INNOVATION REVOLUTION

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GRAEME HOWARD CHIEF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, COVEA INSURANCE

spot that I felt was ripe for disruption and I felt it was massively underserved from a digital perspective. There wasn't really a huge amount of change going on. You could see what happened within the banking industry and, and how much the digitization of banking had made an impact. So I was keen to try and find a role in an insurance company.”

That was when Graeme first encountered Covéa Insurance: “We had a discussion and I think it was interesting that they were of the right sort of size to be able to implement a strategy. The leadership team were keen to do something different and it fitted with my aspirations and desire to drive forward.”

Policy API and pushing for insurance-as-a-service

Howard is very excited about the potential of Covéa Insurance’s policy platform and the benefits it can bring to the sector as a whole.

“You can see where kind of open banking has gone with the data share and capabilities, So we are - particularly Neil Walker, our Head of Technology - helping to really drive the foundations and the regulations around open insurance. So our platform is going to be fully compliant with the Open Insurance Initiative [OII].”

The OII is the industry’s largest open source project and while Howard lauds his team’s work he also says there is still more to do, particularly with regard to machine learning and AI modelling and so the company has invested in created their own platform.

In an era where digital fraud has skyrocketed with lockdowns, Howard praises his team for their work in an industry that historically sees high levels of fraud: “The team are doing amazing things in not just fraud analytics, but leading the way with, with ‘ghost broking’, which is a particular bane of the insurance industry and quite hard to pick out, but the models we've created now are starting to really push us into a much stronger position in that area.”

Howard is looking ahead to a supercharged 2022, saying “I think the more data we get, the more information we can create, the more analysis we can do. Particularly as we move to more crossproduct data and cross-selling.

“I believe there's a huge amount of potential there, particularly when you look at different products at the same time, you start to get different patterns and get pretty passionate about it. It's quite exciting.“

How Covéa Insurance maximises partnerships

The policy admin platform launched by Covéa uses Kong open-source software as its API gateway. While openness is important, Howards says working with select partners to great effect is the better strategy for continuing development. Camunda has really helped us to drive our orchestration capabilities and is a key part of our platform.

“We can work with other people we're sharing that information up front so we can both develop at the same time. It's really about that, that transparent way of operating,” says Howard. “We found that by broadcasting that data…enabled us to move forward with other partners and co-develop at the same time, so when you're all pushing into production it's less of a surprise!”

Howard says the fundamentals of a successful API rollout and development phase is having a clear understanding of working practises with partners you know well. “I feel with some partners, you don’t necessarily get the same level of closeness, it's not as symbiotic, it's more transactional,” he explained. “I think things tend to work better when you move from the transactional to a higher plane of collaboration with a partner.

Howard says a principle of developing meaningful relationships with partners is at the core of his development philosophy: “Less partnerships, but try to get deeper partnerships, so you get a true understanding of you, of each other. You can understand the business model that you are trying to support rather than it all being about your business model. I think it works a lot better when you understand what you need to do from each other, and you can really share that kind of experience to move forward.”

How insurance technologies put consumers first Howard joined Covéa in 2019 and after three years remains impressed by innovative practises, technologies and people in the industry and the consumer-first approach being tackled by companies in the space.

“I think it's really important that the insurance offerings meet the needs and desires of customers. I strongly believe that subscription is something we should be moving into. There's some great companies that have done some amazing things with just consumer consumption based insurance. Providing solutions to questions likes - why do I need to pay £1,000 (US$1,338) a year when I'm only going to use the car for two months of the year, or how does my pet insurance work? I think there's just so many different things that we can do with that data and pushing information out to people and giving them greater choice.”

“It’s about choice,” says Howard. “There's a ground swell of change within the insurance market, not just about technology, not just about pricing, but around making products much more sticky for people and giving them what they really want and need.”

“There's some great companies really growing very, very quickly, and I think when you see that kind of hyper growth that really tells you they're hitting a sweet spot in the market and will continue to grow.”

His time with Covéa has made Howard an advocate for the industry and the huge change it can create.

“I think insurance is an exciting place, technology's now right at the front and centre of what we are doing and how we're getting there. I think insurance has had a bit of a negative perception from people,” says Howard. “When I first joined a few people were asking me, ‘why are you working in insurance?’ But I think I'm working in insurance because it's hard and has been historically slow and the opportunity for change is vast.

“I think if you don't, if you don't put the hard yards in, if you don’t take that fight and that mantle forward, then nothing, ever changes. If you are willing to accept the status quos then, really, what have you achieved?”