Fun fact: Many long-established insurance companies still rely on legacy mainframes computers running applications in an outdated programming language from the 1960s. That’s not ideal, because today’s tech-savvy, smartphone-using customers are more mobile and expect real-time information whenever and wherever they are, without the assistance of an agent or a call center representative. Not good, because the modern agent requires new tools and applications to maintain productivity in a mobile environment, including instant policy quotes. And especially not good, because the “insurtechs” – new, innovative, and rapidly growing companies with social savvy marketing and modern technologies – are just waiting in the wings, ready to grab your market share.
You have to adapt and evolve in record time to create a seamless customer experience while improving employee productivity to remain competitive and increase customer retention. By implementing APIs and microservices, you can extend those insurance backend systems to mobile, web, and cloud rapidly, and cost-efficiently, all with low risk. By using the “art” of the API, you succeed where past transformation options failed.
According to an article in Forbes by Peter Bendor-Samuel, “The record of studies on digital transformation indicate a high failure rate, with a notable 2013 McKinsey study finding that 70% fail. That is a lot of wasted time, money and unmet expectations.”
