Process Thinking in European Insurance

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The way insurers work has been changing fundamentally since the 90s: in the first half of the 90s, the method of thinking and working was still based on organizational structures. The perspective of the organization was characterized by hierarchies and concentrated on process organization within individual divisions and departments. The deregulation that occurred with the creation of the domestic European market changed this structure, as supervision legislation became more liberal, competition in the insurance sector increased.
As a consequence, processes weren’t only considered internally but the overall result became a decisive factor, so the question became: what are we doing and why are we doing it in this way? How can we deliver the best possible offer and exact information? To this end, the entire process chain had to be considered and critically assessed. Optimal added value through functioning processes – this thought began to dominate the insurance economy.
In the last few years the influence of digitalization has grown enormously. This phenomenon continues to affect insurers and present them with more difficult conditions and challenges. They not only can, but actually must use digital effects consistently so as not to sink under the competition. Consumers demand optimal service before, during and after their buying decision through a variety of end products and channels. Customers expect the following things:
A holistic perspective towards your own organization is therefore still extremely relevant and for good reasons: insurers are under constant pressure to reduce costs and to remain flexible to customer demands. They must take on a fine balancing act between strict compliance requirements and optimal service. Therefore the question about process efficiency will be inevitably raised.
The cornerstone of any transformation project is therefore Business Process Management. Documented processes:
All steps towards an agile organization, for example the introduction of electronic files, set out defined processes. Documented processes can only help when they are lived out. Due to the fact that processes diagramms are an abstract presentation, it is imperative to make your employees aware of their importance and ensure they are comfortable with them. Collaboration is a decisive aspect which also isn’t always easy to implement in practise. In an upcoming blog post we’ll have a look at what a typical insurance process looks like and how tasks, responsibilities and influencing factors can be organized in a diagramm.