I have three kids; one is a recent graduate, one is in university right now, and one is starting university soon. Each time, I have had to proactively go out and arrange car insurance for them rather than having my provider notice the trend and come to me to proactively suggest coverage. 

What if my broker and the various departments at my carrier were able to use data across their combined ecosystem to spot significant life events like this and offer coverage when needed, not just motor, but life and home insurance etc. too? With the data and technology available to brokers, insurers, and MGAs today, this vision is no longer a distant dream.  

We have the technology 

Now, we have the technology to break down data siloes, identify customer needs, and provide the kind of customer experience that consumers and businesses today take for granted. And it’s this holistic approach to customer experience that I saw all around me when I recently attended ITC Asia in Singapore back in June.  

Every conversation there seemed to be about the need for, and how to use, technology to create better customer experiences, more joined-up services, and really think about improving things for policyholders and partners.  

The insurance market in Southeast Asia is huge, yet each country has its own set of challenges and complications, including regulations, different trading currencies, and market maturity, which makes cross-border solutions harder to find and implement. This is why the unifying factor of focusing on technology to improve the customer experience is so fascinating. 

That said, although this unity of purpose is striking, it’s not altogether surprising. In a global survey of 330 C-level insurance employees that Novidea commissioned, while 41% of global respondents plan to change their management platforms and policy administration systems within the next 12 months, in Singapore this percentage leapt to 63% – the highest of any region in the survey, worldwide. 

And what was driving this desire for transformation in the region, according to the survey? You guessed it: the drive to improve the customer experience. 

Seeing the bigger picture  

Brokers and carriers in the region just seem to ‘get it’, by which I mean not just the need to modernise. They also seem to see the huge potential benefits of digital transformation as more than just better back-office processing, but instead being a way to really engage with customers in a positive, service-orientated way. 

And, this is true whether we’re talking about individual policyholders or other companies in the insurance supply chain. For the latter, picture the example of the head of a broker calling a carrier to report a large claim coming through from a commercial client – not after a couple of weeks, but within an hour of the claim coming in.  

Granted, this won’t change the fact that the claim happened, but it does send out a signal to both the carrier, and of course the policyholder, that the broker cares about service. It builds trust – all by leveraging real-time data to help build a stronger ecosystem.   

Certainly, this instinct is not unique to the insurance industry in Southeast Asia. But it is striking to me how open they are there to the opportunities to unite typical back-office functions with improving processes to better serve the customer, including the use of new AI solutions. 

From drudgery to higher-value services 

Yet, it is the case that automation offers an incredible opportunity to liberate underwriters, brokers, and others within the insurance ecosystem from the endless error-prone drudgery of manual spreadsheet management and multiple data entry. This gives insurance professionals more time to focus on providing a better service to policyholders and partners. 

The good news is that new cloud-native, end-to-end platforms now exist that can easily work across borders, breaking down data siloes and driving automation and process efficiencies. Not only this, but  they also help to uncover a plethora of upsell and cross-sell opportunities based on having access to real-time data that shows the important trends and potential gaps in each clients’ coverage. 

Leading the way in digital transformation  

Indonesia is not Vietnam. Vietnam is not the Philippines. The Philippines is not Singapore. Anyone who lives and works in the region understands the nuances and complexities involved. However, these countries do seem to share a vision of technology as a tool first and foremost to improve the lives of customers. This could well be the driver that propels the region to the forefront of insurance technology over the next few years, beyond what we will see in the US, UK, or EMEA.  

Major brokers and insurers require access to new cloud-based systems with a global-first approach that supports multiple languages, currencies, compliances, and workflows. Nowhere understands this better than the Southeast Asia market, which is why I believe it has the edge, the determination, and the drive to lead the global insurance market in digital transformation.