From smart home devices and connected vehicles to wearable health-monitoring devices, the internet of things (IoT) is transforming insurance.
Prateek Vijayvergia, Senior Vice President, Technology Services, with the global insurance-focused consulting and insurtech company Xceedance, says IoT enables insurers to more closely engage with customers, better predict and evaluate risk, make claims processing more efficient, and create superior insurance products.
“IoT is the bridge between the physical and the digital worlds. It is the connection of devices — any devices — to the internet using embedded software and sensors to communicate, collect and exchange data,” he says.
Mr Vijayvergia, who has been based in India with Xceedance for almost nine years, leads a 600-member technology services business unit that delivers award-winning customised insurance solutions for clients.
This week he arrives in Australia to settle permanently in Sydney and help Australian-based Xceedance clients grow their businesses through increased use of technology services.
“Data and decision-making insights gathered from IoT devices offer tremendous potential for insurers, and the opportunities this technology opens are now starting to be realised within the industry,” Mr Vijayvergia says.
Xceedance research in Australia has shown that digitally native consumers expect digital-first, agile processes and interfaces. That need will accelerate industry-wide adoption of artificial intelligence and machine learning-driven automation.
Mr Vijayvergia highlights three of the many areas where IoT technology is driving insurance transformation.
Telematics: The ability of IoT devices to transmit large data volumes in real time opens avenues for seamless data analysis and responses. Insurance sales and marketing, policy pricing and servicing, claims management, and risk assessment are all potentially enriched by data collected from telematic devices.
Mr Vijayvergia’s team developed an insurance model that calculates a motor vehicle driver score based on driving behaviour, including scenarios of sudden acceleration or de-acceleration, idling times and gear-speed correlation.
Collected data was transformed into an analytics platform that provides insight into how people drive, helping them to better understand risks and take preventive actions faster.
“The model helps insurers promote safer, smarter driving behaviour and enables motor insurance customers to get potential discounts and premium savings based on individual driving patterns,” Mr Vijayvergia says.
Smart homes: Insurers can provide a range of services based on data collected from smart devices installed in IoT-enabled homes, including those that monitor security, energy, heating, water usage and flow, and more. They can then offer price reductions for policyholders who use monitoring devices and integrated product and service bundles for smart home technology.
Smart healthcare: IoT-based health insurance uses technology such as wearable monitors, biosensors, and networked health devices and applications. Products identify and track specific types of care individual patients require. That enables health insurers to better assess risk and create billing models that use real-time data the devices provide. IoT-enabled health insurers can understand the pulse of policyholders and personalise products to suit their needs. IoT technology can enhance insureds’ quality of life and the insurer-customer relationship.
“Insights insurers gather from IoT devices can increase the efficiency of prevention mechanisms, improve safety standards and response times, and help insurers recognise analytical patterns to identify and curb fraud,” Mr Vijayvergia says.
“The insurance industry has always been driven by direct customer contact and IoT technology has the potential to significantly enhance those contacts and improve customer relationships.”
Xceedance has a strategic partnership with Xemplar Insights to bring innovative, mobile-based telematic insurtech solutions to global insurance markets.
Xemplar Insights offers mobile platforms and proprietary smartphone-based telematics for insurers, enabling Xceedance to augment its technology capabilities for insurance organisations seeking modern, insurer-branded mobile apps with rich features for policy and claims services.
Media contact: Kate Tilley, Kate Tilley Journalism Pty Ltd
P: 07 3831 7500
E: ktj@ktjournalism.com
About Xceedance
Xceedance provides strategic operations support, technology, and data services to drive efficiencies for insurance organisations worldwide. The company helps insurers launch products, implement intelligent technology, deploy advanced analytics, and achieve business process optimisation. For more information, visit www.xceedance.com.