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Insurance BPS

Fast-track to future-ready insurance operations

March 31, 2021

RESEARCH REPORT

In brief

  • Research shows insurers that have future-ready operations are 2.8x more profitable and 1.7x more efficient than their peers.
  • While insurers lead the cross-industry average across six of the eight characteristics of operating model maturity, there is still work to do.
  • Today only 1 in 10 insurers have reached future-ready operations. In 3 years, 4 in 10 want to be there.
  • There are three ways for insurers to accelerate their move to future-ready operations—and they extend beyond just technology.

In an era of uncertainty, a resilient operating model is the key to survival

2020 was especially challenging for insurers when historically reliable risk models were upended by business and economic disruptions from COVID-19 and catastrophic events linked to climate change.

While these events left insurers exposed in many ways, they also revealed opportunities for insurers to elevate business performance—from driving cost savings from remote working models and benefiting from cloud operations to increasing digital customer acquisitions.

Of the many lessons of the pandemic year, one resonates strongly in this industry: the importance of operational resilience.

As part of a global, cross-industry research initiative, we surveyed 100 insurance companies to understand how they view their journey to operations maturity. Operations maturity can translate into tech-savvy ways to acquire customers faster or discover new revenue growth.

This means combining data, technology, processes and people into an intelligent, data-driven—and more resilient—operating model. It’s how insurers can reimagine the work people do and how it gets done—from sales and service to claims and finance. And how they can offer next-level experiences for employees and customers.

Elevate every decision with intelligent insurance operations

View Transcript

Operations is on the move

Accenture’s global research indicates that operating model maturity is advancing among global organizations and specifically insurers. Our research and experience reveal four levels of operations maturity: stable, efficient, predictive and future-ready. Each level is grounded in and enabled by progressively more sophisticated technology, talent, processes and data insights.

On average, organization we found to be future-ready show:

The importance of operational resilience

Watch this Efma-hosted webinar “How to future-ready your insurance operations” with research co-author Jim Reesing and exciting case studies from Discovery Life, Chubb, and AXA Partners​

View Transcript

Of the 13 industries we surveyed, insurers report a higher than average level of operations maturity and that they have made progress in the past three years and aspire to make even more in the future.

10%

of insurers report that they have reached a "future-ready" state of operations maturity.

57%

of insurers report that they have reached a "predictive" state of operations maturity.

James R. Reesing

SENIOR MANAGING DIRECTOR – ACCENTURE OPERATIONS, INSURANCE OPERATIONS BUSINESS LEAD

Laurie Broucek

MANAGING DIRECTOR – ACCENTURE OPERATIONS, INSURANCE OPERATIONS OFFERING LEAD

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Insurers lead in the characteristics that determine operational model maturity

Consider how we measure future readiness and why it matters. Being future-ready reflects an organization's ability to scale eight characteristics of operating model maturity. Our research shows that scaling AI and scaling business-technology collaboration are the final barriers for insurers to reach future-ready operations.

Eight characteristics of operating model maturity​

Knowledge is power

We have identified three things insurers must know to accelerate their move towards a future-ready state.

01. Know the ultimate goal

Make the stakeholder experience your North Star and bring together business and technology to fine tune each digital encounter. Learn more.

02. Know the key steps

Automate at scale to speed up claims handling and use the power of cloud to scale automation and AI while reducing legacy technology debt. Learn more.

03. Know how to leapfrog maturity levels

Insurers should take advantage of ecosystem relationships to spark innovation. Learn more.

The choice to change

Insurers don’t have the luxury of status-quo operations. So much is changing so fast for them and falling behind competitors and not delivering on customer expectations is a real risk. To keep up with what’s happening on the outside—in markets, with technology and across all stakeholders—insurers need to evolve what’s happening on the inside. Fast.

With intelligent operations, insurers can elevate decisions and boost profitability and efficiency gains today. The more they thread intelligence into operations holistically, the better positioned they are to meet tomorrow’s performance aspirations. It’s about reaching new levels of operations maturity to choose smarter, act faster and win sooner. It’s about becoming future-ready.

Now is the time to make your move to intelligent insurance operations. Here’s how:

  • Think big and go beyond incremental change
  • Enhance the value of data with technologies that deliver better insights faster
  • Scale automation and analytics, AI and integrated solutions with leading practices
  • Foster a human + machine, specialized workforce
  • Put a cloud infrastructure at the heart
  • Build complementary third-party and ecosystem relationships

If you fast-track the journey, your operations can become a true catalyst for competitive advantage. And, along the way, you can elevate your business decisions to realize tangible, sustainable, transformational value and growth.

Staking claim in intelligent insurance operations

A leading insurance company boosts claims management productivity with transformed insurance processes. Learn more.

Ensuring excellence with agile operations

European insurer taps into analytics, automation and expert talent to boost customer satisfaction. Learn more.

Outpacing competition

A European insurance network centralized claims handling—cutting costs up to 30%. Learn more.

Get the essentials

The big read

15 minute read

Future-ready insurance

Accenture surveyed 100 insurance companies worldwide to understand how they view their journey to operations maturity.

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