InsurTech Magazine - September 2022 by insurtechdigital

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AUTOMATION IS THE NEW SUPERPOWER OF INSURANCE

“There are further leaps and bounds we can make towards a experienceautomated,fullyAI-assisted”

It might be cliché to say that the pandemic accelerated digital transformation, but when it comes to automation within insurance it’s true. The way we responded to COVID 19, the way it forced us to react and adapt, will have a lasting impact on society.

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You might think it’s a stretch to call automation a superpower, but it’s having such a seismic impact on the insurance industry that the shoe really does fit. Put simply, automation is the silver bullet through the heart of the insurance industry’s inefficiencies. Like those superhero movies of old, where the protagonist would swoop in and use their talents to save the day, automation technology has had a similar impact.

In this month’s issue of InsurTech Magazine, we explore the ways that automation has improved our lives – from the benefits that automated insurance bestows upon consumers, to future use-cases for AI and ML. It’s clear that, despite progress to date, there are further leaps and bounds we can make towards a fully automated, AI-assisted experience. We hope you enjoy this month’s magazine. ENGLAND

Our UpfrontRegularSection: 10 Big Picture 12 The Brief 14 Timeline: The history of parametric insurance 16 Trailblazer: Sten Saar 20 Five Minutes With: Chantal Dawson Insurance Are legacy insurers winning the digital race? 44 Chubb driving innovationinsurancedigital 52 Vodafone Creating a place for Vodafone in the world of FinTech 26CONTENTS

n t i t y G u i de ManagersUnderwritingMission Mission's programme model for underwritinginsurance MGA / TPA Cyber security in insurance Top 10 Digital insurance leaders in the US in 2022 70 82 132 Digital Transformation Connected devices and the data dilemma Grupo Ageas Portugal Beyond insurance: Grupo Ageas Portugal Vitality Usinghealthtotechnologytransforminsurance 1166490 108 Technology Why automation is the future of insurance

Connected Insurance is helping digital platforms, reduce their risk exposure

Extending their services into the marketplace has been achieved by a collaboration with some of the world’s leading insurance players. Yaron Zurr, co-founder and CCO of CI, says “We believe that insurance players should become contributors and enablers to the businesses they serve. We provide a solution that empowers our partners to make a better insurance offering to their client, as well as solution for the digital platforms to manage their self-insurance and enable them to offer even more relevant protections to their end clients.”

Cohen adds, “CI provides digital platforms with essential tools such as: Risk & utilization dashboards to help the platforms manage their insurance costs and control their risk; Connected Claims module integrated into the digital; tools to manage the self-insurance part better than most advanced carriers; and tools for rapid creation of embedded insurance.”

Technology-driven innovation and CI CI’s full-stack solution connects and serves all parties: sharing economy platforms, brokers, claim administrators, and reinsurers. Connecting everyone under the same platform, says Cohen, creates transparency, leads to better insurance pricing, and ultimately allows sharing economy companies to reduce their total exposure costs.

Connected Insurance (CI) created a datadriven risk platform that powers the next generation UBIs, driving the space forward.

Tal Cohen, co-founder and CEO of CI explains, “The sharing economy is a relatively new industry with limited exposure history. Traditional insurers are using traditional risk models that they use for similar products. This results in low accuracy pricing, which is based on few risk factors and a black box that customers can’t understand or control. By differentiation, CI breaks the insurance paradigm.”

“Our technology employs pricing models with much higher granularity, factoring many more data points currently ignored standard pricing models. We provide our clients transparency on their insurance costs and empower them to control and reduce costs by making educated decisions,” he says.

Connected Insurance’s Tal Cohen and Yaron Zurr reveal how CI is revolutionising UBI solutions in the sharing economy

Strategic partnerships

The result is a seamless delivery of services and a satisfactory customer journey, concludes Zurr, who adds, “CI can optimise the customer’s insurance pricing by focusing on the lower risk usage and avoid the riskier transactions.”

Learn more

Connected Insurance: UBI and the Sharing Economy

10 September 2022 BIG PICTURE

Insurers face disruption from wildfires

Collado Mediano, Spain

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A heatwave across much of the northern hemisphere has resulted in wildfires in Europe, including Spain, France and the UK. As climate change makes freak weather events more common, wildfires threaten to burn in countries where they were never previously a problem. Insurers face a daunting task in protecting homes and businesses, with one insurance industry expert predicting that wildfire could become the next 'uninsurable'. Insurers are attempting to use historic data and AI modelling to predict future exposure.

64% Adequately 18% SecureVery THE BRIEF “IN 10-15 YEARS TIME, I SEE THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY AS HAVING ALMOST FULLY AUTOMATED, AI-ASSISTED END-TO-END PROCESSES” MEGAN BINGHAM-WALKER Co-founder and CEO, Anansi Technology  “ WITH A FEW ESTABLISHEDEXCEPTIONS,INSURANCECOMPANIESAREN’TCONFRONTINGTHEFACTTHATTHEYNEEDTOBECOMETECHNOLOGYCOMPANIES” LEON GAUHMAN Chief Product and Strategy Officer, Elsewhen  READ MORE “I ENJOY CHANGE AND I EMBRACE IT BUT SOMETIMES THE INTENSITY OF CHANGE CAN WEIGH ON ME” STEN SAAR Co-founder and CEO, Zego  READ MORE READ MORE WE ASKED: How secure is your business against cyber attacks? BY THE NUMBERS JAB HOLDINGS IN TWO SEPARATE PET INSURANCE DEALS Krispy Kreme owner JAB Holdings has expanded into pet insurance, acquiring Germany’s Agila and taking over Fairfax's stake in the Pethealth and Crum & Forster brands BOXX APPOINTS NEW LEADERSHIP TEAM FROM PAYPAL AND DELOITTE Cyber insurtech BOXX has made two key hires, appointing former Paypal and Deloitte executives Eric Newman and Steve Penney as COO and CTO respectively YULIFE RAISES US$120MN IN LATEST SERIES C FUNDING DRIVE Digital insurer YuLife has raised US$120mn in a Series C round led by Dai-ichi Life. It takes the total amount raised since launch to US$209mn 9% Securityimprovementneeds 9% Dangerouslyexposed 12 September 2022

Wefox founder and CEO Julian Teicke credits the company’s strategy of growing its user base by getting third-party brokers to use the insurtech to advise their own customers, with revenues doubling to US$320mn in 2021. He called the model "unique in the insurtech space" since all other companies sell directly to the consumer.

 BRANCH

Branch Insurance, the Ohio-based home and auto insurance startup, has raised US$147mn in its Series C funding round and achieved unicorn status in the process. It now has a post-money valuation of US$1.05bn. INSTANDA Instanda, which provides no-code software tools for the insurance industry, has raised US$45mn to grow its presence in Europe, the US, Japan and the UAE. The funds will also be used to “augment platform capabilities”. LEMONADE Lemonade has announced that 20% of staff at auto insurtech Metromile will not be retained, after the unicorn completed its acquisition of aboutTheCalifornia-basedthecompany.layoffsamountto60employees. NEXT INSURANCE Next Insurance has axed 150 employees, mainly from its US operations, in an attempt to steer the company back towards profitability. Insurtechs generally are having to downsize to survive the current economic climate.

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WEFOX HITS US$4.5BN VALUATION AFTER $400MN SERIES D ROUND INSURANCE

Berlin-based Wefox has become the most valuable privately held insurtech following its latest mega-funding round. The rapidly expanding insurtech raised US$400mn, boosting the company’s valuation to US$4.4bn – a 50% increase on its previous valuation just over a year ago.

SEP22SEMITDABSEMITDOOG insurtechdigital.com 13

Founded in 2015, Wefox recently reached two million customers with its range of insurance products and services through in-house and external brokers. It has also grown faster than direct-to-consumer models of insurtech competitors, which include rival German startup Getsafe, to become the fastest expanding insurtech in Europe.

2007 PIONEERSHIP

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Over the last 20 years, PARAMETRIC INSURANCE has enjoyed a steep ascent. Unlike indemnity insurance, payouts are made automatically according to predefined parameters. As a result, it is sometimes thought of as a ‘REBOUND PAYMENT’

TIMELINE

The Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) launched the first multi-country risk pool, successfully adopting parametric policies to help Caribbean nations limit the financial impact of natural catastrophes. Since inception, it has paid almost US$250mn to Caribbean and Central American governments following tropical cyclones, earthquakes and excess rainfall.

The history of insuranceparametric

1990s INFANCY Parametric insurance can trace its roots back more than 20 years to the late1990s, when the concept was still in its infancy. Back then, developing nations in Asia were experimenting with index-based insurance, designed mostly to protect farmers and communitiesagriculturalintheevent of severe weather.

2017 INNOVATION

2022 FUTURE Parametric insurance has been accepted as a way of providing instant relief in the event of natural events or interruptions. One example is Parametrix downtime insurance, which gives businesses a quick payment in the following an outage, which reportedly occurs to 90% of large organisations every year.

Swiss Re launched parametric solution Insur8, which the reinsurer called “the first-ever typhoon warning insurance product for businesses operating in Hong Kong”. It went on to win an insurance innovation award. Earlier the same year, AXA launched a Global Parametrics division to insure clients against emerging climate risks.

2015 EMERGENCE Increasing availability of data and rapid digitisation allowed insurers to launch the first mass-market parametric products. Early models were rolled out in the travel sector. China saw the first known flight delay insurance, where travellers would receive up to 300 yuan (US$40) when their flight was recorded as delayed.

2018-19 MAINSTREAMING Big insurance companies began to get on board with parametrics. Marsh launched PathogenRX, protecting businesses against outbreaks of infectious disease; and Aon unveiled non-damage business interruption insurance for companies with many intangible assets. In 2019, Swiss Re announced FLOW, parametric business insurance that utilised existing river water level gauges. insurtechdigital.com

APROBLEMWHOENTREPRENEURSPOTTEDAANDMADE$1BNSOLUTION

THETRAILBLAZER

While it may sound like a niche venture, it generated net revenues of US$1mn across four countries – all while Saar was studying for a degree in Business and Management.Hestepped away from the notepad business in 2009 and sold it in 2013, by which time Saar, who is originally from Estonia, had moved to London.

ou could say entrepreneurship runs in the blood for Sten Saar, Founder and CEO of commercial motor insurtech Zego. Aged 17, he launched a company selling notepads to students.

Sten Saar clearly has entrepreneurship coursing through his veins, but it took a move to London in his early 20s to provide the impetus and inspiration for Zego

SAARSTENNAME:

ZEGOCOMPANY: 16 September 2022

First he worked in sales and marketing for a startup called Quickstart Global, before joining Onefinestay, a luxury holiday rental provider which Saar compares to an upmarket Airbnb. He got the idea for Zego while working at Deliveroo during its searing growth period. After all, Zego started out by providing flexible insurance to couriers and food delivery drivers.

CEOANDFOUNDERCOTITLE:JOB-

Credit: Alun Callender / Zego ENTREPRENEURMADE “ I enjoy change and I embrace it but sometimes the intensity of change can weigh on me ” insurtechdigital.com 17

Saar partly credits his move to London with helping to nurture his entrepreneurial spirit. There’s clearly a ‘founder mentality’ among young immigrants, who either move to a country determined to be successful or, in the case of the children of immigrants, are forced to adapt to a situation beyond their control. Analysis from the National Foundation for American Policy found that over 50% of the most valuable startups in the US were founded by immigrants.

Founders finding their place in a promising startup Zego was founded in 2016 by Sten Saar, Harry Franks and Stuart Kelly. All three had previously been at Onefinestay together. Franks had also made the move across from Deliveroo, leaving his role as Global Head of Procurement to join the newly created Zego.

18 September 2022

TRAILBLAZER

“There’s a resilience and a level of tolerance that you’ll experience if you ever make the move to a new place,” Saar wrote in 2021. “I would recommend it to absolutely anyone thinking about it.”

Their chopping and changing didn’t end there; Zego’s three founders have garnered a reputation for switching roles, “ I’ve pretty much held every role in the business. I started out in the customer service team, worked in our finance department and did some work as a tester for our tech team ”

Amount raised in latest funding round last year 6 years Since Zego was founded 17 years old Saar founded his first business employers’ liability insurance and van insurance. By the end of 2018, Zego had expanded to Ireland and was beginning to subtly downplay the gig economy aspect of its insurance proposition –although that still remained a core part of its business – choosing instead to shine a light on its positive reviews and growing customer base. By the summer of 2019, the company was in full growth mode, raising US$42mn in a Series B round – seven times as much as its Series A – which was followed by a US$150mn Series C in March 2021. A valuation of US$1.1bn secured its place as the UK’s first ever insurtech unicorn. More recently, Zego has focused on e-fleets and earlier this year announced bold European expansion plans. The insurtech is already present in six countries and wants to expand in the Netherlands and France.

US$150mn

“I enjoy change and I embrace it but sometimes the intensity of change can weigh on me,” Saar said about the leadership experience. “The fast-paced nature of being a CEO in a startup is something that I really enjoy. I also get a lot of energy from the team and working with such great people every day. Working with so many exceptional people that are smart, driven and passionate definitely galvanises me. You feed off each other, and I really relish these moments.” with Franks (who was Zego’s original CEO) later becoming Chief Business Development Officer and Kelly moving from CTO to Principal Engineer. For Saar’s part, he has been CEO for four steady years now, and there seems to be no prospect of that changing soon. Saar, who was originally Zego’s COO, admits they made the most of the opportunity: “I’ve pretty much held every role in the business,” he revealed last year. “I started out in the customer service team, I worked in our finance department and did some work as a researcher and a tester for our tech team.”

Zego’s growth journey culminates in $1bn valuation The company began to pick up traction during 2018, when it also added private hire taxi insurance alongside its existing options aimed at delivery riders. This was soon joined by public liability insurance, insurtechdigital.com

In his late 60s, dad walked from Munich to Venice with just a rucksack on his back over a period of 30 days. He encouraged me into a world of pilgrimage walks across Europe, too, and I’ve learned a lot from that.

Q. WHO WAS YOUR CHILDHOOD HERO AND WHY?

» This is embarrassing, but my childhood hero was – and still is – my dad. He is my best friend, supporter and mentor. He is never judgemental, he gives sound advice and he supports me no matter what. Dad always taught me that the aim in life is to gift a child the tools to survive; it’s a tough world out there and your parents won’t always be there mopping up behind you.

ChantalDawson FIVE MINUTES WITH...

520 September 2022

Chantal Dawson is the Strategic Client Relations Director at Charles Taylor InsurTech. We caught up with her to find out why insurtech is her happy place

NAME ONE PIECE OF TECHNOLOGY YOU COULDN’T LIVE WITHOUT AND WHY?

» I tend to read two books at the same time – one fiction, so I can switch my mind off, and the other usually travel-related as I’ve invariably got a trip in the pipeline. The last book I read was Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty. I love her books as she takes you on a journey and you can never predict the ending. I’m also reading a book about Scotland, as I’m going on a road trip there with my dad next month.

» In 2019, I was fortunate to meet Tony Russell, Charles Taylor’s former Chief Commercial Officer, who over a coffee gave me some homework to think about my future. I wasn’t even looking for a job at the time, but he ended up recruiting me. The mutual friends who introduced us knew we would hit it off, predicting something great would materialise for both of us. They were right. Tony had a vision for me in a brand new role at Charles Taylor, helping on a big programme of work that I knew nothing about at the time, and things evolved from there. It was the best career decision I have made.

“

People startingareto learn that keythoughclients,todifferentiatorenoughalonetechnologyisnotofaattractevenit’saingredient”

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» My beloved laptop. It gives me access to the tools to do my job efficiently anywhere in the world, which is really important to me as I split my time between four locations – London, the Yorkshire Dales, Suffolk and Madrid. As companies move to a more flexible, hybrid work model, equipping employees with a great laptop is key. WHO DO YOU LOOK UP TO IN TERMS OF LEADERSHIP AND MENTORSHIP?

The best piece of advice I have ever been given is “don’t compare yourself to others”. Everyone is unique and each person in life brings something to the table, whether it’s a glass full of wine or a coaster to put it on. We often dwell on the highlights of other people’s lives and jobs, and that can be toxic. So always focus on your strengths, celebrate other people and learn to compete with yourself instead of others. WHAT WAS THE LAST BOOK YOU READ - AND HOW LONG AGO DID YOU READ IT?

I ensure I spend many quality days with my dad because that time is really important. He’s an absolute legend and, for all these reasons and more, he’s my hero. THE BEST PIECE OF ADVICE YOU EVER RECEIVED?

Q. WHAT'S

FIVE MINUTES WITH... Tony has taught me so much about how to navigate the market; he helps guide me in the right direction, to overcome obstacles and see things through a different lens. I am proud to say he is my mentor and inspiration as well as a close friend. His sincerity and passion is admirable, and he genuinely cares about people and the industry – hence why Tony is an obvious choice for leadership and mentorship. You don’t get many Tony Russells in the world.

Q. WHAT’S THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE YOU’VE ENCOUNTERED TO DATE IN THE INSURTECH INDUSTRY?

Charles Taylor has taken a big step forward with the launch of InHub, which brings a variety of technologies and services together. Imagine a bestin-class suite of SaaS solutions, whose integrated architecture allows clients to only buy and use what they genuinely need. InHub unites all of the products CTI offers today to support the insurance life cycle, including policy administration, claims optimisation and AI fraud prevention to name a few. Additionally, InHub can futureproof a client’s technology stack by migrating it to a managed cloud

Q. DESCRIBE YOURSELF IN THREE WORDS » Driven. Optimistic. Genuine.

Q. WHAT'S NEW ON THE HORIZON FOR YOUR COMPANY?

The biggest challenge and frustration is working with companies and individuals who are desperate to change – who need to change – but who don’t because they get caught up in politics, budget constraints, regulations, or simply not understanding the problem they are trying to solve. Quite often there’s a simple solution, but these companies invariably end up using a sticky plaster for a quick, short-term fix – or end up not changing at all. At the same time, there are also those who think tech is a silver bullet, without looking deeper inside their own organisation. People are starting to learn that technology alone is not enough of a differentiator to attract clients, even though it’s a key ingredient.

5 “Always focus on your ofyourselfcompeteandothercelebratestrengths,peoplelearntowithinsteadothers” 22 September 2022

the market.InHubunfoldstolookingwesummary,Thatmarket.”isaperfectandareverymuchforwardhowthisyearaswerollouttothe Q. TODAY?INSURTECHYOUINSPIRESWHATIN » completelysomethingthandriven.orwhetherpartnerships,onWeandPartnershipscollaboration.allthrivepositivepersonalbusiness-Rathercreatingonyour

service, providing clients access to both InHub and their legacy programmes. From loss adjusting to complex claims handling, all services and delivery platforms are integrated within InHub. This is the key innovation for us in 2022. WHAT CAN WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING AS THE YEAR UNFOLDS?

own, forging partnerships with technology experts in different industries enables you to grow your technology stack, which in turn boosts your value proposition to existing and future clients. Working together with other companies to create a vision and make a difference really inspires me, and I’m seeing more collaborations than ever before. Additionally, forging those deeper partnerships with clients and really getting under the bonnet of their problems and challenges is very rewarding.

» To repeat an explanation of InHub by our CEO: “Combining our insurance understanding and knowledge, built up over the last 100 years, and with our new technology and ecosystem approach, InHub gives our customers something truly different from anything else on

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TOP 100 LEADERS COMING SOON Join the Community Never miss an Issue! Discover the latest news and insights about Global Fintech LEADERS2022 S•LEADER 2202•SREDAEL2202 DAEL•ERS 2022 • Creating Digital Communities

Creating a place for Vodafone in the world of FinTech 26 September 2022 PRODUCED BY: MICHAEL BANYARD WRITTEN BY: CATHERINE GRAY

insurtechdigital.com 27 VODAFONE

28 September 2022

29 VODAFONE

“Most people know Vodafone to be a leading global technology and telecommunications company. We have a huge footprint in Europe and also in Africa. Our purpose is to use technology to improve our customers' lives and enable a truly inclusive, sustainable digital society,” says“PeopleKrishnan.may know that we are a large mobile and fixed-line operator across our European and African footprint. We serve over 300 million mobile customers and over 28 million fixed customers. One of the things that surprises people is when I tell them we are one of Europe's largest TV platforms –that's always news to customers and people that I speak to.”

The way we pay for financial services products is changing with emerging technology, and Vodafone’s ambition is to be at the forefront of this change P roviding new and exciting ways to pay for goods, the FinTech industry is booming and the world of financial services is going through some fundamental –yet essential – changes. With a long history of working with different businesses in sectors of the financial industry, Vodafone has a focus on ensuring that its customers succeed in the future. Known for its telecommunications and consumer services, Vodafone is accelerating its journey within the FinTech sector to support those who need it most. Driving forward this journey is Varun Krishnan, Vodafone’s Managing Director for FinTech.

As a technology leader, Vodafone has been looking into new and disruptive technologies to ensure the company is best insurtechdigital.com

Varun Krishnan is a seasoned technology leader with c. 20 years of experience in Telco, FMCG and Management Consulting across B2C and B2B businesses. He is currently the Managing director for Fintech at Vodafone Group Services and is based in Vodafone’s global headquarters in London, UK. Prior to being appointed into his current role, Varun was the global marketing director where he was responsible to deliver the commercial strategy and scale core mobile and fixed line propositions across Vodafone’s global footprint.

Varun Krishnan

VODAFONE 30 September 2022 VODAFONE

Although the company is categorically focused on technology, people are at the heart of everything it does – both the employees and the customers. Reflecting on his own team in the FinTech department, Krishnan explains how they strive to build the FinTech element of Vodafone: “I'm really lucky to have a fantastic team of leaders and experts; their energy and ambition gives me confidence that we can achieve great things.”

“We rely partnershipson to deliver great value to our customers, as well as a great experience that's enabled by cuttingedge technology”

EXECUTIVE BIO

Varun joined Vodafone in 2011 from Booz & Company (Strategy&) where he worked with TMT clients across Middle East, Africa and Asia. placed to offer its customers the best tech that address real customer needs. Now, the company is one of the global leaders in the Internet of Things, as Krishnan outlines: “We've got over 150 million connected devices, and we are live with the platform in multiple continents. All of these things that we're doing are working towards enabling an inclusive and sustainable digital society.”

“Culture is everything when you're trying to build new products and new lines of business. The spirit of Vodafone is all about being customer-centric, having the courage to take calculated risks, not being afraid to fail, and having the ambition to think about and create the future. I'm really happy that everyone in my team embodies that spirit. Additionally, most of my team are hybrid

TITLE: MANAGING DIRECTOR, FINTECH LOCATION: UNITED KINGDOM

VARUN MANAGINGKRISHNANDIRECTOR - FINTECH,

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The technology platform powering businesses that offer insurance Learn more Increase program profits through process automation Digitise, simplify and enhance the end-to-end insurance customer experience Quick market launch through API integration and no code architecture A FinTech Global InsurTech100 company

EIP Vodafoneenablesto give their customers an end-to-end online experience. COO Ed Hemburrow explains why digitalisation is vital to insurance. A partner with Vodafone for over a decade, EIP is at the forefront of digitising and automating the servicing of insurer’s products. EIP’s proven software delivers both increases in customer NPS (net promoter score) and program profitability. The relationship with Vodafone has evolved from one of an advisory service, helping them set up insurance products, towards an array of services designed around the customer’s needs. As Hemburrow puts it: “We’re more than just a tech provider.” “We saw a gap, having worked in this industry for a while. We know that the vast majority of people are good, honest customers just trying to get a phone or device back in their hands as soon as possible, because they run their lives through them,” said Hemburrow. EIP helped Vodafone to automate the insurance process and bring it online. Customers can now go through an endto-end claim process, including getting an automated decision, in less than a minute and a half. “It’s super slick and easy. We’re taking the pain out of it. By designing a journey for the vast majority of Vodafone customers that have genuine claims, we know at that ‘key moment of truth’, they will get a great experience. We re-engineered and automated the process to be digital-first and allowed customers to self-serve,” he said.

On “I’veHemburrowVodafone,added:workedinthis industry for a while and it’s quite refreshing when a company like Vodafone has such a customer focus. They want great onboarding and a streamlined claim experience as well. So that’s why our partnership works well”.

Personalised products for customers One of the priorities for EIP is to associatedpricedpersonalisedcreateproducts,accordingtotherisk,rather than actually just the device that a customer has. They’re already working with Vodafone to bring that into play.

EIP: Insurance is an industry ripe for Learnchangemore

“We've had our carrier billing platform since the early to mid-2000s. This was originally set up for customers to charge for things like ring-back tones to the Vodafone bill. We've since evolved this to allow customers to purchase digital content. This is enabled across our mobile, fixed and TV customer base. So all of our customers have access to this platform in order to consume digital apps and OTT content.”

Addressing customer needs in the FinTech space

workers who sit globally across markets, but we work together as one across commercial and technology team to deliver. Having that strong sense of vision and strong sense of purpose helps teams across markets work towards a common goal,” he adds.

Commenting on this, Krishnan says:

The carrier billing platform addresses customer needs around convenience and security, allowing them to pay for their digital content on their bill as well as underpinning the company’s ability to bundle mobile content such as Spotify and Netflix with its tariffs.

300mn+Mobilecustomers28mn+Fixedbroadbandcustomers22mn+TVcustomers150mn+IoTdevicesconnected1982Yearfounded€45.6bnRevenue2022

Still in its early stages, the FinTech part of Vodafone’s business comprises the company’s carrier billing and digital payments platform, its insurance business, its device financing and Device Lifecycle Services (DLS) business.

For the insurance part of its business, Vodafone is focused on adding to its existing smartphone services by offering smartphone insurance to its customers. While in the past this has largely been a retail only product, it has now evolved to an omni-channel OTT digital insurance product that offers customers ultimate cover and flexibility. These two lines of business are crucial to the FinTech team.

34 September 2022 VODAFONE

“The third line of business is one that we’ve just set up,” explains Krishnan. “This is our whole end-to-end Device Lifecycle Services business.

“At Vodafone, we are really focused on sustainability and our impact on the planet. Offering compelling trade-in and financing solutions helps support our objectives: financing helps customers spread the cost of their devices over long periods; trade-in helps customers get good value for their old devices. Refurbishing and reusing these traded-in devices allows us to extend the lifecycle of these devices and enable the circular economy. All of this is enabled by a very simple end-to-end digital experience that makes the process of buying a new or refurbished device with Vodafone really easy andIntransparent.”additiontothese three lines of business, Krishnan shares that he is fortunate enough to have a “fantastic innovation

“Culture is everything when you're trying to build new products and new lines of business”

VARUN KRISHNAN MANAGING DIRECTOR - FINTECH, VODAFONE

Varun Krishnan, Managing Director FinTech at Vodafone Group insurtechdigital.com

35 VODAFONE

Welcome Your personal MyOperator LaunchPad Let's get started Making lifecyclessmartphoneassmartasthedevices One tech company is changing the way mobile carriers manage their customers’ devices. What does that mean for smartphone customers? MCE. Mobilizing Customer Experience

Consequently, Vodafone UK more than doubled its volume of trade-ins in the first year, lowered discrepancies, improved NPS, and reduced trade-in times, becoming the UK’s top carrier for trade-ins. It also increased upsells to premium plans and increased the digital mix. Vodafone led the market leading to a reduced mix of Never Traders of 89% in 2020 to 47% in 2022.

Eitan Linker is Chief Commercial Officer at MCE systems, a device lifecycle management pioneer which transforms key device lifecycle moments – from set up, to service and care, to upgrade and trade-in.

MCE digitizes, automates, and connects these journeys so they’re fast, accurate, and yield a clear, actionable view of each device. It surfaces the smartest options at every moment, from repair alternatives to upgrade offers - empowering customers to get more value from devices, while spending less time managing them, and enabling reps to have more rewarding customer interactions.

“Carriers today are fighting over price,” says Eitan Linker, “instead of giving customers a truly differentiated experience.” He adds, “once the customer is happy, everything else falls into place.”

MyOperator accessible trade-in led to a large increase in the digital mix

Trade-in Uplift

Vodafone UK more than doubled its volume of trade-ins in the first year

Trade-in discrepancies were reduced to low single digits

Linker points to trade-ins as the untapped opportunity. “There is too much friction and uncertainty about price in the current tradein process and that’s depressing volumes and leading to churn,” he explains. With more than $200 billion worth of mobile phones just sitting in drawers across Western Europe and North America, operators and customers are missing out on a huge opportunity.

MCE helped Vodafone UK seize the opportunity, with a fully digital omnichannel trade-in solution, including a guaranteed price, enabling it to become the country’s trade-in leader. The price guarantee, an elusive goal due to discrepancies in grading, was enabled by MCE’s innovative, highly accurate AI-powered remote grading technology. The app put users (and their reps) in control while ensuring Vodafone achieved better margins. “When the customer engages with diagnostics to grade their device; the valuation is fully transparent. There’s a lot more trust in the final price.”

Grade Variance

For more information on how MCE is Mobilizing Customer Experience for the worlds largest mobile operator brands get in touch with Eitan at eitan@mce-sys.com

Digital Mix

The Managing Director goes on to add that Vodafone’s global products and services organisation has been moved to work in a Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe). As a result, Vodafone now operates as one end to end delivery organisation in squads across its commercial teams, product teams, technology teams, global platform teams and local market execution teams.

“There's a lot of people working together on bringing our payments and insurance products and services to customers. SAFe allows us to have one budget and one end-to-end backlog of activities that we are working together on delivering collectively,” Krishan notes.

SUSTAINABILITYANDVODAFONE

Equally, this framework feeds back into Vodafone’s customer centricity as it gives customers a straightforward and easy-to-

By July 2021, Vodafone was purchasing 100% of its electricity from renewable sources in Europe. The company plans to roll this out to the rest of the world by 2025.

team that are looking at topics that are a bit more into the future, such as our role in the Metaverse and what do future financing models look like.

38 September 2022

“I'm delighted to say that we'll continue this journey with them as we expand into insurtechdigital.com

“We spend a lot of time journeys”throughthinkingcustomer

39 VODAFONE

“We are really keen to work with bestin-class partners to bring some of these propositions to life. We rely on partnerships to deliver great value to our customers, as well as a great experience that's enabled by cutting edge technology,” he adds.

“While we have the ambition to grow, we also have the humility to recognise that there are partners out there that have a depth of knowledge and access to technology that would take us years to build. Partnerships are really crucial. They can help us accelerate our learning curve and also give us quick access to technology that will be expensive and time-consuming for us to build ourselves,” explains Krishnan

One key business partner to Vodafone is Assurant, a global provider of risk management products and services. Assurant has been Vodafone’s insurance partner for years on device insurance, according to Krishnan.

Looking to partners to secure Vodafone’s future in FinTech

As Vodafone is relatively new to the FinTech space, the company knew there would be opportunities to learn and grow by embarking on strategic partnerships with others.

VARUN MANAGINGKRISHNANDIRECTOR - FINTECH, VODAFONE

navigate customer journey, which Krishnan outlines:

“We spend a lot of time thinking through customer journeys. The key thing is addressing customer pain points around transparency and flexibility when it comes to FinTch products and in the process building a trusted brand. If you can really make things simple and transparent for customers – no fine print, everything is as it says on the tin –we can create that trust. That's the thinking we use to build out our customer journeys.”

101737 Helping people thrive in a connected world In partnership with our clients, Assurant supports more than 300 million customers across the globe. We develop innovative products and services that support, protect and connect major consumer purchases. And we do this for some of the world’s most recognised brands, enabling us to anticipate the evolving needs of consumers, and continually deliver an enhanced customer experience.

This platform of trust has allowed it to enjoy a

Today’s consumer has over 20 different wifi-enabled gadgets in their home, underlining the size of the gadget protection opportunity. Assurant – a leading global business services company that supports, protects and connects major consumer purchases, serving more than 300mn customers – is focusing on insurance products and services that empower consumers to protect those gadgets.

Assurant is providing a range of protection products and services to help people thrive in a connected world, partnering with Vodafone to bring protection to life.

Assurant: protecting and connecting consumer tech

“We focus on everything that sits around the device,” Assurant UK Managing Director Chris Woolnough explains. One of Assurant’s brands is Pocket Geek, cancel at any time. Protect Your Bubble provides valuable real-time insights for the company based around consumer behaviour, which it can use to hone its B2B propositions. Culture vitally important to the way Assurant does business Woolnough says that culture is particularly important to Assurant. “Our culture is pretty special and we call it the Assurant Way,” he says. “Within that, we have a set of values. Those values are common sense, common decency, uncommon thinking and uncommon results. Everything we do hooks back into those.”

Together we continue to turn the challenges of digital transformation and evolving customer expectations into competitive advantages”, said Varun Krishnan, Vodafone’s Managing Director for FinTech. “Today, the MCE Systems ecosystem is used to enhance the trade-in and upgrade journeys for millions of Vodafone customers, across the United Kingdom, Germany, Romania, and Greece, enabling them to get a guaranteed price for their old devices. We are looking forward to continuing this collaboration with MCE to fuel our digital-first, Device Lifecycle Services initiatives.

MCE Systems Working with MCE Systems and incorporating their platform has enabled us to deliver best-in-class products and services with a very high standard of security and user experience as part of our objective to bring pioneering digital technologies and solutions to the market.

VODAFONE PARTNER QUOTES 42 September 2022 VODAFONE

Assurant

A partnership with Vodafone built on trust and great service “Shared platform of corporate trust and commitment to customer service, is the foundation of the long working relationship Assurant enjoys with Vodafone. Assurant partners with Vodafone to provide a range of protection products and services to let consumers customise coverage for their devices. Assurant provides Device Insurance to Vodafone as a benefit for business customers and offers Vodafone Rapid, a replacement service that can deliver a new device in under four hours. Next, the two companies are preparing to make multi-gadget insurance available, starting in one market, and then rolling out with technical support.” EIP “EIP and Vodafone both prioritise the use of smart technology to deliver great customer experiences that are simple, reliable, and transparent, which is why the partnership has flourished for well over a decade now. “EIP is a customer centric organisation, focused on developing technology that removes unnecessary frictions from the insurance customer journey” says Ed Hemburrow, COO of EIP. “In our relationship with Vodafone, we work in a cross organisational team that has a laser focus on providing customers with market leading products, great value and fantastic experiences using smart technology and innovation. We’re delighted to be working with Vodafone as part of their FinTech journey, and excited to reimagine the customer experience as we move into new insurance categories.”

The next 18 to 24 months, in terms of our FinTech ambitions specifically, are centred around the transformation from being a pure device insurance player to a multicategory insurance player and to really scale our DLS platform.” He concludes: “We are working on optimising the features, the journeys and the go-to-market approach to build scale quickly. We want to get more markets on board on our global platforms and really get this whole space around device lifecycle services that support our planet ambitions across all our markets.” our first new category, which is multigadget home tech insurance. We also rely on Assurant to bring us the best in regulatory expertise, as well as helping us to think across our footprint and working with our sales channels to talk to customers about their choices when it comes to insurance in the right Additionally,way.”

Vodafone has partnered with EIP, with whom it has worked for “a long time”, according to Krishnan. “EIP supports us with our end-to-end claims management and our claims handling platform, and they also support us in responsibly marketing and talking to customers about their choice of insurance

VODAFONE AFRICA

“Clearly, the journey that we are on is very exciting”

VARUN MANAGINGKRISHNANDIRECTOR - FINTECH, VODAFONE

“Anothercover.partner that's crucial when it comes to this cutting-edge technology that we are utilising is MCE. MCE is our software partner that has a fantastic digital diagnostic platform. We use that in our insurance claims and we are also using that now in the new device trade-in product that we've just launched in our markets,” he continues. With all of these partners supporting Vodafone as it continues on its journey in the FinTech space, Krishnan explains that it is a great time for the company –particularly for those in his department: “The journey that we are on is very exciting.

43 VODAFONE

Vodafone is the FinTech and mobile payments leader in Africa. The M-PESA FinTech platform in Africa enables 52 million people to benefit from access to mobile. insurtechdigital.com

INSURANCE Insur ance i s see n as a slo w- m over com pared to t he res t o f fin tech, so wh at a re insur ers get ting ri ght an d h ow ca n the y accel erate digi tal trans formation? 44 September 2022

WRITTEN BY: ALEX CLERE Insurance is seen as a slow-mover compared to other financial verticals, a latecomer in recognising the need for change. Despite the pandemic accelerating digitisation for many, insurers still lag behind, with much work to do to keep up with consumer expectations.“Withafew

exceptions, established insurance companies aren’t confronting the fact that they need to become technology companies,” says Leon Gauhman, Chief Product and Strategy Officer at digital transformation consultancy Elsewhen.

“Incumbents need to reinvent themselves and digitise their processes to innovate, offer better products, enhance productivity and reduce operational costs. This means digitising the risk and underwriting models, digitally connecting all the inputs and outputs and then integrating additional data capabilities. The aim is to rethink traditional ways of doing things to make things simpler for the customer. My concern is that incumbents might look at challengers such as Lemonade and Hippo, who have seen their valuations drop, and be lulled into thinking that they don't need to push ahead with digital transformation.”

What areas of digitisation are insurers doing well? Does this mean that insurance companies should despair, or are there things that they can still be reasonably proud of? “There’s some great inroads of digitisation into insurtechdigital.com

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INSURANCE “ WIT H A FE W EXC EPTIONS, ESTAB LISHED IN SURANCE COMP ANIES ARE N’T CO NFRONTING T HE FAC T TH EY NE ED TO B ECOME TECHNO LOGY COM PANIES” LEON GAUHMAN CHIEF PRODUCT AND STRATEGYELSEWHENOFFICER, insurance underwriting, claims processing and fraud detection,” explains René Schoenauer, Director of EMEA Product Marketing at Guidewire.“Expect to see more progress here from how insurers use more AI and ML to streamline these processes. What is being done here is how analytics becomes more embedded in how an insurer manages a policy and processes a claim and is understanding and applying risk insights. AI can do the job of effectively aggregating, sorting, and finding patterns within large sets of data. When analysing big data using AI and ML, it helps insurers to see the patterns in the data, embed the insights directly into claimspolicyoperationalandworkflows for improved process efficiency through better decisions or increasedGauhmanautomation.”continues:

“Most insurance companies have a customer portal where customers can upload documents. But this is merely scratching the surface of digital transformation. From claim to settlement, insurtechdigital.com

Both our experts agree that incumbent insurance carriers can do significantly better with respect to digitisation. “There is a great deal of work to be done around digital self-service, where early attempts are no longer fit for purpose and aren’t delivering the omnichannel experience that customers expect from any digital service,” Schoenauer says.

What can the insurance industry do better?

RENÉ SCHOENAUER DIRECTOR OF EMEA PRODUCT MARKETING, GUIDEWIRE the customer journey needs to be digitised and simplified. Disruptors like Lemonade, Cuvva and Zego have sought to address this with speedy coverage and payments – but the incumbents are not yet moving at pace.”

“What is needed is a single source of truth about a customer. For omnichannel, a fundamental principle is that the digital policy or claims management system remembers where the customer last was, avoiding the drudgery of a customer having to go back to the start.

INSURANCE “ THE RE I S A GR EAT DEA L OF WO RK T O BE D ONE ARO UND DIGI TAL SE LF SERVICE, WHE RE E ARLY AT TEMPTS AR E N O LON GER FI T F OR PURP OSE”

“Achieving this requires a modern core system that has a complete view of the customer and their transactions in real time. Many core systems use batch processing so are unable to support omnichannel. When insurers want to create more personalised customer journeys, modern core systems integrated with sales and marketing processes are a necessity because of how essential it is that duplication and poor segmentation is avoided when cross- and up-selling.”Schoenauer also points to claims processing as an area where insurers can improve, even when consumers tend to prefer non-digital channels like telephone. Claims involve a certain level of trust and transparency, hence any reluctance to take up digital channels instead. As consumers become more accustomed

48 September 2022

INSURANCE to digital, it’s important that insurers are ready to capitalise with a digital claims management workflow.

“There will be exceptions where on-site appraisal must be done but for the majority of claims digital self-service should work. But it is important that this is a choice for the customer and not something forced on them. It is also vital that the underlying automation is completely integrated and follows the customer appropriately.”journey

“A digital self-service approach needs to enable a system that allows the customer to initiate the whole process from lodging a notice of a loss and then making a claim with all the necessary photo and video evidence,” Schoenauer says. “Throughout the processing of the claim, including any fraud checks which are automated and transparent, the customer should be able to see the progress without needing to contact an agent.

INSURANCE “ IN CUMBENTS NEE D T O RE INVENT THEM SELVES AN D DIGI TISE THE IR PROC ESSES T O INNO VATE, OFF ER BE TTER PRO DUCTS, EN HANCE PRODU CTIVITY AN D RED UCE OP ERATIONAL C OSTS” LEON GAUHMAN CHIEF PRODUCT AND STRATEGY OFFICER, ELSEWHEN Elsewhen’s Leon Gauhman continues: “All the processesinsuranceshould be run on APIs. Instead, a lot of it is being done by email and documents, so there is loads of unstructured data floating around. Using APIs would speed things up, make operations more efficient, and drive pavedworldwant.insuranceinnovatingareclaims,playersincumbentbankingequivalentUnfortunately,innovation.theofopenhasn'thittheinsuranceyet.”Asaresult,GauhmanincumbentspreventedfrominlinesofthatconsumersChangesinthearoundushavethewayfor 50 September 2022

insurtechdigital.com 51

Are there any quick wins for insurers?

drone insurance, climate change insurance and crypto protection, to name a few, but incumbents are far too slow to pounce.

Digital transformation can often seem like an insurmountable challenge. Insurers are competing against a wider fintech backdrop, where other players are not only moving more quickly but had a headstart in the first place. It’s natural that they would be looking for ‘quick wins’ that could push their digitisation efforts forward.

“A quick win for an insurer is how quickly they can integrate with an insurtech that offers real value to their business and customers,” says Guidewire’s René Schoenauer. “But it’s key that the insurer has the right environment to make this a marriage that lasts and doesn’t end in early divorce.”

He points to the importance of common software platforms, saying that operating on the same platform irons out a significant barrier to new tech adoption. It can also speed up deployment and avoid the need to retrain staff on an unfamiliar dashboard.

DRIVINGDIGITALINSURANCE INNOVATION AD WRITTENFEATUREBY: ENGLANDJOANNA PRODUCED BY: PALLISERJOE 52 September 2022

insurtechdigital.com 53 CHUBB

54 September 2022 CHUBB

“We innovate in terms of insurance products and value propositions. That includes claims and the technology to enable a seamless customer experience,” explains Lazaro, who spent 12 years in early-stage and mobile content companies, before a stint at AIG as Head of Digital for emerging markets. It was this experience that led to a move to Chubb in 2016, where he now oversees the digital insurance product distribution and expansion of the company’s digital business across 51 countries and territories.

A culture of development and inclusion With a global footprint of local offices in 54 countries and territories, Chubb has a robust reputation in the industry. It is known for its excellence in underwriting, risk engineering capabilities, and claims services, as well as for its innovative approach to digital transformation.

Gabriel Lazaro is the Head of Digital for Chubb’s international general insurance business – a role that sees him based in Singapore, and responsible for the success and growth of the digital businesses across Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. Lazaro works with the consumer and digital teams globally to expand Chubb’s distribution through digital ecosystem partnerships.

insurtechdigital.com

55 CHUBB

A truly global commercial and consumer insurer, Chubb is driving digital transformation across the digital and insurance marketplace globally hubb is driving digital transformation within the vast insurance marketplace.

The insurer is a global provider of property and casualty, accident and health, reinsurance, and life insurance on a global scale.

Chubb Studio and embedded offerings

“The global protection gap has an estimated worth of $1.2tn. There’s a huge opportunity to address that with a new value proposition for consumers”

56 September 2022 CHUBB

Yet, despite its massive size, looking after its people is a “prime consideration”, says Lazaro, who speaks of his team with pride. He adds: “I like to inspire people to become the best versions of themselves. In order to do that, I need to provide a clear vision to make sure that everyone is aligned and moving towards a common goal.”

The sheer volume of the company is staggering. Chubb employs an estimated 34,000 staff around the world. In 2021, the company reported a total of US$47bn in Gross Written Premiums (GWP) and currently owns around $200bn in assets.

GABRIEL LAZARO SVP, HEAD OF DIGITAL, OVERSEAS GENERAL INSURANCE, CHUBB

Empowering the workforce is also critical, he states. “It’s imperative to empower people to unleash their creativity. The other part I'm passionate about is execution and providing tangible results. At Chubb, we are a very diverse group of professionals. There is entrepreneurial spirit across the organisation with a can-do attitude and we practise our craft with precision and passion.”

“We have always been focused on expanding our digital products and services through partnerships based on a B2B2C model,” says Lazaro. “Developing unique value propositions and embedded experiences within platforms and ecosystems is paramount. We have almost 200 digital distribution partners globally, across financial services, e-commerce, insurtechdigital.com

LOCATION:

Gabriel Lazaro is Head of Digital for Overseas General Insurance, Chubb's international general insurance business in 51 countries and territories. Based in Singapore, Mr. Lazaro has responsibility for digital insurance product distribution and digital business in countries and territories outside North America, working with Chubb's digital teams around theMr.world.Lazaro joined Chubb in 2016 as Head of Digital for Latin America and was promoted to his current role in 2021. Prior to joining Chubb, he held multiple international roles at AIG, including Global Digital Marketing Director and Head of Digital for Emerging Markets. Mr. Lazaro started SVP, HEAD OF DIGITAL, OVERSEAS GENERAL INSURANCE SINGAPORE

Although the company has always had a strong focus on digital products and services, many recent changes have been implemented to expand and engage consumers.

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BIOEXECUTIVE GABRIEL LAZARO TITLE:

Driving digital transformation in emerging markets

As Chubb focuses on its digital transformation journey and its entry and development of emerging markets, the corporation has also developed a platform called Chubb Studio that enables it to provide API technologies to connect with partners in record time. By embedding Chubb products in the partner’s ecosystem, the company is able to deliver contextual insurance offerings to customers seamlessly. To date, more than 19 million policies have been sold across the offer spectrum through Chubb Studio.

“It's a cloud-based, easy-to-use API platform that fuels our businesses and partnerships while helping us to connect with our digital distribution partners. We can create products within their platforms in a very easy and fast manner, pulling our digital underwriting, claims and service capabilities together into one“Itplace.”provides scale because, as a global platform, every time we incorporate another market or product, our partners are able to benefit from our expanded offerings.

super apps and major airlines. These digital distribution partnerships provide us with an addressable market of more than 300 million customers, most of them in Latin America and Asia, who see our products through our digital distribution partners’ business platforms.”

Chubb Studio

58 September 2022 CHUBB

According to Lazaro, the technology has provided Chubb with a competitive advantage over other industry players.

“We work with businesses globally, and our goal is to help them to embed insurance offerings into their core products and services,” says Lazaro. “This provides peace of mind to the end customer and also helps businesses increase customer loyalty and then support it with new revenue streams.”

“We are focused on an emerging middle class, small-to-medium companies, gig workers, content creators, Gen Z and Millennials,” he adds. “There is a huge opportunity for those across the globe.”

became digital consumers, therefore, enabling protection solutions for those customers digitally has become an opportunity. Entering into such markets also enables companies to benefit the local populations by reducing the protection gap and providing low cost, easy-access insurance products that previously were not available.

“At Chubb, we see emerging markets as a fantastic opportunity – especially Southeast Asia and Latin America. These two territories alone have a combined total population of one billion people, 80% of which are under the age of 40 and fully digitally engaged throughLazarosmartphones.”saysthat,during the pandemic in Southeast Asia, more than 70 million people insurtechdigital.com

As a global company, Chubb offers a turnkey solution by helping its digital distribution partners with regulatory and related elements to make sure they have a successful insurance experience. The teams have broad industry expertise and implement Emerging markets and insurance technology adoption One area Chubb excels in is emerging market penetration. This isn’t a task for the faint hearted; companies developing new products in such a space must often be prepared to work with outdated systems and legacy business models before introducing any new products to market.

Insurance technologies and the digital ecosystem As part of its digital expansion, Chubb has partnered with a wide range of businesses on a global scale. The insurer provides its innovative services as part of a move to increase embedded product opportunities for agents and brokers.

“There’s a protection gap globally – especially in developing economies and emerging markets – of around $1.2tn. These markets have low insurance penetration compared to other markets globally,” says Lazaro, who points out that the pandemic has accelerated digital adoption across all geographies, developed markets and sectors.

59 CHUBB

digital insurance product offerings for verticals such as banks, fintechs, super apps, ecommerce retailers, mobility companies, travel, mobile network operators and more.

Growing services in the pandemic

Other partners include Dacadoo and Betterfly, as well as other major players in Latin America, Korea, and Southeast Asia, all creating value-adding services to the end users that extend beyond the traditional insurance. “We like to co-create to develop those unique experiences at scale,” says Lazaro. “One of our core strengths is that, as an international company, we partner with companies that have a vision beyond their unique markets.”

Lazaro’s team collaborated with Grab, Southeast Asia's leading superapp providing users with transportation, food delivery and digital payment services, to provide Grab users with an innovative insurance solution called Ride Cover.

Lazaro says Chubb creates unique value propositions – from selling to claims experiences. “We see everything as a whole. We are proud of our journey and partnering with the best-in-class partners that we have. It has helped us improve our services from the product and technology perspectives.”

Like many providers, Chubb’s digital business expanded during the pandemic because the demand for digital services skyrocketed. “For

60 September 2022 CHUBB

For a very low fee (e.g. S$0.30 in Singapore), passengers are offered a premium service with additional protection in the event of Theyaccidents.have also partnered with other innovators such as NuBank, the largest neobank in Latin America, to launch a fully digital life insurance offering embedded in the bank’s app. “Together with Nubank, we created customer-friendly life insurance with a flexible product and a price that resonates with the Latin American emerging middle class. It was reported that, in the first year, we sold more than half a million life insurance policies, more than half of those who bought the product said it was the first life insurance they had taken out,” he states.

Ride Cover provides complimentary personal accident insurance to Grab’s passengers and disburses a voucher in the event of a delayed pickup. Available in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand, Ride Cover is opt-in and integrated into the passenger’s ride booking journey within the Grab App.

“We created a customerfriendly life insurance with a flexible product and a price that resonates with the Latin American emerging middle class” GABRIEL LAZARO SVP, HEAD OF DIGITAL, OVERSEAS GENERAL INSURANCE, CHUBB insurtechdigital.com 61 CHUBB

us, especially in the digital space, it has had a positive impact in terms of uptake,” says Lazaro. “We launched Chubb Studio in the middle of the pandemic, and we are going to keep expanding our capabilities through the platform to make the connection with our partnersLazaroeasier.”saysthat, in terms of claims and servicing, Chubb is working towards frictionless customer journeys, enhancing the overall experience to make claims effortless, simplified and with as few clicks as possible. These enhancements will be made possible by new technologies the insurance giant is investing in.

34,000 EMPLOYEES 200 DIGITAL PARTNERSDISTRIBUTIONGLOBALLY62 September 2022 CHUBB

The goal, he says, is to offer the right product to the right partner at the right time. The future of insurance Embedded products are, in Lazaro’s experienced eyes, the future of the insurance industry – although they are also relevant in other sectors. Point of Sale offerings, he reiterates, present truly new and valuable opportunities for insurers looking to expand their products and services.

“In terms of the technology that we’re investing in, data analytics and discovering how we can take advantage of the data that we’ve collected by ourselves through our partners, this information will enable us to work towards product recommendation engines and make, at scale, much more relevant offerings for partners to provide to their end users.”

GABRIEL LAZARO SVP, HEAD OF DIGITAL, OVERSEAS GENERAL INSURANCE,CHUBB insurtechdigital.com

“We innovate in terms of insurance products and value propositions. That includes claims and the technology to enable that experience”

63 CHUBB

“Chubb was one of the early movers on embedded insurance, through airlines many years ago. Then we expanded partnering with ride-hailing companies, super apps, and fintechs. We are the leaders in some markets and territories, in terms of volumes and“Weexperience.”trulybelieve embedded insurance provides the means for each platform to be able to provide really meaningful insurance products to their customers in a seamless experience. With one click, we can increase protection for customers and create incremental sources of revenue for our partners. It's a win-win situation.” It is this connectivity that will result in a smaller protection gap for end-user customers – especially those in emerging markets, which, says Lazaro, is the ultimate goal. “I strongly believe that we have a-oncein-a-lifetime opportunity. There are more than four billion people connected to the internet right now, and the digital economy, through partnerships and ecosystems, will be worth trillions of dollars.

Connecteddevicesandthedatadilemma 64 September 2022

As Beal alludes to, many insurers offer drivers discounts on car insurance premiums as a reward for good driving. This can be achieved through an app, aftermarket telematics devices plugged into the car, or using onboard technology. This provides a financial incentive and also allows insurers to offer better service.

Connected devices and auto insurance

As the insurance industry transitions towards a prevention model, connected devices could prove an invaluable tool for insurers. So what are the main areas of application and how can insurers use connected devices to improve their product offering?

C onsumers have more connected devices in their homes than ever before, but insurers are rarely using them to their fullest. In fact, research shows that the average US household now owns 25 different connected devices – and consumers are becoming more open to sharing their data with insurance companies, but only if they get the right incentives in return.

“Whatever the source of data, data normalisation means consumers can enjoy an improved shopping experience using the data they have consented to share from their device or vehicle, and insurance providers have access to consistent quality standards, helping to provide more accurate pricing. Individuals then benefit from being judged based on their individual behaviours as is already the case in telematics insurance, rather than paying premiums based on average habits.”

“The volume of data flowing from connected things is growing at a rapid rate,” says John Beal, Senior Vice President, Analytics, Insurance for LexisNexis Risk Solutions. “Just consider how all cars are expected to have advanced levels of connectivity by 2030, generating, receiving and sharing a wide range of data into ecosystems including the car manufacturers. Data normalisation through ML techniques is creating standardisation and consistency for usage-based insurance based on this data.

WRITTEN BY: ALEX CLERE

riskoverhaulthedevicesConnectedhavepotentialtocompletelyinsurers'relationshipwithanddata–andthere'smoreoftheminourhomesthanever DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION insurtechdigital.com 65

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“In motor insurance, many people with telematics policies benefit from an improved claims experience,” Beal continues.

Connected devices and home insurance Today’s consumer has more connected devices in their home than ever, presenting new opportunities for claim validation and exposure management. In fact, according to Deloitte, the number of connected devices in American homes more than doubled during the pandemic. Deloitte surveyed more than 2,000 consumers in March 2021 and found that the average US home had 25 saysandprioritiseddistancebarriers,thattestwas11devicesconnected–upfromin2019.“Thepandemicagiantbeta-ofbehavioursbrokedownremovedandhealthwellness,”DeloitteVice Chairman Jana Arbanas. “Our survey revealed that people are willing to adopt new products and services even while adjusting

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, ANALYTICS, INSURANCE FOR LEXISNEXIS RISK SOLUTIONS to challenging circumstances in trying times. This adoption and need for inventive technology are placing more pressure on companies to innovate even faster.”

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

The same can’t be said for consumers. Research from GlobalData suggests that nearly 40% of consumers would grant insurers greater access to their smart devices if it meant getting something in return. The most popular incentive was insurtechdigital.com

“Insurance providers can look at a range of vehicle data such as air bag deployment, impact sensor activation and G-force metrics to understand claim severity and bodily injury potential.”

“From the point of impact through to claim resolution, data from the vehicle can allow insurance providers to get on the front foot at FNOL to support the customer post-accident with emergency services, roadside recovery, vehicle rentals and repairs whilst providing invaluable insights regarding the circumstances of the collision.

There is certainly greater scope for insurers to use connected devices, particularly around prevention. The most common devices are smart smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors, followed by smart leak detectors. Although some policies make use of connected devices, exits elsewhere – such as Aviva’s disposal of its stake in smart home tech provider Neos – suggest that appetite within the industry is low.

“All cars expectedareto have advanced levels of connectivity by 2030, rangesharingreceivinggenerating,andawideofdata”

JOHN BEAL

68 September 2022

Connected devices and nat cat insurance

One final area where connected devices can be used is in so-called ‘nat cat’ insurance. Insurers don’t need to use connected devices (they can use trigger events) but they can do; one common area where connected devices are used in parametric insurance is with flood cover, monitoring water levels at an insured residence or business and paying out if a flood exceeds an agreed height.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

“The pandemic was a giant financial discounts on their insurance (65%), followed by helping to protect their home (51%). In an ideal world, insurers would be able to holistically monitor an insured’s home for risk and help prevent incidents. A smart ‘home hub’ would turn off a hob if it’s left on; monitor smart plugs for surges; lock a door if it’s still unlocked at night; and close internal doors to prevent the spread of fire. Remarkably, all of these technologies exist, but it could be decades before they see mainstream adoption.

Parametric insurance differs from traditional insurance in that it doesn’t directly indemnify the insured against the real-terms cost of the damage caused. Instead, an agreed amount is paid out automatically if a natural event meets predefined parameters

There is no guarantee that parametric insurance will cover an insured for the actual value of their loss – rather it just pays out an arbitrary sum. However, proponents of parametrics will point out that the cost to insurers is lower, meaning customers will enjoy cheaper premiums.

One good example of parametrics in action is Jumpstart Insurance, a San Francisco Bay Area-based company that offers cover against earthquakes. Its parametric payouts cover residential customers for either US$10,000 or US$20,000, with commercial cover up to US$50,000. The company points out that these payouts rarely scratch the surface of the repairs needed. However, it allows homeowners and business customers to get back on their feet quickly after a quake, hence the name Jumpstart. Parametric insurers can use connected devices to monitor nat cats – for example, a seismometer in the home – or they can take satellite data from meteorological agencies after the event. The claims process is much quicker, with Jumpstart predicting that some claims are settled within a day.

insurtechdigital.com

(like the strength of a storm or the height of a flood).

underwritingmodelprogrammeMission'sforinsurance 70 September 2022 AD WRITTENFEATUREBY: ALEX CLERE PRODUCED BY: JAKE MEGEARY

insurtechdigital.com 71 MISSION UNDERWRITING MANAGERS

“The past year has been a whirlwind,” Higdon explains from his office in Scottsdale, Arizona. “Mission was started in February 2021. I was employee number one at that time. We were focused on building what I think of as a platform, which is both services and technology to support underwriters who are entrepreneurialminded and looking to take the next step in their career. So we basically have created an incubator for those types of individuals to reap the benefits of starting their own programme administrator series.

The company operates like a hub-andspoke model. At the centre of Mission’s universe is the core team that Higdon has

72 September 2022 MISSION UNDERWRITING MANAGERS

In the space of 18 months, Mission Underwriters has launched an innovative programme approach to insurance underwriting and taken on its first series A s CEO and Founder of Mission Underwriting Managers, Keith Higdon knows the pains and pressures of starting a business. In just 18 months, Mission has built a platform for entrepreneurial underwriters who want to start their own company but don’t have the means, time, or capacity to set up a general agency from scratch.

“The first few months was focused on identifying the right business partners in order to create that foundation, and on setting up the company. We were able to sign our first series on about 1 April and they were up and running by 1 June 2021.”

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Mission's programme model for insurance underwriting

74 September 2022 MISSION UNDERWRITING MANAGERS

assembled, called Mission Corporate, which provides the expertise and support needed to onboard new partners. Then you have the series partners themselves working within their separate entities, like satellites in orbit.

Higdon started his career in consulting, primarily with Marsh Risk Consulting, before spending 16 years with the third-party administrator Sedgwick. Later, he worked a number of executive roles for Chubb including as President of Chubb’s third-party administrator ESIS immediately prior to joining Mission.

He says that everybody involved with Mission has brought together their frustrations of working within larger organisations and created something better. “All of us came from large, bureaucratic companies where it was very difficult to get things done,” Higdon says. “It was also very difficult for you to really share in the value that you were creating for that organisation.”

A structure that empowers underwriting teams Mission uses its operating model to engender an entrepreneurial spirit and empower series to take ownership for their own business. The result is a flat organisation that is able to stay nimble, on the right rails in terms of regulation, but at the same time liberated from approval processes and weekly meetings – the scourge of corporate life. Each series operates independently, meaning they’re well insulated against other parts of the programme. “We've all been in that situation where our department did extremely well, but maybe the rest of the company didn't, and we all had to pay a price for that,” Higdon recalls. “Our goal is to make sure that they're focused on building their entity and reaping the rewards of that rather than having to worry about what others in the organisation are doing.

“I think the key overall to Mission is diversification. Each of our series are working on different aspects of the property and casualty space. What makes us stronger is the diversification of those lines that the series are doing, as well as the diversification of the capacity that's providing that. So when we are looked at as an entity and the health of that entity, there's no one series, there's no one line and there's no one capacity contributor that could bring Mission trouble.”

The right talent critical to ensuring success Like many areas of the insurance industry, talent is incredibly important to Mission. The teams themselves are led by individuals who were relatively senior in their past firms but didn’t have progression, often because they were prevented from climbing the career ladder by immovable line managers who had been there for years. They bring their own underwriting expertise with them and, in return, Mission provides the support and technology to enable them to launch. It’s a marriage of those two things that allows the system to be successful.

“

KEITH HIGDON

I think the key overall to Mission is providingthediversificationdoing,thatofismakescasualtyofdifferentareEachdiversification.ofourseriesworkingonaspectsthepropertyandspace.Whatusstrongerthediversificationthoselinestheseriesareaswellastheofcapacitythat'sthat”

CEO & MISSIONFOUNDER,UNDERWRITING MANAGERS 2021 foundedYear 86 Number employeesof insurtechdigital.com 75 MISSION UNDERWRITING MANAGERS

Keith Higdon is the founding CEO of Mission Underwriters and its affiliates. He has over 25 years of experience in the insurance industry, including a diverse background covering executive leadership, client partnership, claims administration, technology management, data warehousing, and predictive analytics. During Mission’s first year, Mr. Higdon and his selected team exceeded expectations by increasing the client count by 33% and almost doubling the bound gross written premium compared to the target. He has an extensive background in the use of technology and data analytics to drive business development, product design, and adding value to the client relationship.

BIOEXECUTIVE KEITH HIGDON TITLE: CEO & FOUNDER INDUSTRY: INSURANCE LOCATION: UNITED STATES “ All of us came from wherecompaniesbureaucraticlarge,itwas very difficult to get things done” 76 September 2022 MISSION UNDERWRITING MANAGERS

BIOEXECUTIVE BIOEXECUTIVE insurtechdigital.com 77 MISSION UNDERWRITING MANAGERS

LOCATION:

Chris Jones serves as Chief Product and Strategy Officer at Mission Underwriters where he leads product and capacity development. Prior to his current role, Mr. Jones served as Chief Client Officer overseeing client onboarding and relationship management. He has an extensive understanding of property & casualty insurance and is proficient in executing a customer-centric vision through collaboration and proactive service offerings. Previously, he served in the industry as CFO, covering Program M&A, Commercial Property Program, Business Development and Accounting/ Finance. Earlier roles included SVP, Corporate Strategy & Development and VP, Program Division where he coordinated business development operations and Program M&A.

ALEX WILLIAMS TITLE: CDO INSURANCE UNITED STATES CHRIS JONES TITLE: CHIEF PRODUCT AND STRATEGY OFFICER INSURANCE LOCATION: UNITED STATES

INDUSTRY:

Alex Williams serves as the Chief Digital Officer (CDO) of Mission Underwriters. She strategically leads and implements collaborative approaches across the organisation to further accelerate the digital and technology platform initiatives for Mission Underwriters. Ms. Williams is an established leader in business operations and digital communications, with extensive experience in team leadership, business expansion, and process reengineering. Previously, she was Chief Information Officer and Head of Technology Development at ESIS, Inc. Ms. Williams is a George Washington University Digital Marketing Advisory Council Member, and works closely with nonprofit organisation SERV International as Ambassador and Chairman of the Board of Directors.

“ The core things that I want to make sure we accomplish from a technology perspective are speed, flexibility, and data quality” ALEX WILLIAMS MISSIONCDO, UNDERWRITING MANAGERS 78 September 2022

Recruiting the right talent into the corporate team is also important. Talent is not just about knowing what you’re talking about – it’s about understanding the specific challenges that your clients face and having the experience to guide them through it. Mission has assembled a top core team, including Chief Digital Officer Alex Williams and Chief Product and Strategy Officer Chris Jones. Understanding the startup experience

Starting out, when we had a handful of employees at Mission and everybody was just doing whatever it took to get things done – that's what I want us to be known for, as the disruptors in the insurance space. The company that's entrepreneurial, nimble, able to move quickly, and reacts to new market signalsJonesquickly.”acknowledges that it becomes increasingly difficult to do that, particularly as Mission scales. But he explains that he doesn’t want to lose the entrepreneurial spirit that Mission shares with its series, nor lose the recognition it has gained as an innovator.

For Jones, who has lived the entrepreneurial life himself, bringing professional experiences that are similar to those faced by Mission’s partners is an important attribute. He says: “One of the things that I struggle with, being an entrepreneur, is understanding how hard it is to keep the culture and the mindset, especially in an industry like insurance which most people don't think of as very entrepreneurial.

April 2021 Mission signed its first series and up-and-runningwereby June 2021

He readily admits that, like most people, he never grew up hoping to go into the world of insurance. Instead, he describes himself as a “finance guy”, studying accounting and finance at university before falling – not leaping – into the insurance space. When he first stumbled upon the programme model from a carrier’s perspective, he wondered why everybody wasn’t taking this approach.

insurtechdigital.com 79 MISSION UNDERWRITING MANAGERSMI

“ I want us to be known as quickly”marketandmovenimble,entrepreneurial,companyspace.thedisruptorstheininsuranceThethat'sabletoquickly,reactstonewsignals

“I would say the major technical challenge for our underwriting teams is how we can get them up and running quickly without sacrificing quality,” Williams says. “It's not just getting them up to where they are producing and writing business and premium, but how we continue to evolve their product and make sure that technology is a block-step in enabling that.

Jones explains that it’s still not simple to go and find a carrier to support your business, but that more people are beginning to understand what Mission is doing and how it operates. Providing a step-up on technology

As daunting as it may seem for entrepreneurs, there are many underwriters and MGAs that would love to start again from the ground up. Many are held back by systems that have been in place for decades, and that now have such a strong stranglehold over their data it’s almost impossible for them to migrate away. The process of cleansing that data alone is a time consuming one. If not done properly, it can lead to the legacy platform being recreated in a newer system and mistakes being repeated. For some, even the cultural shift required to bring management onboard is too great a hurdle.

So with the support that Mission provides, the entrepreneurs who join the programme are able to get a major step-up on the incumbents. The person responsible for ensuring they realise that technical advantage is Mission’s Chief Digital Officer Alex Williams.

CHRIS JONES CHIEF PRODUCT AND STRATEGY OFFICER, MISSION UNDERWRITING MANAGERS

“Over the last couple years, to our benefit, there have been several of these other carriers that have started up and people truly understand what we're trying to do,” Jones continues. “Their business model is fully aligned with our business model.

80 September 2022 MISSION UNDERWRITING MANAGERS

“One of the big fears of a programme administrator used to be that you would wake up one day and your programme's performing fine, but your carrier partner, who isn't a programme carrier, just decides they don't like programmes anymore. That would happen, and then you're sitting there trying to find new carriers for it.”

“I’m not looking to recreate the wheel,” Williams quips. “We want them to be able to operate out of a single integrated policy admin system and that everything is cohesive, so they aren't having to go to disparate systems. Data governance, and understanding its value, is important. That way we can provide more qualitative data and help our programmes monitor the performance of their business.”

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“The core things that I want to make sure we accomplish from a technology perspective are speed, flexibility, and data quality. We have diversity in our partners and our programmes, and we need to make sure the tools that we use are flexible enough to meet each of their needs.”

When they sat down and looked at those requirements, it became obvious to Mission that a cloud-based SaaS solution made the most sense. It’s nimble, allowing Mission to move quickly, and draws on the microservices and API exchanges within that ecosystem to allow Mission’s programmes to get into business quickly.

he insurance industry is keenly aware of the fallout from cyberattacks. After all, insurers provide coverage for some of the largest players in other sectors who may be particularly prone to scammers and fraudsters, intent on disrupting business and stealing either data or money. But how much is the insurance industry doing to protect itself against attack, and how will the current economic situation affect the resilience of insurers and insurtechs to fend off cyber events? What cyber threats should insurtechs be aware of?

INSURERS ARE FAMILIAR WITH THE DANGERS POSED TO THEIR CLIENTS BY CYBER ATTACKS, BUT HOW FAMILIAR IS THE INDUSTRY ITSELF WITH THE MOST COMMON CYBER THREATS? WRITTEN BY: ALEX CLERE CYBER SECURITY IN INSURANCE

The most common threats to insurance carriers and insurtechs include email phishing scams, ransomware attacks, data exfiltration and dedicated denial of service (DDoS) attacks. Insurance companies hold vast amounts of personal data, including sensitive financial data, meaning that any cyberattack could potentially have catastrophic consequences both for them as an organisation and for their customers.

MGA:TPA 82 September 2022

It’s no surprise that the finance and insurance industries are a target. As well as the potential for unmitigated data losses, certain types of cyber events, like malware infections and DDoS attacks, have the

insurtechdigital.com 83

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MGA:TPA potential to cause massive disruption to financial institutions and leave customers without access to services.

It’s the first time in more than five years that finance and insurance has not been the main target, although our industry did still account for 22.4% of all cyber attacks –slightly down from 23% in 2020. This doesn’t mean that fintechs and insurtechs are off the hook, though. Businesses need to be aware of vulnerabilities in their organisastion that could expose them to the risk of a cyberattack. Unfortunately, with the rising cost of doing business and recent staff layoffs, insurtechs and insurance carriers are as vulnerable a target as any.

The IBM index also shows that, while insurance and finance continue to be major targets for fraudsters, the manufacturing industry actually overtook it in 2021 to be the single most targeted sector in the global economy. IBM predicts that weaknesses in the global supply appealed to scammers looking to exploit vulnerabilities.

The state of the cyber threat landscape in 2022 According to the IBM Security X-Force Threat Intelligence Index 2022, server access attacks were the most prevalent type of attack targeted at finance and insurance organisations in 2021, accounting for 14% of all attacks. The relatively low percentage, despite it being the most common type of attack, shows just how varied the nature of cyber threats Ransomwareis.

attacks, misconfigurations and fraud all followed closely behind, each accounting for around 10% of the overall threat landscape. Remote access tool (RAT) scams, adware and credential harvesting were also fairly common attack types aimed at financial institutions.

“ ALWAYSTODAY’S- CONNECTED WORLD OFFERS A MYRIAD OPPORTUNITIESOF FOR CYBER ATTACKERS TO DISRUPT ANDORGANISATIONSCOUNTRIES,INDIVIDUALS” DAVID GLOBALDATATHEMATICBICKNELLANALYST, insurtechdigital.com 85

Ransomware is infectious malware that prevents a user from accessing their files and programmes until they have paid a ransom to the scammers.

A credential harvesting or password harvesting attack involves attackers gathering a large number of compromised user accounts, usually by sending a phishing attack.

RATs Remote access trojans (RATs) are a type of malware that allows a criminal to remotely control an infected computer, including accessing the files and data stored on it. AIMED AT ORGANISATIONSINSURANCE

COMMON CYBER THREATS

86 September 2022

Server access attacks

Misconfiguration

MGA:TPA

A server access attack involves a fraudster gaining access to a company’s servers, either by taking advantage of leaked or stolen passwords or by exploiting a vulnerability in the system.

Ransomware

A misconfiguration attack occurs when a cyber criminal identifies weaknesses in the security configurations of a web server, cloud or application.

Credential harvesting

"Cybercriminals usually chase the money,” says Charles Henderson, Head of IBM X-Force. “Now with ransomware they are chasing leverage. Businesses should recognise that vulnerabilities are holding them in a deadlock – as ransomware actors use that to their advantage. This is a non-binary challenge. The attack surface is only growing larger, so instead of operating under the assumption that every vulnerability in their environment has been patched, businesses should operate under an assumption of compromise, and enhance their vulnerability management with a zero-trust strategy."

INSURANCE IMPLICATIONS OF CYBER SECURITY MGA:TPA insurtechdigital.com 87

There are growing calls that economic difficulties will make cyber insurance less attainable for small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs), which are more susceptible to rising prices. The market research company GlobalData has warned that SMEs could start to deprioritise cyber insurance cover in favour of other businessGlobalDataexpenses.found that 17% of SMEs in the UK did not have cyber insurance coverage in 2021 because it was deemed too expensive, while 29% had already cancelled their policies in a bid to cut costs. This was in spite of a growing likelihood of cyber attacks. Hybrid working and the war in Ukraine have increased the level of cyber risk to businesses, meaning insurers are unable to respond to the cost-of-living crisis by lowering their premiums. It means that

Rising costs could price SMEs out of cyber insurance

88 September 2022

“The Biden administration’s top cyber officials recently warned that more frequent cyber attacks are the ‘new normal’ for US companies and individuals. Or to put it more starkly, things are bad out there and they’re unlikely to get better anytime soon.”

David Bicknell, Thematic Analyst at GlobalData, warns the problem is not isolated to the UK: “Today’s always-connected world offers a myriad of opportunities for cyber attackers to disrupt countries, organisations and individuals. A challenging worldwide geopolitical environment exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic – and, since February 2022, the Ukraine-Russia conflict –has gifted cyber attackers an uneven playing field, which they are actively exploiting.

“ BUSINESSES SHOULD RECOGNISE THAT VULNERABILITIES ARE HOLDING THEM IN A DEADLOCK, AS RANSOMWARE ACTORS USE THAT TO THEIR ADVANTAGE”

CHARLES HENDERSON HEAD OF X-FORCE, IBM

MGA:TPA SMEs have to absorb the cost – something many are not able to do – and risk leaving themselves exposed to disaster if they decide to forgo cyber insurance completely.

insurtechdigital.com 89

90 September 2022

totechnologyUsingtransformhealthinsurance PRODUCED BY: BANYARDMICHAEL WRITTEN BY: ENGLANDJOANNA insurtechdigital.com 91 VITALITY

“We've gone from strength-to-strength,” says Klintworth with pride. As a healthcare expert with a 25-year-career in medicine –during which he has worked in the role of both a Managing Director for the insurer and as a consultant anaesthetist – it's comforting to see this softly-spoken South African’s

As one of the global leaders in digital health management, Vitality is revolutionising preventative medicine P reventative medicine and wellbeing have never been as popular as they are now, in the wake of the COVID pandemic.

92 September 2022 VITALITY

In fact, with medical services globally undergoing massive transitional shifts and treatment waiting lists for commonplace conditions at an all-time high, private health services, especially those which are delivered digitally, are in demand.

Vitality health insurance is one such organisation. An insurance provider that offers a multitude of services and protection products to its customers, it was originally founded in 2004 when a partnership between Prudential and Discovery – a South African insurer – was formed.

Health insurers around the world are responding by developing rapid digital pathways for customers to access benefits.

Vitality current Managing Director for Health, Dr Keith Klintworth, joined the company in 2010. At that time, Vitality had just acquired Standard Life Healthcare to drive forward the economies of scale and to increase its health membership base. By 2014, Vitality had bought out Prudential and was operating as a composite insurer across Life and Health insurance.

Example of an image caption insurtechdigital.com 93

behaviour change and the significant difference it has made to its members during its quarter-century tenure.

“The Vitality Programme is part of our completely different approach to insurance – the incentive-based programme where, if you get active each week and look after yourself, it rewards you with regular treats and discounts from our partners. By sharing the benefits of healthy living in this way, we “Digital diversity is an ever-evolving, everchanging definition as we consider more and more facets”

94 September 2022

KEITH MANAGINGKLINTWORTHDIRECTOR,VITALITY

Klintworth explains: “Discovery in South Africa was well known to me as an insurance provider. Their core purpose of making people healthier – which is Vitality’s purpose, too – resonated with me as I spent so many years treating, and not enough on preventing, illness. Prevention is a really complex challenge.”

VitalityHealth: Telehealth in a digitised world

enthusiasm for Vitality offerings. After all, this is no ordinary health and life insurance operation: its leaders are doctors and the wellbeing of its customers is considered of paramount concern.

As part of this they have what they call the Vitality Programme embedded into their insurance products, he explains, an incentive-based behavioural change programme encouraging personal behaviour change and incentivising people to make healthy decisions through hasbackhasstructuredspansprogramme’stheLaunchedrewards.in1997,evidenceofthesuccess25years.Asaresult,thewell-offeringplentyofdatatouptheimpactitindrivingpositive

Keith is committed to sustainable private healthcare market focussing on preventative healthcare. His interests also include digital healthcare with focus on primary care services,

“Additionally, our digital experience teams are composed of both UX teams and the customer experience (CX) teams, as it is imperative that they bring together their different skills and effectively collaborate in a way that will ultimately result in an enhanced journey for all our customers,” says Klintworth.

KEITH KLINTWORTH TITLE: MANAGING DIRECTOR INDUSTRY: HEALTH LOCATION: ENGLAND

find members benefit from better health, tangible financial value, enhanced insurance benefits, alongside compelling rewards.”

Klintworth points out that the memberdriven healthcare approach is one that responds to the full spectrum of members' healthcare needs. Rather than just focusing on the traditional features that people think of within PMI – specifically, private health insurance – such as in-patient and day patient treatment, Vitality prioritises prevention, primary care, and digital pathways that enable its members to better understand and also navigate the complex healthcare system so that they can access their needs quickly and seamlessly.

Member-led digitisation Vitality is driven by its member-centric digital functionality, which has been responsible for developing in-depth customer insights to understand their customer needs. More importantly, it is driven by learning from customer feedback and experience surveys across medical pathways and treatment to really ensure that the customer journey being built matches and manages their expectations, while driving excellence in the customer experience.

He continues: “Health is a key concern for us, post-pandemic, which makes our member-led approach, with health and wellbeing at its core, really relevant and empowering to our members.”

Keith has had an enriching medical career, culminating in specialising and practising as an anaesthesiologist for 15 years. He further extended his interests into private hospitals, eventually becoming shareholder and director of two private hospitals. He moved into the insurance industry when he joined the then PruHealth in October 2010 as Director of Clinical Risk and successfully expanded his role to Managing Director of VitalityHealth. He was appointed to lead Vitality’s Group Operations as Group Chief Operational Officer (COO) in October 2020.

VITALITY

ecosystem, are

physical and mental wellbeing to their customers. Discover more

business and

digital

agile business

Helping financial institutions build a purpose-driven and sustainable innovative framework, capabilities, model and helping forward-looking financial institutes to build a purpose-driven provide financial,

business At TCS, we believe in creating sustainable growth for our stakeholders. Our

As the world recovers from the pandemic, we are seeing businesses across industries - not just financial services - accelerating their use of technology. “Organisations are now looking to adapt new business models to build more customised products and services, as the needs of the end-customers are changing so rapidly.”

Get in touch

The segment will also continue to have a lot of competitive differentiation. “We are, for example, seeing the rise of a lot of challenger banks,” says Singhvi, “especially over the past two or three years, as well as Insuretechs, Fintechs and innovative, creating the right competitive tension within the industry to make sure that the existing organisations are able to cater to their end-customers in much more predictable, efficient, agile and nimble ways.”

To summarise, Singhvi says, “I believe that all of this is leading to our customers focusing on understanding their own end-customers better. They are looking at hyper-personalisation in terms of what products and services they offer. They want to service them through seamless end-to-end digital journeys, and most importantly all of this depends upon making sure that the data and personal information that we have is kept secure.”

Vinay Singhvi, VP & Business Unit Head of Banking, Financial Services & Insurance, UK & Ireland at TCS, discusses transformation and change in the industry

Tata Consultancy Services: Vinay Singhvi on Transformation

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is one of the leading IT and tech service providers the UK, as per the latest software and IT services ranking by Tech Market Review; and is the largest provider of IT services in the UK. “TCS is part of the Tata Group and we have been in the United Kingdom for over 50 years,” says Vinay Singhvi, Vice President and Business Head for UK and Ireland Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI) unit for TCS. “We have the privileged position of being the purpose-led transformation for our customers, including vitality.”

Personalised digital healthcare

“I think it is really important to appreciate that Vitality is a behavioural change programme. We're not just telling you, ‘you're overweight’, ‘you're inactive’ or ‘you're a smoker and you need to stop’; we give you the tools and support and help to make that change happen, in a way that is sustainable for the long term.”

The idea is that healthcare and coverage should be as personalised as possible so it can support people throughout all the health changes in their lives, minor or major, to maximise their health. In 2021, Vitality announced its data-driven approach to realise this. Called ‘Next Best Action’, the new initiative brings together Vitality’s data science capabilities with its expertise in understanding individual health risks to provide members with that one action that would have the biggest impact on their future

98 September 2022 VITALITY

“Wehealth.allhave risks, whether they're lifestyle or they're clinical risk factors. But where do you start? You can take an overweight person and tell them ‘you need to eat healthy’. Well, we all know that. But what is the trigger, the pathway, for that person that would resonate and help them get started on that journey? It might just be, can you do 5,000 steps, four days a week, as a starting point? After that, you can expand your usage of the Vitality Programme.” LEADING IN BEHAVIOURAL CHANGE

- Dr Keith Klintworth

KNOW...YOUDID

insurtechdigital.com 99 VITALITY

“Health is a key concern for us, post-pandemic, which makes this member-led approach – with health and wellbeing at its core, really relevant and empowering to our members”

Ultimately, it's down to behavioural changes, incentivised by Vitality. Users are encouraged to alter their lifestyles and adopt healthier habits. “I think it is really important to appreciate that Vitality is a behavioural change programme. We're not just telling you you're overweight, you're inactive, or you're a smoker and you need to stop; we give you the tools and support to make that change happen in a way that is sustainable for the long-term.

Habits take a while to change though, explains Klintworth, and all of us frame our habits in different shapes or forms. “We will either minimise it, or we will recognise it as an issue. But we all have another trigger, or incentive, that can help us do something about it. Whether it's suddenly waking up to the reality of your own health and that you won't be a grandfather, or you won't see your kids grow up, or something else, we all need that occasional reality check to suddenly take heed and say, ‘Oh, I need to do something differently’,” he points out.

KEITH MANAGINGKLINTWORTHDIRECTOR,VITALITY

“We seek to provide the private medical insurance that is right for each company's circumstances. Some, for example, may for whatever reason not cover all employees. Recognising that these companies often still wanted a wellbeing programme for the wider workforce that could support them to be healthier, we devised a programme that featured key aspects of the Vitality Programme and access to primary care for the whole workforce.”

A growing customer base

Stories Behind Positive Change | Vitality UK 100 September 2022 VITALITY

More and more companies are offering private medical insurance and are aware they need to provide something that’s appropriate for their entire workforce.

The Vitality team is increasingly seeing primary care, which would previously have fallen out of the remit of private health insurance, becoming one of the most used services. Klintworth explains that there is much people can now do to understand their own health better. When they have

Vitality’s target market is twofold: the first target is made up of individual members who, through accessibility, convenience, and speed of access, drive some of the market’s needs; the second big component is employee health and wellbeing.

If customers adopt better habits, not only are they benefitting from being healthier, but their health risk factors are reduced, which is better for insurers and society as a whole.

Ultimately, it's what the company calls ‘SharedKlintworthValue’.says:

“Society is demanding that companies have a strong social purpose. By focusing on the creation of a healthier society, we believe we are at the forefront of this. Ultimately, what's good for us is good for our members and thus for wider society –member-led healthcare actually fits into that whole framework.”

“As a Vitality memberyou can also do a health questionnaire, get a health check to see where your numbers are sitting, like your blood pressure and your weight, etc. Then, if there are any risks that are identified, you can take action to prevent it. If you add into this our Vitality programme, with what we know about behaviour change and incentives, you have the potential to have a far healthier society.

KEITH VITALITYMANAGINGKLINTWORTHDIRECTOR, insurtechdigital.com

In general, Klintworth says that a significant proportion of the Vitality membership base is active, which supports their prevention agenda. The provider’s aim is then to leverage the data they have as part of the Vitality Programme and claims' data to

a Vitality GP consultation or see their physio, it's often not just about treating that acute event; instead, it’s a process that informs the member about what their risks are. Understanding risk as a consumer is, Klintworth believes, paramount in the preventative medicine journey.

“While our model encourages members to live a healthier lifestyle, we do attract a healthier client base to start off with, whether that be a 30-year-old gym member or a 50-year-old cyclist, as the product offering resonates with them.”

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“Digital healthcare adoption is a revolution. We need to keep driving this revolution because, from a consumer perspective, I do believe it works best for the majority of people – that's really important to us”

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Technological innovation Technology plays a crucial role in everything Vitality does, with a clear focus for the company centred on using technology to improve customer experience, access and clinical pathways. It is also a powerful tool for their own employees. To empower employees, it is imperative that they have the necessary technology tools to do their job well.

make the less active or at-risk more active, thus improving their health.

“The key consequence of empowering one’s employees is that it drives service improvement and understanding of our customer’s needs. And why do I think that's important? Well, it's to build advocacy among the actual membership base.”

Klintworth says businesses need to drive scalability, and economies are scaled through different efficiencies of technology use.

“You need to continually invest in technology because it is critical to our offerings. Within the Health and the Life business for example, we need technology to support claim fund management as it relies on technology assets such as rules engines.

“For cyber security, we are duty bound and committed to ensuring our data and our assets are protected from cyber attacks. Our customers rightfully want to know that we govern their data properly, that it's ethically managed, and that it's collated consistently and stored safely.”

“When you're building technology or digital programmes, you have to consider the diversity of your customer mix and the demographic you're targeting. We need that balance of understanding and the conscious and unconscious biases that are at play.”

“Concentrating on continuing to reduce future morbidity and mortality, and really giving people healthy life years, remains our key strategic focus”

“Another component is language –consistency of language across your different technology routes, whether app or web, is critical. After that, it's a case of continuing to optimise and use technology to understand and continually improve the customerVitality’sexperience.”technologyintegration is complex. As part of the company’s focus on health and wellbeing and the way the Vitality Programme runs, they needed to integrate their technology systems with a range of fitness devices that are essentially wearable data sources. Additionally, the company Digital diversity and an expanding ecosystem Working on a core value of promoting digital diversity is another motivating factor behind Vitality. “Digital diversity is an ever-evolving, ever-changing definition as we consider more and more facets.

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Digital transformation in the DNA Vitality is a fairly young company and, as such, may not be as hampered by legacy and multiple technology systems that other, longer established health and life insurance providers have endured. The culture of the company is dynamic, and the teams actively embrace new innovations and solutions as they appear on the market.

But I think it does include all aspects of technology and its impact on people, whether its a physical, mental, emotional or ethical impact.

“The people who work here know that change happens. To quote my CIO, ‘We look for shiny new objects all the time, and we build and enhance and optimise’.

needs its technology to integrate with the partners it has within the Vitality Programme, such as Caffé Nero, ODEON and Vue.

Following a market review, we identified US partner second MD, who did the initial application development for the virtual GP service and outsourced the medical service to a UK GP Klintworthprovider.”saysthat in continuing to drive scalability, member experience and digital innovation, Vitality recently partnered with Livi, a Swedish-based digital company, to provide its digital GP service. Livi is working with a number of NHS Primary Care Trusts, which ensures they understand the challenge to deliver an exceptional customer experience in digital healthcare. He then emphasises that it’s about more than having convenient access to a GP. “We devised a new pathway so these GPs could make onward referrals where a member needs it, as well as training the GPs to prescribe ‘wellness’.” GPs, he stresses, need to have visualisation of patients’ health checks, their activity data and their lifestyle and clinical risk factors so that they are not only treating the sore throat, but they're also prescribing wellness.

The next process has been to integrate the relevant health and wellness data into medical care. Klintworth began working on developing the first virtual GP service back in 2015, at a time when these kinds of appointments were largely unheard of. Yet, now, after the pandemic has caused millions of face-to-face appointment cancellations, the forward-thinking moves Vitality made in this direction are now setting an example to other health providers.

“If I just look back at the GP market that I surveyed at that time, 50% of GPs were against telehealth, 50% were for it. It was age and gender agnostic, which was surprising. Yet, customers recognised it as a really important route of access for GP services.

Klintworth, who is passionate about progress, believes the company was well positioned to embrace digital healthcare at the start of the pandemic because it had all the foundations in place. “Recently, we launched the next iteration of the digital care journey for our members – an online Care Hub where our members can start a claim, get authorisation and choose a consultant in one seamless digital process,” he says.

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“Our Vitality primary care digital services also include physiotherapy and CBT services. We introduced the use of smartphone cameras to support diagnosis of skin lesions, for example. Our customers are sent a high-resolution lens that attaches to their smartphone and with which they take a photograph of their skin lesion, upload it, and our partner, Skin Analytics, will use Artificial Intelligence processes to assess it.”

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“It's about the journey,” Klintworth continues. “And our journeys in healthcare can be wasteful. The amount of time that is wasted by consumers going to see a GP, waiting for your appointment, being referred somewhere else, and then you wait again. Why do you always need follow-ups to be done in person? They're generally five to 10-minute follow-up consultations. With the current in-person system, customers may find themselves impacted for three hours out of their day. Having a digital New solutions for healthcare providers

“People demonstrate different preferences when it comes to choosing a doctor. We provide each doctor's details, such as

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academic background or specialist interest, as well as patient reviews to support each customer in making an informed choice.

The Care Hub’s includes a Consultant Finder which features a range of different doctors, including Vitality Premier Consultants, a specially designated panel that demonstrates superior performance outcomes. The solution is supported by a Vitality partner, Doctify, and enables members to input their condition(s), bringing up a list of consultants for members to look through so they can choose who is most suitable to treat them.

“Our focus has always been about creating innovative and disruptive products. We work “Our focus has always been about creating innovative and disruptive products. We work from both understanding consumer needs, but also developing products or journeys that people haven't thought about before”

“We have a very wide partner ecosystem. Not least of all, our external technology and digital companies. One of these is TCS, which is a valued partner of ours and has been since before our Standard Life days. Vitality also has a substantial number of digital wellness, screening providers and reward partners.

KEITH

MANAGINGKLINTWORTHDIRECTOR,VITALITY insurtechdigital.comVITALITY107

Despite some initial resistance to the digital healthcare system, both from members and providers, Klintworth says the tide is now turning. People are understanding the value of technology, while also appreciating the convenience and speed at which their medical needs can be met. This is all made possible through the strategic partnerships Vitality operates with.

A bright future for digital health providers

“We have always been known as a disrupter in the health insurance market, approaching things differently. Using the data we collect to develop behavioural change incentives that support better health and wellbeing while reducing health risks will always set us apart,” concludes Klintworth, who goes on to say that, at least annually, Vitality launches new initiatives, product enhancements, and new reward and health provider partners to its programmes and products. Ultimately, consumers and market demand for better services are driving this initiative. He adds: “Digital healthcare adoption is a revolution. We need to keep driving this revolution because, from a consumer perspective, I do believe it works best for the majority of people – that's really important to us. Concentrating on continuing to reduce future morbidity and mortality, and really giving people healthy life years, remains our key strategic focus.” process in place is far more efficient for the consultant and the customer and can, for many conditions, still provide a good medical outcome.”

“You need the attraction for a broad base of appeal. You're either an Apple Watch lover or you prefer something else, such as your Garmin, your Fitbit, or your Polar. So we have built the capability to integrate with all of these fitness tracking devices within our Vitality Programme.

Turning of the tide in healthcare

from understanding consumer needs, while also developing products or journeys that people haven't thought about before.”

In the world of technology, everything moves with lightning speed, and the sheer volume of automation technology adoptions since 2020 within the insurance industry has been staggering.

Why

For an industry like insurance, where the bulk of the donkey work has, for centuries, involved trawling manually through data to decipher results, automation is seen as the silver bullet to the industry’s inefficiencies.

WRITTEN BY: JOANNA ENGLAND automationisthefuture

A utomation is a term thrown around with abandon these days. Indeed, everything seems to include an element of it, and those that don’t are seen as slightly archaic and of a quaintly bygone era. Put simply, automation – a process driven by machine learning and AI technologies – streamlines processes, enabling them to be carried out much faster, and with far greater accuracy.

of insurance FROM UNDERWRITING TO RISK ASSESSMENT AND DATA MANAGEMENT, AUTOMATION IS THE NEW SUPERPOWER FOR INSURANCE COMPANIES 108 September 2022

Even compared to 12 months ago, companies are operating within a very different business climate.

Paul Donnelly , Executive VP EMEA at Munich Re, explains: “The pandemic and our societal response

TECHNOLOGY insurtechdigital.com 109

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MEGAN

TECHNOLOGY possible for many, according to Donnelly – “whether that be on the application or enrollment side, with automated underwriting in Europe, or on the benefits side when accessing Paid Family & Medical Leave (PFML), Paid Family Leave (PFL), or short-term temporary Disability Insurance (DI) in the US, or Personal Accident Insurance in Australia, as examples.”Hebelieves automation lends itself most naturally to customer facing data collection processes. “The application and onboarding process – with its attendant collection and management of structured data concerning the applicant, the onboarding and distribution paths followed, and the underwriting philosophy applied – naturally lends itself as the first point of adoption. But, there is a sense of ‘start as you mean to go on…’, in which I see the data collected by the insurer at the beginning of the consumer's journey with them being used to automate, speed up and clarify the insured’s later interactions as they make adjustments or claim to access benefits.”

PAUL MUNICHEXECUTIVEDONNELLYVPEMEA,RE “ oristhatmakingtheinsurerbetweeninteractionscanAutomationspeeduptheandinsured,surenothingmisseddelayed” to it will have a lasting impact. Just look at how we have moved en masse to contactless and cashless payments, whether you measure that in terms of the increase in the payments themselves or the rise of digital banking, or even the drop in ATM withdrawals. Let’s face it – when did you last hold a cheque in yourDonnellyhands?”says the insurance industry is no different. In fact, it’s front and centre in this move to the digital world. The pandemic has brought a renewed focus among insurers to progress their plans for implementing digital solutions, and we have seen a significant leap forward. Adoption of automation is accelerating Automation is now not only widespread, but is in fact what makes access to life insurance BINGHAM-WALKER,

CO FOUNDER AND CEO, ANANSI TECHNOLOGY BRIAN MULLINS, CEO AND FOUNDER, THE MIND FOUNDRY PAUL DONNELLY, EXECUTIVE VP EMEA, MUNICH RE insurtechdigital.com 111

“ The amount

He states that though the benefits of these huge data sets are widespread, most important of all, they enable insurers to offer hyper-tailored and flexible products.

Why customers love automated insurance

Brian Mullins, CEO and founder of The Mind Foundry , explains that automation technology is a logistic necessity. “The amount of information currently available on customers has reached unprecedented levels and humans can’t process it alone. AI enables insurers to uncover subtle patterns in data, giving human insurance agents insight into emerging trends, opportunities, and threats.”

“For instance, an insurer might provide information on the safest route to take to work, or how and when a customer should drive to reduce risk. Taking this one step further, usagebased insurance (UBI) in car insurance uses the driver's realtime location to cover them on-demand, offering a price adjusted for the risk they incur in the moment. For example, companies like Marmalade allow their customers to add temporary users to their car insurance for a specific length of “Automationtime.” can speed up interactions between the insurer and the insured, make sure that nothing is missed or delayed, and ensure that the insured is not repeatedly asked for the same information at multiple steps in their journey,” concurs Donnelly.

In a nutshell, automation makes the customer experience much less complicated while increasing accuracy. The easier a process is, the more traction it has in the marketplace.

BRIAN MULLINS CEO AND FOUNDER, THE MIND FOUNDRY of

itcan’thumanslevelsunprecedentedhascustomersavailablecurrentlyinformationonreachedandprocessalone”112TECHNOLOGY September 2022

Bingham-Walker cites a number of examples with regard to these innovative use cases, including: Precise risk scoring used by Flock Cover; streamlined claims processing using computer vision utilised by Bdeo; and the Best-in-Class Customer Success Experience via natural language processing used by Lemonade. insurtechdigital.com

TECHNOLOGY

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Megan Bingham-Walker, Co-founder and CEO at Anansi Technology, the Londonbased automated shipping insurance platform, agrees. “My favourite current examples of innovative use cases for AI within the insurance industry are those that directly benefit the policyholder.”

She says: “Initial use cases tended to focus on fraud detection, which was a US$4.1bn market in 2018, growing to $10bn in 2025 – a huge problem within the insurance industry, as was seen with Shift Technologies and sprout.ai. Over time, however, we are likely to see a wider use of AI more broadly across the full end-to-end insurance value chain.” AI, ML and automation will shape the future of insurtech The insurance industry has often been accused of slow innovation uptake, but now the benefits and necessity of automation

TECHNOLOGY

“In 10-15 years’ time, I see the insurance industry as having almost fully automated, AI-assisted end-to-end processes. Ranking algorithms will ensure that product recommendations will be precisely tailored to a policyholder’s needs. Very few questions will be asked during the onboarding process because natural language processing will be applied across diverse, pertinent data sources from public databases to social media data to support the initial risk assessment. This will both streamline the process, reduce repetition and human data transposition errors during the application process.”

“After a long period where insurtech was ‘nibbling at the edges’ of our industry, today it has taken centre-stage. To paraphrase Brian Moynihan of Bank of America, the successful insurers of the future are clearly technology companies and need to be at the cutting edge of digital innovation. Insurtechs are the fastest and smartest route to that goal,” says Bingham-Walker.

Mullins agrees. “Human-AI collaboration is essential in helping mitigate the risks of AI. This involves developing AI systems that understand their limitations and when they need human guidance, as well as how to communicate with other agents and humans. This creates a much more intuitive and efficient relationship between humans and AI – and ultimately a more responsible and ethical outcome for the lives affected.”

Bingham-Walker concludes: “AI-supported risk profiling will feed into real–time dynamic pricing decisions. When claims arise, the processing will be largely automated, supported by machine vision and natural language processing.” insurtechdigital.com

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MEGAN ANANSICO-FOUNDERBINGHAM-WALKERANDCEO,TECHNOLOGY

“ In 10-15 years’ time, I see the insurance industry as having almost fully automated, AI-assisted end-to-end processes” are clear, the future for the industry is rooted in technology.

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PORTUGALGRUPOINSURANCE:BEYONDAGEASinsurtechdigital.com 117 GRUPO AGEAS PORTUGAL

The company is also exploring new avenues beyond insurance, concentrating on health, ageing, pets and household markets. As part of this exploration, digital transformation has been critical in expediting change, increasing agility and providing customers with the best services possible.

“We see ‘digital’ and ‘digitisation’ as two different things,” says Vilela. “Though the two are strongly linked, and complementary – ‘digital’ is what the outside world sees, ‘digitisation’ is what the outside world does not see and which enables ‘digital’; in other

As one of Portugal’s best established insurance providers, Grupo Ageas is leading the way through innovation and new marketplace offerings P roviding a wide range of products and services, Grupo Ageas Portugal is an economic Group, mostly focused on insurance, but with a wider ranging vision. The entity provides services to agents, bancassurance and direct cover. Its offerings include personal and commercial lines, in addition to all lines of business, including life, non-life, health and pension funds.

Ângelo Guerra Vilela is the Director of Digital Assets & Journeys for Grupo Ageas Portugal and is responsible for managing a multi-disciplinary team, which is focused on providing users with an exceptional experience. The scope of his role includes managing all the digital assets used by the company’s stakeholders. There are 11 brands in total and 18 digital assets that fall under management, public websites, mobile apps and distributors’ fronts.

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ÂNGELO GUERRA VILELA DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL ASSETS AND JOURNEYS, GRUPO AGEAS PORTUGAL

“It’s been a very enriching experience,” he says, “because I’ve been involved in doing things from the ground up. Before launching our first digital department, I spent around four years as a Strategy and Performance Management Director. It Grupo Ageas Portugal on the digital insurance revolution

At Grupo Ageas Portugal, digital is a shared responsibility between various areas, namely marketing, commercial, corporate communication, innovation and technology. “Our digital assets serve all customers, regardless of their channel of preference. On digital, we must be where customers are, with relevance, excelling in user experience,” Vilela says. A new era for Grupo Ageas Portugal

words, ‘digital’ stands for experience while ‘digitisation’ stands for efficiency.”

For Vilela, who joined Grupo Ageas Portugal 27 years ago with a background in teaching literature and Latin, the most recent changes have been the most groundbreaking. During his tenure at the company, he’s worked across many areas, from commercial and marketing to financials, reengineering and strategy. The scope of his experience with the company also includes launching new products, processes and brands. “OCIDENTAL (LIFE) IS ALSO ADVANCING WITH SOLUTIONS AIMED AT PROMOTING QUALITY OF LIFE DURING AGEING, HAVING AS A FIRST STEP THE LAUNCH OF SOLUTIONSDEACCUMULATIONPIONEERINGINPORTUGAL”

ÂNGELO GUERRA VILELA

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Previously Group Head of Strategy & Performance ManagementVilela was also responsible for new business development. He has robust field experience with corporate strategy, M&A, marketing & new business development. His past experience is in business development, strategic & operational marketing, corporate & marketing communication, project management & re-engineering, and product management. Vilela also has an MA in Literature, and a Postgraduate in Management.

Ângelo Guerra Vilela has a 22-year track record in leading high-performing teams working in agile environments.

He is the Director of Digital Assets & Journeys for Grupo Ageas Portugal: Ageas Seguros, Médis (Health), Ocidental & Ageas Pensões (Pension Funds) which consists of 18 digital assets under management.

GRUPO AGEAS PORTUGAL

He has also been a keynote speaker on Digital Strategy in international conferences.

TITLE: DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL ASSETS AND JOURNEYS

A unique design process

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That period enabled Vilela to develop a robust field experience in corporate strategy, financial analysis, reporting, M&A and business development.

“Digital started as a small team of five people, concentrating essentially on ecommerce. But our vision was clear: we wanted to expand as we learned, in secure steps, towards a holistic practice aiming at providing great customer experience, leveraging on Digital. The team I lead is one of the five first-line technology areas of the Group in Portugal, reporting directly to the ExCo.”

was a very challenging period – along with the sovereign debt crisis that severely hit Portugal – and we had to adjust quickly and change the organisation’s profile to cope with the challenges ahead.”

Leading digital agency in Portugal We help companies respond to the challenges of the digital transformation in their industry. you want to grow your business Talk to us

By the end of last year, Vilela and his team had launched the ADPA (Ageas Digital Project Approach) as a methodology and human centred approach that places design thinking at the heart of the development process. The methodology, he says, disciplines creativity by leveraging individual and team motivations and capabilities. “With ADPA, we fully consolidated the humancentric approach that we’ve been putting into practice for seven years. The process is inspiring and engaging the organisation on ‘Design Thinking’ to make it core to the development process, designing for delight (D2D) with the users, for the users. It is this methodology that enables the teams to operate in a much more structured

Fullsix Havas CX

Two vital changes for Grupo Ageas Portugal The pandemic wrought massive changes globally for all companies, many of them being launched into digital solutions for the first time by necessity. But, for Grupo Ageas Portugal, landmark changes have occurred at different times as the company has organically developed and embraced new innovations and technologies.

and transparent process of cross-functional and visualised co-creation, Vilela says. The process begins with in-depth stakeholder and market insights, with evidence-based iteration and progression, to push the limits while developing solutions that are emotional and desirable.

ÂNGELO GUERRA VILELA DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL ASSETS AND JOURNEYS, GRUPO AGEAS PORTUGAL “WE ‘DARE’ BY PUSHING BOUNDARIES, LEARNING FROM OUR EXPERIENCES AND REMAINING INQUISITIVE ABOUT WHAT WE CAN DO DIFFERENTLY”insurtechdigital.com 123

Vilela says: “I would underline two areas of change over a 25-year period, which are distribution and technology. On the distribution side, we’ve seen the consolidation of bancassurance accompanying

“INNOVATION IS AT THE HEART OF OUR PRACTICE, FROM INCREMENTAL TO DISRUPTIVE” ÂNGELO GUERRA VILELA DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL ASSETS AND JOURNEYS, GRUPO AGEAS PORTUGAL 124 September 2022

In order to remain relevant, insurers face the enormous challenge of cultural change, which then impacts organisational models and technology. Technology, Vilela says, is instrumental in this cultural shift and is an essential facilitator of change.

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“To be relevant and, consequently, sustainable, the insurance business needs to focus, and this is where the main cultural shift lies. On the one hand, partnering with distribution while focusing on the customer insurtechdigital.com

the evolution of the banking industry, including four major game changers: the reduction of the branches, tight regulation, capital requirements and digital transformation. Additionally with distribution, there’s also been the emergence of direct channels from phone to digital. Agents have remained relevant, despite all early announcements that the channel would decline.”

He continues: “On the technology side, the industry change has experienced the consequences of an increased pressure on shareholder return. In the early 2000s, we saw the first race for cost reduction, with the emergence of workflows to reduce paperwork and BPO on production, claims and call centres. After the crisis of 20082012, we saw an increased digitisation of processes and the incorporation of cognitive systems into sales the operations. Also the digitisation of the agents' channels has gained enormous strategic relevance.”

But, more importantly, Vilela points to an increased focus on customer experience. He believes that developing technologies enhancing the customer experience are critical to success. “Having websites and apps is mandatory, but by itself a differentiation factor. Customer centricity has evolved significantly – from some good intentions in a corporate mission statement, to an actual tangible reality, leveraging on technology.”

“We believe in the importance of setting an example through our actions, but also on the benefit of working as a team.”

and, on the other hand, being at the centre of ecosystems that generate value beyond the traditional business,” he asserts.

Changing the company culture

Teams are expected to ‘share’ by learning and teaching from their experiences, as well as by inspiring others, in a culture that thrives on the concept of continuous learning.

Equally, there is an emphasis on ‘delivery’, because everyone is expected to deliver on

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The culture at Grupo Ageas worldwide, including Portugal, encompasses a number of areas. Leaders must adhere to and follow values that are core to the company’s philosophy. Those are listed as Care, Dare, Deliver and Share. Vilela explains: “We ‘care’ by respecting our colleagues and helping those around us, whilst staying true to who we are. That means listening and embracing different opinions, putting ourselves in other’s shoes, and building trust by doing the right things every time for our stakeholders.”

“TECHNOLOGY IS NOT A IT'SOPPORTUNITY.OPTIONSTRATEGICORANAMUST” their promises while remaining focused on their priorities. Finally, there is an expectation to challenge each other, take accountability and to strive for excellence.

ÂNGELO GUERRA VILELA DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL ASSETS AND JOURNEYS, GRUPO AGEAS PORTUGAL insurtechdigital.com 127

“We, as leaders, must ‘deliver’ on our promises, and we make things happen by staying focused on our priorities and keeping thingsVilelasimple.”saysthat challenging his team is “all part of that culture” and has helped to drive the company forward. “We ‘dare’ by pushing boundaries, learning from our experiences and remaining inquisitive about what we

can do differently. As Ageas people, we aim to create new ideas and push ourselves beyond what we know today, towards what we should know tomorrow.”

On going digital When it comes to digital innovation and transformation, Grupo Ageas Portugal’s strategy and approach is an ongoing relationship with innovation. The company works constantly on API-ifying its practice and reaching beyond insurance. “Innovation is at the heart of our practice, from incremental to disruptive,” Vilela says.

“Technology is not a strategic option or an opportunity. It's a must. Relevance, a prerequisite for sustainability, is measured by the creation and maintenance of lasting, meaningful and emotional relationships with customers and partners; by the ability to attract, enhance and retain talent; by the efficiency in the management of shareholder capital and by the consistency of its remuneration; and by the return of value to society. This is the identity matrix of the Grupo Ageas Portugal.”

He explains that focusing on the customer means exceeding expectations on every journey. Grupo Ageas Portugal pursues a customer-centric digital strategy, based on three pillars: being where customers are; providing them with an exceptional user experience; and being relevant. In pursuit of this strategy, the September 2022

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The digital ecosystem Grupo Ageas Portugal is in an accelerated process of developing new solutions for health and household, in which cognitive systems will play a central role in mitigating pain points and building increasingly Group's digital assets have undergone an accelerated transformational process.

A healthy approach to change Ageas Seguros (multi insurance products and services) is on a journey to provides a way to follow claims processes online and has many new developments in the digital landscape in the near future, which will make a difference for both customers and distributors.

“Médis customers can carry out the most relevant journeys only on digital platforms, or they can switch between the physical and digital worlds maintaining a consistent and distinctive experience,” he says.

To ensure relevance and sustainability, a further cultural shift is to be at the centre of ecosystems that generate value beyond traditional business. Within a few years, the income generated outside the traditional business could reach one third of the shareholder return, according to McKinsey studies.

“Ocidental (Life) is also advancing, with solutions aimed at promoting quality of life during ageing having, as a first step, the launch of pioneering deaccumulation solutions in Portugal,” explains Vilela.

With a strong commitment to Portugal – a native market for Ageas – the Group is investing in the ecosystems that target the main challenges for the country in the coming decades: health, ageing and housing. Médis (health Insurance) is positioning itself

“WE

AS LEADERS MUST ‘DELIVER’ ON OUR PROMISES; WE SIMPLE”KEEPINGPRIORITIESFOCUSEDBYTHINGSMAKEHAPPENSTAYINGONOURANDTHINGS ÂNGELO GUERRA VILELA DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL ASSETS AND JOURNEYS, GRUPO AGEAS PORTUGAL insurtechdigital.com 129 GRUPO AGEAS PORTUGAL

Meanwhile, Médis (health insurance company of the Group) is at an advanced stage of implementing solutions based on AI, including reimbursement of expenses via digital platforms, chatbots and clinical screening, with a high ambition for innovative deliveries in the coming years.

as the orchestrator of an ecosystem in which it will become a true partner in health.

“The corporate image of Seguro Directo (direct operator on Motor), whose value proposition is based on simplicity, is also expressed in their digital platforms, which allow customers to buy, consult and manage their policies on any device, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

“This ecosystem will have new solutions to be launched soon, taking advantage of technology and in-depth knowledge of a market in which Ocidental (Life and Savings) and Ageas Pensões are historical leaders.

The organisation has collaborated with several companies on the way to provide a relevant and emotional digital experience, and one of the most significant has been FullSix – an industry digital leader that has been working with Grupo Ageas Portugal for the past nine years.

Partnerships that generate value for all parties and, last but not least, that are relevant from a customer standing point, are always on the horizon.

“We are always eager to innovate, to deliver and to improve. Our ambition is very high. Addressing barriers to digital transformation of the key moments in customer journeys is the most difficult step. With that step taken, what follows is execution.”

There is still a long way to go in terms of data quality, information systems architecture and business processes. However, the biggest opportunity for transformation is not technical or technological: it is cultural. Evolving from legacy systems is critical, but it’s even more

“FullSix, due to the vision and commitment of the CEO Erik Lassche, has been a fundamental partner in our digital journey, especially in regards to customer experience,” says Vilela. “FullSix has helped us shape our strategy, has boosted our digital marketing capabilities, and has helped us develop one of our most valuable digital assets: our Design System. We’ve been transparent with each other, and we’ve always had lots of fun. Grupo Ageas Portugal is the only insurer in the valuable FullSix customer portfolio, which for both parties is, at times, both an honour and a Theresponsibility.”movehasbeen the backbone of Grupo Ageas Portugal’s digital transformation journey – and the biggest challenge of that process has been to meet customer expectations and demands.

The future is digital

critical to embrace a non-legacy management culture. “That’s what we’ve been doing for years at Grupo Ageas Portugal,” Vilela says.

Grupo Ageas Portugal’s ethos is committed to digitisation, both for its processes and work force – and for the customer. But that doesn’t mean the human element will be erased from the process. Instead, more technology will enable staff to concentrate on different aspects of their work. simpler, more relevant customer journeys.

130 September 2022 GRUPO AGEAS PORTUGAL

Vilela explains: “If digital transformation opens a window of opportunity for insurers to continue to create economic value in a consistent and continuous way, it also creates the opportunity to leverage the human factor as a distinctive feature, as well as to be a generator of value, both tangible and“Technologyintangible. makes it possible to free people from automatable tasks and re-allocate them to human relationships, bringing emotion to the relationship insurtechdigital.com

between client and insurer. Only people are endowed with reason, which underlies ethics. Ethics and reason cannot be synthesised and transferred to machines.”

131 GRUPO AGEAS PORTUGAL

He concludes: “Digital transformation is an opportunity for people to make a difference. Natural or artificial, there is no intelligence without people. At Grupo Ageas Portugal, that's what we believe in.”

ININSURANCEDIGITALLEADERSTHEIN 132 September 2022

TOP 10 INSURANCEDIGITALLEADERSUSIN2022 AS DIGITAL INDUSTRY,EXPANDCONTINUEINSURERSTOACROSSTHEINSURANCEWELISTTHETOP10USCOMPANYLEADERSIN2022

The current economic climate has hit the technology industry hard. But insurtechs are still commanding large sums in the investment space, while collaborative partnerships are at an all-time high. As such, new innovative technologies are continuing to drive disruption across the insurance space, with dynamic leaders navigating the choppy waters to scale their companies during a financial downturn. We take a look at the top 10 digital insurance leaders in the US in 2022.

WRITTEN BY: JOANNA ENGLAND

insurtechdigital.com 133

With his background rooted in working for two of the world’s largest consultancies – Bain and McKinsey – Roman Itskovich was well-placed to break into the fastpaced insurtech scene with the launch of At-Bay in 2016. The insurtech company provides businesses with a cyber insurance and risk management platform where they can access a range of policies and security insights based on their IT systems and vulnerabilities. At-Bay’s coverage extends to information privacy, network security, business interruption, cyber extortion, financial fraud, and media content.

Title: Tech Vaulation:Company:Co-founderEntrepreneur,andCEOLemonadeUS$1.29bn 10

Shai WININGER

TOP 10 134 September 2022

Roman ITSKOVICH

Title: Founder and Chief Risk Officer Company: At-Bay Vaulation: US$1.35bn 09

Shai Wininger, a veteran tech entrepreneur and inventor, launched Lemonade in 2015, having previously founded Fiverr.com, the world's largest marketplace for creative and professionalLemonade,services.basedin New York, is the world's first peer-to-peer insurance company, and recently launched Lemonade Car, while also providing life, health, pet, rental and homeowners cover.

Founded in 2012, Schlosser utilised his centricinsurancecompanyquality,empowerthememberspersonalisedweexperience,andandbackgroundconsiderableintechnologydatatohelphumanisesimplifythehealthcaresaying:“AtOscar,usetechnologyandservicetogivetransparencyintohealthcaresystemandthemtochooseaffordablecare.Theaimstoredesignhealthbytakingacustomer-approach.”

Title: CEO and Co-founder Company: Oscar Vaulation: US$1.5bn Ali Diab is the CEO and Co-founder of Collective Health, a tech startup that has helped a whole host of companies from Zendesk to eBay customise their healthcare options. As a champion of diversity, Diab launched Collective Health in 2013 because he found traditional health insurance companies complicated, slow and difficult to navigate.

TOP 10 insurtechdigital.com 135

Title: CEO and Co-founder Company: Collective Health Vaulation: US$1.5bn Mario SCHLOSSER

“Collective Health was founded on the belief that better health insurance is possible. Driven by our mission to make understanding, navigating and paying for care effortless, we’ve evolved the way health benefit plans work.”

08 07

Ali DIAB

Mario Schlosser is the spirited New Yorker behind Oscar – an insurtech that uses technology, data and design to provide health insurance products to individuals, families and SMEs.

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Peter COLIS

Peter Colis is the Co-founder and CEO of Ethos – an insurtech startup backed by SoftBank that provides ethical life insurance. The company’s mission is to make “life insurance more affordable, accessible and transparent to as many Americans as possible”. Using cutting-edge deep tech and data science to eliminate traditional barriers to life insurance, Ethos’ policies require no medical exams, instead relying on more than 300,000 data points and predictive analytics to estimate risk factors. insurtechdigital.com

Founded in 2017, Newfront Insurance is based in California and uses proprietary technology to sell and service business insurance and employee benefits, with revenue coming from traditional brokerage commissions.Thecompany

TOP 10

Title: Co-founder and CEO Company: Ethos Vaulation: US$2.7bn

06 05

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was launched by CEO Spike Lipkin, a 34-year-old veteran of Opendoor.com. Lipkin has been hailed as the driving force behind Opendoor.com reaching a US$3bn valuation. The insurtech’s solution facilitates the automated filling in of application forms from multiple carriers with one set of answers.

Spike LIPKIN

Vaulation: US$2.2bn

Title: Co-founder and CEO Company: Newfront Insurance

Before he founded Hippo Insurance in 2015, Assaf Wand attended an impressive roster of higher education institutes: Reichman University, Interdisciplinary Center, UNSW Business School, and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He was also the Founder and CEO of the consumer goods company Sabi, which he launched in 2009. By 2015, with Wand ready to take on another challenge, Hippo was born and the insurtech that redefined home insurance coverage completely disrupted the space. The company, based in Palo Alto, California, combines home insurance coverage with smart home technology.

Xiaorui WANG

Title: Company:CEO Cedar Vaulation: US$3.2bn 04

Launched in 2016 by its dynamic CEO, Xiaorui Wang, Cedar is a healthcare insurtech startup that uses advanced data science to customise and simplify the medical payment experience by providing patients with a customer-friendly way to plan for and pay bills. In March 2021, Cedar achieved a US$200mn Series D funding round, enabling it to move closer towards its goal: to modernise the medical billing process and remove friction for customers.

Assaf WAND

Title: CEO and Co-founder Company: Hippo Vaulation: US$3bn 03

TOP 10 138 September 2022

Title: CEO and Founder Company: Next Insurance Vaulation: US$4bn insurtechdigital.com

Guy GOLDSTEIN

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As the founder and CEO of Next Insurance, Goldstein is a familiar figure in the US insurance industry. Prior to launching Next Insurance, he was founder and CEO of Pageonce and a member of the company's Board of Directors. He also led inorganic growth IntelligencePackard’sdevelopacquisitionsexpansiontoHewlettBusinessstrategy.

TOP 10

Guy Goldstein graduated cum laude from Tel Aviv University with a bachelor's degree in Business and Computer Science. Something of a daredevil, he was handpicked for an elite group of candidates to train for the Israeli Air Force, based on his record-level test scores and technical aptitude. He excelled and rose to the top military rank of Major, becoming a fighter pilot in one of the world's most respected air force programmes. Ever the prolific innovator, he holds two patents.

© 2022 PwC. All rights reserved. PwC refers to the US member firm, and may sometimes refer to the PwC network. Each member firm is a separate legal entity. Please see www.pwc.com/structure for further details. This content is for general information purposes only, and should not be used as a substitute for consultation with professional advisors. It all adds up to The New Equation. Learn more at transformation.cloud-forwardBusiness-ledwww.theNewEquation.comand

The collaboration ultimately resulted in key innovations across three areas: productivity gains (reducing processing time by 50%), workflow improvement efficiencies, and support for the new pricing model.

Samrat Sharma, US & Global Marketing Transformation Leader at PwC US, says that with such projects, there always should be an element of pragmatism and focusing on what really matters, from experience to outcomes.

Starting in 2020, Yext turned to PwC to help overhaul its systems, specifically its ‘quote to cash’ (Q2C) operation, especially as the company had made a strategic shift to a consumption-based pricing model that its existing quoting tools could not support.

According to Yext’s CIO Deepika Rayala, working with PwC has helped to improve the efficiency of Yext’s business, saving many hours that sales staff would have otherwise spent producing detailed quotes to customers and providing contract support.

‘Yext needed to build a solution that was more agile, automated and catered to their various business segments to unlock operational efficiencies, would automate their process overall, especially in configuring pricing and quoting,’ says Jen Yanoff, Cloud & Digital Principal at PwC US. ‘They also needed to increase productivity and efficiency, because of the high volume of transactions that they have. Finally, they wanted to improve the customer experience overall.’

Learn more FROM QUOTE TO CASH - PWC AND YEXT CREATE THE PERFECT TRANSFORMATION BLUEPRINT

PwC has been at the forefront of global business’s journey into the cloud. Its recent collaboration with AI search company Yext provides a powerful case study for how to get digital transformation right.

At the same time, it’s important to leverage technology and data in order to be able to really focus, amplify, and simplify the company’s ability to deliver, tackling that with empathy and trust.

‘We need to be clear that we need to build infrastructure in a sustainable way with a clear intent to help drive the customer experience, drive growth, and drive profitability,’ he says.

TOPBob10 SHEEHY Title: Co-founder and Company:ChairmanBright Health Group Vaulation: US$7.1bn What is Level Funded Health Insurance? 142 September 2022

As the Co-founder and CEO of the most successful digital insurer in the US, Bob Sheehy leads the Minneapolis-based digital health insurer Bright HealthLaunchedGroup.in 2016, the company has enjoyed an incredibly successful journey to its most recent US$7.1bn valuation, with Sheehy at the helm. Fiscal reports put Bright Health Group’s earnings on a steady rise, despite the current economic downturn, with US$1.8bn in Q1 of 2022 – up 109% from the same period last year. Bright Health Group has achieved significant scale, and currently serves 1.16 million Bright HealthCare members, with over 530,000 NeueHealth valuebased patients. A health insurance industry veteran, Sheehy is also the former CEO of UnitedHealthcare, where he worked for more than 20 years and led all of UnitedHealthcare’s acquisitions that were health plan focused during a period of tremendous corporate growth. Prior to that, he served as President and Chief Operating Officer of UnitedHealthcare and Senior Vice President of UnitedHealth Group. insurtechdigital.com

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