Virtual delivery: The new normal for InsurTech operations
System implementations for insurers once conducted in-person are now handled remotely, offering access to broader resources.
From increasing levels of online purchases to reduced travel to a shift to work-from-home, the insurance industry, like most industries, has been and continues to be impacted by COVID-19. Despite the pandemic, a recent survey of P&C insurers about switching to remote implementations found that when it comes to actual IT project delivery, 58% indicated they have “continued successfully,” 22% of projects were “already remote,” 11% have been “more productive,” while only 9% were characterized as “delayed or strained.”
Historically, the industry has relied heavily on face-to-face meetings for delivering implementations; however, over the past several years, many have embraced the idea of off-site delivery engagements, where projects involve a high proportion of project time being completed remotely. Let’s look at some of the key factors that determine how long a new technology implementation could take and how to excel at delivering effective solutions in the new normal of 100% remote work.
The landscape of complexity
For many companies, change can be scary. While they realize the need for speed, agility and flexibility in the current climate, legacy systems and existing architecture can seem both convenient and comfortable. The first step in any implementation is understanding the landscape itself. Only by taking scope of the number of business lines and products, as well as carrier size and governance, will you be able to develop a solid business architecture and technology vision.
SaaS enables future-readiness
Hosting software in public cloud data centers and delivering it as a service has removed the technological prerequisite to have teams of architects, technical product subject matter experts, and other personnel at a customer’s location to set up physical infrastructure and hardware. Given the advances in automation, it’s no longer out of the question to quickly flip the switch to turn on hardened environments containing the out-of-the-box build of whatever software is licensed. In turn, this enables carriers to commence an implementation project immediately after a contract is signed and focus right away on configuring applications to best meet their needs.
Leveraging online communication and collaboration tools
Utilizing cloud-based source control, developers hand unfinished configuration output and extensions of carrier insurance products, business rules, and user interfaces back and forth — and then submit completed work items for review in real-time. Edits and comments from senior staff may be performed live with developers via screen share so that the understanding of methods and techniques is not hampered by distance or location.
While past engagements may have been dependent on the right architects flying in to join design phase sessions on-premises, the shift to remote work has given architects additional time back and made them more productive — enabling them to not only have more hours each week to get work done but also giving them additional flexibility for scheduling meetings. Remote work also creates a mindset shift; it’s easy to tap into a broader team of staff if needed — whether that be certain subject matter experts or a more diverse set of testers as part of QA.
Adaptability in a remote world
In a time when the pace of change in insurance is accelerating, we must recognize that carriers need speed and agility to act on opportunities as they arise. When working with customers, their implementations must adhere to best practices to maximize project speed-to-market and minimize delivery cost and schedule overruns, scalability and performance issues, and design rework. While this is typically done as a mix of virtual and in-person review meetings, as long as these meetings are aligned with project inception and major program milestones, there is no reason why these workshops cannot be run effectively via meeting software and screen share for reviewing and demoing documented deliverables and functional objects.
While we may not have a crystal ball into what the future holds, being easily adaptable to ever-changing customer needs and meeting them promptly is essential in continuing to collaborate and succeed in today’s increasingly virtual world.
Matt Foster is the chief operating officer at Duck Creek Technologies. Contact him at matthew.r.foster@duckcreek.
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