Top 5 innovative IT insurance services

INNOVATIVE IT INSURANCE SERVICES IN A CONSERVATIVE INDUSTRY?

Although the insurance industry is not known as a highly innovative or exciting industry, new technologies have created a platform for a range of exciting insurance IT services for both consumers and insurance providers. Here we offer an overview of the 5 best innovative IT insurance services.

#1: PAY AS YOU DRIVE

Pay-as-you-drive insurance calculates premiums based on a person’s driving profile, rewards safe driving while tracking, and increases premiums for dangerous driving styles. Drivers who constantly drive fast, brake suddenly or in bad weather conditions (e.g. snow, rain) pay higher premiums than those who follow the rules of the road. A “black box” device installed in the cars tracks the key parameters of the trip and transmits the data to the insurance company, which then regulates the premium price.

Some insurance companies are already offering simplified versions of pay-as-you-drive solutions:

• Aviva
• hollard
• Allianz Lloyd Adriatico

Companies like Accenture are researching this topic intensively in order to offer new solutions.

#2: SOCIAL BENCHMARKING

Online insurance quoting platforms such as Kanetix all provide access to a limited number of insurance providers, allowing consumers to only analyze a subset of prices based on the insurance provider’s data.

Insurance premium social benchmarking provides independent, consumer-generated data across all insurance service providers. When consumers share information about their insurance spending, they can access the collective experience of other consumers to see if they are overpaying and who is offering the best rates to peers with a similar insurance profile.

An example of such a service is InsurEye’s peer comparison tool, which not only covers spend information for online insurance products (20% to 30% of the total market), but also for insurance offered directly by insurers, brokers and agents.

#3: ONLINE POLICY ADMINISTRATION

Online banking has become the norm, but online insurance management? Personal banking finance management tools and other useful online IT services are available to consumers free of charge. Finally, the insurance industry has started to fill the gap. Now many insurers are offering online and mobile tools to help consumers manage their policies and provide customer support. An example is TD Insurance, which offers an online service that allows customers to perform many tasks themselves, eliminating the need for a service line. Examples of such tasks are:

• change contact information
• Change a car policy
• Change a home policy
• Change a payment plan
• Lodge a complaint

A number of insurers in both Canada and the US offer such tools for their customers, e.g.

#4: MOBILE DEVICE CLAIMS

Collisions don’t happen while you’re at home in front of the computer. Instead, many insurance companies have developed solutions to help customers manage their collisions and claims situations on their mobile devices. Case in point, the mobile application provides customers with many handy features that reduce headaches in the event of an accident. The typical features of such an IT solution include:

• List of tips in case of an accident
• Gather all required accident information (incl. photos)
• Find / order towing service
• Find a repair shop
• initiate a complaints procedure
• Check the status of the damage
• Find an insurance agent

Such apps are usually free and users can use them right after downloading them from an app store. The ability to photograph an accident is particularly useful to document exactly what happened and assess the potential level of damage.

#5: REMOTE DECISION

If you’ve ever been in a traffic accident, you’re probably familiar with the range of emotions you experience: fear for your own health and that of your passengers, worries about the financial impact on future insurance premiums, not being sure what to do and getting in What order, dealing with police, towing services, another motorist, etc.

Some companies, e.g. B. RBC insurance, have so-called road angels – insurance experts who physically arrive at the scene of the accident to support the customer.

Instead of sending an agent to a scene, IT insurance services may be delivered via video of remote investigations. Modern smartphones are able to transmit two-way video to show an insurance expert what happened while keeping the customer safer.

Video conferencing providers like Skype already offer these tech features, and Apple has FaceTime, a new video chat for its iPhone users. It is probably only a matter of time before this technology becomes a mature IT insurance service.