MIP Holdings

MIP HOLDINGS

MIP HOLDINGS

Perfect Partner to Avoid the App Gap PRODUCTION: David Napier

As more businesses make the inevitable jump, taking services online or fully digital, now is the time to find a partner that can deliver software and IT services for the next generation of demanding consumers. MIP Holdings is one of Africa’s leading specialists when it comes to apps, software and digital tech and is waiting to find you a solution.

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Turn back the clock, even just a few years, and you’ll find that the way we enquire about and purchase financial services has changed dramatically – this is no surprise. With technological advances and people’s demand for instantaneous service, the pace of change has been swift. Go back one decade and people were walking into banks and insurance branches and talking with salespeople about products. Today, everything is online, everything is done

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through an app, everything is quick and convenient. Again, this news is not new but for those that are serious about change accept that change is an ongoing process - something which needs constant attention. For example, tech has allowed business to reach further, higher and faster than ever before. A small insurance company can no offer its products and services to clients all over the world from a small office in the middle of nowhere.

It can reach different contact points

very quickly, and respond to customer needs at the touch of a button.

But, as an industry, the success of tech has seen it swamped with players who cannot deliver. This is why partnering with the right organisation is important.

MIP Holdings is a leading provider of affordable business/IT solutions to the financial services industry in emerging markets.

Headquartered in Bryanston, Johannesburg, MIP has been serving

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INDUSTRY FOCUS: TECHNOLOGY

// WE WANT TO BECOME A MAJOR PLAYER ON THE AFRICAN CONTINENT FROM AN INSURANCE PERSPECTIVE, THAT IS OUR BIG DRIVE // its customers with software and IT solutions for 29 years.

Today, MIP serves more than 13 million policy holders/participants on a daily basis. It is the world’s only software company delivering solutions across the financial service verticals.

Known for its success in the

insurance industry, designing and developing software that aids in the collection of employee contributions, MIP is entering a new phase in its existence as the demands of software, tech and apps from clients and customers become more challenging than ever before.

Traditionally a strong player

in its home market of South Africa, MIP is also targeting expansion on the African continent, where both technology and financial services are burgeoning industries.

“We want to become a major player on the African continent from an insurance perspective, that is our big drive,” says CEO, Richard Firth.

“The advent of the app has been one of the biggest changes in the industry over the years.

Communication has fundamentally changed the way we can operate.”

While MIP’s focus on its core

// Sanlam Group Risk recognised as the leader in Treating Customers Fairly The Batseta Council of Retirement Funds SA have awarded Sanlam Employee Benefits Group Risk the prestigious Imbasa Yegolide accolade for the Risk Benefit Underwriter of the Year. The criteria for this award were based fundamentally on the degree of application of the principles of Treating Customers Fairly (TCF) in practice.

Michele Jennings, CEO of Sanlam Employee Benefits Group Risk, stated that, “Our business model depends entirely on our ability to treat our clients fairly and we have implemented a number of innovations over the past few years to stay well ahead of our competitors”. These innovations include the establishment of a dedicated client servicing capability to act as a single point of entry for clients for any servicing related issues as well implementing leading edge quotes technology to improve turnaround times to unprecedented levels. The launch of the Severe Illness Impact range further demonstrates Sanlam’s commitment to meeting client needs. “This is the first and only of its kind product in South Africa – a severe illness product that addresses the impact that an illness has on the insured. We also provide the flexibility for clients to select whether they want to insure just Cancer or Cardiovascular diseases based on their budgetary constraints or to select the Comprehensive option, which covers more illnesses than any other product on the market.”

In a tough operating environment, Sanlam has attracted record volumes of new clients due to its hard won reputation of doing the right thing in the right way. The group risk market is characterised by complexity, choice and competitiveness. To succeed in this market takes courage to consistently do the right thing as claims and prices go through sharp cycles. “Our pricing model is built to deliver competitive and sustainable prices to clients so that large shocks are avoided. We often have to walk away from opportunities as we believe that unsustainable pricing is in the best long term interests of clients. We have a mature claims management capability to ensure that the right decision is made the first time. Our sterling reputation at the Ombudsman speaks volumes to our commitment to TCF as we have not had a single claim decision overturned by the Ombud for the past decade” added Jennings, “Further evidence that the Imbasa Yegolide award is in good hands”.

KINGJAMES 43358

Hard work.

Commitment.

Service delivery.

It all adds up to Imbasa Yegolide.

At Sanlam, we are committed to delivering service excellence to all of our clients.

Which is why Sanlam Employee Benefits is proud to have received the Risk Benefit Underwriter of the Year Award at the 2018 Imbasa Yegolide Awards, as voted for by the trustees and principal officers of retirement funds in South Africa.

Sanlam will continue to work diligently with our clients to maintain and improve on these high standards of service. It’s what makes us Wealthsmiths™.

Sanlam is a Licensed Financial Services Provider.

INDUSTRY FOCUS: TECHNOLOGY

products will remain, growth into exciting new spheres, especially in the app world, is providing many fresh opportunities.

Firth refers to this smart world as social infrastructure and states that developing products that easily meet the needs of business and customers in a user-friendly way is vital.

“I call it socialising the infrastructure,” he says. “This really translates to a new era when machines or systems will begin to

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socialise with consumers. For this to become a reality, the traditional business system needs an arsenal of functionality to truly bind the system, with a consumer sitting on the other end of a mobile app running on a multitude of devices.”

Development of this kind of software is now more important than ever as businesses turn to apps to easily and affordably communicate with mass numbers of consumers.

The alternative is falling into what

// EVERYONE IS LOOKING AT BECOMING A TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS BECAUSE IF YOU DON’T, YOU’LL LOSE OUT // Firth ters the “app gap”.

This is different to chat-bots or robo-advisors which have been used in the insurance and telecoms sectors, and which have gained popularity with developers after the growth of the home assistant such as Alexa, Google Home and Apple’s HomePod. The use of AI for tasks has been welcomed by the insurance industry. Global giant, Aviva and CEO Mark Wilson recently commented that the industry had long been living in the ‘stone age’ and the time for partnering with tech companies was now.

“The last few years have been very good. Obviously, technology is playing a bigger role in financial services, and that is true for all businesses – everyone is looking at becoming a technology business because if you don’t, you’ll lose out.

There’s a transition underway and everything is going digital,” agrees Firth.

“We are seeing a shift in the call centre model,” he adds. “We’ve built an automated FAQ input section into software and it’s becoming chat like. Traditionally, email and SMS has been popular but we’re finding in the large consumer space that email is no longer an effective communication method so we are building in digital stamps to recognise people and prevent fraud. We are also working on an important product called the Central Calendar which is like a Facebook timeline where the business has a timeline view of the

MIP HOLDINGS

consumer. Traditionally, we could post prompts in outlook to remind someone to renew a product; now we have centralised all the data and we can show it like a Facebook timeline which is imperative for customer service. We are also integrating the ‘invisible app’ where our app can integrate with other app services.

For example, if we want to show the consumer the weather forecast where they are – we don’t build a weather app, we integrate with another weather services and other risk services while all the while sharing information.”

At the recent Dubai World Insurance Congress, tech was in the spotlight with commentators and industry specialist suggesting that emerging technologies such as AI and blockchain are going to redefine business models of insurance firms in the digital world.

MIP sits perfectly positioned to partner with, not only South Africa’s very strong financial organisations,

administrator of the

Funds

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Authorised Financial Services Provider: 43176 Section 13B Administrator 24/424

// THERE’S A TRANSITION UNDERWAY AND EVERYTHING IS GOING DIGITAL // but also with global players.

“Our key differentiator is that we operate in any of the insurance silos, from healthcare through to pension fund administration and life insurance. We have many touchpoints in the financial service chain. We don’t have any competitors who can compete in every one of those spaces,” says Firth.

“We compete with company’s in each individual space and what we’re finding is to achieve economies of scale and price competitiveness, it’s becoming imperative to have volume.

We have a R&D team of 35 people and they focus on where technology is going and how it can help us change the consumer interaction with insurers.”

“Today, we have more than 330 people and we look after approximately 13 million policy holders through pension, health, life and other sectors.”

There’s no doubt that FinTech (Financial Technologies) is here to stay and if you want to stay at the top of the market, commanding a market leading position, and a sustainable piece of the market, then partnering with the likes of MIP to help deliver your FinTech solutions is vital.

“FinTech like crowdfunding, mobile payments, and money transfer services is revolutionizing the way small businesses start up, accept

payments, and go global, and they are making it easier than ever to start and run a business,” explains Forbes big data expert contributor Bernard Marr. “Don’t assume that FinTech is simply a fad or buzzword: Accenture recently released a report which found that investment in FinTech around the world has increased dramatically from $930 million in 2008 to more than $12 billion by early 2015,” he adds.

Now is the time to make the move. Customers want it, businesses need it. The FinTech revolution is coming and you better be ready.

WWW.MIP.CO.ZA

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March 2018

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