Through the countless discussions that have occurred these past two weeks with many insurers, there have been winning strategies that have shone through as insurers have been executing their business continuity plans. And there have been certain challenges on the other side. Were you a company that needed the support of people to be in the office to “load the tapes,” making sure all those batch jobs on the mainframe computer kept running? Did you have challenges making applications available to your now-remote workforce? Were your call centers still able to fully support agents and policyholders?
One of the greatest successes in this market has been the performance of cloud computing. I remember, back in 2012, discussing the advantages of cloud computing. As an industry, there was just experimental acceptance of this capability – usually relegated to sandbox environments and testing. Jump forward to 2020 – and we see that 84% of all core system buying transactions were cloud-based. Not only have we leapt forward in our use of cloud, but we are now in mainstream acceptance that core systems – some of the most critical systems in the enterprise – are being commonly deployed in the cloud.
Let’s consider for a moment some of the advantages of systems that are deployed in the cloud – just to name a few that have been experienced over the past two weeks:
- Cloud provides a virtual computing environment that also enables virtualized managed services.
- New environments can be created to dynamically test changes.
- Access is available – for all that need to use the applications regardless of physical location.
- Cloud decreases the need for “onsite” resources – elimination of tape loads, etc.
Investments that insurers continue to make to transform their organizations are bearing fruit today (even though we do not want to have to go through a pandemic to realize this truth). The digitally enabled experiences that insurers are providing to their customers and distribution partners are critical. Never before has it been more important to provide full transparency to the customer. For some, you are experiencing the world as it was before COVID-19 – a world of transformation that was moving forward, understanding the importance of the digital experience, and looking at ways to provide these capabilities. Today we are in a state where these digital experiences are a reality.
See also: Will COVID-19 Disrupt Insurtech?
If the events of the past few weeks find you considering cloud deployment for your applications moving forward, refer to our recent research report, Cloud and Core Systems: Top 10 Strategic Considerations, for insights on buying cloud-deployed software solutions. Cloud will be one of the levers that insurers can use to meet the digital mandate that is no longer for the future – but is here today.
