According to India’s Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), in April-May 2018, the premium from new life insurance business increased 7.33 percent year-on-year to Rs 201.18 billion (US$ 3.12 billion). Surfing smooth at the crest of the digital transformation wave Indian Insurance sector is showing tremendous progress in addressing the demands of customers.
The first tipping point in the Indian Insurance landscape post liberalization hallmarks in the year 1999 when IRDA became the statutory regulatory body, ending the monopoly of LIC and GIC. Since then the industry has been spurred by innovation, growth and an increase in the number of Private players (last recorded 46). The next tipping point probably is Digitization.
The Current Scenario
GOIs flagship initiative Digital India has an incredible impact in shaping Indian industries for a better tomorrow. Electronic know-your-customer (e-KYC), approval of 15 Foreign Direct Investment and allowing 35% stake to e-commerce being the primary game-changing enablers.
Transformation to digital has been a key priority and focus for insurers. Be it implementing GST, transformation to digital or changes in regulations, a series of changes in the Indian Insurance sector have made it more customer-centric and transparent.
Insurers today are rightly focused on embracing digital strategies, tools, and technology to deliver bespoke customer experience over all channels. Technologies like AI, IoT, chatbots, ML etc are already helping companies to understand their customer better and make the buying process seamless. As we move ahead in 2018 Digital will continue reshaping the Indian Insurance Landscape.
The Race is On
Insurers- both Private and Public- are clearly doing best to meet the demands of the current consumer. According to Kantar IMRB’s annual study, in terms of brand rankings, Max Life Insurance takes the coveted top spot in 2018, closely followed by industry behemoth SBI Life, with LIC and Birla Sunlife in joint third position.
Insurance India states that the loyalty levels for the sector at large, stands at a modest 69%, recording a stronger loyalty in tier 2 towns as opposed to metro cities.
“What changed the game for Max life insurance – The no. 1 brand, in this year’s rankings, is the fact that the brand is being perceived to have churned out more innovative products and is seen to be transparent in its dealings with customers. LIC, despite losing its status as a loyalty leader, continues to enjoy the reputation of being easy to deal with and scores high on its range of products and network of branches as compared to many others. It has lost somewhat to the private players on the innovation front.”
“One must note that customers don’t care as much for abundant choice in products as they do for the product being the right fit and right for their need. Interestingly, we also find that till a few years ago, LIC had enjoyed sole top status in terms of being trustworthy, reliable and ethical, and customers were sceptical of many of the private players. However, over the years this has changed with customers beginning to trust private brands as well. Customer confidence in private insurance brands is on the increase and so is the belief that they are here to stay and can be trusted with their investment,” added Nijhara.
Welcome to the Cloudland
The world is on the internet – The spectrum. And as we enter the cloud era, Network usage will increase along the demand for Higher Bandwidth. This has made the Industries realize the need of the hour – The Network – without which DX is next to impossible. Dream Digital India requires a network that delivers consistently great application performance regardless of where in the world the users are. Software-defined WAN and Hybrid WAN architectures are allowing businesses to address the same.
Although at an infant stage today, India is fast progressing in setting up the bedrock for a cloud-proof Insurance sector. Adoption of INSURETECH like AI, Blockchain, ML, BOTs, IoT, Data, Telematics, Analytics and Automation/RPA is fast getting adopted to meet the rising customer demands and expectations. This, on the other hand, has compelled ICT teams to replace traditional Network infrastructures with flexible, agile and scalable Cloud-as-a-Service and Software-as-a-Service solutions. That’s no surprise why the demand for SD-WAN solutions is exploding, with IDC projecting annual revenue growth of 69.6 percent that will push the global market past $US8.05 billion ($A10b) by 2021.
To Sum it Up
The future of Insurance Industry lies on how well companies are implementing their digital strategy now. Technology – like RPA, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, IOT- won’t perform on traditional WAN in the way they would on next-gen Network architectures. Hence this is the right to invest in the right technology. Although early with SD-WAN, the Indian Insurance Sector looks extremely well poised to change the way consumers buy and perceive Insurance. Lavelle Network’s unique global SD-WAN and as-a-service delivery model enables global companies to leverage Hybrid/SD-WAN network as a foundation for digital transformation at a significantly lower cost than legacy networks.
