Insurely featured on Sweden’s leading insurance podcast – Why open insurance is here to stay
A lot is happening here at Insurely. Recently, our CEO and co-founder Martin Einemo was featured on Sweden’s most prominent insurance podcast, Risk & Försäkringspodden, where they talked about open insurance and its many possibilities.
Open insurance is here to stay. But everyone is not quite convinced yet of why sharing insurance data with clients and competitors can create win-win experiences. Martin Einemo guested the popular podcast to bring more clarity into the situation.
Who is Martin Einemo and why did he start Insurely?
Martin Einemo used to work as a management consultant in the insurance industry where he advised his clients on how to best use their insurance data. During this time, he and his Insurely co-founders Lotta Rauséus, Erik Lövinder-Sevelius, and Johan Forsman, saw very little of the enormous amount of consumer data actually reached the consumer – meaning that they had no way to benefit from it. Seeing that the digital transformation compelled companies in other business areas to become more transparent and move closer to the client, they felt that the same journey was needed in the insurance business. They founded Insurely in order to create a more consumer-friendly industry – where clients and consumers connect and understand each other.
What is open insurance?
Open banking led to a multitude of new opportunities, despite the financial industry’s initial reluctance to share its data. Fintechs, new payment solutions, more tailored consumer offers – the list is long. The same change is now needed in the insurance industry – a more digital, consumer-friendly, and open relationship based on trust, understanding, and an enormous amount of data.
Open insurance is defined by EIOPA (European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority) as the accessing and sharing of insurance-related data. In Einemo’s experience, this is something that today’s insurance industry lacks. There’s a lot of secrecy around insurance data, which is securely guarded by the respective insurance companies. This means that very few consumers actually understand their insurance: what they’re insured against, how it works, and how much they’re paying. Insurely is setting out to change this – side by side with the insurance industry – to the benefit of both insurance companies and consumers.
How is open insurance a win-win?
For consumers, open insurance will lead to informed decisions, a better understanding of insurance as a product, and increased customer loyalty. This loyalty comes as a result of the transparency that open insurance data enables – the consumer will know exactly what they get, and will reward this transparency with loyalty.
For insurance companies, open insurance will lead to similar benefits to those that banks have enjoyed from open banking: more streamlined products and consumer offers, improved customer relationships, tailored solutions for each and every customer and increased innovation stemming from insights into what competitors are doing. When consumers better understand insurance as a product, it will be easier to convert customers digitally – they no longer have to log into their account and scroll through complicated PDF documents to know their insurance renewal date. This leads to better conversion rates and, again, improved customer journeys and relationships.
Is Insurely looking to change the insurance industry?
It would be more accurate to say that Insurely wants to help insurance companies and consumers to navigate the changes already happening as a result of digital transformation and open data. We see a changed consumer behaviour, where everyone is used to having a world of information available at the click of a button. With this increased awareness, together with GDPR and other data protection standards, comes an increased demand for transparency.
The changed consumer behaviour is creating new teams in the insurance industry when it comes to digital transformation. Let’s call them the A-Team and the B-Team. Players equipped to meet this new demand are the ones who are most likely to stay relevant in the playing field of open data.
The A-Team is the team best equipped to handle digital transformation – they adapt to customer demands, spend resources on user-friendly UX design and give the customer what they want. And the customers in turn reward them for it.
The B-Team has got a strong brand, with high brand awareness and a large customer base. But if you weigh the merits of a strong brand against the convenience of smart, digital products odds are that the customers are going to choose the latter.
When looking at consumer behaviour, we see a trend of choosing customer experience over company or brand – especially in industries such as banking and insurance where the products offered are very similar.
Is the future “open everything”?
As we’ve mentioned before, consumer behaviour is changing and will continue to change. This will probably lead to more and more transparency when it comes to data sharing. That’s why GDPR and data protection are so important, and Insurely is very careful in protecting consumer data. Trust is everything, in the insurance business as well as in other successful businesses. If you lose that trust you’re not going to survive long in the world of open data.
