Research into the London Specialty Insurance Market by NTT DATA UK, a leading IT services and consultancy business, has found that automation is being embraced by business leaders as the linchpin of the industry’s future success.
The research surveyed senior London Market syndicates, brokers and managing agents, uncovering that 70 per cent believe automation can significantly benefit business development. Appetite for this digital transformation of the insurance business model is growing as costs rise within the market – for every £1 spent by Lloyd’s customers, around 40p is consumed by costs. As such, the majority of respondents (59 per cent) recognise digital as important to their business today, rising sharply to 97 per cent who believe digital will be important in the next three years.
A new way of thinking about automation
Automation has applications across London Market business functions, whether it is assisting finance by extracting invoice information or applied in underwriting to generate policy documentation from details on the system. Potential cost savings are transformational too:
This ROI comes as a result of automation delivering value to clients. NTT DATA worked closely with a number of their clients in the London Market to implement a fully managed Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solution, improving how the insurers processed data. RPA allowed these organisations to minimise manual data input and processing, freeing up employee time for data analysis and high-value insights – in one team, a robot is now able to process 100 per cent of the tasks for a particular customer.
Kim Gray, Head of Insurance and Head of Diversity & Inclusion at NTT DATA UK said: “The winds of change are blowing through the insurance industry. Ongoing cost challenges are encouraging insurance executives to look for innovative solutions to secure the long-term future of their sector. Automation is at the forefront of their minds, offering a way to cut costs, improve efficiency and, ultimately, build a more profitable business. Most importantly, new on-demand business models mean that automation solutions come with minimum risk for executives.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has raised urgent questions for businesses about building resiliency into their systems,” concludes Gray. “Automation is a robust option for the London Markets to make the necessary changes at pace: protecting revenue, solving existing inefficiencies, and preparing themselves for the upsurge of activity in the recovery.”
To find out more about how automation is impacting the London Markets, download the full whitepaper here.