Gero Nießen (right) and Michal Trochimczuk. Source: WTW and Sollers
Sales, IT, pricing. This trio is important and the three aspects are very dependent on one another. Talk about improvements, necessary innovations and customer benefits Gero Nießen, Willis Towers Watson, Sales & Practice Leader P/C Insurance Germany und Michal Trochimczuk, Managing Partner Sollers Consulting.
Mr. Nießen, you have been driving the digitization of sales for many years, both externally to the customer and internally in the connection of agents to actuaries. What has happened
Gero Nießen: In the meantime, many companies have started to digitally connect their sales. However, there is often still a lack of flexibility in pricing at the point of sale. With German insurers in particular, we still see potential to make tariff adjustments and introductions more efficient and dynamic.
Mr. Trochimczuk, Sollers Consulting accompanies the insurance industry as a business and IT consultant. From this perspective, how do you assess the state of digitization?
Michal Trochimczuk: The digital transformation is slow to get going in many companies – also because insurers still use large parts of their IT resources to maintain existing systems. Over 80 percent of European insurers are of the opinion that their legacy systems prevent them from quickly adapting to the market, and this is also reflected in pricing.
Why is time running out for many insurers?
Gero Nießen: Pricing is demanding more and more of the insurers: Similar to the travel industry or in retail, customers today have much more transparency about the competition – and always look for the best price for them. In order to survive in the highly competitive market, the companies therefore need a modern pricing strategy and the technical possibilities to implement this operationally.
Michal Trochimczuk: That has to do with the changed shopping behavior. Not all customers take out their insurance online, but most of them check price comparison portals before going to the intermediary. Research online, purchase offline: We don’t only see this trend in Germany. As a pioneer in the operation of price comparison portals, the British insurer Admiral has become one of the most important market drivers. In the USA, too, insurers are investing in tariff engines so that they can quickly open up new markets. This is particularly important on the highly competitive German market. Insurers often have problems meeting the technical requirements of the aggregators.
What are the consequences?
Gero Nießen: Providers must be able to adjust prices dynamically, for example to react quickly to changes in competitors. At the same time, they must ensure the profitability of these tariff adjustments and be able to check them at any time.
What is the solution?
Gero Nießen: This requires very powerful IT solutions that calculate complex risk, customer behavior and tariff information. These must then be presented to the broker in an understandable manner and appropriately combined in real time. In this way, digitalization also opens up new opportunities for traditional sales.
Michal Trochimczuk: And at the end of the day, the customer benefits from this: If they receive good offers, they stay with them as a customer and their willingness to recommend increases. But insurers need a system landscape that allows them to interact flexibly with other environments, be it at the customer interface or with service providers in the back end. It’s time to put customer needs first.
Willis Towers Watson and Sollers are now cooperating on the implementation of the pricing software Radar Live, which is widely used on the market. What is the benefit?
Gero Nießen: In order to be able to put Radar Live into operation more quickly at the insurer, we have set up a cooperation program. This is how we gain partners who specialize in software implementation in the financial sector. This makes the introduction of our pricing software even smoother.
Michal Trochimczuk: We carry out implementation projects worldwide. The embedding of tariff engines is playing an increasing role in and alongside our core system projects. Insurers have recognized how important it is to be quick on the market with offers. In the joint digitization projects with insurers, Sollers follows a tried and tested delivery model that is characterized by its strong focus on results.
Author: VW editorial team
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