Table of contents:
- What is digitalisation?
- Investing in digitalisation as a broker
- Pros and cons of digitalisation
- Vivium Digital Awards
- Driver of innovation
What is digitalisation?
Digitalisation: "Digitalisation is making analogue and manual processes digital. Through new technologies and innovations, we can process information and existing processes in a better and more efficient way."
When we talk about digitalisation in the insurance sector, we have to look at the different players: the broker, the insurer, the customer, InsurTechs and partners. They need to join forces and make the effect of digitalisation tangible. In doing so, you cannot be blind to the technology involved. Technology is an important part of digitalisation.
The question you really have to answer is: "How can we make insurance more understandable and more accessible for customers, so that there is a difference in their everyday experience?" Digitalisation certainly plays a role in that answer.
"The evolution of technology does not stand still, and today a momentum has emerged where you see that we can combine that advantage with the new benefits technologies can offer us." - Steve Goossens, P&V Group
Investing in digitalisation as a broker
As a broker, you sometimes ask yourself: "How can my office operations and customer service get stronger?" The falling price point of technology already creates more possibilities. Here are 3 tips from Steve on how to invest in digitalisation as a broker:
- Don't forget to get the fundamentals in order: Office 365 and the Google Suite. They contain incredible components that can already help your digitalisation when you combine them with your office's Broker Management System.
- Put the emphasis on safeguarding the DNA of the office in this new, fast technologically evolving world. Perhaps even appoint a Chief Technology Officer as a role within the office.
- Be aware that with new technologies comes new regulation. Make sure, for example, that data stays GDPR compliant.
Chief Technology Officer:
CTO is the abbreviation for Chief Technology Officer, also referred to as 'technical director'. The core task of the technical director lies in technical and scientific matters within the company, including innovation, such as the development of new production technology and products, especially when these have a major influence on the entire company.
The pros and cons of digitalisation
Even though we can say that technology and digitalisation are an overwhelmingly positive thing in the insurance sector, we have to flag the pitfalls in order to avoid them.
Pros
- Less paperwork.
- Time savings
Cons
- Email 'overload'. Information gets lost through sending emails back and forth, forwarding them, and forgetting important details.
- Technology should not take precedence over the DNA of your office. It is the broker's responsibility to offer their services, in the best possible way, to the largest possible number. And that goes hand in hand with a 'human touch' that must not be forgotten.
"Because the DNA of our activity is making sure that people can confidently take risks in their lives to increase their quality of life." - Steve Goossens, P&V Group
Driver of innovation
One thing I am personally very concerned about, on a philosophical level, is the inclusiveness of insurance. It must be a moral responsibility of the sector to offer our services, in the best possible way, to the largest possible number. And within all the technological potential, that is one we have to watch over: artificial intelligence and the offering of digital services are not adopted by everyone at the same pace and with the same intensity. We must take good care that, in the transition, we keep as many people on board as possible.
