It has been observed that one of the challenges for insurance companies is a lack of customer engagement and positive, regular interactions. One approach to solving this problem is by maintaining a «live connection» to the customer via mobile apps, sensors and other devices and engaging the customer through gamification and other incentives. Lifestyle insurance products are an interesting application of this concept.
Insurers can use data from such electronic devices that monitor vital signs, activity, sleep patterns and others for underwriting & pricing but also to collect valuable insights about the customer and use them to offer tailored service. The well-known Vitality program is one of such initiatives, offering to policyholders not only reduction in premium rates but positive influence on their health and positive daily interactions with the insurer.
This is exactly what WeSavvy, a lifestyle platform from Ireland, is offering. It is interesting to find out that they have recently teamed up with ADACTA, one of the leading providers of insurance IT systems in the EMEA region. Frank Genheimer from New Insurance Business had the chance to meet the people behind this cooperation for an interview.
Hesus, Matej, could you please introduce yourself and your companies in short?
Hesus: My interest in Insurance first arose in the University of Limerick, to whom I owe a huge gratitude for cultivating my interest in the dynamic world of international insurance. I obtained a BA Honors Degree in International Insurance and European Studies from UL and after graduating, I completed a Post-Grad. in Financial Services with University College Dublin and the Institute of Bankers. I went on to achieve the industry benchmark qualifications of Chartered Insurer, Chartered Banker and Qualified Financial Advisor.
Throughout my corporate insurance career I have worked with a number of top international Life and Non-Life cross border insurance carriers, which provided me with great insights into the manner in which the industry needs to change to embrace technological advancements. I went on to found WeSavvy which is a platform that uses everyday IoT devices to help policyholders leverage their data and maintains a centralised marketplace for engagement. Policyholders can be rewarded for their day-to-day positive behaviour. WeSavvy is initially aimed at the Life, Protection and Health insurance industry but given the flexibility of the platform it can also be configured for use in Non-Life insurance (Motor, Home and Property) markets.
Matej: I lead the Financial Services division at Adacta Group. Our mission is to add value to our customers in the insurance industry by combining in-depth domain expertise with technology. Our flagship product is AdInsure, a recognized core platform for non-life, life and health insurance. I am a Computer Scientist at heart and have worked with the Financial Services Industry for over 15 years.
What exactly offers WeSavvy? How can customers benefit?
Hesus: At WeSavvy we are building a transformed insurance marketplace where decisions are made based on real-time data and where customers maintain control over their premium by leveraging their lifestyle data from IoT devices. Customers can now be rewarded daily for their lifestyle in a transparent and fair manner. WeSavvy also offers customers a degree control over their premium, which a lot of customer feel they have lost, and WeSavvy fundamentally changes the insurance model as customers now can receive benefits past Indemnification. What this means is that even if the customer doesn’t claim throughout the policy they will still have generated value from their insurance cover.
Do you really think that customers are ready and interested in that? What is your experience?
Hesus: Internet-driven connectivity and new technologies have changed consumers’ behaviours and expectations. Consequently, many customers perceive the insurance experience as painful and lacking in ‘wow’ moments. Insurance companies are often affiliated with lacking great consumer experience.
Our model resonates with customers as it‘s focused on transparency, empowerment and rewarding customers as opposed to penalisation and disengagement. Customers are willing to share information if they are going to get real value from doing so.
This is a great opportunity to tackle the fractured circle of trust between the insurer and customer. Insurance is fundamentally the sale of a promise. This fractured relationship can often affect the sale of this promise, and the customers‘ trust in the insurer‘s willingness to deliver on its promise.
Is WeSavvy already live in insurance markets or are we talking just about a nice concept?
Hesus: It still surprises me that with Vitality being in the market for over a decade, that we are still discussing Lifestyle Insurance as a concept. The fundamental difference between us and Vitality is how we think of the Lifestyle Insurance proposition. Vitality was born from a South African Insurer with an Insurer’s perspective in mind whereas WeSavvy was born as a technology company with the Customer’s perspective in mind.
With the customer view at the epicenter we take a broader look at the opportunity. It’s similar to certain internet browsers emerging with a view of what the browsing experience should be but Google focused on customer experience and their search ranking algorithm. We spent the last few years building and testing that our algorithms work and tested it in 3 different continents with different customer characteristics and behavior. We have corporate clients and we are now focusing on full rollout in 2018 into the Insurance market.
Matej, why did you choose WeSavvy as cooperation partner and what are your plans together? How will you work together?
Matej: New technologies are transforming the insurance industry and at Adacta, we believe the core system is at the heart of innovation. It should be future-proof and allow insurers to leverage innovative approaches and technologies on the market without a fuss. WeSavvy is an extremely talented team with a great platform for lifestyle insurance and we both believe insurers can reap great benefits from adopting this approach. Our joint goal is to provide an end-to-end solution that insurers can take advantage of very quickly.
Why do you think insurers will embrace your offer for Lifestyle Insurance? Are the incumbents really ready for such new things?
Matej: Absolutely. We see that insurers are making a concerted effort to incorporate innovative concepts into their businesses. Many companies that we speak to are running multiple interesting projects, from ML-assisted processing to usage based insurance to blockchain. The usual challenge is time to market or how to incorporate new ideas into the existing operational landscape. Thankfully, we have a solution to this problem – by deploying WeSavvy and AdInsure platforms, companies can have a full-stack solution up and running in as little as three months.
Which markets will you tackle at first?
Hesus: Initially we are focusing in the EU Market with rollout in Ireland and UK in Q1. With a view to further expand into the CEE and DACH regions.
Matej: Both WeSavvy and Adacta are strongest within EMEA, although a more global campaign is not out of the question. Our short-term goal is to complete a successful delivery with a EU insurer.
Thank you Hesus, thank you Matej, for the interview and all the interesting insights into your promising cooperation. I looking forward to hearing more about it in the future. All the best to both of you!
Read also our short article on Lifestyle Insurance here.