Cofounder/CTO at Vymo. Alum Columbia University & BITS, Pilani.
As the CTO of a SaaS enterprise that works with global insurance companies, I know that most of them are undergoing tech transformations to various extents. The case for a technology rehaul is strong:
•Some of the existing insurance tech systems are legacy
•Technology is advancing at a rapid pace, providing powerful answers to insurer problems
•Evolving customer needs are pressing for a change in the way insurance carriers operate
While insurers are evaluating tools and technology to meet their digital transformation objectives, it is imperative to clearly define their expectations from the tech stack. The tech stack mirrors the evolution of the insurance business over the years, and this is how I’d like to break it down.
1. Tools to help the core business: Initially, the primary differentiator for insurers was the products they offered. The focus was on core processes, underwriting, policy administration, claims and so on. Rightfully, the tech investments they made were in these areas. Once these processes were streamlined and commoditized, it was a natural progression to focus on the next layer—customer experience.
2. Enhancing customer experience: Insurers then looked at tools that helped customers navigate the insurance ecosystem—understanding a product, filing a claim, raising a service ticket, etc. Once these systems reached a level of maturity, insurers turned toward seller productivity.
3. Tools to empower sellers: With the product and customer interface now in place, the business priorities now shift towards:
•How do we ensure that sellers can sell optimally?
•How can they engage customers positively?
•What are the technologies they need to leverage for digital outreach, quoting, presentation illustrations and so on?
Why Current Tech Stacks Fall Short Of Addressing These Challenges
Tools were added to the stack depending on a specific problem that required solving at a particular point in time. And the full tech stack today is a sum total of all these pieces that were brought together. Because of this, even if not completely siloed, the tech stack has distinct components that may or may not work together.
Take the role of an insurance advisor for example. They have tools for marketing outreach, a different tool for quoting and illustrations, something else for lead management and more. This means that an agent is having to use multiple tools, accessing systems in siloes. If we were to reimagine things, this is probably not the best way that this tech ecosystem should have been built from the ground up.
I’ve seen this in many organizations and thought through how insurers could bring all these systems together to build effective and seamless journeys for both the seller and the customer. The answer is understanding the various layers and unifying them.
Unifying These Systems
While unification may seem overwhelming, I think the fundamental step to take while consolidating these systems is to understand what the core underlying and consumption layers are. Let me take the example of an agent again.
Sellers are trying to generate as many leads as possible—through phone books, from the market or through an event. Agents reach out to them via a digital campaign and realize that a few of them are interested. They then use tools for need analysis to put together a quote. To understand the customer deeply, they need to access the customer profile (a family profile, perhaps). All of these tools are dipping into one common place—the data layer.
Similarly, the other layer is the consumption layer—the layer that the salesperson uses to access this data. Can all the data points that the seller is accessing surface via a single interface for the seller to consume? This prevents agents from jumping between applications which leads to not only loss in productivity but also data, and gives them a clear picture of what they need to be doing to ensure a sale.
For insurers who are grappling with multiple tools and systems, I recommend they go back to the drawing board and build a tech stack blueprint where there is one common data layer and one consumption layer. With these two ends tied up, the middle layer will slowly and surely fall into place.
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