Turnkey Africa Sponsors the 4th Life Insurance Conference, Ghana

Turnkey Africa Ltd recently participated in the 4th Life Insurance Conference organized by Ghana Insurance Association (GIA). This seminal event, held on the 11th of April in Accra Ghana, is conducted annually and is aimed at creating a national platform for discussion and addressing key issues that affect life insurance and create awareness about life insurance among policy makers and other key institutions/stakeholders in Ghana.

The sponsorship of this event, underlines how Turnkey’s vision strongly aligns with GIA’s vision of increasing insurance penetration in Ghana by making the acquisition of insurance, a way of life for all Ghanaians. With operations in 7 countries across Africa and experience garnered over the last 20 years, the TurnQuest platforms deliver Turnkey Africa’s key premise to offer effective, innovative insurance platforms to drive the growth and performance of their clients across Africa.  The main speaker for this year’s event which attracted over 200 delegates was Mr. Tom Gitogo, Group CEO CIC Insurance Group whose speech centred around the event’s theme of “Extending Coverage of Life Insurance in Ghana: A collective Responsibility.”

Also speaking at the same event was the commissioner of the National Insurance Commission (NIC) Madam Lydia Lariba Bawa. Madam Bawa urged insurers to seek merger opportunities to meet the minimum capital requirements stipulated by the Insurance Act to avoid getting delisted. Ghana has 50 insurance companies, serving a population of over 25.9million, many of which according to the commissioner are unable to raise the necessary capital to meet the requirements.

“Through this sponsorship we aim to demonstrate our commitment to empowering insurance players across Africa to effectively anticipate, compete and thrive in a fast changing market” said Kizito Makatiani, CEO of Turnkey. Speaking at the event, he addressed the topic on Becoming a Digital Insurer,  saying that “While underwriting excellence, claims execution, investment management acumen still remain relevant for high-performing insurers today, insurers need to digitise their businesses which adds another capability in which leading insurers need to excel.” 

“Teaming with GIA inspires a collective vision and we look forward to building strong and mutually beneficial relationships within Ghana and across Africa,” he added.

Leveraging Technology in Insurance Product Development

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Disruptive technologies, emerging risks, competitive threats and new opportunities are forcing insurance carriers to look for ways to speed up the product development process. The customer, no longer content with one-size-fits all product offerings, is demanding products tailored to their individual needs. Vital to any insurer is the ability to rapidly conceptualize, develop and launch new products to the market so as to remaining relevant and achieve growth in market share.

Previously, insurers only engaged in product development on an as-needed basis. Mainly due to the process being painstakingly long and characterized by protracted lead times and product rollouts. Besides, having to involve various teams i.e. from claims, IT, underwriting, sales, marketing and legal; holding endless meetings; doing numerous drafts and reviews; there were also the costly mistakes and delays that had to be dealt with afterwards. All this was somewhat mitigated by the fact that the product lifecycles then rather than now were relatively long – up to 30 years in some cases. This meant that insurers had ample time to come up with ideas, deliberate over them, process them and even iron out any mistakes that arose.

The current era of hyper-competition and market volatility has shortened the average product lifecycle to an estimated 5 years – shorter with technology that averages 18 months.  On the other hand, the time it takes to introduce a new insurance product, from idea to market is an estimated 6 – 12 months. Going by these estimates, it looks like an insurer only has about 4 years to turn a new product profitable, and even less once competitors step in, and replicate.

With shortened product life cycles, comes the need to keep innovating; to develop and introduce new products to market at high speeds in order to gain and maintain a competitive advantage and not miss any lucrative opportunities. This need for speed-to-market becomes almost impossible for insurers still running rigid legacy systems with outdated processes and technologies.  Streamlining the product development processes is crucial to ensuring that the right products are developed and efficiency achieved in resource utilization.

Product configuration, which centralizes and streamlines the product development process, is one way that insurers running legacy systems can accelerate their product development lifecycle.  With product configuration, product information can be stored in a common database and shared across all systems. With critical information such as ratings, rules, forms, fillings and activity history readily available to all parties, then errors and omissions are eliminated and there is reduction in duplication making the process faster and less costly.

Going a step further and of greater benefit however is an enterprise-wide solution, which will not only automate product development and provide a centralized repository but will also provide insurers with visibility into key tasks and teams involved in the process for easy tracking and effective management. An enterprise-wide solution enables workflow-driven processes that ensure all participants in the process review and sign off where required. Subsequently, there is reduction in product development costs and bottlenecks to result in improved speed-to-market and quality products as well as the ability to develop and modify products concurrently leading to increased revenue.

Over the last 20 years, Turnkey Africa has been providing customized enterprise-wide insurance solutions for some of the largest insurers and intermediaries across Africa. Leveraging our core insurance platform TurnQuest Insurance Suite – this clients have gained the ability to rapidly design and build innovative and tailored solutions to meet the needs of an ever-evolving customer and market base.  Having shade off the weight of legacy systems, these insurers now have the agility and flexibility required to put them at the top of an insurance market that is growing increasingly volatile.

Finally, it is crucial to have a product innovation and technology strategy with a clearly defined objective and area of focus. Such a strategy if driven by the company’s strategic vision and backed up by top management helps reinforce the role of product development in the overall business goal and facilitate on-going product development to compete into the future. Stakeholder buy-in for both the technology and product development strategies not only heightens the company’s ability to absorb the new technology efficiently and put it to work effectively but also to realize the inherent value of the technology.

Turnkey Unveils TurnQuest Marine Portal for Insurers and Brokers

Turnkey CEO, Kizito Makatiani

Press Release: Nairobi, December 15, 2016

With the clock ticking towards the January 1st 2017 d-day for Kenya to officially enforce the purchase of all marine insurance covers for goods imported into the country, local software manufacturer Turnkey Africa has set up online platform accessible to all insurance companies and brokers.

The portal, known as Turnquest Marine, is a cloud-based service designed within a broader system of applications specifically developed for insurance businesses. It also capable of integrating with Kenya Revenue Authority’s Simba System and the National Electronic Single Window System (TradeNet) operated by Kenya Trade  Network Agency (Kentrade).


Speaking when he presented the new portal to players in the insurance sector, Turnkey Africa Chief Executive Officer Kizito Makatiani said that the portal will save players hundreds of millions of shillings in capital expenditure invested in company - owned systems and enable them to move with speed to implement the product for their clients as the import business is very time sensitive.

“Kenya has slightly over 50 insurance companies and about double that number of brokers. With the new law taking effect they all need a system that they can easily register into, access from as many locations as possible, integrate with their own existing processes for payments and finally deliver a seamless service to both importers and the agents involved in the whole value chain,” said Makatiani.

He said that Turnkey Africa’s TurnQuest Marine Portal is also usable by insurance brokers who are able to compare the quotes from various insurance companies and deliver the best to their clients. He cautioned that marine insurance is very critical for successful international trade and it will be paramount for insurance companies and brokers not seen to be introducing a new non-tariff barrier in the process of implementing the new law.
“We see a successful rollout of this marine insurance requirement as a very collaborative process that needs to involve the clearing and forward agents, insurance intermediaries, the regulators and all government agencies,” added Makatiani.

Makatiani noted that with the growing use of technology by insurance consumers, insurance companies and brokerages are increasingly seeing that investing in new technology to support services is a defining competitive edge.

“While this may be true to a certain extent, the perpetual state of flux that changes in technology and consumer knowledge, influences behavior will continue dictating that firms resort to outsourcing core technologies and sharpening their customer service and relationship management capabilities. Investment in this type of technological service is the way forward for them,” he noted.

The Analytics Driven Insurer

Image courtesy of marketingland.com

By Shikoli Makatiani

The way insurance is done is changing at a fast pace, an industry once known for being highly risk averse by nature is quickly learning to embrace change mostly out of necessity rather than by choice. There is immense pressure from all fronts including increased competition (within and without the industry), government regulations, globalization, natural catastrophes and changing consumer  behavior.

Business executives and decision makers are hard pressed to come up with viable strategies to help their organizations compete and thrive. Suffice to say many don’t realize they already hold a piece of the puzzle to their breakthrough. That piece being the immense data at their disposal.

Data has become a key strategic asset for businesses. For the insurance industry this is not an entirely new concept because of the industry’s heavy reliance on data to make decisions around risks, premiums and claims. And though insurers through actuaries have for decades been able to extract some viable information from their data, the recent advancements in technology have created an upsurge in the amounts of data being produced presenting a mixed bag of both challenges and opportunities.

The challenge is how to harness this new data - gather it, store it, evaluate it and make sense out of it especially with the complexity presented by the huge volumes, the wide variety and the speed at which this data is coming in. Sifting through this vast amount of data is not easy especially with limited computing power, expertise and resources at hand.

Snapshot of Turnkey Africa's TurnQuest Analytics Dashboard

The main motivation that should be driving insurers to find a way to quickly overcome this challenges is the immense opportunities available in leveraging such data to gain insight into prospective markets, risks, competitors and customers. Insurers now have the unprecedented opportunity to augment client’s risk details using data from multiple sources like emails, public records and even social media. And with this form of data enrichment comes the possibility of more accurate pricing and rating, validation of information originally received from clients and creation of targeted products.

Data enrichment cannot happen unless insurers employ data collection and analysis tools and techniques that are best suited to their needs. Data analytics – the science of examining raw data with the purpose of drawing conclusions about that information – is a good place for insurers to start. With data analytics insurers have the opportunity to aggregate data from both internal and external sources to detect trends and patterns that might otherwise be missed.

Data analytics falls within the bigger umbrella of Business Intelligence (BI) which is mainly the use of data to inform and facilitate business management and strategizing. While BI is mainly about data driven decision-making, data analytics is about seeking answers to the type of customer sales, marketing and customer service questions asked by most companies. By incorporating the power of analytics into their day to day decision making, insurers can minimize their exposure to risk through risk profiling, eliminate fraud at point of sale and benefit from a reduction in lost premiums and claims leakage.

While insurance companies have generally lagged behind their financial services sector counterparts in adoption of new-age technologies, the impetus to invest in analytics has never been greater. The ability to look into the past (hindsight), the present (insight) and glimpse into the future (foresight) puts an analytic driven insurer in the enviable position of being able to make the most of their information assets and discover new opportunities for enhanced business performance and competitive advantage.

GN Life (Ghana) Partners with Turnkey Africa for Innovative Insurance system

GN Life acquires TurnQuest Insurance Suite to transform insurance sales and operations in Ghana. 

Accra, Ghana – 23^rd September, 2016 - GN Life Assurance Company Limited, a provider of innovative life assurance products, today announced a new strategic partnership with Turnkey Africa Ltd, a leading pan-African provider of integrated insurance management solutions for insurers and bancassurers.


GN Life’s acquisition of Turnkey’s TurnQuest Insurance Suite is its latest deliberate effort towards attaining its strategic business imperative of innovation and transformation in the areas of product, underwriting, claims, billing and policy administration to ultimately remodel the way insurance is bought and sold in Ghana.

With TurnQuest, GN Life expects to achieve greater business performance, reduce time to market for products, introduce new product distribution channels, improve customer insight, provide better access to intermediaries, and ultimately improve client acquisition and retention. The TurnQuest Insurance Suite is a comprehensive, end-to-end insurance solution that provides the flexibility and scalability required to support today’s business competitive plans and future growth initiatives. The e-business enabled platform seamlessly integrates all insurance business processes allowing for a 360-degree customer or product portfolio view and faster business transaction processing.

"The TurnQuest platform, with its robust simple to use interface, provides us the perfect path to IT modernization with an intended focus on business value, customer experience and operational benefits," said Mr. Fiifi Simpson - CEO of GN Life. "We are now just scratching the surface of opportunities and TurnQuest is ideally suited to help us better stay ahead of complex regulations, disruptive technology trends and changing consumer demands. This partnership ensures that we future proof our business and we are excited about the possibilities this offers the industry.

Mr. Kizito Makatiani, CEO of Turnkey Africa said, "GN’s acquisition of TurnQuest reflects Turnkey's excellent reputation as a market leader with deep domain knowledge, a strong software engineering heritage and focus on applying innovation to solving critical core business issues for clients. Our software is expected to enable GN Life revolutionize their business by enhancing their operations and processes.”

ABOUT GN LIFE
GN Life started operations in the Ghanaian market in January 2015. GN Life is positioned to deliver superior services to clients through claims payment, innovative product offerings and excellent customer service. GN Life is a member of Groupe Nduom, whose businesses and social enterprises include entities in Financial Services, Investment Advisory and Management, Technology, Management Consulting, Cross Border Trade, Media, Tourism and Sports industries.

ABOUT TURNKEY AFRICA
Turnkey Africa Limited is a leading Pan-African insurance technology and services provider with a proven record of over 18 years and a footprint of 32 clients across 5 countries in Africa. Turnkey develops, supply’s and manages end-to-end insurance business software solutions and services for the insurance industry.

Turnkey provides, through its core insurance product, TurnQuest Insurance Suite, a comprehensive and integrated set of applications built on a common platform that covers the entire insurance lifecycle, and is augmented by data and analytics capability that gives the insurer a 360-degree view of the business.

Insurers implementing TurnQuest are positioned to reap the benefits of accelerated speed to market for their products and services, respond quickly to regulatory changes, have visibility into the financial processes all leading to an overall increase in operational efficiency to achieving their business imperatives of sustainable growth and profitability.