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.