This week’s curator, Livio Hughes, looks at the multiple challenges faced by insurers as they simultaneously attempt to come to terms with new #InsurTech propositions, manage new and emerging risks, and prepare to improve their limited internal digital capabilities; he also shares some related guides from Shift*Base and picks 5 links for further reading on the topic.

Digital Transformation in Insurance: Beyond CX

The insurance-specific element of the #FinTech challenge is yet to be understood by many insurers, whose digital transformation efforts are currently mainly focussed on traditional activities, like improving online customer journeys and using digital as a direct channel. My blog post below outlines the current state of digital transformation in insurance, and argues that future digital winners in the sector will combine both historical and future probability data capabilities to successfully underwrite new and evolving risks, while simultaneously building lasting digital capabilities in-house to better respond to constant change.

> See Digital transformation in insurance: beyond CX

Shift*Base Updates

In common with other Financial Services companies, insurance firms are increasingly looking to agile ways of working as a more responsive way to handle much-needed internal transformation efforts. However, ‘agile’ is often understood and applied in a variety of ways – some more effective than others – so here is our comprehensive Shift*Base Guide on how to apply the most relevant elements of this approach, in the right corporate context.

Also, as part of our inquiry into the future of accounting firms, we just published some thoughts on how the ideas we are exploring about the future of the firms can also help address more immediate short-term challenges they are facing.

Shift*Groups Updates

Our (free) invitation-only community for change agents and internal practitioners of social business, collaboration and digital transformation remains open for new members, whilst we conduct a review of the site and look at how to improve its user experience and utility and consult on how we can better support the community.

Weekly Linklog

  • Balderton Capital’s Rob Moffatt discusses the opportunities for the insurance sector and outlines a raft of challenges that InsurTech startups face when trying to compete with established companies. Rob’s blog post is almost a year old, but remains one of the most cogent outlines of the sector viewed from a VC investment perspective. Disrupting insurance
  • Yann Ranchere of Anthemis Group’s excellent review of the insurance sector’s likelihood to get disrupted by new, more agile entrants. The comparison between insurance and investment management are very relevant and worth exploring further, not least given the common interest that exists between these two sectors. Is the Insurance Industry about about to change radically?
  • Fascinating Deloitte interview with Aviva’s CIO Monique Shivanandan, mandated by CEO Mark Wilson to help transform this venerable global insurer with a very long history into a digital leader in its field. Aviva CIP on Insurer’s Digital Transformation
  • Daily Fintech’s research on the growth of InsurTech startups shows a greater-than-tenfold growth in the past year. While it’s still very early days, and there are some doubts about the durability of many of these propositions, it’s an interesting round up of the sector. Our Analysis of 156 #InsurTech Ventures During Cambrian Explosion, Daily Fintech
  • London’s first InsurTech Startup Accelerator – part of the global Startupbootcamp network. This page provides a list of the #InsurTech startups that went through the first Demo Day on April 16th, while this link gives you access to all the day’s pitches – definitely worth a read. Startupbootcamp InsurTech Accelerator, London

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