Edmund Franklin graduated from the University of Manchester, United Kingdom, with a master’s degree in electronic engineering and he also has a Master of Business Administration from the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business.
He joined Accenture (for the second time) in 2005 to expand its insurance business.
He believes that short-term insurers face a major challenge with their claims processes. “Processing and administering claims makes up the vast bulk of any short-term insurer’s cost base and so removing inefficiencies can have a dramatic, direct effect on the bottom line,” he says.
“We would expect to save a client up to 8 percent of its claims costs, which comes to a very big number. South African insurers are behind the curve when it comes to recognising this opportunity.”
For long-term or life insurers, the challenge is the looming problem of closed-book legacy systems. “The policies administered on these systems are gradually maturing, and as no new ones are being added, the costs per policy will rise and will soon render the book uneconomic. Many South African life insurers are nearing this point,” observes Franklin.
“Accenture has huge and unique experience in this area, "he says," and we can offer our clients either the option of migrating onto an appropriate alternative platform, such as our own class-leading life insurance platform, or indeed of simply outsourcing everything to us, as many of our international clients have already done.”
Both long- and short-term insurers need to develop low-cost, flexible platforms that will allow them to target lower income groups and that will be suitable for the direct sales channel. This platform would also serve as the foundation for moves into the broader African market. “Developments in technology that make software as a service practical are very relevant here—renting the platform obviously changes the cost structure completely because one avoids upfront costs and ongoing costs are directly related to one’s success.”
Like insurers in most other markets, all South African insurers are facing increasing regulatory requirements. South African legislators have indicated that they will be introducing their own version of the European Union’s Solvency II regulations, which are aimed at helping insurers assess their risks—and thus their capital adequacy—more accurately.”
"Here again, the benefits of Accenture’s global experience are clear,” Franklin says. “We have leveraged our extensive experience to create solutions that will benefit local clients. The most important thing, however, is that this type of regulation should not be seen as a hurdle but rather an opportunity to improve an insurer’s decision-making and ability to assess risk—all of which have a positive effect on the confidence of shareholders and regulators.”
Franklin is a sports and adventure fanatic with two teenage children—squash, surfing and flying are all leisure activities the family enjoys. Aside from sport, he enjoys reading and listening to all types of music.
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