Transforming to compete is a necessity. The modern insurance model isn't going to allow for old paradigms to remain unchallenged. The competition is becoming more agile, efficient and faster at every point of their operations, including customer service. They are learning faster than ever as well, using increased access to higher quality data to improve their data insights. All of this is being fueled by rapidly improving technologies for data gathering, data handling and analytics.

Improving the customer experience is a goal for transformation efforts because it answers a number of business improvement strategies (including competitiveness and growth). Nearly every process and technology within the organization is tied to the customer, if not directly, than indirectly. Most insurers agree that creating one brand experience across devices and channels leads to greater customer satisfaction. Transforming this area is also likely to contribute to the quality of data an insurer receives from its policyholders.

Transforming the gathering and use of data will accomplish a number of strategic business goals. It will lead to better service, greater distribution effectiveness, improved pricing assumptions, better claims experiences, less fraud (harmful to the company), and a lower risk of security breaches (harmful to the customer AND the organization's reputation).

Transforming product development and creating efficiencies will enable growth. Transformation within core systems will unify data and environments, bring agility to areas such as product development, and result in a simplification that saves time, effort and resources (as well as reducing fears and anxieties over legacy breakdowns). These internal modernizations will serve business by both simplifying architectures and by opening up more areas to access by business users. Growing levels of configurability and new methods of handling regulatory compliance can revolutionize an organization's ability to compete. The efficiencies found in reducing manual processes and simplifying environments will also allow the organization to shift some resources away from administrative tasks and into growth pursuits.

Reducing/removing technology debt is a benefit that is strong enough to justify transformation all on its own. We have seen numerous examples of insurers who understood that the proactive choice to modernize ended up saving long-term maintenance costs as well as potential loss costs if the organization was pressured to change in a hurry at a later point in time. Proactive transformation can maximize your value of transformation exponentially over reactive transformation.

Keeping the reasons for transformation in sight. Transformation isn't an end unto itself. It is a journey that needs continual monitoring and alignment. If an organization stays focused on its business imperatives and doesn't allow transformation to diverge from those imperatives, it stands a logically greater chance of positively impacting the business with each transformation effort.

Bill Freitag is Executive Vice President and leads the consulting business at Majesco, which provides technology solutions, products and services for the insurance industry across lines of business – Property & Casualty (General Insurance), Life, Annuity, Health, Pensions, and Group & Worksite Benefits insurance. Prior to joining Majesco, Bill was chief executive officer and managing partner of Agile Technologies (acquired by Majesco in 2015). He founded the company in 1997.