NelsonHall recently attended the SE2 Partnership Forum, entitled ‘Future-proof: From Here to Digital’, in Washington D.C., where the main focal point of discussion was the challenge of digital transformation in the life insurance and annuity sector.

Here I look at a number of developments in SE2’s offerings that are helping clients to address the challenge of digital transformation.

Digital consumer experience

SE2 offers multi-channel consumer engagement, deploying chatbots (or ‘roboadvisors’) to optimize the customer experience, including an interactive messenger with cognitive capability. It also uses machine learning and analytics.

SE2 uses Alexa to provide self-service capabilities, whereby customers can use voice activation to request policy details, change premium schedules, and receive dedicated virtual assistance and offers on new products and plans. As well as increasing personalization and improving the customer experience, this also increases cross-sell and upsell opportunities.

For digital content delivery, SE2 uses Broadridge, which encompasses three areas:

• Experience management: replacing static documents and emails with dynamic, personalized and relevant digital communications
• Omni-channel communications: delivered to traditional electronic channels (email/SMS) and to personalized cloud solutions and online banking interfaces
• Data and analytics: offering improved digital adoption, enabling customers to set digital preferences.

SE2’s digital content delivery improves the customer experience, helps reinforce value propositions and promote new products, and goes beyond email with new digital channels. It allows clients to select preferred communication channels, offers a network of insurance brands that help drive digital adoption, and enables continuous improvement via robust analytics.

Digital Direct Life platform

The Digital Direct Life platform provides an enhanced, responsive UX and includes configurable eApp, Questions for D2C, and Agent Assisted Apps. Its Open Integration Architecture with OOB connectivity to major third-party providers includes vendors used for gathering evidence in life underwriting (MIB, MVR, Rx, etc.) and medical vendors (Lab, APS, etc.). It has a notification center with continuous multi-channel updates that enables self-service and integration with UW platforms using industry standards (ACORD) for automated and manual UW connected to a multi-channel payment gateway.

The platform uses Automated Underwriting (AU) with Electronic Health Records (EHR), with advanced techniques like Application Triage Algorithms, to achieve automated application decisions without any manual review in 75% of cases. This reduces underwriting time from the current 30-45 days to near immediate delivery, with the cost reduced from $400 to less than $50.

AU with EHR provides a single point for collection, consolidation, text mining, and reporting of EHR data, helps distribution channels close leads faster, helps insurers improve customer experience, increases revenues, and reduces cost. It also makes health and wealth management seamless, bypassing invasive underwriting procedures involving lab work (e.g. blood testing).

Improving speed to market

SE2 has applied the following technology enhancements to enable clients to improve their speed to market:

• A template-driven responsive website offers optimized web experience. Self-service administration toolsets are presented on a responsive web design pattern that is device agnostic and comes with a notification center
• Digital integration platform, which provides client-centric business services delivered with a scalable business integration architecture. The open architecture leverages industry standards across internal and external partner ecosystems, leveraging Mulesoft, ActiveMQ, and Informatica
• Enterprise output framework, a real-time framework enabled for scheduled transactions, with consistent template management utilizing the carrier’s branding. Its Output Manager manages on-premise and offsite print and mail capability, and also provides enhanced audit and compliance across the print and delivery lifecycle, along with integration with partner channels like Broadridge for e-delivery
• An actuary engine (from Accenture) provides a configuration-driven product rule engine that allows granular configuration of transactions and scheduled events. A modern UI controlled by a security layer and seamless integration with the SE2 annuity Policy Administration System (PAS) reduces the effort to implement product rule changes.

Future proofing initiatives

SE2 is also involved in a number of initiatives with the aim of providing ‘future-proof’ life & annuities capabilities for its clients, including:

• Blockchain. SE2 is on the LIMRA Blockchain Advisory Board, and indicates that there is a consensus among carriers on the positive impact of Blockchain, evaluating technologies and conducting POCs that require industry-wide collaboration. Leveraging learnings from other industries, including P&C insurance, and identifying potential use cases for industry-wide solutions helps improve peer-to-peer settlement in Blockchains. Benefits are derived in the form of increased transparency, accurate tracking, permanent ledger, and cost reduction
• Virtual and augmented reality that enhances the user experience with richer content, provides real-time information enmeshing of real and virtual worlds, training and advocacy to increase effectiveness and efficiency, and design visualization for heightened experience and insights
• Insight-driven analytics (from DataRobot). Along with its partners, SE2 is helping its clients achieve state-of-the-art in life underwriting by combining the power of predictive analytics with the SE2 platform. Insights derived from the SE2 platform are augmented with third-party data (e.g. from MIB, MVR, Rx, and APS) to create an analytics partner ecosystem operating as a one-stop shop, with annuity and life analytics driving decisioning, and advanced technology using a data lake and machine learning.

Summary

The global life insurance market is being transformed rapidly due to the increased adoption of digital solutions, providing opportunities for life companies to gain competitive advantage by responding quickly to changing market forces, consumer needs and preferences.

SE2’s deep domain experience and commitment to digital transformation are key strengths in this market. The company backs its own investments by partnering with startups to reduce speed to market and provide greater efficiencies. SE2’s strategy to develop world-class digital life insurance solutions recognizes the power of both innovation and collaboration in realizing this goal.