In my first post in this series, I provided Guidewire’s perspective that we are at the early stage of a new era of P&C systems (see The Engagement Era). In a subsequent blog post, I described the operating results being seen by insurers that are leading the industry through leveraging technology to transform their business (see Defining the Engagement Era System).
There is another important outcome when insurers embrace the engagement era by using technology to meet users on their own terms by providing the journeys and experiences that they want. It is the potential to elevate the work of insurance.
Consider this point: Insurance knowledge workers spend far too much of their time on repetitive, mundane work that offers little value to the policyholder or agent. Guidewire’s Value Consulting team has worked on more than 300 engagements over the last decade. Based on this experience, we estimate that 80% of workers’ time is spent on basic tasks and compliance (see “Hierarchy of Insurance Work” below).
However, by adopting engagement era systems, which are optimized to make insurance knowledge workers more efficient and effective, insurers will gain time that can be invested in more strategic work, so that knowledge workers can better apply their expertise and experience, and so that personal interactions can offer additional value. In addition to freeing up time, the morale of knowledge workers will increase—which itself will result in better quality of service to policyholders and agents.
To learn more about the engagement era and why insurers should care, watch this short video featuring Guidewire’s CEO, Marcus Ryu.