Five key challenges CIOs in insurance will face over the next 12 months

By Andrew Jenkins, Principal in the CIO & Technology Officers Practice at Odgers Berndtson, discusses five challenges CIOs will face as the world emerges into the new normal.

Even before the pandemic, CIOs in insurance had their hands full. Many insurance companies – which have historically been digital laggards – were increasingly embarking on ventures to embed customer-focused products, integrate disparate systems and data structures, and use technology to implement organisational redesign. Now, with companies six months into the pandemic, these programmes have become that much harder to implement and a number of new hurdles have emerged that technology leaders will also have to overcome. These are five of the key challenges CIOs in the insurance industry will face over the next 12 months:

1.) Implementing Agile transformation in a remote environment

Pre-pandemic, Agile transformation – the process of adapting the values, principles and practices of an organisation so that it can react rapidly to change – had been gaining traction among insurers. This was particularly true of those that saw the benefits it could bring in driving a customer-oriented approach to product development. However, Agile relies on teams physically co-locating together and using the power of shared knowledge and rapid communication. With the UK and other countries shifting in and out of lockdowns, CIOs will face an uphill battle when trying to introduce Agile programmes among entirely remote workforces. At the very least it will require the implementation of technology that can enable the same sort of collaborative environment a physical office provides.

2.) Changing the cultural mindset about the customer journey.

Insurance is a very commoditised industry and has historically focused on digital transformation to drive cost efficiency – the aim being to provide the most competitive premiums. However, market share is increasingly being consumed by firms that are investing in their approach to customer engagement and using technology to transform the end-to-end customer journey. For the leadership teams of many insurers this might seem like an unorthodox approach to digital transformation. CIOs will therefore need to work hard to bring their fellow executives round to the idea that digital innovation for the customer is more profitable than digital innovation to reduce back-end costs – it’s a cultural mindset shift that will also need to permeate through the organisation if the CIO wants to truly transform the approach to customer engagement.

3.) Adapting the business model to make greater use of public and private cloud platforms

Using cloud platforms – whether that is working with a cloud provider or investing in a private platform – can improve the speed to market for new products, enhance the claims experience for customers and help firms expand globally. There are now insurers that have built leading policy, claims and underwriting platforms simply in partnership with Google. However, like customer engagement, CIOs face an embedded mindset within the executive team, where the idea of cloud investment is often still viewed as just a method to modernise legacy infrastructure. CIOs will need to change the hearts and minds of fellow c-suite executives if their company is to truly unlock the power of cloud technology.

4.) Implementing technology to maintain and build culture in a mixed workforce

A mixed model of on-site and remote working is the future of work. Especially as countries seesaw between implementing and lifting lockdowns, workforces will be made up of hybrid digital and on-site employees. Working closely with the people function, CIOs will need to consider the sort of technology that can maintain team cohesion, ensure visibility so that remote and on-site employees are performance managed equally, and that will enable people to mimic the ‘watercooler’ moments remotely. Most employees now expect a blended remote and on-site working lifestyle. Insurance firms will therefore need a technology infrastructure that replicates for remote employees both the collateral learning that comes from sitting next to someone and the collective engagement that comes from office camaraderie.

5.) Adopt newly defined leadership traits

When Coronavirus began to upend both the social and business environment, certain leadership traits quickly emerged as the most successful for navigating organisations through the crisis. The best c-suite leaders demonstrated a desire to communicate consistently and to convey a message of ‘we’re all in this together’. When managing the most distressing aspects of the virus’ impact, they used compassion, empathy and humility to connect with their teams and displayed genuine authenticity, regardless of the function they led. Importantly, the most successful leaders were, and still are, making brave decisions at speed, and are now either building upon or adapting their organisation’s cultural identity to instil a sense of purpose in the workplace. Due to the demands of the pandemic, CIOs have found themselves in the hotseat and their role is central in guiding organisations out of the crisis; adopting these new leadership traits will be paramount to their success in achieving this.

CIOs in insurance face a particularly tough challenge – an industry that is on the one hand taking steps to redefine itself digitally, but on the other is still working under traditional approaches to technology, all of which is taking place during a global pandemic. To come out stronger on the other side, CIOs will need to convince their fellow c-suites of the benefits of investing in the customer journey, help their business unlock the power of the cloud, and make remote-working a long-term success that coincides with transformation. Finally, and while it may seem obvious, they should remember that the world has changed, and that this change demands a new quality of leadership.