Digitized products are the basic requirement for setting up automated processes – from submission and policy production to claims management. By automating repeating tasks, insurers save valuable time and enable their underwriters to focus on more interesting details that matter. Here again, flexibility is key. Even rather simple processes might differ in detail depending on the context they are in. Industrial insurers have to be able to adjust digital processes on a very fine-grained level.

„Show me your risk and I tell you what can be covered for which premiums“. This is the basic mode of action when it comes to insurance policies. And this is the setting which frames most digitization initiatives at the moment. Automated processes can be introduced in different areas along these lines. They aim at reducing manual work and in turn speeding up workflows. An important prerequisite – in addition to a digitized product portfolio – is a certain degree of standardization.

Take the calculation of premiums for example: A clear notion of the type and structure of information that is required for the calculation is needed. This leads directly to the underwriting model. Which questions have to be answered by clients and which questions are optional? What is the minimal set of data for carrying out the calculation? The introduction of digital processes is typically accompanied by thorough analyses of the processes themselves. They try to get to the bottom of the processes from the insurer’s perspective and identify starting points for more standardized operations. For automating insurance processes like underwriting, IT and insurance know how must get together.

Flexible Workflows

Similar to digital insurance products, digital processes in the area of industrial insurance have to be easily adaptable to changing situations. There has to be a balance between standardization and customizability. While the core principles of processes may stay the same, the details may change. Within short periods of time different persons of contact or different business units might get involved. Depending on the sales context, there can be quite different information flows between clients, brokers and insurers. Due to its complexity there is no single workflow in a digitalized industrial insurance scenario. Instead, there is a multitude of potentially similar, but slightly different workflows depending on the sales context among others.

Automated processes release underwriters from repeating tasks and therefore save them time and trouble. On top of that, they provide new means for making better informed decisions. If claims are digitally filed and managed automatically for example, underwriters always have the most recent claims history at hand. The automatically updated history enables them to assess new scenarios more precisely and to adjust coverages if necessary.