesses visible service level control, leading to improved customer and employee experiences while reducing backlog and costs.
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The ability to link the parts of a complex journey such as a web app, email, administration system, operational staff, external vendors, document generation and customer communications, is the optimal way to approach digital automation. The reasons for this are that you are able to take full control of the customer journey independent of the number or types of touch points. It allows you to measure the entire journey from multiple aspects - overall and unitbased service costs, complexity, SLA and KPI. This ability also gives you clarity and peace of mind through accurate work in progress management, extending to accurate forecasting and identification of areas of improvement to focus investment.
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To know more, visit us at www.capgemini.com.au/insurance or email us at capgemini.marketing.au@capgemini.com
“By coming together, these companies
functions from our two large contact
meet their full potential.” Clutterbuck
centres in Argentina and Colombia,
affirms: “the acquisition of Halo has
providing medical support to travellers
enabled us to implement various initia-
all over the world. As our travellers
tives through the support of Cover-
are largely from South America, we
More. Being part of a bigger business
are complementary to Cover-More,
provides additional leverage, and
which specialises in regions such as
these initiatives are accelerating us
New Zealand, Australia, Singapore
into a global tech space. In turn, Halo
and Malaysia. Together, we can form
complements Cover-More’s product
a great global service.” By drawing
suite, as we are in a niche market that
on considerable experience from
specialises in smaller brands.”
across the regions, knowledge of
Loiacono reiterates this sentiment
law and regulation is shared across
with regard to Universal Assistance,
the partners. Carnahan adds that
which provides telemedicine and
the increase in acquisitions has also
teleassistance: “Universal Assistance
refined the process of standardising
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Nicki Doble Nicki Doble is an IT C-Suite Executive that specializes in global insurance transformation delivery by creating cultures that allow change to f lourish. Nicki is a Not-For-Profit and Government Board Director who brings unique governance, strategy and financial management acumen to executive delivery roles.
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CLICK TO WATCH : ‘NICKI DOBLE, GROUP CIO OF COVER-MORE EXPLAINS THE VALUE OF GAICD’ 13 change management for each respec-
and they were responsive and went
tive acquisition, improving the overall
above and beyond to help us get the
speed of the companies’ expansion.
major upgrade across the line without
Doble highlights one particular partner
incident.”
that has been instrumental in assist-
In April 2019, Doble commenced the
ing the company streamline services:
Global Technology Strategy a first of
e5. “We’ve recently completed our e5
its kind for the organisation. A cloud
upgrades which will give us a lot more
first design principal meant that a cor-
functionality in how we process our
nerstone of the project was a global
work. That means that we can design
Infrastructure As Is Discovery, this was
the service from a customer-led point
so a full picture of the size of the trans-
of view. It’s exciting, as it will change
formation could be ascertained. AWS
how we process claims. The team at e5
was instrumental in delivering these
understood how important this was to
insights and Cover-More is now its in
us in shifting our customer experience
planning stage of making use of the w w w.c o ve rmo re grou p . com
$700mn+
Approximate revenue in US dollars
1986
Year founded
2,200
14
Approximate number of employees
15
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Complex questions, simply answered! Global governance, local benefit. Unify your customers & analytics. We are Aware. LEARN MORE
CONTACT US
theawaregroup.com.au info@theawaregroup.com.au
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘NICKI DOBLE, GROUP CIO OF COVER-MORE SHARES HER CAREER ACHIEVEMENTS’ AWS innovative services and technol-
tant that you are working with experts”.
ogy offerings as they commence a sig-
In terms of culture shift and people
nificant cloud transformation. Having
change management, Doble says that
undertaken a number of turnarounds
“this expansion will create room for
and transformations Doble knows
career progression, which is exciting
first-hand the value of a good partner.
for our teams, particularly in regard
“The global data landscape is now very
to cybersecurity and digital, as the
difficult and complex, so I am also very
opportunities are huge.” There are
grateful for the team at Aware Services
currently regional cybersecurity pro-
who have been a trusted adviser and
grams taking place across all of the
their expertise in global data govern-
regions in which Cover-More operates,
ance is exceptional. Being across many
and Carnahan specifies that “the key
different regions with different data
opportunity here is the process of
standards and regulations makes the
coalescing these programs together to
globalisation task difficult so its impor-
create the most robust strategy possiw w w.c o ve rmo re grou p . com
17
COVER-MORE INSURANCE GROUP
“ The more granular data points that we put into our optimization model, the better we become at providing a seamless customer experience” — Glen Broadhurst, GM of Global Digital and Direct, Cover-More ble.” He believes that this combination of regional expertise on a global level will provide customers with an even higher level of service and security. Part of this tailored service can be accredited to the optimisation model 18
framework, which is not only focused around reporting tools, but on proprietary technologies built upon a robust methodology, according to Broadhurst, who goes on to say: “we have our own UX testing tools, which allow us to do high level personalisation and segmentation based on aggregate data that we bring into our ecosystem. Then, using the years of experience from across our different companies, we can apply these insights across different partners to provide the most personalised service. The more granular data points that we put into our optimisation model, the better we become at providing a seamless customer experience.”
LOOKING AHEAD As Cover-More sets out to strengthen their global footprint, Doble says that customers can expect to see regional products become available worldwide, or, as Carnahan put it: “we will become a truly global entity, offering true global value to our customers.” He also shares that they hope to enhance the speed of assistance, so that when an issue arises, they can act preemptively to keep their customers safe when travelling. Frazen says that there will be one question at the centre of the strategy as they move forward: “how can Cover-More provide the right product and the right experience, personalised for an individual traveller, at the time of need, so they get the maximum value out of their experiences, and their opportunities to do business with us?” As the team finish up their workshop in London, Cover-More is set to take customer service to the next level, and to sharpen the group’s competitive edge on the global stage.
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Cover-More Insurance Group Level 10, 60 Miller Street North Sydney NSW 2060, Australia T +61 2 8907 5301 www.covermore.com.au