On 12 October, at the second edition of the InsurTech Summit at the Novotel Kirchberg, CEO OneLife, Marc Stevens, participated in a round table discussion in the company of his Luxembourg peers.  The experts from the life insurance serctor discussed the themes of innovation and investment in the area of InsurTech.

The session was moderated by Geoffroy Gailly, Partner at KPMG, who asked about the return on investment in the area of InsurTech. “What are the amounts and how are they invested? How do you measure the ROI ?” asked M. Gailly.

For Marc Stevens, measuring the end-to-end ROI is simply not possible : “A better way of looking at it is to define a field of application and to to take processes into account”. The CEO of OneLife then shared a number of examples with participants: the use of robots for e-mail management, requiring an investment of two days, in order to gain 20 man-days per year.  In addition, prospectiing using social media and notably LinkedIn. This investment, led by  Christophe Regnault, Digital Marketing Manager at the life insurance company located in Capellen, is already bearing its fruit.  As Marc Stevens indicates, the cost is 10 times lighter than using traditional prospection methods and the ratio is 3 times higher.  Moreover, according to the CEO, certain questions remain: “How can these prospects be converted into real partner relationships ?  In fact, our prospects are developing in a digital environment, so the question is, can your company evolve in the same universe as them?”

At OneLife, investment in technology goes hand-in-hand with a new way of managing projects, with an Agile type of approach advocated by Eric Lipper, COO of the life insurer. “We are now able to deliver new products and services in a much shorter timeframe.  This was the case with our App developed last year.  If it is difficult to evaluate the return on investment from A to Z, a number of different factors may be calculated which demonstrate that we are moving in the right direction” added Marc Stevens.  He went on to say : “Spending is easy, Smart spending is way more difficult”.

The Luxembourg life insurance experts then discussed the digital transformation within their respective companies.   Marc Stevens began his speech by sharing an example of a site comparing different non-life assurance propositions, launched over 20 years ago in the Netherlands.  «Today, 60 % of product distribution passes through this site. However, the same concept for life insurance companies just didn’t work’.  With this example, M. Stevens also emphasised the importance of the interchange between human contact and technology.  «Some do not want either telephone or face to face contact, as they are used to a totally digital experience. But in our sector, some still prefer human contact.  One of the challenges is therefore to be able to integrate this interchange process”.

The client – and partner – experience is key and technology can now allow an optimal level of exchange which creates new relationships.  “Thirty years ago, technology wasn’t mature. Today, we are involved in a process of change with a variety of different marketing operations and HR tools etc … we have embarked on a journey without really knowing the final destination.  But one thing is sure, the client experience can only benefit from it, as will, in fine, the experience of our employees, our partners and our clients” concluded Marc Stevens.