Why multinational insurers are embracing low-code core systems
Mike Smart, Sales Director, Europe for Duck Creek Technologies takes a look at how more multinational, multi-line insurance companies are distilling complexity into streamlined efficiency using low-code core systems
Multinational insurance companies offering the full scope of P&C and general insurance products from commercial and personal lines to specialty coverages have sometimes struggled with the complexity of their IT systems. Changing things, adding new products or upgrading has felt like moving a juggernaut for many in the past, resulting in endless coding projects at core system level that are a drag on productivity and operational efficiency.
And yet they have invested vast amounts of time, money and resources into getting it right because it is critical for the millions of customers that rely on them every day.
It’s a challenge we hear often at Duck Creek when talking to our customers, and ultimately they want to know one thing – what does good look like? How can they react to new market trends and evolving customer expectations more nimbly, but still be confident in the security and robustness of their core systems?
How low can you go?
By deploying standard, pre-tested components, low-code configurations are providing exactly these attributes at scale across an insurer’s global operations. That’s because in the world of coding, less is more.
Low-code environments use tried and tested modular components that typically have fewer bugs or integration issues – freeing up an insurer’s IT and coding teams to focus on higher value activities such as product innovation.
This also lowers the barriers to sharing, testing and implementing the best ideas with the business – essentially opening the door to side users to share their ideas for improving products and processes, regardless of IT skill, and helping make the best ones a reality for consumers.
As well as rapidly speeding up development cycles and dramatically lowering system maintenance requirements, low-code configuration tools also afford in-depth, automated data analysis across an operation to gain true global oversight from a myriad of data sources.
Where in the past insurers have grappled with multiple change points across their systems, low-code tools found in the Duck Creek platform are laser focused on providing insurers with a single point of configuration across their operations. The reason for this focus is to power a truly holistic view of customer data and to help insurers accelerate both their speed-to-market and operational efficiency at the same time and with a single point of change.
Low-code is a philosophy
Multinational insurers provide critical products and services to millions of individuals and businesses, and can’t afford to misstep when it comes to their core systems.
Ultimately, the insurers we work with have discovered that low-code tools are also about changing their mindset – realising that what makes their business unique and valuable does not lie in the complexity of the coding of their core platform. Instead it lies in their ability to innovate and react quickly, simplify unnecessary complexity and give their customers the most relevant products they require, with the best experience possible.
