January 11, 2019
A raft of new technologies and digital-driven insurtech developments are set to transform the insurance space - if the industry can ensure that its back offices are fit for purpose to enable them to maximise these customer-facing investments.
Late last year, Insurance Post invited a number of industry experts to discuss whether insurers are being held back by legacy systems - and if a full reboot is needed to drive the industry forward when implementing exciting new digital-driven technological developments.
Our very own John Davison joined the panel of experts to discuss the issues at the forefront of the industry as we integrate these new technologies into our businesses. What IT departments and CIOs can do to ensure upgrading back office technology is as much a priority as the customer interface, how use of more intuitive technology can impact upon employee retention and recruitment, and how the cloud has changed the purchase and integration of back office platforms.
Discussing the role that IT departments and CIOs must play in upgrading back office technology, John emphasised that the benefits case has to be borne by the business, not just by its IT function. He commented that the IT department “by itself, will never deliver any operational savings in [businesses’] fraud department for example.
“Each department has got to want to improve their processes and become more efficient so that you can write more volume or reduce costs. [Businesses have] got to bear that cost across the business and be transparent.”
He continued to challenge the definition of “back office”, adding “internally we used to refer to the front-end as being our web or customer-facing systems, but if every single business process is available to your customer then do you have a back office?
“We’re now in a position where we may elect to move a transaction online or make it available via an app which removes the separation between front and back office. We don’t go through a process of replacing a back-office system but a process of extending its capability instead.”
You can read more from the event on the Insurance Post website.
Late last year, Insurance Post invited a number of industry experts to discuss whether insurers are being held back by legacy systems - and if a full reboot is needed to drive the industry forward when implementing exciting new digital-driven technological developments.
Our very own John Davison joined the panel of experts to discuss the issues at the forefront of the industry as we integrate these new technologies into our businesses. What IT departments and CIOs can do to ensure upgrading back office technology is as much a priority as the customer interface, how use of more intuitive technology can impact upon employee retention and recruitment, and how the cloud has changed the purchase and integration of back office platforms.
Discussing the role that IT departments and CIOs must play in upgrading back office technology, John emphasised that the benefits case has to be borne by the business, not just by its IT function. He commented that the IT department “by itself, will never deliver any operational savings in [businesses’] fraud department for example.
“Each department has got to want to improve their processes and become more efficient so that you can write more volume or reduce costs. [Businesses have] got to bear that cost across the business and be transparent.”
He continued to challenge the definition of “back office”, adding “internally we used to refer to the front-end as being our web or customer-facing systems, but if every single business process is available to your customer then do you have a back office?
“We’re now in a position where we may elect to move a transaction online or make it available via an app which removes the separation between front and back office. We don’t go through a process of replacing a back-office system but a process of extending its capability instead.”
You can read more from the event on the Insurance Post website.