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The Advantages of Having a Mobile Insurance App

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(1)

Insurance Mobility:

the vision

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(2)

Mobilising the business of insurance

3

B2E: Enterprise apps for employees

4

B2B Apps for Brokers

8

B2C Apps for Consumers

9

Developing an insurance app strategy

12

(3)

Insurance Mobility:

the vision

Mobile

device-specific

capabilities

access to digital media

audio and video capture

Bluetooth device connection

device tilt and

movement information

multi-touch interaction from gestures and actions geo-location contextual awareness messaging push notification

In a nutshell

• Enterprise mobile apps can streamline existing workflows and transform business processes for carriers and brokers, while consumer apps can create new opportunities for engagement • Integration with third party systems presents the biggest

challenge for multi-functional applications, and information security is a top priority when dealing with sensitive and high-value customer data

• A patchwork of isolated ad hoc apps will not bring long-term benefits for insurers – what’s needed is a cohesive mobile app strategy based on business objectives rather than technology considerations

Mobilising the business of insurance

The insurance industry involves a complex ecosystem of underwriters, insurers, agents, brokers and advisors. Some of the products and services being sold are mandatory, others are discretionary, and each involves a different level of interaction. At its most basic, mobility provides the tools to automate workflows and eliminate re-keying, presenting a timely opportunity to rethink cumbersome, paper-based processes. However, the potential of mobile apps reaches far beyond this. The functionality that is uniquely built into devices (see right) can be used in various combinations to create highly sophisticated apps, for use cases including:

• Sales and marketing (customer acquisition, retention, growth and cross-sell and up-sell)

• Customer service, support, order fulfilment and billing • Supplier management

• Underwriters, brokers and assessors working remotely

• Corporate efficiency (HR, procurement, business and financial management)

(4)

Insurance Mobility:

the vision

The beneficiaries of apps for the insurance sector can be divided into three major categories:

• B2E – Apps for employees (Page 4) • B2B – Apps for brokers/suppliers (Page 8) • B2C – Apps for the end customer (Page 9)

B2E: Enterprise apps for employees

Organisations in many industries are catching on to the benefits of extending mobility beyond the traditional field force to employee management and customer-facing business units. Due to the complexity, cost and lengthy development cycle of traditional enterprise applications, some businesses are even starting to take a “mobile first” approach to providing integrated, productive and secure applications with narrowly-defined functionality.

However, with all enterprise mobility initiatives – unlike most consumer apps – the challenge lies in integration with legacy back-end systems, many of which were built before the mobile era. Even seemingly simple apps often require multiple different processes and services to converge. This could include systems dealing with notifications of loss, inspections processes, estimates and payments. To create apps that work seamlessly, with little need for training, a bespoke approach is required in order to integrate with existing backend systems that tend to be unique to each insurance firm.

When approaching any mobility initiative, it’s vital to have an

enterprise-wide strategy and roadmap to identify opportunities and determine policies. This is fundamental to creating the services and application programming interfaces (APIs) to build powerful tools for employees.

81

%

of insurers plan to

increase

mobile spend

in 2014 (Strategy Meets Action)

(5)

Insurance Mobility:

the vision

By mobilising their own operations, insurers stand not only to benefit from increased productivity and agility, but in parallel they gain first-hand learning experiences from their own implementation that can be applied to B2B and B2C apps.

The first step is to identify and prioritise candidate processes for mobilisation. For example:

• Remote working tools for evaluators to document damage and collate multi-media that can be used to help resolve the claim, and send information back to the office for processing

• Contextually relevant tool that provides brokers with real-time economic and environmental data to keep them informed of potential opportunities and issues for clients so that they can proactively respond

• Product configurator with built in analytics and intelligence to deliver relevant services to customers

• eLearning tool for training new employees and brokers, in addition to keeping them up to date with the latest products, regulations and best practice guidelines

• A more streamlined claims resolution process can have a huge impact on a customer’s ability to get back to “business as usual” after a disruptive incident and minimise consequential losses

Next, it’s vital to gain an understanding of the different mobile user profiles with their various roles, access needs and devices, in order to manage security and compliance. For example, adjusters might need different functionality from their supervisors.

Remote working loss adjusters have traditionally relied on manual, disjointed processes when it comes to capturing information about a claim. Mobilising the field adjuster’s processes can provide a view of all assigned open claims on a map, allow photo uploads to a central system, and enable more timely customer communications. In fact, being connected to back-office systems at their fingertips in the field can mean that by the time the representative leaves the consumer’s premises, all the “paperwork” has already been pushed to the central repository. Meanwhile, in the back office, improved visibility and workload management can lead to greater efficiencies for the insurer.

Similarly, enterprise mobility can be used to boost the productivity of agents any time they are out of the office. Customer service applications present the same information and functionality; whether

Benefits

Consistent, workflow-based experience

Greater efficiency and productivity Streamlined and accelerated claims processing Reduced pay-outs Low-risk brand differentiation

(6)

Insurance Mobility:

the vision

on a PC or mobile device, allowing agents to develop and pursue leads, identify up-sell and cross-sell opportunities, and access customer and company data. This offers the potential to:

• Provide a faster, hassle-free settlement process for consumers • Increase the success rate of collecting from an at-fault party • Monitor leads in the funnel and the status of applications, and

stay close to customers to increase conversion rates

2014

23%

2016

70%

Surveyed insurers who offer quotes on mobile

will rise considerably in two years time.

(7)

Insurance Mobility:

the vision

The claims adjuster app vision

John’s job as a claims adjuster means most of his work happens outside the office – whether at an accident site, repair shop or a customer’s home. With his employer’s new app, he gets the benefit of real-time access to data and documents at his fingertips, as well as up-to-the-minute information on claims.

This morning, he is visiting a retailer whose shop has suffered flood damage. Turn-by-turn driving and walking navigation provided via his app gets him to the address five minutes early. He accesses the claim through his app, connecting to a secure server, and brings up photos and site details provided by the business owner when he took out the policy. He then uses his mobile device to take photos of the damage, as well as appending time- and location-verified notes. Before he’s even finished the cup of tea he is offered, John has uploaded all the claim documents and data to the back-office system, dramatically reducing the processing time. The timestamp feature of the app captures the length of John’s site visit and the customer is able to digitally sign off the evaluation to verify that he is happy with it. Prompted by the app, John sets off for his next appointment, automatically scheduled based on his location and skill-set, and all of his follow-up tasks from the morning’s appointment are tagged with automated alerts and reminders.

Flood Damage

Claims adjuster

(8)

Insurance Mobility:

the vision

B2B Apps for Brokers

Brokers typically spend much of their time away from the office, and need to be able to access and capture information wherever they are. Again, brokers have traditionally been heavily reliant on paper-based processes and the availability of printed marketing collateral. Mobile apps, delivered via a tablet, can provide a branded sales tool for use in the broker channel, ensuring a consistent face of the insurer is presented to the market.

At a fundamental level, brokers can use mobile to access insurance providers’ marketing materials, build scenarios and quotes and track leads. However, it’s feasible that broker and consumer apps will ultimately collide, offering consumers the ability to select a broker or advisor, and submit community ratings or reviews.

As well as increasing transparency to customers in a highly regulated industry, mobilising the brokers’ workflow also enables the insurer to capture information about how, where and to whom products are being presented through, for example, combining a time and date stamp with GPS data. This visibility then allows insurers to monitor brokers usage of apps and marketing assets in the field and fine-tune collateral to best support their needs.

The brokerage app vision

James spends upwards of 50% of his time out of the office meeting with clients or prospective enterprise customers. Having real-time information about clients and economic or environmental issues that may affect them is essential to his job. In the past, he was relying on a complex web of news alerts and information fed by the analyst team in the office. This system led to information overload where too many emails were coming through meaning that he didn’t always have time to be as informed as possible ahead of meetings.

His company recently rolled out an app to provide the most relevant information about his clients. It does this by reading his calendar and connects with internal and external data sources to bring information into one place. The app uses algorithms that analyses the information and provides a top-level overview of the latest information about each client. Thanks to push notifications, James is alerted to any factors that could affect his clients. This means that before he even leaves his house, James has all the information he needs and can better service his clients, and help his company to respond quickly to any opportunities or issues. Not only is James able to spend less time trying to find information, but clients feel that they are getting a more proactive level of service. Because the app is able to provide information about potential trends or issues that could arise, James is able to increase the number of deals with clients.

Benefits

Greater efficiency and productivity

Timely access to information

Increased transparency

Easier and more accurate data capture

Consistent

representation of the insurer’s brand

Improved compliance

Provides evidence in the event of broker negligence case

(9)

Insurance Mobility:

the vision

B2C Apps for Consumers

Consumer apps are emerging across a swathe of categories and come with various levels of functionality and sophistication – from basic research to self-service capability. Insurers are able to deliver new experiences to customers that help them to manage their accounts, deliver greater value through reducing future claims, and transform the customer experience with the use of mobile technologies, including:

Premium reduction – this capability is a hot topic in the industry

at the moment. Various initiatives are already in play, ranging from full “black box” telematics to assess driver behaviour and adjust premiums according to risk, to apps where the phone itself is the telematics device, with data drawn from the cellular network.

Submitting a claim – mobile apps are, in principle, the perfect

vehicle for First Notification of Loss, since most people are permanently tethered to their devices wherever they go. However, insurers would need to clearly communicate the availability of the mobile app for initiating a claim when the consumer first takes out the policy, as it’s not yet an established practice.

Progress updates – the ability to check the status of a claim

seems like an app waiting to happen. But truly granular insight is a challenge that requires back-end integration with a number of parties such as repair shops, household goods providers and other tradespeople. By being able to keep customers up-to-date with the status of claims or repairs, it would reduce the level of stress associated with making claims and the number of calls customers make to insurance firms when chasing information.

Information-only – these basic apps might provide anything from

glossaries of insurance terms and ‘Find My Nearest’ locators for trades professionals and repair shops to geographical risk profile apps for aspiring travellers.

View my policy/holdings – in theory, this should be an easy

category to address as we’re all fundamentally a “number”. However, despite having a unique identifier in terms of a reference or policy number, the ability to present a 360 degree view of a customer’s holdings requires a level of integration that has so far eluded many service organisations, including insurers. This represents a huge opportunity for an insurer to create a system that delivers on this vision from a customer retention and marketing perspective.

Benefits

Seamless, multi-channel user experience Look-up policy information

Streamline the claims process

Emergency assistance and self-service

Increased customer satisfaction and loyalty

Provides a 360 degree view of the customer to insurers

Increased up/cross sell opportunities for revenue growth

(10)

Insurance Mobility:

the vision

The travel app vision

Janet has just booked a holiday to the Gambia. She uses her

insurer’s app to buy travel insurance for her trip. It provides her with health and safety information on her destination, including what inoculations she’ll need and personal safety tips. The app is

pre-populated with useful information, like climate, where to eat, and offline street maps so she can find her way around. On her day of departure, Janet uses the app to check her flights are on time. While on holiday, Janet wants to go paragliding, which is not covered by her existing travel insurance, but she is able to upgrade her policy instantly via the app. At the start of her second week, Janet loses her passport. Luckily, her insurer has a copy locked within the app under a PIN code, so she’s able to provide her details to the British Embassy in Banjul.

The car insurance app vision

As a student, Mike was looking to reduce his motoring costs. Last year, he chose an insurer that offered a smartphone app that acts like a “black box recorder”. It uses data from the cellular network to monitor his driving behaviour every time he gets in the car. Mike has become more aware of the implications of excessive speed and harsh braking, and as a result has become a safer driver. His reduced risk profile is reflected in his insurance premium at renewal time, with a 10% saving. Not only that, but by becoming a better driver, he’s spending less money on petrol and wear and tear to his car. One evening, Mike is driving to his girlfriend’s when a driver pulls out in front of him and causes an accident. He’s able to take photos of the scene and enter the other party’s insurance details directly into the app, to notify his insurer of a claim. Because the app captured data in the two minutes leading up to the crash, the insurance company is able to ascertain liability much faster and reduce the cost of investigating the accident.

Had an accident?

Tell us about it:

(11)

Insurance Mobility:

the vision

The home insurance app vision

Ted and Maureen have lived in 35 years. During that time, they’ve acquired many possessions, but have never considered the cost of replacing everything they own from scratch and simply renewed their existing policy annually. After a neighbouring property is

burgled, they worry they may be under-insured, but struggle to put a figure on their home contents. Maureen downloads an app from their existing insurer that enables her to input details about their home, furniture and valuables, calculates the replacement value, and allows her to tailor a policy according to their needs. It also allows her to photograph items of particular monetary or sentimental worth using her phone, so that they could be traced and identified in the event of loss or theft.

Take a picture of your valuables:

(12)

Insurance Mobility:

the vision

Developing an insurance app strategy

Firms in all industries still tend to start the mobility conversation with something along the lines of “We want to do mobile”. Perhaps that’s why early mobile strategies among insurers have been somewhat me-too and short-term, with the ability to get a native app on app stores as the guiding ambition. But any mobile strategy is liable to fail if the company approaches the exercise as a technology project, rather than to meet a set of defined business objectives. Instead of each line of business clamouring to launch an app, it’s vital to prioritise potential initiatives according to business value & consumer need then address them in a structured manner.

Of course, it’s important to consider technical aspects, such as future-proofing your strategy, cloud-based platforms, the changing device landscape, the marginalisation of certain operating systems, and the need for approaches like cross-platform design.

But first and foremost, you need a clear vision of what you’re trying to achieve: is the emphasis on customer satisfaction, retention, acquisition, cost reduction or something else?

That means getting a clear picture of where the business touches the user (whether employees, brokers, suppliers or consumers), and how to simplify or enhance their interactions with the company’s core applications at the moment of decision. That might be:

• An employee away from their desk who needs real-time information on a claim status

• A broker in a client meeting needing to summon the latest sales collateral and calculators to create a quote

• A consumer looking to reduce risk, make a claim or manage their policy

In many such situations the speed and quality of information, combined with excellent usability, could be the deciding factor in a customer choosing one company over another.

It’s also important to respond to the insurance interactions that touch interconnected business processes, such as quoting, underwriting, first notice of loss and settlement. That means building advocacy from all the customer-facing segments of the business, from claims and customer service to administration and finance.

(13)

Insurance Mobility:

the vision

Embarking on a mobility strategy for

insurance firms

1. Start by identifying core business objectives and the company’s mobile vision. User needs will need to be explored by looking at internal & external processes, services & communications

2. Define the KPIs you’ll measure and report on to understand success and return on mobility. You’ll need a business case to demonstrate the value of mobile initiatives, as well as a budget for marketing your app. Don’t forget to first measure what is happening today in your pre-mobile world so you can demonstrate how customer behaviours change as a result of mobile deployments

3. Map out opportunities for mobile solutions across that are aligned to the strategic objectives of the business. Opportunities may then be phased and a roadmap created

4. Identify any business obstacles that lie in your path, and herd resources towards a joined-up mobile vision using a clear implementation plan. Explore if small technical advances are possible – remember it’s easier to justify larger scale transformation once you’ve proven an initial test

5. Identify a partner that has experience in building apps for large companies who can deliver tangible value through mobility. They should be able to address not only the snazzy front-end design and development but also the tricky back-front-end integration. What’s more, they should also be able to contribute to your strategy by helping you quantify the financial, legal and customer benefits of rolling out these types of apps, which can equip you to sell in the concept internally

Self-service claims will be

offered by more providers

(World Insurance

2013

16%

2015

(14)

Insurance Mobility:

the vision

About Mubaloo

Mubaloo is the UK’s leading independent enterprise mobility firm according to Sourcing Line. Mubaloo focuses on enterprise app consulting, design, integration, development and deployment. Since being founded in 2009, Mubaloo has built over 180 bespoke mobile apps for leading firms covering the insurance, retail, gaming, utilities, telecoms, financial, logistics, construction, public and health sectors. Mubaloo has been recognised as App Developer of the Year 2012 & 2013 at the Appsters and holds a number of other awards for its work in creating transformative mobile tools.

To find out more about building a Mobile Strategy & to further explore what’s possible for insurers, please contact:

Gemma Coles

Director of Mobile Strategy Mubaloo gemma.coles@mubaloo.com Bristol: Mubaloo Embassy House Queen’s Avenue Bristol BS8 1SB +44 117 973 3983 Sarah Weller

Managing Director (London) Mubaloo sarah.weller@mubaloo.com London: Mubaloo 2nd Floor 1 Heathcock Court 415 Strand London WC2R 0NT +44 (0) 203 327 8333

References

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