GEC NEWS WIREHow has insurance sector been in 2016 and how is it now?
Insurance sector has grown more or less in every part of the world. There is lot of evolution coming up in the insurance sector which will redefine the business models and technology is majorly disrupting the Insurance business models. On Demand Insurance and Peer to Peer insurance on technology platforms have started reshaping the business models. Digital Insurers have started pushing traditional players to optimize and consolidate. Coverage is to out where it is not available. Then there are insurance companies which are completely on mobile. They don’t have an office like Atom Bank. Lemonade and many others have created an online Peer to peer setup. Distribution of products and services are on a major shift in financial services and this is supplemented by technologies. Erstwhile processes are challenged and replaced or made redundant by technology. Evolution of On Demand Lending and On demand Insurance viz micro lending and micro insurance have started redefining business models and structures. And now everything is now getting transformed as a service which is pay as you use.
What technologies are penetrating in the financial sector?
The biggest impact here, is going to be Blockchain. Blockchain will change the way the businesses are run. Apart from Blockchain, I see emergence of AI which is primarily machine learning, deep learning and robotic process automation. Now there are robo advisors who are working as customer services for banks, insurance companies. Robo advisor’s advice the clients what is relevant to the customer real time in terms of products and services. Mining data real time helps financial service to predict the immediate requirement of the customer. Now these robo advisors are crawling on your respective devices and mining your requirements like where are you moving towards, where are you spending, what are you buying, and based on that they will predict and propose products and services. Another space where I see the impact is the IoT. In financial services, I see IoT coming in for trade finance, the telematics, fit bits. Analytics has to be there to take care of it. Smart Cities and Smart homes, smart devices are creating an ecosystem of self-sustenance and self-services.
Use cases around Blockchain, IOT and AI are plugging gaps and loopholes in existence for many decades.
Do you consider going paperless?
Our mission is to go paperless and too very soon as we are financial services traditionally is paper driven. It is just not about going green but getting completely optimized and digitalized.
Should CIO’s change the business or lead it?
CIO’s should be change practitioners and should lead the change. When a CIO decides to adopt technology, and make it a DNA of the system, they have to split out the regular operations and the change management for innovation/ disruption. There must be clear cut demarcation between proposing Innovative solutions and supporting existing setup with regular operations. CIO’s should question on status quo of operations and continuously improvise new way of operating the business. CIO’s should be financially sound to derive the value of the change and build a solid business case. With everything turning into service CIO’s should be cautious on how to play the game of consuming it as service and pay as you use to derive a value of the business case.
CIO’s should come out of the shell of supporting business on what business requires, in fact empower business to be differentiators. To lead it, how they innovate is important. So, leading the change should not go with regular operations.
What is your market positioning in UAE?
Union Insurance is one of the top 5 insurance companies in the UAE market which is licensed by UAE insurance authority and listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange. We provide a comprehensive range of retail and commercial insurance products to clients in the UAE and the Middle East region. In 2012, we were in the 21st position and in just 5 years, we have reached the 5th position. We are the 3rd most profitable company and 5th from revenue side.
How is financial sector going to be by 2020?
Financial sector is going to change completely by 2020. Dubai government announced Blockchain and the Blockchain council is here in Dubai. The entire financial services set up will be on Blockchained. Financial Sector will see a major shift in terms their respective business models. Traditional players in financial sector will either shift to new business models offering different version of products and services. With millennial market around the corner a new version of products and services have to defined and access of products and services has to be real time. By 2020 market landscape will change drastically with millennials entering the financial services market and financial services market has to evolve this tech savvy market.
What challenges do the CIO’s face while implementing new technologies?
I do not think there is any challenge, challenges always point to opportunity. CIO’s should foresee opportunities accordingly plan and build good business cases backed up by financials to implement. CIO’s should be in the market to predict the upcoming demands and quickly spin off the project to test the waters. Now technology world is offering everything as a service, CIO’s can
CIO’s should break the challenges into units and start resolving each unit and test it in their respective markets or organizations to validate and resolve.
The ecosystem is very friendly and support adoption of new technologies. It is the way the CIO’s build a business case.
