Why the cloud and digital-first platforms are key for SME insurance growth

The opportunities to insure smaller businesses are many and next generation technology is key to expanding into this market. But legacy systems are still holding back a lot of insurers as their competitors realise growth by embracing new tools such as cloud-based digital-first platforms.

We caught up with James Webb, senior director product marketing, insurance at insurtech Vlocity, to find out how digital advances are making a difference ahead of the Intelligent Insurer webinar ‘Grow SME Insurance with Next Generation Digital Capabilities’ on June 30.

Question: What will the webinar panel be discussing?

James Webb (JW): Many small businesses are clearly underinsured. Business interruption has been the major problem recently, and many SMEs face increasingly complex technology-related risks. Commercial lines insurers have an opportunity to better service their customers' changing needs, and new digital applications have a key role to play. During the webinar, we're looking forward to hearing how insurers are taking full advantage of the latest technology to grow their business.

Q: What does ’next-generation digital capabilities’ mean to you?

JW: Insurers are still held back by a sprawl of on-premise legacy systems that cost a fortune to run, are hard to change, and can't support the modern digital experience that customers and everyone else now expect. But insurers are now moving to modern cloud-native platforms with digital-first applications. This makes it easier for them to quickly configure and release new products, scale up underwriting and agent productivity, enjoy better collaboration with distribution partners and improve the customer experience. There are also the advantages of cloud-native connectivity to third-party applications and analytical tools on the same platform.

Q: Tell us a bit about the technology you use?

JW: Vlocity’s Digital Insurance Platform enables insurers and managing general agents to run their core insurance processes on Salesforce, with full integration with Salesforce Financial Services Cloud.  The platform’s microservices cloud architecture can drive quotes, policy administration, claims management, service, and billing that can be used for brokers, agents, policyholders and service representatives. It supports non-life and life insurers with speed-to-market, customer-centric experiences with straight-through processing and a digital-first approach - all without code.

Q: Why is this kind of technology so important for growing SME insurance now and in the future?

JW: Cloud-based digital-first applications now offer deep insurance-specific functionality. Insurers can have a faster, more flexible and cost-effective way of deploying new products and services and engaging better with their customers and channels partners.

Q: What else will listeners be able to learn from this webinar?

JW: Webinar listeners will hear how the insurers on the panel are making use of data and analytics to get better insights into the needs of their customers and channel partners, so they can service them more effectively.

Join Vlocity for our upcoming webinar: 'Grow SME Insurance with Next Generation Digital Capabilities' to get the details on how insurers such as Aviva, Zurich and Ascot and their go-to-market partners are working together to expand their SME business with next-generation digital capabilities. This webinar takes place on June 30 at 10am ET/4pm BST.

Speakers include:

- Marianne Haenggi, head of eCommerce Strategy, Zurich

- Kevin Mooney, senior vice president head of SME Casualty Business, Ascot

- Ranila Ravi-Burslem, SME Solutions director, Aviva

- Frédéric Valluet, head of insurance EMEA, Vlocity

Click here to register now for this complimentary webinar