Insurance

No-code and low-code platform in insurance: The future is multi-platform

The accelerated digital transformation across industries has stirred up the proverbial hornet’s nest in the insurance industry too. To keep pace with new-age fintechs, and the expectations of the digital-savvy consumer, insurance companies need to offer innovative solutions. This requires companies to move quickly, so that they may offer solutions to keep up with market demand. However, the insurance industry is still catching up to the digital trend. Insurance companies have begun to explore low-code or no-code solutions to up their operational efficiency. Why is that? Low-code is a rapid application development (RAD) method that offers a visual approach to coding. It minimises the need for traditional programming, which speeds up the delivery timelines for solutions. Low-code applications can thus be made available to business users, to further reduce the need for technical resources. For example, technical solutions such as modernising legacy applications, business process management (BPM) solutions, or mobile application development solutions lend themselves well to the low-code approach. While low-code application development may require minimal coding, the no-code approach is a plug-and-play RAD method. This approach is ideal for standardised applications such as productivity apps, simple automation, content management, dashboards and so on.

Clearly, both approaches are attractive to the insurance industry, given that they need to do a quick ramp-up to digitise. In fact, a Gartner research report recommends that Property & Casualty (P&C) insurers adopt emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), low-code tools and open application programming interfaces (APIs) to build a digital foundation that would enhance growth and optimise operational efficiency. Worldwide, the low-code application development technologies market is expected to grow to $26.9 billion in 2023 alone, a rise of 20% from 2022. Low-code technologies are further expected to accelerate through 2026, due to the increasing number of non-IT personas and business users, the requirement for customised business workflows, and rapid application delivery. So, what really are the benefits of low-code and no-code approaches?

The advantages of low-code/no-code in insurance

Worldwide, insurers are realising the benefits of adopting low-code/no-code. Consider an example. LifeFirst Insurance wants to scale up citizen developer training and move it from the corporate HQ to an online model so that more business users can be trained. The IT team at LifeFirst chose to use a combination of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and a low-code approach to develop the e-learning portal at a faster pace. This resulted in an increased number of certifications, promoted an innovative mindset amongst the citizen developers, and reduced training costs. What’s not to like?

Leveraging low-code solutions for functions such as claims processing helps to streamline processes and ultimately increases customer satisfaction. Low-code approaches to customer relationship management (CRM) solutions can help insurers build effective customised solutions as opposed to off-the-shelf alternatives. Rapid application development also helps demonstrate business value quickly, resulting in greater appreciation and reducing the risk of rework. And these are just a few instances. There are several other benefits of adopting the low-code / no-code approach to application development.

Transform customer experience at lower costs and higher speeds

By delivering technology in the hands of business users who are closer to customer demands, the low-code approach is a safer approach to implementing solutions that actually solve business problems. Business users or citizen developers who are responsible for pricing or distribution decisions can leverage pre-existing workflows to create unique and innovative solutions.

Increase agility and flexibility for insurers

Traditional insurance companies have had to wrangle with new-age fintechs in terms of offering personalised products.
The availability of building blocks and the ability to create custom workflows with minimum coding gives insurers the flexibility to create custom products and services for customers.

Helps automate the insurance value chain

Insurance companies have legacy systems that have to be gradually dismantled, rather than just being ripped off. New applications need to be able to access and interact with these legacy systems. Most insurers use more than one insurance platform to solve their business needs. Rather than going in for a complete overhaul of the technology, which can prove to be both risky and costly, the low-code/no-code approach allows insurance companies to offer relevant digital solutions that solve business problems, and access existing systems while undergoing a phased digital transformation.

Promotes talent diversity

The low-code/no-code approach empowers citizen developers. One direct benefit is that the new products and services are relevant to customers, as they are designed and implemented by business users. This also reduces the dependence on technology developers with advanced skill sets. These technical resources can be redeployed to solve more critical and complex problems such as security, fraud detection and data insights. The citizen developers can use visual interface elements such as drag-and-drop elements and combine them with rules, to create configurable and personalised products.

The low-code/no-code approach to insurance digital transformation* is attractive. However, insurance companies need to ensure that it is strategic in nature so that they realise business value. Cultural changes need to be considered, alongside the provision of a learning platform and training for citizen developers. By adopting a balanced approach, insurers can leverage low-code and no-code technologies to accelerate digital transformation, drive revenues with new products and services and enhance customer experience.

*For organizations on the digital transformation journey, agility is key in responding to a rapidly changing technology and business landscape. Now more than ever, it is crucial to deliver and exceed on organizational expectations with a robust digital mindset backed by innovation. Enabling businesses to sense, learn, respond, and evolve like a living organism, will be imperative for business excellence going forward. A comprehensive, yet modular suite of services is doing exactly that. Equipping organizations with intuitive decision-making automatically at scale, actionable insights based on real-time solutions, anytime/anywhere experience, and in-depth data visibility across functions leading to hyper-productivity, Live Enterprise is building connected organizations that are innovating collaboratively for the future.