The Best of 5 Trusted Insurance Tech Companies in 2021 by The Enterprise World

w w w. t h e e n t e r p r i s e w o r l d . c o m | U S A E d i t i o n | M a y 2 0 2 1

ONE TWO ONE ADVISOR Inventing FinTech For Tomorrow

THE BEST OF 5 TRUSTED INSURANCE TECH COMPANIES IN 2021

INDIAFIRST LIFE Securing lives and creating value for life’s certainties

STARK GROUP Disrupting The Insurance Industry

nest

Innovative Solutions

DISTRIBUTING INSURANCE IN POST-COVID WORLD

Avijit Ghosh Co-founder and Global Head of Service Delivery

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“Finding opportunity is a matter of believing it's there”- Barbara Corcoran The world economy is moving rapidly. Technology has played an important role to add a boost to the economy by introducing a digital economy era. Today, every sector of the financial world is getting better with technology. Till now we have been depending on the insurance agents for any kind of insurance-related services. And it often happens that in the course of selling product, the agent sells us a policy that we do not need or that does not fit our needs. Everyone’s income and needs are different. Therefore, in the insurance market today, there are different insurance products according to every need. The Insurance Tech has become a messiah for many people to get rid of confusion in choosing the right policy, right scheme, premium payments’ tensions as well as long ques in the insurance offices. The pandemic has encouraged people to invest in themselves in the form of insurance. As everyone is locked in homes, today the insurance tech companies are catering to their needs of the insurance and different financial works. With much dedication to have answers to every question of customers, some companies have created themselves as a niche in the insurance domain. We call them the trusted Insurance Tech Companies. In this issue of The Enterprise World magazine, The Best of 5 Trusted Insurance Tech Companies in 2021, we are featuring the stories of companies that have truly revolutionized the insurance and finance sectors across the world with their utmost innovative and cognitively ahead offerings. Featuring for the cover story is Nest Innovative Solutions. Nest Innovative Solutions have been providing business solutions for selling insurance in the United States and globally. Nest believes in a need-based, fully automated, connected insurance architecture that can deliver all that it takes to achieve a lower cost per policy. Nest’s solution is fully digital, reasonably secure, cloud-based, and connected. Nest is very good when it comes to providing product-based transformation solutions for brokers and managing general agents who have the vision and the grit, with a techsavvy ambition and a limited budget. In a business talk segment read out an interview with Mr. Kevin Steer of One Two One Advisor Sdn. Bhd. (121 Advisor). It is one of the biggest FinTech & InsurTech companies that is accelerating the digital revolution with its cutting-edge technology offerings. In a conversation with Mr. Kevin, we discussed the current industry scenario and how One Two One Advisor is transforming its client's businesses. In our special editorial series, Upshot Metros read out about an Indian city Nagpur. Nagpur has its importance in the Indian as well as a global business landscape with its contributions in various business verticals. With the unique Nagpuri Santras (Oranges), the city is called The Orange City. With the help of Business forecasting, businesses can get ready for challenges ahead. Readout about the importance of business forecasting in our editorial section, the business essentials. There is much more inside! Read Well, Stay Healthy, Stay Safe.

Rushikesh Deshpande

INNOVATION, BEYOND IMAGINATION

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This list is NOT a ranking. The companies on listed in magazine serve different aspects of the market, making ranking them in any order except revenue impossible and unfair. We try to bring a perfect platform for business organization to showcase their valued products/ services. Copyrights © The Enterprise World | 2019. All Rights Reserved. The images and content included in this magazine should not be copied, transferred or reproduced in any form or by any means, electronics, mechanical, photocopying, recording, otherwise, without proper permission from The Enterprise World. The Enterprise World solely owns all the reprint rights.

Leaders in Spotlight This issue of The Enterprise World magazine, The Best of 5 Trusted Insurance Tech Companies in 2021 features, Featuring for the cover story is Nest Innovative Solutions. Nest Innovative Solutions have been providing business solutions for selling insurance in the United States and globally. Nest believes in a need-based, fully automated, connected insurance architecture that can deliver all that it takes to achieve a lower cost per policy. Nest’s solution is fully digital, reasonably secure, cloud-based, and connected. Nest is very good when it comes to providing product-based transformation solutions for brokers and managing general agents who have the vision and the grit, with a tech-savvy ambition and a limited budget. One Two One Advisor Sdn. Bhd.

(121 Advisor) is one of the biggest FinTech & InsurTech companies that is accelerating the digital revolution with its cutting-edge technology oﬀerings. Readout a conversation with Mr. Kevin Steer, CEO of One Two One Advisor, in which we discussed the current industry scenario and how One Two One Advisor is transforming its client’s businesses. IndiaFirst Life Insurance is a truly unique and a class apart company in the Insurance industry, with their plethora of customer-centric products which evolve with their needs and trends, giving them an unparalleled experience. IndiaFirst Life Insurance has one such leader who is not only its backbone but also the driving force of the company and its team who are highly customer-centric and focused. The man of the decade is Rushabh Gandhi, Deputy CEO of

IndiaFirst Life Insurance. Stark Group is a start-up incubator and InsurTech lab that aims at disrupting the insurance industry. Since 2014, it has been mandated by numerous insurance companies, banks, and ﬁnancial advisory ﬁrms to work with them and create better value perception for greater willingness to pay. In a talk with Mr. Matthias de Ferrieres - CEO / Founder at the Stark Group, we discussed the current industry scenario and how Stark Group is empowering the change. Acess Meditech is a leading Insurance Software Solutions provider for all segments of the insurance community and insurance product management. Their web-based Insurance Management System Software solution helps to solve longstanding time-to-market challenges.

CO NT EN TS

Nest Innovative Solutions

Upshot Metros

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Distributing Insurance in post-COVID world

Nagpur - The Orange City

IndiaFirst Life Securing lives and creating value for life’s certainties

Stark Group Disrupting the Insurance Industry

Business Essentials Importance of Business Forecasting

Acess Meditech Providing Insurance Specic Solutions and Outstanding Services

One Two One Advisor Inventing FinTech for tomorrow

COVER

Innova

Distributing Insurance

08 | May 2021

STORY

est

ative Solutions in post-COVID world

www.theenterpriseworld.com | 09

| Cover Story

“ MACAW ENABLES INSURANCE DISTRIBUTORS TO SELL

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et’s face it, everything changed on 31 December 2019 when WHO was informed formally of cases of pneumonia of unknown causes. One by one, every economy in every country faced the pandemic, suffered the worst, and each business dealt with the challenges in its own way. Globally, insurance industry’s losses and IBNR reserves are being estimated at approximately US $ 35B as of April 2021. Some sectors within insurance have suffered more, like Health Insurance, and some sectors have suffered a little less. We continue to live in interesting times. This is not going to go away in coming few quarters, and the external influences are going to have long-standing impact on the way insurance is marketed, distributed and processed. Relatively newer products like consumer cyber protections will become popular in order to protect the digital fort of peoples’ home; new distribution strategies will replace physical solicitation by digital research and proactive nurturing of opportunities; new processes will evolve to assess the losses; there are more such possibilities, some of which are already in action, some of which will evolve over next year or a couple of years. In this “new normal”, the insurance distribution model’s key success factors include: • The ability to retain customers – it costs less to retain than to acquire a new customer. The 10 | May 2021

retention would become more difficult, considering the fact that some of the key influencers in customer’s decision making like location preferences and physical meetings commanding less importance; it would be possible to strike rapport and develop business over digital channels anywhere within the state, and possibly outside the state as well. • The ability to sell and service remotely – face-toface interactions, integral to the process of solicitation would be missing. Distributors should allow customers to reach digitally across different channels, and then to allow the customers to complete the sales or services transaction digitally across multiple and secured channels. • The ability to manage the operations without paper and without meetings – while it appears to be an easy bit, every month’s carrier reconciliation is a effort intensive process for every distributor, and unless the infrastructure is good enough, the drag will be tremendous in this tough quarters. Nest Innovative Solutions have been providing business solutions for selling insurance in United States and globally. Nest believes in a need-based,

fully-automated, connected insurance architecture that can deliver all that it takes to achieve a lower cost per policy. Nest’s solution is fully digital, reasonably secure, cloud-based, and connected. Nest is very good when it comes to providing product-based transformation solutions for brokers and managing general agents who have the vision and the grit, with a tech-savvy ambition and a limited budget.

The company, the journey Nest Innovative Solutions was founded by the end of 2011, with an aim of applying innovative technology to create business solutions for insurance service providers with ten times agility and one-tenth of typical market price. For the first few years, Nest created several solutions and components around different parts of insurance workflow, addressing the needs of mobility in distribution, pay-as-you-go products for automobile insurance; easy settlement of automobile insurance claims using the interface between the insurance company, surveyors, garages, and customer; customer self-service for health insurance claims – each being classic problem areas for insurance workflow. Nest www.theenterpriseworld.com | 11

Avijit Ghosh Co-founder and Global Head of Service Delivery

12 | May 2021

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WE RESEARCH AND APPLY EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES TO DELIVER BUSINESS BENEFITS FOR OUR CUSTOMERS. implemented these in emerging markets.

Over a period of time Nest’s focus gravitated towards a niche area of distribution of complex personal and commercial insurance products for matured markets by brokers with underwriting authority. Nest created a platform called Macaw Agency Management System for the same. Over last five years, Nest has implemented this work-fromhome, end-to-end solution encompassing all workflows and processes of brokers and managing general agents and program managers. Some of Nest’s customers do not even have any physical offices. Going forward, Nest’s plan is to enable this state-of-the-art solution for the lower end of the markets in a SaaS model. As the company was founded, Nest faced typical challenges that every insuretech does. Nest created a lot

of innovative, small, result-oriented point solutions around digital distribution that it could not sell because insurers in many segments in emerging markets believed that the trend would never ever “demand” or “force” digital selling. It was tough to convince the decisions makers to try new concepts and solutions. Nest’s extremely cautious approach in marketing and rigorous & qualityconscious product release process added to the challenges. These challenges are prevalent even now, and Nest’s growth and sustainability comes from innovative products, superior services and ﬁnally, customer’s goodwill.

The products offered by Nest Innovative

Nest has a team of industry experts who have decades of combined experience and skills, making sure that the company is always a step ahead of the learning curve and

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positioning oﬀerings that are highly appreciated by their customers and the competition in the market alike. Some of their products are:

• Macaw AMS: This is an Agency Management Solution for Brokers, MGAs, and Agents. Built around a customer-centric model, Macaw AMS supports end-to-end processes for Insurance Agency or Managing General Agent. Pre-sales, sales, servicing, and back-office operations are facilitated in a web-based 24X7 environment. With Macaw AMS, the traditional problem of reconciling across policies and financials can be addressed effortlessly. With a strong focus on campaigns and opportunities, it is very difficult to lose an opportunity. Document management, workflow, analytics, and reporting are all available in one place and are fully automated. A comprehensive customer portal allows 24 X 7 support without any additional effort on the part of the insurance agency.

• Macaw CRM: This is a CRM solution for Insurance service providers, i.e., it covers the typical Insurance sales ﬂow where quotations and illustrations are most important, and renewals require a special focus. The prospects lead into the opportunities, then to quotes, and then ﬁnally with payment to the policies. The 14 | May 2021

underwriting and rating engines can be integrated if the insurer wants. Internal, as well as external salesforce, can be deployed, monitored, and compensated. The policy servicing and claims tracking are built-in. The “digital” pieces are built-in as different portals and mobile apps. Document management and analytics are built-in. With underlying workflow capabilities, the insurance service provider just needs to fit its processes without worrying about the typical challenges of adopting a generic CRM for the insurance context. Integration with legacy is usually a must, and that’s achieved by the pre-built adaptors that can be used to control the data flow.

• Macaw Operations: Macaw Operations is a back-oﬃce solution for general insurance to enable the strategies of insurers towards business growth, cost optimization & ease of doing business. It supports many insurance products across personal and commercial lines of business viz. Fire, Motor, Marine, Engineering, Miscellaneous Liability, and Miscellaneous Non-Liability. It supports end-to-end processes through loosely coupled components viz. Customer Information Management, Quotation, Underwriting, Policy Issuance, Policy Servicing, Claims, Accounting, and Reinsurance. A strong supporting layer is made available by horizontal components like Workﬂow, Rules, Security, and Document Manager. Technology-wise, Macaw is designed to utilize the innovations around new and

“Teamwork divides the task and double the success.” emerging technologies. With a lightweight platform stack, it has a deployable thin-client responsive app in the front-end and a J2EE compliant, service-oriented back-end. The screens are responsive and mobile-enabled. Apart from these Nest Innovative provides a whole range of other components and solutions, making them a onestop for all the requirements of distributors that are selling insurance. Nest provides services for the implementation of their products and supports after the customer’s operations are running in the production environment using Nest’s products. The services include the following: - Transformation Planning. - Requirement Analysis. - Conﬁguration and Customization. - Functional Testing. - Performance Testing. - Penetration Testing. - Trainers’ Training. - Production Support www.theenterpriseworld.com | 15

Avijit Ghosh Co-founder and Global Head of Service Delivery

16 | May 2021

“ With Nest and Macaw the Customer gets an extended IT arm that delivers through the thick and thin. ‘

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Like all successful leaders, Nest is believes in continuous improvement, and owing to this habit they are always exploring ways to improve and enhance their services and products. Nest delivers new versions of its products according to a well-researched roadmap that refreshes underlying technologies and includes new capabilities to improve automation and to reduce time to market. Nest has been working on a component paradigm for a few quarters now. Once released, this will allow their prospects and customers to pick and choose what they want to use from their product. It is expected to make it easier to address speciﬁc business problems.

Why Nest Innovative is a class apart? A little less than 30% of productbased transformation initiatives related to replacement of backoﬃce software are shelved in insurance industry due to various reasons. Nest is proud of the fact that till date it has never had such

an experience. Once Nest takes on a project, it goes live and Customer derives the benefits. The product and service differentiators of Nest can be outlined as follows: - Cost per Policy: Typically onethird to one-fourth of the competition. - Flexibility: Their offerings are configurable, so they can support the specific needs of a distributor for their special products and special workflow. This usually results in better automation and lower time to market. - Support: Over the years, they have always received positive feedback from all their customers about their willingness and capability to support them in their hour of need. Going forward, Nest’s plan is to enable this state-of-the-art solution for the retail insurance distribution market in a SaaS model. www.theenterpriseworld.com | 17

| Upshot Metros

18 | May 2021

www.theenterpriseworld.com | 19

| Upshot Metros

agpur, a metro city in the state of Maharashtra is also known as ‘Orange City’. Nagpur is the thirdlargest city in Maharashtra after Mumbai and Pune. It is also called as the ‘Tiger Capital’ of India. The Gond dynasty established Nagpur and afterward the Bhosales of the Maratha Empire had assembled their kingdom.

Nagpur is also the winter capital of Maharashtra, and the fast developing and the third-largest city in the state. According to the 2011 census, the population of the city was 24 lakhs 5 thousand 421. The geographical area of the city is the 13th largest among the country’s urban areas. Recently, Nagpur has been recognized as the cleanest city in India and the second greenest city. In 2002, the city of Nagpur completed 300 years of its founding. Nagpur is the 13th largest city in India and 114th in the world. About half of the population of Nagpur speaks Marathi. This city is very famous for its oranges. Therefore, Nagpur is also called the city of oranges. Recently, Nagpur city has received the award for the ‘Cleanest and Most Beautiful City’ in the country. With the increasing infrastructure and fast developments, Nagpur is set to be a metro city soon. The city of Nagpur was founded by the Gond state. Then he joined the Maratha Empire after King Bhonsle. In the 19th century, the British made Nagpur the capital of Madhya Pradesh and Berar. Nagpur city is located in the state of Maharashtra in south-western India. Geographically it is located 20 | May 2021

almost in the center of India. It was founded by the Gond King Bakht Buland in the early eighteenth century. Nagpur was a princely state of British India. Which, during Peshwa Bajirao I, Raghuji Bhonsle made his capital. After 1761 AD, Bhonsle of Nagpur woke up to rule it independently. It came under British inﬂuence in 1817 AD. In 1854, Lord Dlhauji seized the princely state of Nagpur as heir to the King of Nagpur and made it part of the British Empire and auctioned the precious gems and ornaments of the dynasty there. Presently, a fort and other bhavnadi of the reign of the Bhonsle dynasty are located in Nagpur. In 1861, it was made the capital of the Central Province, which remained until 1956 AD. After independence, the state reconstruction made Nagpur the capital of Maharashtra. Nagpur is a major center of nationalist associations. Nagpur is named from the Nag River. This river passes through the old Nagpur region. There are a river and a serpent on the sign of the Nagpur Municipal Corporation. Nagpur is famous for oranges and is also known as Santra city. And due to the presence of a snake in Nagpur, Nagpur is named Nagpur. An economic hub of northeastern Maharashtra Nagpur city is world-famous for Oranges. Oranges from Nagpur and nearby areas get exported in many countries around the world. Being forefront in the business of oranges, Nagpur got its unique identity, The City of Oranges. MIHAN the industrial sector in

Nagpur contributes a large amount in the economy of India. Infosys has started its facility’s construction in SEZ. AIR India also has its facility in SEZ constructed by Boeing. Nagpur is also called as a northeastern Maharashtra’s IT hub. Major IT giants like TCS, Tech Mahindra, HCL, Global Logic, Persistent Systems, Hexaware and etc. run their operations smoothly in various IT parks in the city. The food sector in Nagpur has always been in talks worldwide as it is a home for many food brands. An Indian world famous snacks company Haldiram’s is from Nagpur. An ice cream company named Dinshaws, a spices company Suruchi International are originated from Nagpur. Ayurvedic Products from India are helping the world for better health without any adulteration. Nagpur is a home for such big brands as Vicco and Baidyanath. Nagpur is a place where all the communities with diﬀerent languages, cultures, and traditions live together in a healthy and peaceful atmosphere. One should visit Nagpur to explore diﬀerent geographical, economic and cultural aspects of India.

After forests in Nagpur, Navegaon Dam is the most popular thing in Vidarbha. Kolu Patel Kohli is appreciated for building this dam. The dam, which is more than 300 years old, has a sanctuary called 'Dr. Salim is a bird sanctuary.

Sitabuldi Fort is an important monument in Nagpur city. This fort is one of the most important landmarks in the history of India. This fort is in the middle of the double (twin) mountains. The fort was built by a British oﬃcer during the uprising of 1857. The fort is built on the memories of those who lost their lives in this revolt.

Thousands of pilgrims and tourists visit the land every year for initiation. There is a Buddhist stupa that is 120 feet long. Hundreds of Dalit people have come to this place. He accepted Babasaheb Ambedkar as his leader and embraced Buddhism. This day is celebrated as ‘Ashok Vijay Dashami’.

The fort of Ramtek is famous for the legend associated with it. As stated in the legend, Shri Ram along with his wife Sita and brother Laxman stayed in this place to rest. This temple is more than six centuries old. Sitting here, Kalidas wrote his epic ‘Meghdoot’.

Dragon Palace is a large, iconic temple that covers 10 acres of land. In this temple, a large statue of Lord Buddha is placed on the ﬁrst ﬂoor of the hall. This temple is located in the satellite city of Nagpur, which is known as ‘Comp Tea’. It is also known as the ‘Lotus Temple’. www.theenterpriseworld.com | 21

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IndiaFirst Life Securing lives and creating value for life’s certainties

he year 2020 was one to remember. It highlighted the vulnerability of human life and the strength of human spirit. One of the outcomes of COVID-19 has been the acceleration of insurance as a security tool. At the advent of the pandemic, the situation was profoundly unsettling. It highlighted the critical role of insurance in ensuring that people and households can mitigate unexpected ﬁnancial shocks. In many ways, the pandemic served as a catalyst to reshape the insurance industry. Consumer behavior evolved during this time, giving insurance companies a chance to innovate with growing demands. One of the youngest insurance companies, IndiaFirst Life sort out to do the same successfully!

IndiaFirst Life’s Road to Eminence Promoted by Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India and Warburg Pincus, IndiaFirst Life has been securing lives and creating value for India since 2009. In November 2009, IndiaFirst Life became the 22nd entrant among private sector insurers in India. Keen on making insurance available to the last mile customer a sustainable reality, the organisation leveraged technology to ramp-up operations and build critical mass to maintain economies of scale, while oﬀering simple products and solutions across all touchpoints. The infrastructure readiness 22 | May 2021

coupled with adoption of some of the best industry practices has enabled IndiaFirst Life as a trailblazer in the insurance industry. It has continued to enhance customer journeys, adopt fast digitalization during Covid-19. The new-age tech innovations bolstered IndiaFirst Life further as a trusted brand among customers and other stakeholders alike. Despite the challenging Covid-19 situation, the organisation reported a 25% growth in individual APE in FY-20. Over the years, their mission of making insurance a reality for all coupled with the company’s #EmployeeFirst and #CustomerFirst philosophies have not only made them one of the pioneers in the Insurance industry but has earned them unmatched respect among their loyal customers and competitors alike. Rushabh Gandhi: The Man Behind The Momentum of IndiaFirst Life! The success of a company can be anchored to a good leader who steers everyone towards clear organisational goals and objectives. Rushabh Gandhi, Deputy CEO, IndiaFirst Life has been one of the key driving forces in this growth story. Rushabh is not only a strategic thinker, who is high on delivery but also an integral part of the organisation’s growth story. A prodigious ﬁnancial services leader, with an illustrious track record of 25 years across national and

international markets, Rushabh enjoys questioning the conventional and looking at challenges from an opportunity lens. He is also a Director on the Board of CSC E-Governance Services India Limited (promoted by Government of India). With his experience and expertise, Rushabh has progressively steered IndiaFirst Life on its growth path. He’s been a part of the organisation since 2015 and has been consistently delivering the organisation’s annual operating plans by implementing the best-inclass Bancassurance business and successfully adopting the Multichannel Distribution strategy. His sharp business acumen and deep understanding of the insurance sector has helped IndiaFirst Life grow at a ﬁve-year CAGR of 40%. In addition to Sales and Distribution, Rushabh oversees Marketing, Products, Customer Experience, Strategy, Change Management and Human Capital. In his over half a decade long journey at IndiaFirst Life, Rushabh has contributed signiﬁcantly in elevating the organisation’s rank to 12th in retail business amongst private insurers while clocking a CAGR of 40% in the past 5 years, with more than INR 15,000 crore of AUM! As a visionary leader, a sales innovator, and an assertive implementer, Rushabh has a clear prescience in anticipating business trends and opportunities. This has

brought him stupendous success. In his earlier role, he spearheaded IndiaFirst Life’s Sales & Marketing function. Under his aegis, IndiaFirst Life has won a multitude of prominent industry accolades including “India's Best Workplaces in BFSI” by Great Place to Work® Institute (2019 & 2020), “India’s Most Admirable Brands 2019-20” (NDTV), IndiaFirst Life featuring on CNN News18 as “India’s Admired Brand 2019”, The Economic Times “Best Brands 2018” award for Excellence in BFSI and “Bancassurance Leader of the Year” at National Awards for Insurance Excellence ‘17, among others. Prior to this stint, Rushabh served at Canara HSBC OBC Life Insurance, Aviva Life Insurance and Birla Sun Life Insurance. As a people’s person who is driven by passion and processes, he played a pivotal role in setting up Aviva Life’s retail life insurance business in Indonesia. Rushabh has completed the Group Developmental Programme, especially curated for global leaders, at INSEAD, Fontainebleau. He also is a Post-Graduate in Management Studies from the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS). The Big Picture: A MultiRegional Strategy A more inclusive, encouraging, and collaborative approach also requires a ﬁrm hand. Understanding this need, Rushabh has weaved the same success story for IndiaFirst Life like that in his previous stints.

Rushabh Gandhi, Deputy CEO, IndiaFirst Life Insurance

Building Multi-Channel Capabilities: Bancassurance and adopting multichannel distribution has always been the key focus for Rushabh. Under his leadership, the combined prowess of Bank of Baroda and the newly amalgamated Union Bank of India has signiﬁcantly expanded IndiaFirst Life’s Bancassurance distribution potential. With over 9646 branches of Union Bank of India and 9288 plus branches of Bank of Baroda, IndiaFirst Life has now more power to realise its dream of making insurance available to the last mile customer. While Bancassurance continues to be trademark area of IndiaFirst Life’s performance, it is the leadership’s direction that has also let to the widening of Alternate Channels’ share in the company’s retail business share. Strategically Scaling Distribution Touch Points: The company widened its net to have a sophisticated, multi-channel presence, in over a decade of its existence. Further, entering into

Strategic Alliances with strong partners has helped them in their growth journey. Their tie-ups with Impact Guru, InsureNearby, BoB Financial, Turtlemint, GramCover, Riskcovry, Toffee Insurance, IFMR Rural Channels, VIMO SEVA, Cointab, Paytm, Oxigen, Tata Motors Finance have enabled them to reach customers who need insurance the most. They ensured offerings for a versatile mix of consumers accessible via channels such as Agency, Brokers, Microinsurance, RRBs, Teleassurance, Digital, Direct Sales and Easy Life (company’s worksite marketing model). Additionally, the tie-up with the 350,000+ network of Common Service Centres (CSC) e-governance services, to reach out to the masses and underserved consumers via easy-to-understand products, offering greater access to risk management solutions. Enabling Micro – Agri – Rural Reach for Life Insurance: With the objective of offering micro insurance plans to customers especially in rural areas and www.theenterpriseworld.com | 23

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securing their lives, IndiaFirst Life tied up with a number of players catering to this segment like Annapurna Finance, Samasta Micro Finance, Bhartiya Woman Development Corporation, Velichem Finance Pvt Ltd & Vemo SEWA and Gramcover. But like every successful company’s journey, the path to success presented its own set of challenges. IndiaFirst Life and its team’s story is one such apotheosis, making them role models in the insurance industry. • Building from ground zero: As the industry already had decade-old players with extensive industry knowledge and experience, IndiaFirst Life had to scale quickly while gaining momentum and increasing awareness in hand with enabling economies of scale. They enabled self-service and centralised operations to support customers wherever they were. • Lack of recognition: Brand recognition and recall was a prime challenge due to limited marketing budgets for a small company. To build brand value, at that time, they did a lot of focused marketing for their customers who visited bank branches and ensured brand recall. Keeping Digitization at The Heart: IndiaFirst Life consistently integrates intelligence into business, delivering excellent customer satisfaction through exploratory analysis and predictive analytics through Fraud Prediction Model, Propensity to Buy Model in Bancassurance, Surrender Prediction Model and Real-time Policy IRR. By leveraging technological tools, it has: • Digital First to ensure ‘Customer First’: Competitive advantage is 24 | May 2021

new-age intuitiveness coupled with analytics; 95% of the business is now completely digitised. • One of the first insurance organisations to implement chatbot – IRIS. • Award-winning ‘Artificial Intelligence’ enabled IVR. • Self-service portal for online renewal payments among other services. • A multilingual – Hindi, Telugu and Gujarati – website offering enhanced and intuitive user experience. Also, the introduction the WhatsApp BOT for 24/7 assistance. • Additionally, for its employees, the IndiaFirst Life Integrated Insurance Sales Platform (IIISP) has revolutionised the insurance sales process to a fully digitalised process with paper-based processing reduced by 95%. The platform includes: ♦ Actify – A smart sales assistant for field sales enabling lead capture and management ♦ Connectify – enabling dissemination of product-related collaterals ♦ Wealthify – facilitating needanalysis and suggests plans most suited to help customers fulfil their goals ♦ RAPID (stands for Read, Apply, Pay, Interact and Download) – an all-encompassing app that helps the field sales team to make instant decisions by giving them access to the entire database of products, FAQs, policy statements etc. Aadhar-based e-KYC, integrated with IIISP’s RAPID application helps avoid hassles of capturing verification documents from the customer. Effectively, this part ensures that select policies get issued without having to collect any supporting documentation (in terms of age proof and KYC) from

the customer. ♦ Predictify – Helps the salesforce make personalised, need-based recommendations of the apt product, at the price most suited to customers ♦ Simplify – Sales tools integrated in one app for seamless selling experience for the salesforce IndiaFirst Life’s Arsenal of Products, Their Initiatives, And Imminent Additions While distribution channels may form the backbone of a smooth business strategy, IndiaFirst Life’s suit of diverse products gives it a quality edge. It is always exciting to buy a product that offers lifetime guarantee and security for loved ones while being an equally important risk-investment tool. The company offers an industry-leading diversified suite of 40+ need-based products catering to varied customer segments, leveraging multiple distribution capabilities and augmenting various investment options. In all, propositions under the categories of Protection, Assured Savings, Wealth, Pension, Health and Group Funds for Employee Liabilities form a complete suite of offerings that help their customers prepare for the certainties of life. These 40+ products have played a critical role in achieving a CAGR of 40% in retail business in the last five years. Their products are not only easy to understand but also easily accessible via different online platforms such as intelligent IVR, chatbots (IRIS), WhatsApp, etc. which are competitively priced with risk management being one of the core strengths of IndiaFirst Life. IndiaFirst Life puts its ‘Customer

First’ philosophy not just in beliefs but also in practice. It has something to offer to everyone in over 98% of pin codes in India. In FY20 the organisation held 824 camps covering over 2500 bank branches, catering to over 8000 customers across India. Whether it means going the extra mile to protect families with the ‘Ghar Baithe Insurance’ initiative to putting people policies in place or E-Sampark, the Virtual avatar of IndiaFirst Life’s traditional inbranch customer engagement activities. Additions The pandemic started a wave of new emerging trends in the insurance industry which customers needed. Taking on the responsibility as gatekeepers, IndiaFirst Life set out to help Indians manage risks and ensure that they are comfortably cushioned against potential losses by launching the following to their existing arsenal of products: • IndiaFirst Life Group Living Benefits Plan – The IndiaFirst Life Group Living Benefits Plan supports the life insured with Fixed Benefit as per the selected Sum Insured option, irrespective of the actual expenses incurred. The plan has 6 cover options. The Master Policyholder/ Member can choose any one or a combination of options at policy commencement. The policy also provides an option of providing health insurance cover to members of a group under family floater basis in the Daily Hospital Cash Benefit (DHCB) cover option). • IndiaFirst Life Guaranteed Benefit Plan – IndiaFirst Life Guaranteed Benefit Plan is a non-

linked, non-participating, limited premium, endowment life insurance policy which not only provides a shorter pay commitment of 5, 6 or 7 years but also extends savings and protection in a single policy. Customers can accomplish future goals with either Income or Lumpsum option in the product. This income-insurance tool offers maturity benefits, cashback, periodic endowments, and traditional life cover—guaranteed. Not just this, the policy will also ensure the continuation of the life cover benefit even in case you miss to pay one premium, thus protecting the family with a continued life cover for one year. • IndiaFirst Life Guaranteed Protection Plan – The IndiaFirst Life Guaranteed Protection Plan is a non-linked, non-participating, term insurance policy is designed to secure the certainties of life by promising loved ones a financially secured and fulfilled future. The product has been widely admired and in less than 3 months it has secured more than 1700 satisfied customers to date. • IndiaFirst Life Mahajeevan Plus Plan is a 3-In-1 Plan that offers Protection, Endowment and Moneyback. This non-linked, participating, individual, limited pay, money back endowment life insurance policy ensures security, savings and cash flow are aligned to one’s future financial needs. Extending beyond offerings and equally assessing the feedback of every customer, they capture the Voice of customer by surveying the customers on NPS (Net Promoter Score) and CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) at different touchpoints across the journey like

Onboarding, Welcome Call/PIVC call, Premium Payment, Service on QRC, Claims, Maturity, Surrender, Premium not paid, Presales to take into account customer feedback. Sky’s The Limit IndiaFirst Life ticks a lot of checkboxes that stakeholders would look for in an insurer. Under Rushabh’s guidance, the company has demonstrated clear vision in anticipating business trends and opportunities. He has steadily steered the company towards “meeting customers where they are” objective by consolidating and implementing the best in class Bancassurance channel at IndiaFirst Life. He introduced the Patch Model to systematically optimise branch productivity. Additionally, he also improved channel management, focusing on Alternate Channels. By investing in the broker community, third-party distribution and its already strong agency network the company witnessed profitable growth and optimised operational performance. He has mirrored the same impact for employees. IndiaFirst Life was recently certified as a Great Place to Work (GPTW) for the fourth time, a recognition considered as the gold standard for defining great workplaces across businesses. This goes on to prove that with Rushabh at the forefront, IndiaFirst Life continually aims to bring more into the risk-protection net for its employees, customers as well as partners. With IndiaFirst Life’s strong mission and success story, the best is yet to come.

www.theenterpriseworld.com | 25

| Interview With The Enterprise World

Stark Group Disrupting the insurance industry

tark Group is a start-up incubator and InsurTech lab that aims at disrupting the insurance industry. Since 2014, it has been mandated by numerous insurance companies, banks, and financial advisory firms to work with them and create better value perception for greater willingness to pay. In a talk with Mr. Matthias de Ferrieres - CEO / Founder at the Stark Group, we discussed the current industry scenario and how Stark Group is empowering the change. • What were the initial challenges you faced? After 15 years in Asia working with AXA, I decided it was time to move forward and try to launch my ideas and concepts. I have been lucky enough to have AXA partnering with me since day 1. They have been my first client, offering me the opportunity to test and learn digital innovation. I cannot say I had to deal with 26 | May 2021

challenges at the very beginning. • Which was that point that triggered the growth of the company? In early 2016, DBS Bank contacted me and asked me to partner with them to develop their motor comparator. They gave me 3 months to design, develop and deploy. They contacted me in March and we were live in early September 2016. Till today, I am still running their Motor insurance aggregator. This mega-contract transformed Stark Group and made it a credible player in the digital insurance space. In 2017, another great milestone was reached as I have been contracted to develop 6 life insurance products for a major insurer in Thailand. Stark Group became 11 staﬀs insurance-focused startup. • How have the company graphs changed since the foundation? Can you share a few statistics? Stark Group changed in 2019 into

an incubator. We keep our clients and maintain their platform, yet we invest in ideas and concepts and do not hesitate to design our platform. Since 2015, Star Group has generated more than $1.5M worth of dividends. Yet since 2019, profitability and revenue generation is not the main objective. Stark Group aims at being an innovator and ideator thus its KPIs are very different. • What is the reason behind your company’s long-standing success? The founder Matthias de Ferrieres believes in two main principles to make a company a success. Of course besides some lucks and trusts from its clients and partners. First, is the knowledge, experience, and expertise in the field you are in. Matthias and his team have been in the insurance industry for 20 years. He has a competitive advantage compared to any insurtech entering the market and knowing the digital world only.

The second is the business model. Stark Group invests only in the profitable business model. Rather than looking at the potentials, the future revenue, the growth, it looks at the hardcore finance: Gross and Net margin, cash flow generation. Most VCs or PE bet on someone, a team, a concept. Stark Group design something that will make little money maybe but money for sure. • What are the products/services the company focuses on? How are your services different from those in the market? We developed Life insurance products, insurance aggregators, Medical Third Party Administrators, Insurance credit card builders, Distribution Agency platforms, KYC, FNA, Financial Planning, and insurance app. More recently we work on the Home insurance concept and insurance embedded in the smartwatch. • How do you decide to take the company a step further in terms of your products/services? We are open to any opportunities as long as they are profitable in the short run and not profitable on the promise. • Is there any new addition to the list of products/services? Anything exciting you would like to share? We are trying to develop t.me a smartwatch with no data subscription, unlimited data once you have bought it. We believe there is an opportunity here. Yet the regulation is complex and we are trying to crack it still today. https://www.t-me.watch/

Matthias de Ferrieres | CEO & Founder

• What are the key achievements of your entrepreneurial journey? ♦ 2000: ﬁrst investment and set up of French wine trading company in Sydney ♦ 2001: Join AXA Singapore as an Intern in Actuary ♦ 2002: Create a publishing company in Singapore (Busted in 2003) ♦ 2003: invest in Avenue Group, a company that suggests investment in Wine and Land. ♦ 2014: Leave AXA and creates Stark Group ♦ 2015: Create your-insurer (the

tech platform is sold in August 2017) ♦ 2018: Invest in Insurancerepublic and start to incubate some project ♦ 2019: Create My-insurer Pte Ltd ♦ 2020: Create Wellnex • According to you, how has the Insurance sector changed over the years? It is a complex question. The digital revolution changed consumer purchasing behavior and the industry had to evolve and accept that digital was part of the customer www.theenterpriseworld.com | 27

| Interview With The Enterprise World

journey. Yet the industry remains very conservative with little innovation and no real space for disruption. I don’t think we should expect to be truly disrupted anytime soon. • It’s a rat-race out there. How do you cope with that? I let the rat race. I don’t think I like other rats and mainly consider myself as a rat. I don’t want to compete with others; I believe the best innovator that can put his innovation in place and market it will win. Matthias de Ferrieres - A leader with a 360-degree innovative vision ♦ In Asia-Paciﬁc since 2000, 28 | May 2021

Matthias de Ferrieres, spent 15 years within AXA. Regional CMO, he leaves the firm in 2014 to create, lead and sell to traditional insurers 3 start-ups that delivered disruptive, customer-centric yet easy-to-operate digital insurancebased solutions. ♦ In 2017, he launched My-insurer http://my-insurer.net/, a CRM platform dedicated to Financial Advisors. In 2019, he deployed Wellnex (www.wellnexsingapore.com) an health tech that provides access to affordable Healthcare and Fitness Services to all Singaporean. He combines both solutions in early 2020 and makes the first and unique comprehensive ecosystem dedicated to Financial Advisors that help boost their sales, protect their business, collect smart

and compliance data, and reduce significantly their operational cost. ♦ In January 2021, his platform has nearly 15% of the Singapore financial advisory force. Myinsurer becomes the first Insurtech in Singapore to get the Data Trustmark Certification delivered by IMDA, the media authority, and the governing body of Singapore. ♦ Economist with a legal background (Chicago University, Sydney University), he has over 20 years of insurance experience in Asia. He is also an actuary by training and currently a Ph.D. scholar in insurance economics.

| Business Essentials

Importance of

Business Forecasting

usiness Forecasting is an exceedingly important tool and process for any company or business, as it is relevant to the existing ones but also for those who are planning to start a company or business. Business Forecasting not only gives a wider range of assessment regarding the overall trend of the industry or domain of one’s choice but also provides important data such as the age group, demography of the consumers, which can help the company better understand their customers and plan their products and services accordingly. Business Forecasting not only deﬁnes a lot of changing variables for a company, which can further be researched and used for eﬀective marketing and sales strategies, to better position one’s products and services in the market, making sure that the competition in the market is always in check and the products/services are always ready to tackle any change in industry trends and practices. As in the world of business, it is all about providing the latest and up-to-date products and services, business forecasting is one of the most accurate and authentic tools to make sure of this ever-needed goal of a company/business. Forecast or Procrastinate? Business Forecasting proves to be a quintessential tool for those who are looking forward to starting a 30 | May 2021

new venture as it tells a great deal about the market conditions, the risks involved, etc. It also tells a lot to the person whether the company’s products/services can sustain and accumulate customers in the market, whether the company can exist and compete with the existing competition in the market, etc. all this useful and highly important information can be uncovered with the help of business forecasting. The next resourceful information that business forecasting uncovers is the proper estimation of financial requirements of setting up a company or business in a particular field or domain. This is one of the most useful assessments one can get with the help of using business forecasting as the amount of capital is usually a make-or-break deal for many individuals who are looking forward to starting a venture of their own and provide varied products and services. Business Forecasting provides a complete outlay of the functioning of a particular field or industry which helps the company or business make a lot of correct and accurate management decisions, which not only stronghold the position of the company in the market but also help in improving the efficiency and overall performance of the company, leading to higher growth and development, achieving success in its true and holistic form. Business

Forecasting plays a pivotal role in the cooperation and coordination of a company as it tells about the strengths and weakness of a company, which helps the managers to eﬀectively plan a course of action which not only helps the status quo of the employees, creating a tighter bond between them and the company but also contribute to increased performance and overall functioning of a company. As planning and implementation can be done accordingly with the help of forecasting, it not only gives a sense of command but also provides the company complete control over the processes and functions of the company, making sure that every move is in the best interests and achieve maximum results for them. The best way to succeed is to see the future. Business Forecasting due to its long list of advantages and various discussions about the same has accumulated a lot of mixed results, so it becomes the sole decision of a company or an individual whether they want to use these services and better estimate the potential of their products and services, along with better formulation of marketing and sales strategies as if business forecasting is providing even half of the results it promises then it changes the dynamics of a company to a diﬀerent level, not only giving them a boost but also keeping them ahead of the competition. Thus, business forecasting is a boon or a bane is left to decide by those who use it or abuse it.

www.theenterpriseworld.com | 31

| Business Story

Acess Meditech PROVIDING INSURANCE SPECIFIC SOLUTIONS AND OUTSTANDING SERVICES

he insurance industry is now heading down a path of disruptive innovation despite the eﬀects of some external factors like the rise of sharing economy or even the ability to improve the operations with AI. Insurance companies are now modernizing their systems; they are improving their policyholder experience with constant innovations in products, platforms and services. Owing to the changing structure of insurance, Acess Meditech is a leading Insurance Software Solutions provider for all segments of the insurance community and insurance product management. Their web based Insurance Management System Software solution helps to solve longstanding time-to-market challenges. The Inception Success is nothing but the epitome 32 | May 2021

of all your hard-work, patience and perseverance. It can never be measured, because it is simply not the same for everyone. Everyone gets their own set of challenges and getting past them is what counts as success! After a few years of its inception, Acess Meditech faced challenges in the growth of their company due to the global recession. A hard time when most would have given up, the leaders of Acess Meditech, with their sheer dedication to customer service, the customer centricity, the team resilience, hard-work and commitment helped them sail through the challenging times. When the company was started, the main product they oﬀered was TOSHFA – ERP which is an integrated Health Insurance Management System but later on they expanded their Product technologies to oﬀer a Comprehensive LIMRA – ERP to

help manage the General Insurance product line and Operations moving ahead with the launch of Mobile Apps, E- Commerce Solutions, B2B, B2C, Chatbots, Artiﬁcial Intelligence and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Solutions. They were featured by Celent in their Magazine recognizing the outstanding product features of TOSHFA. Celent is research, advisory, and consulting ﬁrm focused to help the Market buyers make better decisions about technology. Acess Meditech has been making its mark in growth by venturing into new Markets and acquiring Clients and providing a customer centric technology services. The Products and Services Acess Meditech’s web based insurance management system expertise and solution can dramatically lessen the cost of

‘‘

The way to be successful in the world is to come up with breakthrough software.

SYED AIJAZUDDIN FOUNDER & CEO policy ownership services. They are appraised as CMMI Level- III (Capability Maturity Model Integrated Level -3 Company) having its branches at UAE & India. The company is growing stronger with their clientele across the globe from Middle East, Africa, UK and U.A.E. They have a dynamic team with the mix of Insurance and technology expertise who always strive to deliver innovations. AMTPL offers a focused, supported approach to provide a secure future for our clients through affordable solution that helps to meet their needs and expectations. They are offering a robust web based insurance solution, which has the flexibility of customizations to match the specific needs of clients for achieving their business goal of good service and revenue generation.

Acess Meditech’s USP is by their Products and New Initiatives TOSHFA (Integrated Medical Insurance Management System) and LIMRA (Live Insurance Management & Risk Application) Product Services across the global market to build Insurtech Ecosystems with utmost client satisfaction. By providing customer centric, user friendly and automated solution, the company

helps its clients scale up their business by almost 40 percent. Acess Meditech has brought the beneﬁts of customer service to the health insurance market giving it a new dimension. Its products are designed, developed and optimized in a manner to deliver utmost user ﬂexibility, accountability and scalability. Their products are a result of www.theenterpriseworld.com | 33

| Business Story

We would like to be recognized as a rm who will one day make a global difference the way to the future of Insurance IT solutions & enable people and businesses throughout the world to access the best cutting-edge Insurance IT solutions from us.

experience and technology going hand in hand. The AI Initiatives that include Data mining processes and high-level Data Analytics programming help provides insights to Insurance Companies by accurately predicting the future health trajectories of its customers and the associated utilization of healthcare resources. Their Rule based bilingual Mobile Chatbots (For Motor, Travel, Health and Medical Malpractice) to play an important role across the insurance value chain, including prepurchase, purchase and Customer service. There is an ease in the complexity of insurance transactions, which are traditionally characterized by manual formfilling, elaborate questionnaires, time-consuming, background checks, staff shortages and cumbersome customer service. By embracing the possibilities AI offers for innovation, insurance companies can win the hearts, minds and increase customer retention.

‘‘

culture, the more innovative ideas there will be on the table. Acess Meditech has a simple work culture that boosts the employee productivity. Employee Engagement and Employee Retention are the two factors the company focuses on. With an open door policy for the employees, where they can walk in anytime and share their concerns, Acess Meditech makes sure that everyone is just like one family. This has made it easier for the employees to deal with their personal and interpersonal issues.

The Work Culture

The team creates a budding environment by training the employees into new verticals, motivating them, creating new opportunities for new experiences. The management is very transparent and has an unbiased fair approach with all the levels of employees devoid of any caste. The team comprises of committed, hard working and Insurance & technology experts who always have the vision to create innovations.

Another important aspect for the growth of the company is the work culture; because the work culture is directly proportional to employee productivity. The better the work

This dedicated and committed team is led by Founder & CEO- Mr. Syed Aijazuddin, who is an Insurance Expert with 25+ years of diversiﬁed Experience in

34 | May 2021

spearheading initiatives for major names in the insurance sector with cross competencies in life & medical insurance and Assistance. He has Health Insurance Specialization & Certiﬁcation from Chartered Insurance Institute - CII from UK; Health Insurance Associate (HIA) from the Health Insurance Association of America – HIAA; Healthcare Customer Service Associate (HCSA) from – HIAA & Managed Healthcare Professional (MHP) from – HIAA. Under his leadership the company has received several awards and accolades. One of their recent achievements include• Certiﬁed ISO 27001:2013 - The Information Security Management System Applies to Software Development and Product Engineering, QA, AI, RPA, SaaS and Testing, Support and Maintenance, Support and Maintenance of Infrastructure Management Services over Cloud including Internal Support Functions like IT, Finance, HR and Administration.

C O N T A I NER F R EI GH T ST A T I O NS C W C I M P E X P A R K N A V A SH EV A D R O N A GI R I N A V I M U M B A I & S U P PL Y C H AI N L O G I S T I C S CH EN N A I V A L L U R P O N NE RI

For Any Inquiry Please Call / Mail Hrishikesh: Antima : Shilpa :

csu@msaglobal.in

(7506166968)

antima@msaglobal.in (8850594261) cre@msaglobal.in (9987775330)

MSA Global Logistics Pvt Ltd Unit 205, Kanakia Atrium-2, Behind Courtyard Marriot, Andheri Kurla Road, Andheri East, Mumbai 400093. Contact - +91 22 6687 3535, info@msaglobal.in, www.msalogistics.in

| Interview With The Enterprise World

One Two One Advisor Inventing FinTech for tomorrow

he way of banking is changing around the globe and FinTech or financial technology companies have played a huge role in this. These companies have been instrumental in providing banking, financial, and insurance technology services to every corner of the globe with their innovations. One Two One Advisor Sdn. Bhd. (121 Advisor) is one of the biggest FinTech & InsurTech company that is accelerating the digital revolution with its cutting edge technology offerings. In a conversation with Mr. Kevin Steer, CEO of One Two One Advisor, we discussed the current industry scenario and how One Two One Advisor is transforming its client's businesses. • Brief us about the company. One Two One Advisor Sdn. Bhd. (121Advisor) was established in 1990 to deliver FinTech & InsurTech solutions. We have implemented solutions for Referral Management (for banks), Direct Online Sales for Insurance & Takaful with the auto-underwriting module, Mobile Points of Sales, 36 | May 2021

Enterprise Product Conﬁgurator, Website development with marketing automation, Customer Service Portals, Claims Management Solutions, Agency Management solutions to compute commissions based on N-Tier hierarchy, Multi-lingual Chatbots with Robo Advisors, Predictive Analytics with Machine Learning & Community Knowledge Solutions. “We Don’t Follow Trends, We pioneer them” • What were the initial challenges you faced? When we started in 1990, we struggled to ﬁnd banks & insurers. However, by 1992 we got customers and delivered our solutions on time. • Which was that point that triggered the growth of the company? In 1992 we designed and delivered several solutions to Banks, Insurers & Takaful Operators. Which triggered are growth • How have the company graphs changed since the foundation?

Can you share a few statistics?

• What is the reason behind your company’s long-standing success? 121Advisor has grown signiﬁcantly over the past 10 years gaining customers where we continue supporting them. • What are the products/services the company focuses on? How are your services diﬀerent from those in the market? 121Advisor’s products & services are integrated into ‘Customer First Connected Enterprise Digital Framework’. This enables us to create personas for targeted marketing, we can set up Persona rules to auto-match and trigger RPA processes for marketing automation

Kevin Steer | CEO

to reduce costs. Also, we can create blogs that are used in targeted marketing with associated product recommendations. Some of our services include: a. Predictive Analytics with Machine Learning Using this for predicting new products to buy, churns & lapsation, underwriting, etc. b. Multi-lingual Chatbot for Financial, Insurance & Takaful (FITbot) Multi-lingual Robo Advisor and a

chatbot that utilizes hybrid trees and natural language processing (NLP) to engage with customers to oﬀer a more personalized customer experience and generate more referrals. c. Web Portal Solution for Sales & Servicing (WebPoS) Multi-lingual mobile responsive website and portal solution to enable clients to experience a uniﬁed personalized digital experience where content, sales, marketing, and work management are consolidated instead of siloed.

d. Referral Management & Marketing Automation (ReMMA) Used for banks to effectively and efficiently auto-assign leads, tracks, and manages lead referrals and conversions based on user-defined workflows. Marketing automation results in personalized content delivery targeted campaigns and engagement. e. Sales Activity Mobile App (SAMA) Allows agents to effectively plan and manage sales activity to ensure all leads and prospects are addressed. Managers can monitor www.theenterpriseworld.com | 37

| Interview With The Enterprise World

real-time to render assistance where necessary. f. Community & E-worksite Marketing & Distribution (CeMD) Community portal solution allows organizations to engage with members of their community to nurture trust and create advocates thereby improving customer retention. Recently launched u12know knowledge portal. g. Enterprise Product Conﬁgurator (EPC) Reduce the time to market for insurance and takaful products. Built to rapidly setup product rates, illustrations, validation engine as well as an automated testing module allows quick product deployment. h. Multi-channel Distribution Management Solution (McDMS) For general agencies, IFAs, brokers, ALCs to simplify operations by consolidating their diverse requirements. With built-in performance management and compensation computation, our clients have seen improved sales with reduced administration costs. I. Mobile Point of Sales Apps (TIMMS) Mobile Point of Sales Apps for iOS, android & desktops, for Insurance & Takaful solutions, including Contact Management, Quotation & Submission of proposals online. j. Choices Online Store (COS) solution Allows insurers and takaful operators to provide direct purchase of products online. Allows insurers and takaful operators to provide direct purchase of products online. Can integrate with Multi-lingual 38 | May 2021

Chatbot for Financial Insurance & Takaful (FITbot) robo-advisor services as well as referrals via Referral Management & Marketing Automation (ReMMA). k. Customer Self-Service Portal (CSSP) solution Reduces operating cost by enabling the customer to view their detailed information in terms of profile, policies and contracts purchased online, make renewal payment, submit service requests, seek information, or file a complaint. • How do you decide to take the company a step further in terms of your products/services? 121Advisor recently Launched a knowledge portal www.u12know.com in Malaysia in September 2020, where we are onboarding users, we now have 4,000 users. 121Advisor, wants to improve the financial literacy and personal wellness for southeast Asian millennials, by providing an online community portal known as u12know.com, where community members can self-educate on various financial and wellness topics, seek opinions & professional advice from community members & Independent Financial Advisors and finally purchase products or services if they so choose. This will be rolled out to multiple countries in South East Asia with multilingual translations for each country. The portal consists of 3 components: a. Providing Financial Advice for each lifestyle (e.g. cost of getting

married, how much to have a child, child education, medical & critical illness planning). b. My Business providing advice on corporate loans, employee beneﬁts, product liability, director protection. c. Health & Wellness providing health calculators with a ‘Total Health Score’ to assess a person’s wellness (healthy, unhealthy, at risk). • Is there any new addition to the list of products/services? Anything exciting you would like to share? The launch of u12know in Malaysia, that will be rolled out to multiple countries in South East Asia with multi-lingual translations for each country. • Can you please brief us about your professional experience? Kevin Guy Steer is CEO of One Two One Advisor Sdn Bhd providing FinTech & InsurTech responsive mobile sales,

of your entrepreneurial journey? a. Focus has been on Artiﬁcial Intelligence & Machine Learning b. 20 years in Insurance, Takaful, and Banking, design, and implementation of innovative IT solutions in the Asia Paciﬁc Region including Malaysia, India & China. c. Launched 121Advisor in 1990. • According to you, how has the Insurance sector changed over the years?

distribution solutions, and services for Insurance, Takaful, and Banking. For the past 20 years, he has been involved design and implementation of innovative IT solutions in the Asia Pacific Region including Malaysia, India & China, delivering highly scalable multilingual enterprise solutions. Mr. Steer holds a Bachelor of Arts Engineering degree, a Master of Arts (Electrical Sciences) degree from Cambridge University UK, and a Master of Science (Computing) degree from Imperial College, London, United Kingdom. Kevin Steer joined Artificial Intelligence Ltd, UK in 1988 as a Research Engineer working on massively parallel Artificial Intelligence applications. He played a major role as a Consultant with Strand Software Inc, US, Oregon Advanced Computing Institute in the US and was appointed as a consultant to Boeing Aerospace Inc, US (1989 –1990). • What are the key achievements

With the current Covid-19 pandemic, we have seen many Insurers & Takaful Operators move towards digital solutions for customers. This has included the sale of online products with eKYC (Know Your Customer). As well as, the introduction of AI solutions using predictive analytics for new products to target customers, lapsation, AI-based underwriting; AI-based fraudulent claims analysis, Know Your Customer (eKYC). Also, the introduction of ChatBots & Robo Advisors as well as Robotic Process Automation. • How do you look after your employees? What makes your team unique? As a ‘techie’ Kevin works with his team to help them understand the Banking & Insurance processes, and help them in the design of data models. The team has a great understanding of ﬁnancial services & insurance processes so that they can implement new solutions. 121Advisor has a great team including 45 people. We do both online cloud services as well as mobile app development. Our team understands Personas and how to

trigger Marketing Automation workflows. • Is there any special experience with your clients you would like to highlight? Our Clients are happy with our services, as we keep introducing new modules. Especially our newly launched u12know solution, where we will be discussing with Banks, Insurers, Takaful to onboard them for direct selling online. • One person who you admire the most? I admire the FinTech Global teams, along with new FinTech & InsurTech start-ups • Constant vigilance- a need or a strategy? Please share your views. 121Advisor has always looked for a new solution to offer to Banks, Insurers & Takaful Operators, we are constantly monitoring new InsurTech start-ups on the solutions they provide. Based on this we can develop new modules. • It’s a rat-race out there. How do you cope with that? Yes, it is a rat-race out there. We keep monitoring new start-ups to see what they are offering to customers and then come out with new modules. “The Covid-19 pandemic has been an unprecedented global challenge that no one could have predicted. While there were a lot of companies hitting troubled times, there have also been those doing very well during the pandemic.”

www.theenterpriseworld.com | 39

www.atempo.com

preserving data ecosystems