What to look for when partnering with an insurtech provider
As digital transformation becomes an increasingly essential part of conducting business, there’s a growing need for insurers to partner with reliable insurtech providers to help modernise and digitise the way they operate. Recently, it’s become evident that companies that fail to keep pace with technology advancements and industry changes will fall behind their competitors. In fact, business survival is reportedly the number one reason that Australian organisations invest in emerging technologies.[1]
However, choosing the right insurtech provider to partner with can be challenging. It’s essential for businesses to partner with providers that best meet their unique needs and align with their business and technology strategies. For example, an insurtech provider that fails to prioritise security at every level of the business could pose a risk to insurers and their customers.
To identify the right insurtech provider for your business, ask yourself:
1. Does your insurtech provider have strong product management and development teams?
Product management and development is essential to a successful insurtech and it goes beyond having talented technicians working behind the scenes to deliver efficient products. Your insurtech provider needs to understand your customers and the wider market landscape to ensure it can deliver products and solutions that can help solve specific customer and market challenges, as well as solutions that are user friendly.
2. Does your insurtech provider deliver agile development?
Digital transformation is a continuous process that evolves alongside technology. It’s essential for businesses to partner with an insurtech provider that can demonstrate agility to ensure they can stay ahead of their competitors. Partnering with a provider that operates in an agile development environment governed by a software development lifecycle (SDLC) policy, for example, ensures its products are built as securely as possible and that all development complies with relevant regulatory guidelines. Additionally, it ensures that software solutions are put through a rigorous testing process.
3. Does your insurtech provider meet comprehensive security and compliance requirements?
Partnering with an insurtech provider that meets your standards of security and compliance is crucial to ensure solutions you use will meet relevant industry regulations and local privacy requirements. Before partnering with an insurtech provider, confirm that it adheres to and keeps its software updated with regular audits, including:
industry-standard security and policy controls such as the General Insurance Code of Practice, Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) information security and business continuity policies, and Australian Privacy Principles (APP)
SOC 2 Type II compliance (or equivalent)
yearly security audits completed by a certified third-party and supported by a strong security posture across the business.
Ultimately, insurers should look for insurtech providers that demonstrate a stable, repeatable way of translating business needs into products that actually work for the insurer and its employees, partners, and customers. To find out more about what to look for in an insurtech provider, download our latest checklist.
Stelvio has been working as a trusted and secure partner providing cloud-based technology and insurtech solutions to Australian general insurers for the past two decades. The EstImage product suite, powered by Stelvio, complies with local privacy legislation, APRA information security and business continuity policies, and is American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) – SOC 2 Type II cloud data safeguard compliant.
For more information on how Stelvio can help drive your company to achieve better business outcomes, contact the team today.