Increased profitability and organizational efficiency, enhanced risk management, improved offer and client experience – those are only some of the latest trends in insurance solutions.
Insurance companies are actively looking for partners and business models outside of their traditional value chain, turning to other industries for solutions.
Affinity partnership advantages
When speaking of technology and possibilities of distribution across connected industries, it is crucial to understand what are Affinity distribution partners, why do they exist and which technology enables the distribution.
In the context of insurance distribution, Affinity partners can be retail or financial institutions, telecommunication companies, electronic equipment distributors, hotels or any company whose core business isn’t insurance.
In the aspect of insurance, Affinity programs contribute to product innovation as well as development of insurance services which are complementary to the Affinity partners’ services and then more easily distributed on the market. Increasing the levels of client satisfaction, differentiation from competition and additional income – just to name a few motives for Affinity partners’ participation in the distribution of insurance products.
A service such as electronic equipment insurance is an excellent manner of collaboration with electronic equipment distributors – whether in physical stores or more frequently, webshops. Possible cooperation with financial institutions is manifested through various insurance products for accidents, credit line users, cardholders etc. Possibilities of use are broad and enter the domain of travel, healthcare and various assistances which clear the way for further distribution partnerships.
Apart from defining the arrangement with the Affinity partner and designing the insurance product itself, an important question of software implementation presents itself.
Software modules as the solution
From an IT perspective, there are multiple approaches – from developing specialized software modules for Affinity partners to developing Web APIs which are deeply integrated in partners’ sales pipelines. In InCubis we have plenty of experience with both approaches while prioritizing ease of use.
A good practice example would be our front-end Affinity module designed for UNIQA Insurance, intended for usage between insurance distribution partners. Due to its simplicity, the module slightly resembles a webshop but it is fully integrated with the insurance core system as the business operations are conducted in real time.
The insurance of various electronic devices represents a special business niche for UNIQA Insurance, therefore as their long-standing partner we took over the role of developing the Affinity partnership module. The module itself had already been in use for a while but has recently been extended to a new insurance coverage.
Swift implementation of new insurance coverage in an absolute imperative, therefore with the latest implementation, users have been given the option to independently define new coupled insurance coverages. The user interface fully supports the dynamic defining of coverages, furthermore the placement of new coverages can be done by the insurance team independently or with little to no effort by the development team. In the long term, it enables lower development costs and faster service placement.
Integration with API technology
The second approach to implementation is the deep integration of insurance into the business of Affinity partners by API technology.
In this case, insurance companies can use third-party applications to sell insurance policies. In doing so, they are using API technology which represents the supporting infrastructure for their Affinity partners to rely on. One of the bigger advantages of this approach is the ability to embed insurance one’s own product, which represents one of more recent technological trends followed even by bigger “players” such as Amazon, Apple, Tesla.
Considering the fact insurance isn’t the Affinity partners’ core business, API is widely applicable – retrieval of possible coverages, premium calculation, data validation, policy storage, documentation listing etc. It should be noted that the Affinity partners’ IT team isn’t required to possess any insurance domain-knowledge. The entirety of the business logic is entrusted to the insurance company while using the appropriate software solutions (API).
An application example would be the ability to insure a laptop, mobile phone or any other device directly on the distributor’s or telecommunication company’s webshop. In this case, the seamless user experience, approachable presentation and the easily-integrated insurance into the final product are the main focus.
There are numerous IT approaches which are adaptable to each individual partner but in the entire chain, the client reaps the most benefits. Custom insurance is widely changing the face of complex insurance products and the distribution of insurance services across these channels enables their further strengthening in the future.
