Insurance companies are, by their very nature, large, established businesses that tend to be rather rigid. As stability is (very) important to them, many insurance companies find it difficult to react to short -term changes in their business environment. This is exactly where enterprise agile transformation can help.
The 15th State of Agile Report Findings indicate significant growth in Agile adoption. Over 94% of companies claim to practice agile in some shape or form while IT leads the way as enterprises navigate a hybrid or remote workforce.
Many insurers can take months to introduce a new product. First, a product manager opens a project request. The central project management office will take several weeks to analyze this request. The office then appoints a business analyst to identify requirements, develop the business case, move products into the pipeline, and allocate IT resources. Meanwhile, actuaries create risk models, marketers design launch campaigns, and operations specialists prepare underwriting and claims processes. These intrigues are the beginning of a long journey involving at least six different departments while the customer waits for his needs to be met.
At their core, insurance companies are a service and knowledge business, but their lack of digital innovation impacts their ability to provide customers with positive experiences. No one can deny that there will always be a need for insurance, but whether or not consumers choose to do business with your institution rests heavily on your ability to identify and deliver on their needs. In recent years, insurance companies have begun to embrace the opportunities that enterprise agility can provide and are now able to identify new threats, assess risk, and do the right thing for their consumers.
Why is agility important for insurance?
Insurance is a fast-paced industry. As soon as a new technology is created, every insurance company worth their salt is looking to adopt and use it. The first and foremost reason for agility in insurance is that it helps drive costs out of the business. Enterprise agility practices allow companies to be flexible and rapidly respond to change in the market. This allows the company to be nimbler and to keep up with the complex dynamic of the market, meeting customers’ demands at the fraction of cost.
Moreover, agility is all about customer experience, implementing agile in insurance will allow organizations to better understand customer needs, and adapt more quickly to ever evolving customer demands.
The 15th State of Agile Report reveals the most important reasons for adopting Agile across their organization where 64% of respondents responded – Enhancing their ability to manage changing priorities, and accelerating software delivery. 47% responded – increasing team productivity and improving business and IT alignment, and so on.
The insurance sector is highly complex and due to growing uncertainties enterprise agility is needed to face the challenges of the future. As technology continues to grow and change, organizations need to adapt and change to meet these changes. Agility will allow you to meet all challenges head-on thereby increasing organizational efficiency.
What are the benefits of embracing enterprise agility for insurance?
- Legacy vs Modern Technology
Agile systems help you adapt quickly to market changes. If your organization relies heavily on paper-based processing systems and manual processes, you are at a disadvantage. Legacy systems are anchors that hinder the achievement of digital transformation and limit the ability to respond to new opportunities that arise in the market. Agile organizations, on the other hand, can thoroughly assess the market and adapt their products and services quickly.
- Added value to customers
When agile practices are properly implemented, insurers can focus on delivering continuous value to their large enterprise customers and everyday consumers. The best way to deliver maximum value to your customers is to have a solid understanding of changing consumer needs and the ability to implement necessary changes. The main focus of all Agile systems is to deliver software that does not require extensive documentation, is built through high-quality collaboration with stakeholders, and delivers related products faster with shorter development cycles.
- Reduce time to market
By increasing organizational agility, development teams can take an iterative approach to product development and focus on service optimization. This approach helps the team achieve small wins as they focus on doing his one task at a time, making it easier to identify value streams and eliminate errors. Most importantly, they can make crucial adjustments to your products before you roll them out on a large scale.
By applying these agile practices – starting small, failing fast, and scaling quickly – insurance companies can adjust to the current market demand for digital innovation, aligning themselves more closely with current customer needs.
- Improve stakeholder alignment
Many organizations struggle to maintain stakeholder trust and alignment. The right Agile framework helps an organization improve collaboration between different teams throughout the development lifecycle. Whether you’re an executive, product manager, or developer, your focus should be on delivering maximum value to your customers. Enhanced internal collaboration will enable insurers to quickly identify potential risks, use data to design intelligent solutions, and drive innovation for their customers.
More specifically, improved alignment between business and IT stakeholders helps organizations identify new growth opportunities when teams need to:
- Rapid Response and Decision Making
- Clear insights to compete at the right place in the value chain
- Improving customer profiles and customer experience
- Reduce bottlenecks and rework
If your organization struggles to maintain stakeholder alignment, an agile system may be the best way to bridge the gap.
Impact of Agility on your business.
The 15th State of Agile Report states how Agility has positively impacted organizations across the globe.
Successful Agile programs require more than a company’s philosophy and culture. As the demand for digital experiences increases, insurers can leverage new technologies to process new claims, offer faster payments, and open up new communication channels for their customers.
The presence of agile technologies also supports faster product development by shortening development cycles and helps keep pace with changing customer priorities and industry trends. If your goal is to create a positive customer experience, digital innovation should be your top priority.
As insurers eliminate manual processes and replace them with automation, they will be able to identify weaknesses in their current products and make necessary adjustments. As insurers look for new ways to use digital technology to improve the customer experience, the key to maintaining competitive advantage is the ability to scale agile processes across the organization.
The benefits of increased agility help organizations adapt to new market changes and establish new strategic focus. There is always a need for insurance, but insurance institutions can only differentiate themselves in the market through innovation and continuous improvement of their products and services.
We hope you enjoyed our article about the benefits of embracing enterprise agility for insurance. If you are an insurance provider, we hope that these benefits will be able to convince you to take on enterprise agility for insurance. We would love for you to schedule a no-obligation call with our transformation experts to explore how you can accelerate your business growth with enterprise agile transformation.
