6 Reasons Insurance Companies Should Move To The Cloud

Cloud Computing

The growth of cloud technology has been an exciting development across a number of industries in recent years. Insurance brokers and underwriters in particular are now beginning to migrate to cloud-hosted solutions in order to reap the benefits.

The cloud offers a whole host of opportunities to those in the insurance industry. By moving IT services and networking requirements to the cloud, businesses can benefit from reduced costs, greater agility, and more efficient customer service. Here are 6 of the ways that cloud solutions can help insurance companies to get ahead.

1) Reduced Costs

One of the biggest advantages of cloud solutions is the potential savings that they offer in terms of running costs compared to traditional on-site server networks. Whereas physical servers come with high upfront installation costs, as well as ongoing maintenance and upgrade costs, with cloud solutions you simply pay for what you use and avoid costs from software licensing, hardware installation and maintenance.

This can be especially useful for smaller insurance companies, AR’s, start-ups, and insurers in emerging markets where resources are more scarce. The cloud offers immediate access to the necessary IT infrastructure without the lengthy and costly setup process often associated with acquiring on-site server infrastructure.

2) Agility and scalability

Cloud hosting solutions facilitate much greater agility than traditional server networks because they’re much more readily customisable to match the changing needs. Cloud software provision and infrastructure can easily be adjusted on a regular basis in order to meet the requirements of shifting workflows and projects.

For instance, cloud provisions may be expanded during the development and testing of new services and applications, and when the project in question has been completed, these provisions can be scaled back to save on costs. Cloud solutions also allow much easier testing and implementation of new infrastructure, adding further agility.

Cloud solutions are also highly scalable since cloud service providers have the necessary infrastructure already in place. This allows cloud solutions to be scaled to meet peak demand periods, such as during resource-intensive actuarial data analysis processes.

3) Improved customer experience

An insurance tailored cloud solution can help provide a better customer experience in a number of ways. For example, the lack of maintenance or downtime required by on-site servers guarantees constant access to resources and services for both the company and its customers, ensuring a much smoother customer service provision.

Cloud hosting also facilitates the automation of certain processes in order to provide quicker, more efficient service to customers. In particular, the development of underwriting automation can save huge amounts of time and effort on the company’s part while ensuring clients receive quicker decisions on their applications.

Other manual tasks like reporting, documentation and data management can also be automated, and the time and effort saved can instead be spent on communicating with customers to deliver high-quality service.

4) Analytics

Cloud solutions often offer access to a host of analytics tools, services and dashboards which can help analytical processes become much more streamlined. On-demand adjustments to computing capacity also mean that insurers can guarantee access to the analytical capabilities they need whenever they need them.

Instead of maintaining on-site capabilities at the maximum required level at all times, or requiring time-consuming manual adjustments and upgrades, computing capacity can be updated as and when needed, providing further time and cost savings.

A cloud hosting solution built especially for insurance brokers is also of tremendous benefit as it offers streamlined, centralised data storage and file management systems which allow easier access to data for analytical tasks such as underwriting, risk management and marketing.

5) Compliance

Centralised file storage and management solutions incorporated into cloud services means that data, documentation and policy or procedure guidelines can all be securely stored and accessed within an easily accessible framework. It can also facilitate automated report generation and storage to further streamline the documentation process.

This is highly useful for compliance teams, as it allows easier preparation for auditing by allowing more efficient compliance documentation and making evidence easily available to supply to auditors.

6) Collaboration

The cloud allows for centralisation of data and documentation in a single remotely accessible framework. Since many insurance companies employ the services of ever-changing teams of external reps and developers handling a multitude of projects, this makes it much easier to provide the necessary access to various users as and when they need it.

Cloud-hosted solutions also facilitate a variety of collaborative tools, which can again be provided on an as-needed basis to meet the evolving requirements of different projects and teams. Data-sharing, collaborative workspaces and communications tools are easily implemented within the cloud and can be extended to specific users whenever necessary.

The cloud’s collaborative capabilities are also useful when applied to global workforces. As well as allowing remote access to centralised data storage and computing capabilities, implementing an insurance-specific cloud solution allows standardisation of workflows and procedures across multiple global locations.

This also makes global growth much easier, as expanding into new markets does not require setting up new server infrastructure in each new location.