It is no secret that the claims frequency for fleets is increasing rapidly, and the cost and time of managing them adds extra strain to already tight margins for fleet owners and insurers. This strain is particularly compounded for industries that rent or use their vehicles for income generation, where shortening the claims lifecycle and reducing costs is a critical component in delivering profit.

For many years, the Commercial Fleet sector remained relatively unchanged, except for a few incremental advances in vehicle design and management software. Predominantly, fleet owners have continued to use antiquated claims management processes, and regularly changing insurers is common practice. Consequently, the opportunity for fleet owners and insurers to align more closely and jointly tackle the issue of costs and the claims lifecycle has remained untapped.

However, as economic factors and end-user expectations change, the fleet sector is realising the need to move with the times. As consumers of retail services themselves, fleet owners’ own experiences and expectations are being impacted, and they are responding appropriately.

Consumers now demand modern, easy ways to report evidence to a loss, using the latest digital technologies. By offering massive operational efficiency and increased consumer advocacy through digital means, fleet companies will advance exponentially.

Digital technology has enabled unprecedented levels of operational efficiency with automated processes that result in close-to-zero cost iterations. Over two decades, industries have felt the impact of digital disruption: Amazon, UBER, Netflix and AirBnB showed that it was unnecessary to own the means of production. It is, more importantly, the means of distribution that helps generate consumer engagement and earnings.

From a motoring perspective, a decade ago, no-one could have foreseen:

• the largest taxi company in the world not owning a single taxi
• we would be seriously moving towards the electrification of vehicles
• humans shifting away from the mindset of vehicle ownership to subscription
• that autonomous vehicles will eventually become a reality.

Digital tools and practices will enable commercial fleet owners to see what’s on the horizon sooner and with greater clarity. Herein lies the real opportunity. The changes will be environmental, regulatory and efficiency led. A convergence of new technologies, services and connectivity will transform the sector, creating new entrants with more innovative business models.

Commercial fleets will be virtually unrecognisable within a decade. It will be economics and evolving customer behaviour that will primarily drive the changes, not the speed with which established businesses adapt. Meeting these changes head-on, armed with the latest technology, will be instrumental to success in a race against time.

Future-ready vehicles will be standardised with technology that holds all the data required to settle claims. By adopting new technology and updating their processes, fleet owner and insurers will be able to settle a large percentage of incidents without human involvement. This type of alignment can enable significant improvements in:

• reducing claims costs
• reducing claims frequency
• reducing claims lifecycles
• customer service and engagement
• operational efficiency
• business analytics.

Currently, most claims platforms are designed to meet insurers’ requirements for claims administration, and most IT vendors solely focus on selling claims systems to insurers. The reality is that the majority of fleet incidents do not result in insurance claims; they are managed independently by fleet owners or outsourced to third party management companies. Hence an obvious gap and opportunity exists to allow fleet owners direct access to claims management platforms with a whole of life approach to claims management. The right tools, and flexibility to manage non-insured losses independently, or automatically appoint a third party via a shared platform enables:

• sharing of all evidence to a loss
• automation of key processes
• transparency of communications
• one source of truth in file management and storage.

Insuret is leading the way, partnering with 360Globalnet, a forward-thinking global claims management software company. Our objective is to bridge the gap between Insurers and fleet owners, empowering our customers with up-to-date digital technology and independent claims platforms that provide:

• a robust way to manage all incidents across their business
• efficiency gains through digitisation and automation of process
• improved transparency in file management amongst stakeholders
• improved customer service to the end user.

In 2020 Insuret released the first iteration of our digital claims environment to our customer base with great success. We continue to interact with our customers and use their practical experiences and feedback to refine the platform to suit their business requirements.

These continual feedback loops regarding system improvement allows us to stay nimble in our delivery.

Furthermore, the platform uses a no-code system that enables us to configure and control the development of the service we provide to customers.

WHY NO-CODE IS THE SOLUTION

Our integrated no-code system runs parallel to the business and can effectively span the entire remit of claims. The user-friendly system alleviates the need for time-consuming and costly IT development staff, and allows relevant internal team members to easily interact and make changes as required. It also allows executives to aggregate data and information if and when they need it.

This no-code approach is already changing markets far and wide based on four main drivers:

1) Workforce demographics. The workforce is currently made up of 24% generation Z, and 35% millennials (a figure that is set to reach 75% by 2025 according to Microsoft).  Workforce demands need to be met with mobile-enabled and mobile-first experiences where customers can operate at a time that suits them. This digital native workforce and customer base is not prepared to operate in cumbersome outdated manual applications.

2) Surging digital demand. Demand for mobile apps and advanced digital solutions is growing five times faster than IT departments and developers can deliver. In 2020, Microsoft predicted 500 million new applications will be built in the next five years. This is significantly more than we have seen over the previous 40 years.

3) Not enough developers. In 2019, more developer positions were filled outside of traditional technology industries than within.  From education to retail, health and fitness and everything in between, quality development resources are in high demand.  Organisational requirements to digitise their operations far exceeds the availability of a skilled digital workforce.

4) COVID. The sudden and dramatic impact of the coronavirus necessitated business of all sizes and capabilities to adopt digital tools and practices not previously considered in order to continue operating, all within restricted budgets. Traditional digital transformation projects and processes quickly became redundant due to their inflexibility and time-consuming nature.

The need for ‘no-code technology’ is now abundantly clear.

‘No-code will be the tool that us used to reach the next 500 million applications over the next five years.’ Microsoft.

Insuret is quickly transforming to a full digital claims process to help our customers benefit from and grow with a swiftly evolving market place where digital service delivery is paramount.