Digital transformation is seeping into every sector of society. With an acute directional shift towards what will soon become a fully digital economy – technologies like (AI) artificial intelligence, (ML) machine learning and native cloud have businesses adapting to the ever-evolving tech environment to improve, enhance and in some cases disrupt industries – for a positive outcome.
In a recent interview with Mishaya Chettiar, Executive Head at Everything.Insure – an all-in-one paperless insurance marketplace that puts the power of selecting the best insurance option into the hands of the customer, delves deeper into how the company is breaking ground through using state-of-the-art technology to disrupt, transform and improve the insurance industry for the benefit of all South Africans.
- What are some of the unique differentiators of Everything.Insure that distinguishes it as a marketplace as opposed to an Insurer?
Well, firstly, we are independent, and you can buy directly from us. With most insurers, you cannot buy directly from them, and would need to go through a pretty onerous process, via a call center or a broker, to get access to their products.
With us, being a marketplace, we provide you with multiple insurers’ products, that have been curated by us, and like any other true marketplace, you can buy directly off the site. We also have bespoke products that have been created by us with the insurers, these are exclusive to our platform.
Additionally, Unlike any of the insurers, Everything.Insure has an entirely digital journey that enables customers to edit their policies, add, pause, or cancel cover, load claims, or request emergency services for all their insurance products, regardless of insurer. There is no paperwork or unsolicited phone calls, whereas with most insurers there is varying degrees of paperwork and call center or broker interaction.
Everything.Insure gives you the best of both, digital self-service when you want it and broker support when you need it.
- Could you divulge a little more about how your approach aims to change the insurance landscape for consumers?
We set out to reinvent the insurance industry for the benefit of both the insurer and the consumer. We did not just want to digitalise the existing processes but also create digital solutions for the pain points in the traditional insurance sector.
The first thing we tried to solve was the challenge consumers have in getting real, comparative quotes digitally and being able to understand and compare them to make an informed choice. Everything.Insure curates the insurance market to find or create the best products from the best insurers, to provide multiple quotes that customers can instantly buy online without any paperwork or phone calls. We have tools to help clients compare the products and make a choice based on details of cover, the quality of the insurer and price.
The second thing that we tried to solve was that insurance is a grudge purchase. Part of the reason for this is that customers do not understand what they are buying, they do not understand what they are covered for and the entire process is overwhelming and time consuming. As a result of this, customers get frustrated at the claims stage when they find out their cover was not what they thought it was.
Everything.Insure aims to demystify insurance and bring transparency to the process. We were one of the first to get a license from the FSCA for digital advice, effectively making us a digital broker. This means that Everything.Insure spends a lot of time working on the way we ask questions, the advice we provide along the way, and the tools we build to help clients compare and make informed decisions.
- What would you say are the benefits of this transformation?
This transformation results in much needed innovation in an industry that has remained the same and been resistant to change for decades. We have not just digitalised existing insurance processes, we have reinvented it.
For the consumer, this means they are now empowered to take control of their insurance, because we have solved accessibility and transparency and continue to strive to demystify complicated concepts and make sure the consumer understands what they are buying.
This results in less confusion and frustration and a more pleasant experience for the client. With multiple insurers being curated by us and that rating being made available to the consumer, they have peace of mind that they have the right product, from the right provider at the right price.
- What can you tell us about the important role that women play in reshaping the insurance industry and why their presence is crucial?
Group think is the enemy of innovation, and therefore diversity is key to disruption and innovation. We should always try to avoid having people of the same age, background, race, or gender in an industry make key decisions because we will never move forward.
Women have valuable insights and perspectives that are key to innovation, and the move to more diversity has contributed to the innovation we have seen in the insurance industry in the past decade.
- Can you share some insight as to how Everything.Insure will be implementing digital transformation strategies into its core services?
Everything we do is digital, from acquisition to post sign-up to claims. All client facing functions have been reinvented and made fully digital. Our rating, underwriting and risk profiling is all enabled by leading technologies and we continue to remove manual intervention from the process so that people can focus on what matters – customer service.
- What new technologies have Everything.Insure employed in its operations?
Everything.Insure is a tech start-up so we are not digitising the traditional, we are transforming an industry.
We took what exists and started to look at all the inefficiencies and pain points for the consumer and insurer and spent years coming up with disruptive solutions, most of which will never be seen on the surface.
We are fully cloud native and make use of all the cloud tools and technologies. We started by building the platform on a different tech stack than what we have now, but made a difficult decision a few years ago to rebuild on an enterprise grade platform for developing digital first applications.
We also make use of many of the cutting edge AI and ML tools being used in the market and strive to grow in this space all the time.