NTT DATA, a global digital business and IT services leader, has launched a new white paper on the insurance industry, "Insurers in the Cloud Journey", which analyses the challenges and opportunities that Cloudification leverage on the insurance industry and presents the company's recommendations based on its global approach. Below is a summary of NTT DATA's research and findings.

Industry Momentum

The insurance industry has been discovering and adapting to digitization for years. However, it was during 2020 that the transformation process had to accelerate due to the pandemics. The cloud environment was no exception to this situation; as a complex industry where customer interactions are highly sensitive, some insurance companies proved to be closer to their customers by understanding and adapting to their needs.

NTT DATA has analyzed the key challenges insurers face when operating in the cloud as part of their digital and technology transformation process. Given the company's expertise in the cloud, NTT DATA offers solutions on how to define the best transformation path for insurers, so that they can overcome future obstacles and shape their digital strategy.

NTT DATA defines this time as the era of connected enterprises, where the insurance industry must be able to actively collaborate with other industries, modernizing its IT landscape and thereby delivering compelling experiences. Leaving the opportunity to open up to all the proven capabilities and possibilities that cloud transformation can offer.

New Routes Towards the Evolution of the Industry

Considering the importance that digitization has brought to the insurance sector due to the way companies connect with their customers, it is important to mention that consumers have a greater affinity for those companies that can communicate in an agile and transparent way, and that can add value to the products and services they offer. With this new consumption landscape, the insurance industry cannot be left behind and must evolve towards hyper-personalization and rapid improvement in customer engagement.

A critical change in the cloud industry is the need for highly digitized processes with the flexibility and agility to adapt to changes in customers' needs and the arrival of new competitors. There is also excessive pressure for innovation to meet the needs of customers, external partners, and employees.

The cloud has become a toolbox full of advantages for all sectors, including the financial and insurance industries. Its qualities are well landed: increases agility, reduces time to market, improves collaboration with the Fintech ecosystem, and attracts talent.

For cloud insurers, staying close to technology is key on their mission to deliver better solutions and experiences to their policyholders. Modernizing the IT landscape helps overcome one of the industry's biggest challenges: the legacy of outdated technology platforms and high IT and operational costs.

NTT DATA Insights

Cloud technology is becoming increasingly relevant in the insurance industry. The move to the cloud is not just a technology journey but requires a comprehensive change program that includes business process transformation as well as the necessary senior management sponsorship and the development of strategic partnerships.

Customers are trying to reach insurance companies from different angles and are looking for a seamless experience. So, insurance companies must connect with them through any channel in a fast and frictionless way. To do this, a cloud architecture that allows for agility, flexibility and scalability is essential.

In addition, when it comes to regulation, compliance and data security, insurers must come up with new approaches. And the cloud is a good way to explore that path.

It is not about thinking about the cloud from a purely technological perspective. The cloud must be used to achieve a business outcome and its adoption must be connected, first and foremost, to the company's strategy.

NTT DATA can support insurers in the following use cases:

• Transform all members of an insurance company by establishing a complete journey to enable the adoption of the cloud mindset.
• Developing a detailed action plan to deliver the activities required to achieve the objective.
• Refine the strategy for using the cloud to achieve business objectives, ensuring business-technology alignment.
• For data-driven insurance, define strategies, policies, and procedures in areas such as the CDO (Data Governance Office) or the DataHub structure.
• Analyze organizations' business processes to identify automation transformation levers and KPIs.

NTT DATA has recently supported a project for an insurance company that was making its journey to the cloud and was interested in maintaining a high-quality service for its customers. Our over 20 years of expertise as a third-party administrator (TPA), allowed NTT DATA to deliver great benefits from this project such as a standardized operating model, ranging from due diligence to transition to service delivery, policy volume growth or driving operational cost reduction, among others.

Conclusions

We are in the age of connected businesses and ecosystems, and insurance companies are no strangers to this new way of interacting. They must prepare to actively collaborate with other players in the industry, modernizing their IT landscape to deliver even more engaging experiences. This technological transformation has a key ally: the cloud. And insurers must take full advantage of the already proven capabilities and possibilities offered by the cloud.

Download the white paper here.

About NTT DATA

NTT DATA – a part of NTT Group – is a trusted global innovator of IT and business services headquartered in Tokyo. We help clients transform through consulting, industry solutions, business process services, IT modernization and managed services. NTT DATA enables clients, as well as society, to move confidently into the digital future. We are committed to our clients' long-term success and combine global reach with local client attention to serve them in over 50 countries. Visit us at nttdata.com.

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