Managed services in higher demand since COVID-19: Xceedance

The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated journeys towards digitisation in the re/insurance industry and highlighted the power not only of remote working, but also of engaging managed services providers to handle key processes.

This is the view of Justin Davies, EMEA region head for strategic insurance consulting and managed services provider, Xceedance.

He added that companies are becoming more willing to engage managed services providers located in other countries.

“Initially some companies were reluctant to have operations offshore, but now insurance executives who didn’t like working from home are much more supportive of the model,” Davies said.

“With the current shift to work-from-home approaches, it’s not a great leap to be willing to consider deploying people who work abroad.

“The reality is that as long as they are meeting their KPIs it does not matter if they are in Brighton or Bangalore it’s the quality of the people doing the work that is crucial.”

Xceedance is a global insurance consulting, managed services, and insurtech company with offices in the US, the UK, Switzerland, Poland, Australia, and India. The company’s geographic spread enables its staff to handle insurance operations and processes in multiple languages a key advantage amid increasing globalisation.

Another key feature is the company’s emphasis on ensuring its staff have high levels of insurance expertise.

“Our industry expertise is important so re/insurers can be comfortable and confident in engaging with Xceedance, and because insurance operations workflows are fairly complicated,” he said.

“Our people can do the work because they understand insurance and more re/insurers are coming to realise that industry-focused managed services is a viable option for them.”

Support and improve
“We are here to support and help improve insurance ecosystems it’s about refining and optimising processes, often by applying appropriate automation and intelligent technologies, and enabling our clients to be more productive and effective in their operations and policyholder services,” Davies explained.

“We also help design new products, to support the growth of clients.”

He added that the re/insurance industry’s ability to embrace change will be a key factor in its success when facing up to the impact of COVID-19.

“Generally, the insurance industry is highly adaptable, having gone through a lot of change, and having weathered tumultuous events such as 9/11 and many extreme catastrophes.

“Overall, the industry’s resilience and acumen will inspire it to cope with the current pandemic crisis.

“I think some lines of business will get scaled back, and there is a concern in the market about company insolvencies due to COVID-19 and various potential losses within financial lines products in particular.

“D&O and trade credit risk, for example, are being strategically reviewed by organisations, and clearly there is looming uncertainty around business interruption claims.

“Broadly speaking, while there will inevitably be layers of upheaval and change, the industry will endure, adapt, and flourish over time.

“One important consideration is that companies already well on the path to digitisation are going to fare better than companies that were fairly inactive, and are now behind in automating their connections between operational processes,” he concluded.