How Carriers Can Make Software a Competitive Advantage Using a No-Code Approach
Once upon a time in financial services companies, the balance sheet was the key competitive advantage. Today, that advantage is becoming software — and knowing how to take control of your IT infrastructure is a core part of a successful business strategy.
On the Digital Insurance Innovator podcast, we recently interviewed Farooq Sheikh, Insurance GTM Lead at Unqork, about the power of no-code, freeing CIOs as IT infrastructure hostages, and the dimensions of Unqork’s partnership ecosystem.
Farooq also discussed:
How Unqork’s no-code platform is accelerating insurance innovation
Timelines for building new application in financial services
How to take control of your technology journey
Creating a partner ecosystem with a strategic and tactical approach
How Human API and Unqork are partnering together today
<“Slowly the industry is realizing the power of no-code. At the end of the day, Unqork is an extremely robust platform that can build anything that you could code in.” — Farooq Sheikh>
The Big Transfer of Value in Insurance
In the insurance industry, we're seeing a massive transfer of value.
In the past, large companies prided themselves on the strength of their credit ratings and their balance sheets. But just like mobile phones and computerized vehicles have upended long-standing telecom and auto industries, technology is driving rapid changes in the entire insurance landscape.
Farooq shares his strong belief that the balance sheet is no longer the big competitive advantage for large insurance companies, but software (technological capabilities).
That's not just an opinion as it’s been demonstrated in the marketplace by the likes of Lemonade and others who have proven this new model out in terms of market cap as well as disruption, core ability to acquire customers, and reducing loss ratios and operational costs.
Insurance as a whole is looking at a market where customer expectations and competitive dynamics are putting significant pressure on acquisition, and now, acquisition is under threat.
Help! I'm Being Held Hostage to My IT Infrastructure
Most CIOs of major insurance organizations have a sense that they’re hostage to their IT infrastructure.
From a strategy perspective, therefore, the biggest questions are:
How do you take control?
How do you create a technology as a differentiator thought process?
How do you create a two-speed technology environment in which some things travel on the slow train while others move fast but are also flexible, inexpensive, and capable?
How do you drive a business priority-led IT transformation initiative that delivers in the year, revenue, and cost?
From a strategy perspective, this conversation is revolving around how to take control by getting to market faster while keeping costs low.
Fast vs Slow: The 2-speed business environment
In the insurance vertical, there’s a need for tech to be both fast and slow.
Today, there's no such thing as the three-month project launch. Or a market test even. From a technology transformation perspective, demand is outstripping supply.On the flip side, you can spend multiple millions of dollars and many years on developing and launching a large admin system.
Some tech can be slower to build and iterate on, while other tech must be delivered fast. An ideal technology environment should allow carriers to go at both speeds, to flexibly serve different purposes.
<“There is a very simple sense that everybody has, which is I'm hostage to my IT infrastructure. The biggest conversation from a strategy perspective is, How do you gain more control?” — Farooq Sheikh>
The Key Is Digital Distribution
How can you drive a technology-led business transformative initiative that delivers revenue growth and reduces cost?
It's all about digital distribution. Digital distribution makes it easier to work with your products — easier for clients to access your products and easier for agents to sell your products. On the distribution side, digital distribution is the number one priority because you get better data. And better data = better experiences.
Can I get from my customers the basic information that I need? If possible, can I underwrite them without having them go through anything invasive?
This is a core focus for nearly all distribution capabilities, and it’s becoming a reality that can be more easily achieved today.
<“In financial services, you've gone from the balance sheet as the key competitive advantage to software as the key competitive advantage.” — Farooq Sheikh>
Soon, faster, cheaper...
Multi-million dollar programs often fail, leaving insurance companies between a rock and a hard place. As a no-code software solution, Unqork provides an interesting approach to this problem.
It's a rapid-enterprise application that accelerates enterprise product launches to just weeks. That’s because it's not a blank canvas. Unqork enables solutions and products to be quickly built with minimal coding, while allowing for the platform to be configurable to any particular business needs.
Farooq says they're running three times faster and three times cheaper than the traditional approaches. Insurance companies can now use a that leverage EHR data provide a faster and more seamless application process than those that don’t.
Focus on how, not why
Within the next five years, we'll be blown away by how the insurance industry transforms due to the conflux of new technology platforms, digital data sources, and ecosystem partnerships that come together to deliver solutions that are in tune with how consumers want to shop for insurance today.
This post is based on an interview on the Digital Insurance Innovator Podcast. To hear more, listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform.
