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Top 5 Innovative IT Insurance Services

INNOVATIVE IT INSURANCE SERVICES IN A CONSERVATIVE INDUSTRY?

While insurance is not known as an extremely innovative or exciting industry, new technology has created a platform for a number of interesting insurance information technology (IT) services for both consumers and insurance providers. Here we provide an overview of the top 5 innovative IT insurance services.

#1: PAY WHILE YOU DRIVE

Pay-to-drive insurance calculates premiums based on an individual’s driving profile, rewarding safe driving while tracking and increasing premiums on dangerous driving styles. Drivers who constantly speed up, slam on the brakes, or drive in poor weather conditions (eg, snow, rain) find themselves paying higher premiums than those who follow traffic rules. A “black box” device installed in the car tracks the key parameters of the trip and transfers the data to the insurance company, which then regulates the premium rate.

Some insurance companies already offer simplified versions of Pay-as-you-drive solutions:

  • enliven
  • Holland
  • Allianz Lloyd Adriatic

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

#2: SOCIAL BENCHMARKING

Online insurance quoting platforms, such as Kanetix, offer access to a limited number of insurance providers, allowing consumers to review only a subset of prices, which are based on insurance provider data.

Social Benchmarking of Insurance Premiums offers independent consumer-generated data across all insurance providers. As consumers share information about their insurance spending, they can access the collective experience of other consumers, identifying whether they pay too much and who offers the best prices for their peers with a similar insurance profile.

An example of such a service is the InsurEye Peer Comparison tool, which covers not only expense information for online insurance products (20%-30% of the total market), but also for insurance offered directly by insurers, brokers, and agents.

#3: ONLINE POLICY MANAGEMENT

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 begun to close the gap. Many insurance providers now offer online and mobile tools to help consumers manage their policies and provide customer service. One example is TD Insurance, which offers an online service that allows customers to perform many tasks on their own, eliminating the need to call a service line. Examples of such tasks are:

  • Modify contact information
  • Modify an auto policy
  • Modify a home policy
  • Modify a payment plan
  • File a claim

Various insurance providers in both Canada and the United States offer such tools for their clients, including TD Insurance, Nationwide, USAA, and more.

#4: MOBILE DEVICE CLAIMS

Collisions do not happen while you are sitting at home in front of the computer. Instead, many insurance companies have developed solutions to help customers deal with their collision and claims situations on their mobile devices. A typical example of a mobile application offers customers many practical features that reduce headaches in the event of an accident. A typical set of features for such an IT solution includes:

  • List of tips in case of an accident
  • Capture all required accident information (including photos)
  • Find/request towing service
  • Find a repair shop
  • Start a claim process
  • Check claim status
  • Find an insurance agent

These apps are usually free and users can start using them directly after downloading them from an app store. Especially useful is the ability to take a photograph of an accident to document exactly what happened and estimate the potential level of damage.

#5: REMOTE ADJUDICATION

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

Some companies, for example RBC Insurance, have so-called Road Angels – insurance experts who physically come to the scene of the accident to help the customer.

Instead of dispatching an agent to the scene, IT insurance services could potentially provide long-distance support via video. Modern smartphones are capable of streaming two-way video, making it possible to show an insurance expert what happened while making the customer feel more secure.

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

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