Leveraging new technology to efficiently manage a global partner network

Globalisation has reduced the distances and barriers between countries, allowing corporations to perform business in multiple markets, which has driven the need for international insurance. Insurance companies should have capabilities around the globe to be able to offer a comprehensive insurance solution for global customers and to deal with the complexities of different regulations and market practices. Global insurers such as Zurich have a global network consisting of own branches and partner insurance companies to service international customers with the best local solutions.

Partner companies are carefully selected local insurance carriers, providing the coverage for the international customer as part of a global programme in those countries where the global insurer does not have its own presence. The main challenge for a global insurer is to be able to provide the same high-level international solution regardless of whether it is facilitated via own or partner network. The crucial elements that customers require – quality and the speed of the services – can only be achieved by maintaining a close relationship with the partner network and ensuring that governance processes and the right tools are in place.

Choosing partners
This means that the process of establishing a new partner relationship is not one that can be rushed or taken lightly. If a global insurer needs to expand its capabilities in a particular market, it will generally look at the leaders in that market, and consult with brokers and customers about the insurer and its reputation. A thorough due diligence process needs to take place when selecting network partners, in which the reputation of the company is checked, financial soundness assessed, compliance of the insurer with the local regulations, together with the general fitness of the insurer in terms of servicing international business and claims handling. The global insurer will also need to examine the country capabilities and challenges (the regulatory environment, country restrictions etc).

Inevitably, there are always challenging questions coming from the customer in relation to the partner network, around trust, compliance and consistency. That is why so much effort is put into governance processes, checking the capability of the local carrier and ensuring that the partner relationship is set up correctly. Continuous partner network monitoring must be in place in order to achieve the required consistency and to make sure that standards as per customer expectations are met.

Transparency, open dialogue and close collaboration are key elements for a stable network and sustainable relationship with the partners, which allows consistency to be applied to the international solutions. To maintain transparency and ensure consistency, companies cannot operate without a suitable technical solution.

New technology
Digitalisation and automation are rapidly transforming the insurance industry. Insurance is a mature product in the market and, to be competitive, it is crucial to be agile and able to innovate, not just in terms of products, but also in gaining efficiencies. International programmes are characterised by their complexity, involving different countries, various stakeholders in customer and broker networks, and the requirement to have streamlined communication to manage the data flow. This is where new technology is able to make a difference.

Recently, the insurance industry has been heavily focused on various technological solutions – building sophisticated systems, automating processes, applying robotics process automation – and increasingly, the focus is shifting to more advanced technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, the internet of things or application programming interface.

For international programmes, there will be different systems and tools used by the customer, the broker network, and the insurer and its partner network. To fulfil customer expectations in terms of quality and speed of services, it is vital to ensure that the tools are aligned, or that there is one single tool that keeps track of everything.

Information is required in a consistent, transparent way and ideally this means a unified single platform where partners can connect and facilitate the whole process from local policy issuance to claims handling. Apart from transactional information, partners need to be able to communicate changes in the market, and changes to the company structure or processes, in a simple and streamlined manner. But how does this information reach the customer? This is where the issue of the integration of tools is so important.

Considering the vast number of network partners and various local technical solutions in place, the global insurer can achieve significant efficiencies by having all transactional and partner relationship management information in one single platform – one single universe. The next step is the integration of the partner platform with internal tools used by the global insurer, which are linked to customer-facing applications. An integration between systems that involves the international carrier, local partners, the broker and the customer supports streamlined communication between the parties involved. This means that the partner can input data, such as the policy details, and this will seamlessly move through the international carrier’s system and reach the broker and the customer. The level of integration depends on the systems and solutions available. In the optimum way, automated programming interface is used to transfer data from partner local system to a global insurer (or from global insurer to the broker and customer).

Customers expect everything to be faster these days, and international carriers want to ensure that there is a high level of quality when it comes to their services, and technology is allowing this to happen. Technology is allowing efficiencies, which in turn allows a greater emphasis and focus on quality, supporting global insurers in being able to provide services faster and with much better quality than ever before.

For risk managers to have confidence in their global insurance programmes, the partner network needs to be able to operate seamlessly, in a consistent manner and with full transparency. It is of course about choosing the right partners, but it is also about ensuring that the network operates smoothly – and it would be difficult to achieve without the technology.

Contributed by Simona Paulauskaite, team leader – IP global network services, international programmes, commercial insurance, Zurich Insurance Group