Guest blog by Rahul Kukreja, Product Manager, Camilion Solutions and Rajesh Krishnaswami, VP R&D and Professional Services, Camilion Solutions
We have a very short attention span these days. Our consumption of everything is “just-in-time” – and that includes insurance. We are increasingly seeing it used (and using it ourselves) in short, intense bursts. For an example, look no further than the increasing trend towards car pooling, where people only need very-short-term insurance. The insurance industry needs to be able to cater for this need. So there is a clear requirement to be able to bring differing products to the market rapidly.
Alongside this runs the changing profile of consumers and a move towards an omni-channel customer experience. Looking at the next wave of consumerism in places like China and India, we’re seeing an increasingly debt-based society emerge. This generally makes people risk averse, which means they will start buying insurance to cover that risk. The end result is a market with demand for constantly evolving localised products.
But even in the internet age, bringing a new insurance product to market can easily take up to six months, with costs spiralling into seven figures. It just takes too long to be effective from an industry perspective. If you can’t keep up you’ll be left behind. So the problem we’ve been addressing is how to build agility, efficiency and time-saving into a single instrument and make it easily available.
When SAP acquired Camilion, one of the key things it bought into was our techniques for centralising product information. When you look at what this can do for insurance, there are some fascinating opportunities since it’s the product that changes the most.
Taking this expertise, we began to create base templates, working out how to save time setting up new products by using pre-formatted building blocks that form the core of any insurance product. Then we looked at processes: with all of these aligned, incredible efficiencies are possible. Coverages, forms, rates, rules and questionnaires, all centralised in a single place with a variety of products coming from it.
The end result is a bold new application: Product Configurator. A single source that centralises all the information you need to launch a new product , from regulations and parameters to processes and customer data, all in one place.
It represents a step change in how much quicker products can be realised. There are companies now able to use the Product Configurator to bring changes to the existing product to market in matter of days. And the extra agility this brings is great news for insurers. It allows clearer differentiation between providers, greater choice for consumers and a more richly textured, yet efficient market.
To learn more about we can help you with your business challenges please have a look at SAP's Solution Explorer for the Insurance Industry.
What do you think about the Product Configurator? Continue the conversation in the comments below and on Twitter @SAPForInsurance.
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