0. Introduction
In a world of advanced technology like supercomputers, digital twins, blockchain and 5G connectivity, it’s less about what’s actually possible, and more about what you think is possible. This means most businesses no longer need to worry about the constraints of the tools they’re using; they don’t have to engineer their innovation strategies around those limitations. Rather, they’re only held back by their own understanding of what’s available, how to use it effectively, and what it is that needs to be fixed.
If you have a clear picture of a problem, know what tools are available and have a vivid imagination, the sky’s the limit.
Recently, we worked with Dutch insurance company De Goudse to help them do just that: use technology pragmatically to solve a real-world problem and build something that actually matters.
Insurers are waking up to innovation.
When you think of the insurance industry, what immediately comes to mind? For many people, insurance is the perfect representation of the mundane, necessary tasks we all need to carry out as functioning adults. It’s the paperwork, the monthly premiums, the extra responsibility, that strange feeling of spending money on something you hope you’ll never actually use.
What people rarely associate with insurance, is innovation: taking a chance with new ideas and technologies. As an industry built around avoiding unnecessary risk, you can see why many insurance companies have kept their head in the sand with the same tools and processes they’ve had for decades.
But insurers are waking up to the fact that failure to innovate is the riskiest move of all. When the world around you is rapidly evolving, and your customers and competitors are riding one technological wave after the next, those tried-and-tested systems and processes will only take you so far.
These days, insurance services are less of an administrative chore and more about profiling and managing risk. As De Goudse ICT Strategy and Innovation Manager Joost Storms describes it, “I don’t think there’s an industry that can benefit as much from all technology has to offer. Everything comes together here.”
A key reason for this is that technology empowers us to collect more data from more granular sources. This data is changing the insurance game for players across the industry: from what clients can insure, to what they pay for that insurance, even down to the scope and detail of targeted coverage.
“At the end of the day, you’re only going to insure what you can measure. If you don’t have data, you’re not going to insure it.”
Let’s explore how Bit used their creative energy and technological expertise to help De Goudse define and solve a meaningful problem.
