Perhaps one of the most fleeting product offerings in the industry is travel insurance – with typically a lifespan of just few months at most. Capgemini’s Timothée Millet points out this is an area of the industry
“You know your customer. You have at least one means of direct communication with them -- since you proactively notified them of the reimbursement, and you know that they are currently facing the hassle of a delay. You can leverage this information and provide your customer with an enhanced experience by suggesting various services through a service orchestration platform—effectively becoming the AirBnB of travel insurance services.”
Millet points to three technology mechanisms that will deliver this transformation:
Blockchain
To compete with blockchain, insurers must make transformational changes. “To provide a fully automated product that will be executed in a smart contract when all the conditions are met, the insurer must design a simple product. This is a critical change for an industry used to building complex policies, each covering a broad range of claims types and requiring complex and specific information from the customer. This is a deep cultural change for the insurance industry, for the benefit of the customer.” In addition, use of blockchain requires transparency, with smart contracts available for verification.
Data
Data is the most valuable commodity in the industry. A product available with more than 90,000 daily worldwide commercial flights, leveraging information provided by APIs tracking these flights. “Such a product would provide you with a rich set of data upon which to build custom travel insurance for each flight while allowing the customer to pay lower premiums for airlines that are more frequently on time or to pay lower premiums for flights between airports with fewer delays,” Millet points out.
Service orchestration platform
A service orchestration platform enables flexibility to leverage cloud services or APIs to change the business and products as required. If a new product is introduced, systems and processes can be quickly mapped to support it. “An insurer with a service orchestration platform could provide state-of-the-art travel insurance customer experience and set the standard for the entire industry.”
