Gartner defines a digital ecosystem as “an interdependent group of actors (enterprises, people, things) sharing standardized digital platforms to achieve a mutually beneficial purpose.” Digital ecosystems enable you to interact with customers, partners, adjacent industries, and even your competition – and they are becoming an increasingly important part of the insurance industry.
In general, we all manoeuvre through various digital ecosystems every day, we just don’t tend to think about it that way. From ordering a taxi or take-out to using the public health system, we all participate in various connected platforms when we are purchasing products and services and engaging with our suppliers. They are simply a way of life in our digital world.
In the insurance industry, ecosystems are offering a new way to do business. For example, many insurers are creating their own ecosystems through which they can collaborate with partners and suppliers, manage claims processes and distribute customized products to customers at a time and place that suits them. Ecosystems can also deliver a massive wealth of information that allows insurers to understand and manage risk better than ever before.
The simple answer is customers – they are simply used to operating digitally and getting a quick, easy and personalized experience, no matter which kind of company they are dealing with. Whether they’re buying a new car, a box of baby food or an insurance policy, they expect to go online and find the information they need to make a good purchase decision, and they expect to find a direct, transparent buying channel. And, when they need to file an insurance claim, they also expect a transparent digital process.
The ecosystem offers a whole range of opportunities to insurers, primarily through the data. Merging historical and new data from the various partners creates value for everyone, as every partner is empowered to offer more personalised products and pro-active services than they could before. Insurance customers, in turn, get a more positive experience and they stay loyal to their insurer, and, in most cases, this also leads to positive word-of-mouth and ultimately an improved reputation for the insurer.
A collaborative culture is hugely important. Whether your company wants to participate in or orchestrate ecosystems, it needs to be willing to collaborate and share data in the ecosystem. If you decide you should be an orchestrator, define a clear value proposition for the ecosystem, build a platform that makes integration easy, and identify incentives for partners to join. And, if you decide to be a participant, define which kinds of ecosystems to participate in and what your contribution could be. Then define a compelling use case based on a specific business area or geographical region. Be sure to create a seamless link to the ecosystem, come up with a clear monetization strategy for the services they contribute, and come up with a protection strategy for your role in the ecosystem.
From a technology standpoint, your core enterprise system needs to be equipped with REST APIs, or readily available integration points that let you connect to third-party service providers. REST is a set of principles for efficiently building web services and is today’s preferred way for software applications to communicate together. Digital native companies, such as Twitter, Amazon, and Uber all operate with REST APIs.
Your REST APIs need to be stable to allow for solid integration and seamless service from provider to provider. As a direct add-on to their core enterprise software, Tia can equip their customers with robust REST APIs that provide developers with front- and back-end integration flexibility and makes integration easier than ever.
Part 1 – The importance of self-service and time-to-market
Part 2 – How boosting efficiency can improve the customer journey and cut costs
