Making insurance more mobile

As the industry gears up for the Insurance Accounting & Systems Association event, we speak with Microsoft’s Tony Jacob to find out how mobile applications are transforming processes for insurance agents and their customers.

At a time when there are more mobile devices than humans on the planet, it’s unsurprising that most individuals prefer mobile as their number-one way to be reached and interact. It’s also helping them to be more productive at work, and it’s creating a more engaging and convenient way for companies to communicate with their customers. With this in mind, a growing number of insurance carriers are exploring how they can use both B2B and B2C mobile applications across their businesses – applications that are capable of running on multiple devices.

“Many people, particularly in the emerging markets, access websites from their mobile devices and expect to be able to choose, buy and amend insurance policies or interact with their insurance carriers in the same way,” explains Tony Jacob, managing director of Worldwide Insurance at Microsoft. “Providing mobile applications is also an effective way to attract the ­younger ­generation of potential policyholders, and to supply agents, brokers, claims adjusters and risk engineers with mobile applications and devices that can increase their productivity and allow them to provide an enhanced customers experience to their policyholders.”

While many insurance carriers recognize the benefits mobile applications bring to both their employees and customers, developing and maintaining applications that can be used on multiple operating systems and devices can be challenging. “Our customers and partners find it difficult, time consuming and expensive to develop and support multiple versions of their mobile applications. This requires that they maintain skills in several architectures and support excess infrastructure,” says Jacob.

When Microsoft launches Windows 10 this year, developing mobile insurance applications for various form factors will become easier and more cost effective. Designed to increase interoperability, Windows 10 consolidates the various versions of Microsoft’s operating system to provide a consistent user experience across all devices including mobiles, tablets, laptops, desktops and the new Surface Hub.

“Windows 10 users will be able to develop one application with a context-sensitive interface that will automatically render itself to fit the screen size and input model of whichever device the customer or insurance agent is using,” explains Jacob. “Customers will also be able to build both online and native Windows applications and quickly and easily reconfigure them to run on iOS or Android devices. Meanwhile, new on-ramp tools will enable developers to convert iOS and Android applications to Windows.”

In addition, developers will be able to integrate Microsoft Azure cloud services into their applications, or use that cloud platform to support, provision and deploy their applications. “Using the cloud as an application platform could be a real game-changer for insurance customers and partners because it will enable them to efficiently deliver applications to remote employees, such as independent or captive agents who are distributed widely across a market or region,” says Jacob.

Currently, Microsoft is working with several of its partners to develop a broad range of mobile applications, products and services that are designed to help insurance customers manage their daily insurance needs more conveniently and flexibly.

For example, Insuresoft has launched a new Diamond application to enable property and casualty insurance policyholders to make premium payments, check their policy status, show proof of coverage and print hard copies of their policies directly from Windows Phone or Windows 8.1 devices. Avanade, meanwhile, offers a range of mobile applications to help agents and customers manage life, non-life, and even usage-based insurance scenarios in a more convenient and flexible way.

“The new generation of more responsive mobile applications provides our insurance customers with the opportunity to improve the work style of their remote employees including agents, brokers, financial advisors, claims adjusters and risk engineers,” says Jacob. “Microsoft’s Developer Experience team aims to help our partners develop and deliver mobile applications quickly and in a way that helps them to build their skill sets in areas such as responsive web applications, touch interfaces and cloud as an application platform. We’re currently helping many of our partners to extend their traditional insurance solutions so that they can be used on mobile devices.”

Improving the accuracy and efficiency of claims processing is also high on Microsoft’s agenda. This year, the company has worked with StoneRiver to help it develop and launch a mobile claims adjuster application that enables adjusters to easily gather loss information, add related information and process claims more quickly. Similarly, Microsoft has helped Accenture Duck Creek to develop a Windows-based mobile claims adjuster application to help insurers access claims information and additional data while completing loss inspections in the field, using their Windows Phone and tablets such as the Surface device.

“We’re seeing a new wave of claims adjuster applications that either integrate with, or extend, insurance companies’ back-office claims processing solutions so agents can complete forms on their mobile devices, tablets, laptops or desktops,” says Jacob. “In future, we expect these applications to become better integrated with claims estimating applications and the calculators used in automotive and homeowner adjusting. Developers will also make better use of the peripheral features of Windows devices such as the camera and voice recorders.”

Several Microsoft partners have also developed mobile applications that will boost the productivity of insurance agents and brokers, or help these providers to improve the experience for policyholders and prospective customers.

For example, CSC has created a Windows mobile and touch application with RiskMaster, an integrated claims and risk management mobile application to help property and casualty insurance carriers and self-insured customers to evaluate claims, control legal costs, identify potential fraud and automate policy administration more quickly.
Meanwhile, US-based insurance agency management system provider Vertafore has launched initiatives to provide insurance agents with mobile applications that will help increase their productivity, regardless of the device they are using.

Other Microsoft partners have developed mobile ‘pitchbook’ applications to provide sales representatives with real-time access to model sales presentations and all of the product information they need to explain simple and complex insurance products to customers.

“Curated sales content applications are delivered directly from the cloud to a web or native application on the agent’s mobile device, so that sales content can be accessed easily regardless of the user’s location,” explains Jacob. “Microsoft has also worked with agency management system providers to integrate insurance companies’ customer relationship management (CRM) systems with individual agents’ mobile devices to provide them with additional customer insight and facilitate effective case management.”
For example, Seismic’s app, which is hosted on Microsoft Azure and can be integrated with an insurance company’s CRM system, allows sales agents to share sales documents and presentations, gain a 360-degree view of customers, automatically populate documents with data and more.

Similarly, LIA has developed a curated sales content application that can be used on Windows tablets. Used in 47 countries, LIA allows insurance sales representatives to access relevant content on their mobile devices when dealing with customers in the field. The application also analyses individual employees’ prospects and sales, and then feeds this data back to the management team so they can track performance.

“LIA provides an efficient and effective tool for insurance companies wanting to achieve compliance because management can also ensure version control and provide an audit trail for each sales representative and prospect engagement,” explains David Warren, CEO of LIA. “Plus, customers can now purchase our flagship Windows app using their existing Microsoft budget, enabling them to derive increased incremental value from their investments in Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and Microsoft Azure.”

In addition, Microsoft is collaborating with e-application developers such as iPipeline to provide agents with the mobile tools they need to quickly complete insurance forms when they are closing new deals. The company has also partnered with both AssureSign and DocuSign to ensure that e-signature capabilities are included in its devices, its productivity applications such as Office 365 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Looking ahead, Jacob expects more insurance providers to harness mobile technology to cater to the needs of their employees and customers. He also predicts that more insurance carriers will leverage the internet of things, telematics, usage-based applications and home automation devices.

“Smart devices are becoming increasingly popular as insurance carriers explore how they can capture insights about customer behavior to better price policies, improve underwriting performance or reduce claims loss ratios,” explains Jacob. “The explosion of wearable devices in the marketplace is also prompting companies to explore how data about the wearer’s health and fitness activities can be used to develop life, group and employee insurance programs and products. Over the next few years, insurance providers will need to ensure they can tailor their existing solutions or develop new applications and products to cater for today’s more mobile workforce and consumer base.”