By: Roi Agababa , CEO and Co-Founder, Novidea
The last couple of years transformed the insurance industry as much as any other service-orientated sector. As CEO of the only born-in-the-cloud, data-driven platform for brokers, agents, and MGAs, I wanted to share three trends we believe will drive digital transformation through 2022 and beyond.
Hybrid working. According to Accenture’s Future of Work Study 2021[1], 83% of global workers surveyed said they prefer a hybrid model over remote working at least 25% of the time. The survey also shows that 63% of high-revenue growth companies have already enabled hybrid models.
As of 2020, remote working method proved its effectiveness. However, some companies are concerned about the home-working trend and are searching for SLA tracking and performance analytics to ensure optimal results. At the same time, forward-thinking firms are looking to embed ‘broking on the move,’ where employees can work, including e-trading, from anywhere, by accessing the data they need from any location 24/7.
Increased customer demand for digital services. The last few years have accelerated customer expectations for seamless and personalized interactions across digital and mobile channels, with 82% of customers now expecting multi-channel interactions with insurance providers as standard.[2]
This has led to the development of self-service digital portals through which customers can manage their accounts, buy products, and handle claims – a trend that is only likely to intensify in 2022.
Increasing M&As. As a result of growing competitive pressures, mergers and acquisitions among insurance agents and brokers have hit record highs. Agency M&A deals in the US surged by 20% year-on-year in 2020[3] and hit the highest levels on record in H1 2021, led by private-equity-backed buyers.[4] This trend shows no sign of abating, and with competitive pressures as high as ever, the US, UK, and global markets are likely to see even higher levels of M&A throughout 2022.
These trends are already driving the further digitalization of the insurance market and an increasing move away from legacy systems and towards cloud-based insurance platforms. Cloud-based platforms allow secure 24/7 access to data from any location to facilitate broking on the move. They are also essential for powering the self-service platforms that brokers, agents, and MGAs increasingly seek to develop. At the same time, end-to-end cloud-based platforms help to fuel successful mergers and acquisitions, making it simpler to integrate disparate businesses, provide reporting and transparency and reach a positive ROI much faster. So as the world settles into 2022, we expect there to be a massive increase in global demand for cloud-based, scalable insurance platforms with advanced analytic capabilities and actionable information translated into real-time business insights.
article by Novidea’s CEO and co-founder Roi Agababa.
Novidea is an innovative, data-driven insurance software solution that provides actionable insights for distributors
