I received this email last month: I attended another conference yesterday.... Lots of talk about tech and customer experience. No talk about coverage and language and why it matters. My response: Has there ever been an insurtech conference where someone speaks as a devil’s advocate to point out some of the problems or issues with trying to insure someone in 60 seconds or with dubious “big data”? I just wrote about an insurtech homeowners quote I got last year where my home’s square footage was understated by 1,200 sq. ft. resulting, in part, in the Coverage A limit quoted being at least $200,000 too low. I did another quote a week or two ago at the same site, and my square footage was OVERstated by 1,600 sq. ft., though the quoted Coverage A limit was still below what I know to be the correct replacement cost. I just wonder if the organizers or participants in these events simply don’t want any naysayers to rain on their parade. The thing is, the technology could be used to do a better job than many agents if the insurtech industry would just get away from the misguided premise that what consumers want and need is fast, easy and cheap. What consumers might want and what they actually need are two completely different things. When my son was a few years old, he would have happily subsisted on a diet of chicken nuggets and gummy bears. That was what he wanted, not what he needed, because he was ignorant of nutrition in general and the nutritional value of such "food" in particular. The same is true with regard to consumers and insurance. It’s a combination of ignorance and the perception, fueled by our own industry advertising, that insurance is a commodity differentiated only by price. See also: Insurtech’s Lowest Common Denominator   Instead of easy/cheap/fast, easy/cheap/better is quite possible. There’s a semi-insurtech that provides a commercial lines market. I looked at its application/exposure analysis system a few years ago, and it was VERY impressive. The questionnaire/checklist series of questions involved a lot of exposure analysis. It wasn’t fast by any means, but it appeared to be very thorough.

THIS is where insurtechs could take the industry if they had a clue what they were doing.

Instead, they cater to the base instincts of people because of ignorance or avarice. They’re looking for quantity, booking as many policies with as little effort as possible. Cash flow. The fact that they dishonestly or misguidedly lead people to believe they can really sell them insurance in 60-90 seconds makes me think there is more than just gross ignorance involved. If they actually understood the industry and what is at stake for the public, they would know the Amazon “one-click” approach isn’t suited for what we sell. Insurance policies have lots of endorsements for a reason--unless a lot of those coverage options are being built in, there are people with lots of coverage gaps that don’t have to be there. The insurance industry is founded on good faith, and good faith means a lot of things that don’t seem to be part of the business model of a lot of insurtechs. If we consider ourselves professionals, there are certain characteristics of being a professional that we have to meet. One of those is altruism. I don’t see any real altruism, for example, coming from a company like Lemonade other than the charity perception they like to give lip service to. When I got my online homeowners quotes, the companies never asked me about my boat dock. Assuming they’re using state-of-the-art data resources like satellite imagery, something in their system should have told them that I live on a lake and have a $40,000 covered boat dock. They should also have access to information that tells them the dock is on Army Corps of Engineers property, not MY “residence premises.” As a result, they would have issued me a homeowners policy with a $40,000 gap for that exposure alone. On our neighborhood NextDoor app, someone said they had a slip on their dock that was available for renting. That makes their dock used for business, necessitating another endorsement to cover that exposure. Does anyone at this insurtech know this? Does anyone at this insurtech really care that they may have a book of business full of people who have potentially bankrupting uninsured exposures? I doubt it. Too cool to care. Would a traditional agent ask these questions? Many would not, so I don’t blame this attitude just on insurtechs. There is plenty of room for improvement in traditional channels. That’s where I see the role of technology. Automate processing as best as possible and use RELIABLE information resources to streamline the processes. That should give knowledgeable, caring professionals, with the assistance of AI technology, the ability to devote most of their time to exposure analysis, risk management, advocacy and education. See also: Predicting the Future of Insurtech The industry needs disruption and can benefit greatly from technology, but not the kind being offered by most of the insurtechs I’ve looked at. Everyone knows the U.S. has a great need for rebuilding infrastructure. If we let the equivalent of insurtechs do it, they’d be rebuilding bridges with matchsticks. This message needs to be shared at insurtech conferences, but I’ve not seen any indications that it is.

Monumental changes in how and where work is performed create new risk and safety challenges. This session at the RIMS 2019 Annual Conference & Exhibition examined emerging workplace risks and effective safety strategies to address them. Speakers included:

• Larry Pearlman, senior vice Ppesident, workforce strategies practice, Marsh
• Timothy Martin, global health and safety manager, Steelcase

1. Wearables Ergonomics are a problem across many industries, especially with an aging workforce. Wearable devices measure body stress so that, with injuries, we can determine what happened, how it happened, when it happened and if it will happen again. Different technology like exoskeleton suits are available to help with strenuous activities, which can help retain your aging employees longer than otherwise expected. 2. Robotics Industries have evolved from using barrier robots (kept away from employees), to collaborative robots (good for repetitive tasks but extremely complicated to program) to now using autonomous robots. Autonomous robots are simple to program in an extremely short time, so virtually any employee can control them with little effort. See also: Top OSHA Trends Facing Employers   3. Workplace Violence Employers are still not being proactive enough on workplace violence, despite the increasing frequency. Training does not extend to drills, and mental health problems are going unaddressed. Employers need to shift from reactive policies to predictive and prescriptive policies. Technology has evolved to provide electronic robots that can patrol your workplace, supported by a control center that can interact with employees in real time. 4. Workplace Wellbeing Studies show that employees are stressed and in poor health. Employee wellbeing is a major problem, and employers need to implement support for total wellbeing – physical, emotional, financial, social. There is a certain way to inspire wellbeing that does not seem like you are telling employees what they should be doing, which is ineffective. There are more-effective programs available that will tailor programs to employee preferences. 5. Temporary Workers Temp workers often do not know proper safety basics and company policies related to safety. Employers can reduce the risks related to temporary workers through hiring practices, screening exercises, onboarding and continuous training. If you use a staffing agency, you can partner with it so that it aligns with your safety philosophy. Be transparent and try to match the type of work to the worker based on physical job requirements. 6. Changing Demographics Training methods must adapt to address the changing nature of the workplace. A blended learning approach is now necessary for different generations. Technology is addressing safety learning preferences for the younger, tech-savvy generations. Micro-learning is available to address bite-size info in real time. Geofencing can monitor and message employees at decision points to ensure rules, compliance and hazard awareness. Also, virtual reality is available to simulate situations to manage the rare, impossible, expensive and risky. See also: Connected Buildings and Workplace Safety   7. Marijuana Marijuana use continues to increase as legalization spreads across the U.S. There is no accurate impairment measurement available, so it is very difficult to create employment policies and testing. It may not make sense to test any more but, rather, enhance your fitness-for-duty policies. There is a new technology that will scan an employee’s eye and tell you if he or she is fit for duty. This is a measure that you can put at the time clock to help measure impairment before the employee begins his or her shift.

The transformation journey requires a new lens. This lens provides a clear future-state vision that anchors both the outside-in lens (prioritizing customers and their experience) and inside-out lens (prioritizing operational optimization), which together propel the journey forward. Acknowledging that the world and insurance are changing at an unprecedented pace, the first step to defining our future state is recognizing that the business of insurance may be very different 10 years from now. This more-open-to-the-future view lets us begin to explore possibilities and strategic watch points. It also alerts us to the fact that if we, as an industry, continue to seek only incremental change and do not change our approach to transformation, we will wake up in three to five years to discover that we have fallen behind, have lost our relevance and have missed out on a widening array of opportunities to advance. The second step is bringing the future-state vision and applying it across all initiatives. This means focusing not on the traditional approaches (in areas of standalone investment such as core systems modernization, new portals or business intelligence) but on the transformational “step beyond” tied to the future-state vision. Then inside-out and outside-in views need to be in sharp focus. But at the same time, they must complement each other. Each insurer’s individual transformation journey will draw on both in different orders and along different paths. In our latest strategic research brief, we illustrate SMA’s new approach to insurers’ transformation journeys with a series of use cases and proof points from the Chubb Small Business Marketplace initiative. With a clear future-state vision, Chubb took a multi-pronged approach to transformation from both the outside-in and inside-out perspectives – from creating new internal roles to launching new products and customer research, starting several strategic initiatives, introducing new portals and modernizing core systems … all linked together with the common future-state vision … to provide an amazing customer experience for agents writing small business. The clear but simple vision of Chubb’s future state has guided the company throughout its transformation journey and will continue to do so in future investments. See also: Beyond the Digital Transformation Hype   All transformation journeys require new perspectives and new approaches. Insurers, make sure you develop clarity on your future state, and make sure it is all encompassing. Have a clear vision of where you want your company to be before embarking on your journey toward that future. Think beyond the traditional approaches, beyond incremental change. Approaches that aim for incremental improvements are simply not going to be enough. And ensure that you are infusing every initiative with the future-state vision. The changes in our world and our industry are transformational. Maintain your transformational focus. This is your opportunity to advance your journey. Make sure your focus is always directed toward transformation.

The speaker walked to the podium holding a large jar filled with M&Ms. She asked: “Who likes M&Ms?” Hands went up. She then asked, “If I offered each of you $10 for each M&M you could eat, how many would eat some?” More hands went up. Finally, she said, “If I offered you $100 for each M&M you ate, who would get in line for a fistful of these chocolate treats?” All hands were raised, and a line to the podium started to form. Then she said, “But understand – one of these M&Ms is infected with a deadly poison, and, if that M&M touches your lips, you will die. Any takers?” All hands went down, and folks forming the line returned to their seats. She said, “This simple example provides insight into the underlying principles of risk management and insurance:

• Don’t risk a lot for a little.
• Don’t risk more than you can afford to lose.
• Don’t measure your chance of loss as a statistic; measure it in terms of the consequences if it happens to you.

As professionals in the insurance industry, our challenge is not just to sell insurance but also to help our clients manage their risks. Our purpose should be to facilitate our clients maximizing the good in their world, minimizing the bad and, when the bad does occur, mitigating the damage done. Risk management is the process. Insurance is the last step in that process. In 1972, as a G.I., I was blessed to visit the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. It was a magnificent edifice. Today, it is smoldering ruins. The history remains; the vast majority of the structure does not. I have no idea of the insurance involved. My first question would be: Is it enough? My answer would be: “Probably not.” I’m assuming the liability carriers of the organizations responsible for the loss and the assets of these same organizations will provide the down payment on this disaster. The Catholic Church, billionaires, the French government and the people in the world will probably “re-insure the rest of the loss.” The facility will never be the same. My experience indicates that too many policyholders (risks) measure their losses in terms of losses they have experienced and are comfortable with. They are hard-pressed to venture into the unthinkable. Many residents/business owners in New Orleans were insured for wind and flood but not to the extent that a lady named Katrina delivered to their world. The people in Houston knew rains and floods but “misunderestimated” what 70 inches of rain can do. See also: In a Crisis, Will You Be Ready?   As agents and brokers, we and our clients guess, “How much is enough? We don’t know for sure until it’s too late to change our decision. I insured (circa 1975) a new hospital on the north shore of Lake Ponchartrain. I had been put on notice of a small fire loss that burned a fence and some grass. A dumpster had caught on fire. I was to report to the board soon, so I called the adjuster to be certain that all was well. The adjuster said, “Mike, I was getting ready to call you to advise you that I had reserved policy limits on this case.” (I almost threw up.) He further explained that the “little grass fire” had burned hundreds of acres adjoining the hospital. On the good news side, the landowner was an older man whose timberland had burned before, and this was the first time anyone had come forward to accept responsibility. He walked away from his claim. He appreciated our honesty and we appreciated his generosity. Bart was one of the best clients I ever had. In the mid-1980s, he had been carrying a $1 million umbrella. I suggested he raise the limits to $5 million. He said, “Mike, what could we ever do wrong that would result in that much damage?” I responded, “One of your trucks could run a busload of attorneys off the bridge and into the river.” He responded: “Oh my God, give me the higher limits.” (Two years later, we paid a multimillion-dollar auto loss.) In 1975, Louise (not her real name) was our agency bookkeeper. She had handled the books for decades. She was a blue-haired church lady who never caused trouble or had been a concern. The agency hired a newly minted accounting graduate to help the agency in the future but would let Louise work as long as she wanted out of respect for her decades of loyal service. In the first week, our new CPA discovered that Louise was more slick than innocent or loyal. We ended up discovering a loss of more than $33,000 (no one will ever know how much she stole). Fast forward about 12 years. I was insuring one of the fastest-growing and most profitable ENT practices in town. The practice was tubes in the ears into to gold via the operating room. The doctors realized the need for a more sophisticated accounting system for their practice. They hired a new CPA to be their office leader. He was the son of a prominent business leader. He had literally grown up next door to one of my agency's principals. He was a professional. We raised the employee bond limit to cover the new success of the practice. The carrier asked for additional details on this new employee. We forwarded the request. The information was not forthcoming. We made requests. The new employee used the excuse of “busy.” We believed him; the carrier did not. It sent a notice of cancellation. A few days later, the managing partner called and asked if the practice had a fidelity bond. I joked, “Don’t tell me he went south with the money.” Total silence. He was gone, as was a large sum of money. The good news for us: The prominent father of this “CPA” paid the claim to make other charges go away. It turned out that his son was not a CPA, and other legal issues were about to surface. As an agent/risk manager, I was not nearly as good as I thought. I was lucky. You may not be so lucky. Manage the risks as they are, not as you are or as you hope them to be. Today’s world is not as simple, innocent or honest as the world we left behind. Marcus Welby M.D. and Ozzie and Harriet are dead, and so is the world they lived in. With technology, your accounts can be cleaned out by a techie crook who can’t even spell CPA. Oftentimes, drugs today motivate dishonesty to support a habit. See also: With Innovation, Keep It Simple, Stupid   In the world of tort in Louisiana, there are more attorneys on billboards than there are underwriters trying to protect their carriers from them. Your Daddy’s Oldsmobile is a distant memory. The invincible AIG of my early years has been bankrupt, as have Arthur Andersen and other icons of yesterday. As a buyer and seller of insurance, as an agency owner and a business owner,  as a center of influence in your own world, BE PREPARED. Be prepared for the world as it is now, not as you would like it to be. Remember that technology has made crooks much more effective at mischief than it has made us efficient at self-preservation! How much is enough protection? I don’t know. Do you?

The World Health Organization has published a five-year strategic plan focused on 10 major threats to global health in 2019, among which there are noncommunicable diseases, such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease - collectively responsible for over 70% of all deaths worldwide. Through the plan, the WHO wants to try to ensure that 1 billion more people will benefit from access to universal health coverage, 1 billion more people are protected from health emergencies and 1 billion more people enjoy better health and well-being. It’s a very optimistic goal, and different types of solutions are required; all means available should be employed. Where do insurers come in? They are part of the healthcare system and could do more to contribute to global health. Though it may seem perhaps altruistic to associate insurers with such a noble scope, the reality is that they, insurers, would also benefit. Forward-looking companies have understood this opportunity, so there are examples of insurers that have started to use the “Insurer as Partner” approach, which implies an active role in prevention rather than just being reactive and paying claims when an undesirable event occurs. This new potential role of the insurer has been made possible, in great part, by what we now call “connected insurance,” which encompasses IoT (Internet of Things), wearables and other monitoring devices. The re-shaping of the insurance industry has already begun, and it will continue based on new technologies. Connected health insurance can become profitable for insurers as it allows measurement of the risk for a specific client and thus allows the presentation of an improved, better-priced value proposition that may also improve general health. The insurance company can’t possibly make it on its own and will have to seek partners from both the technological innovation sphere and medical providers, keeping in mind that its role in the health system is changing from “payer” to “pivot.” Discovery’s Vitality Program To better grasp the actual benefits for clients and not just for insurers that adopt such an innovative approach, let's look at the South African insurance player Discovery, which can be considered the benchmark when it comes to engaging members and improving their quality of life. Its Vitality program has created a system that not only raises the loyalty of customers but improves their lifestyle and overall health. Discovery’s Vitality uses an "early warning" mechanism that can anticipate serious health problems and more expensive claims. It does so by using connected devices like the smartwatch. According to Discovery, Vitality Gold status members with heart disease have 41% lower risk claims than members with no Vitality membership. Vitality Gold members living with diabetes have 50% lower risk claims. See also: Security of Medical Devices Needs Care   Another claim coming from a presentation by Discovery Vitality at DIA Amsterdam 2018 deserves our attention: There is an 18% reduction of hospital and chronic claim costs for the batch of Vitality members who use the Vitality Active Rewards (VAR) alongside the Apple Watch, compared with the group of insured who do not use an Apple Watch. VAR is a smartphone application based on fitness points, which is designed to encourage Vitality members to increase their activity by setting weekly personalized physical activity goals - and then rewarding users for achieving them. (Discovery specifies that its data is based on a cross-sectional view of the relative claims experience, and it is premature to show the improvement over time given the lower frequency of health claim events.) Discovery says that Apple Watch owners enrolled in the program are 35% more active than prior to getting the watch. Since the VAR system was launched, there has been a 24% increase in physical-activity days and a 9% increase in meeting higher exercise targets. The data is telling, and the implications for ensuring healthy lives and promoting wellbeing are significant. Seen from this point of view, the transition to a “prevention-centered” approach is a pragmatic decision for insurers because, in time, the portfolio tends to change its structure, passing from a majority of “sick” clients to a majority of relatively “in good health” clients. ICS Maugeri’s Mosaic case study Let’s look now at a more specific issue within the spectrum of uninsurable diseases, that is diabetes. Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs either when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces. In 2014, 8,5% of adults aged 18 years and older had diabetes. In 2016, diabetes was the direct cause of 1,6 million deaths, and in 2012 high blood glucose was the cause of another 2,2 million deaths. It is estimated that the number of diabetic patients worldwide will be 629 million by 2045. Diabetic patients have a high risk to develop severe complications generated by the evolution of the pathology, such as peripheral neuropathy, retinopathy, nephropathy and cardiovascular diseases. It is well-known that insurers either do not cover diabetic patients or, if they do, require a high premium. This is due to the difficulty to measure the probability of the occurrence of risks associated with these clients. Therefore, the insurance sector is leaving uncovered a market that is becoming more and more relevant. ICS Maugeri, a major group of hospitals specializing in rehabilitation medicine, has developed, in partnership with the University of Pavia, an instrument called Mosaic aimed at improving the clinical management of patients affected by diabetes mellitus type 2 (T2DM) that can calculate the risk of developing complications in different time scenarios. Mosaic uses AI and machine learning that is based on algorithms able to learn patterns and decision rules from data. Based on the results expressed in one of their published research papers, the team has been able “to predict the onset of complications (retinopathy, neuropathy, nephropathy) at different time scenarios: at three, five and seven years from the first visit. The final models are thus able to provide up to 84% accuracy in predicting the probability for a diabetic to develop the three main complications and are easy to apply in clinical practice. In insurers’ terms, this shows that risk associated with diabetes can be estimated; furthermore, given that clinical evidences show that a proper management of the diabetic patient (intensive pharmacological treatment etc.) can lead to a significant reduction in the possibility of developing complications, the risk itself can be managed and reduced. The question is: How can insurers make sure that diabetic patients follow the required therapeutic path? It’s a difficult job. Diabetic patients are required to follow a rigorous clinical, diagnostic and therapeutic path to manage and control their pathology and try to limit or slow the consequences of this chronic disease. This path involves periodic medical checks and diagnostic tests as well as continuous and intensive drug therapies, requiring significant effort for patients and their caregivers. Most of the time, the scheduling of such periodic checks must be autonomously managed by the patient, resulting in a progressive reduction of adherence to the required clinical paths. Within the Mosaic project, the patient is monitored with the help of wearables and telemedicine; this allows the team to (i) personalize and update pharmacological treatments, (ii) identify and update the diagnostic path to be performed to monitor and reduce the risk of complications and (iii) identify on-time criticalities that may require timely investigations. Therefore, this approach allows a significant risk control and, potentially, risk reduction, allowing the insurer to update the premium yearly. See also: An Easy Way Forward on Health Costs   How do Discovery Vitality and Mosaic fit in together? Discovery Vitality uses gamification, reward systems and tracking devices to steer clients toward a healthier life style. Imagine if Vitality would be integrated with Mosaic’s technology for diabetes patients. This would mean that suddenly diabetics would become insurable, and the client base would increase. Vitality has already proven that a reward-based system can help improve behavior, so probably it would also work as an additional incentive for diabetics in keeping them effectively engaged with their prescribed treatment. Taking for granted that diabetics will follow a program step by step and change their behavior toward a desired goal is not something anyone should do. Even if the real stake for diabetics is their own life expectancy, which should be motivation enough, the reward element could be a good and fun extra incentive for reaching health goals. As estimated costs with lifestyle-related conditions (including diabetes) will be 47 trillion by 2030, insurers, the healthcare systems, clinical providers and patients could all benefit in some way from such a program. We would like to see this implemented in the short term at a larger scale than the test made by Mosaic, and it would also be interesting to look at how this approach could be extended to other chronic diseases. Article based on the chapter written by Andrea Silvello and Alessandro Procaccini, “Connected Insurance Reshaping the Health Insurance Industry,” Smart Healthcare, Intechopen, 2019, DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.85123.

According to a recent article by Policy Genius, “The cost of college has skyrocketed over the last decade, resulting in $1.4 trillion of outstanding student loan debt. The burden of educational debt weighs greatest on millennials --- those born between 1981 and 1996. Not surprisingly, college debt is influencing their behavior and spending habits. Research shows millennials are holding back on buying homes and making other big-ticket purchases because they are afraid of taking on more debt. Millennial families are also postponing other financial outlays, such as life insurance, because of debt concerns, according to a recent survey by SE2. Marriage and kids continue to be the life-changing events that trigger purchases of life insurance. As millennials buck the trend, insurers have to be versatile to adapt to their consumer tastes and lifestyles to capture this vastly untapped market segment. Start with technology Speed and convenience are increasingly critical to a good brand experience. Those raised as digital natives do not want to wait for several weeks for underwriting to size up an applicant’s risk. To be sure, a number of insurers have leveraged technology to accelerate the cycle time, but there is still far more we have to do. According to a recent report from Celent, cycle times for modest face amount carriers has dropped from 33 to 26 days, which is a solid improvement but still almost four weeks. See also: The Great Millennial Shift   Insurers rely on a mountain of public information --- from motor-vehicle records to credit information to property records --- to properly assess risk and price premiums. One late monthly payment on college debt can cause a credit score to drop, which could drive up premiums. What if price-sensitive millennials could offset the negative of a low credit score by sharing data from their Fitbit exercise app? New York’s top financial regulator is taking a step in this direction by allowing life insurers to use data from social media and other nontraditional sources when setting premium rates. Through leveraging data available through electronic medical records and health claims data, more and more carriers are able to provide a fluidless underwriting experience without an APS (Attending Physician's Statement). In the digital era, many of these digital natives are tracking everything from the food they eat to the number of steps they take every day. Our research shows that millennials might be more willing to buy insurance if their real-time health data could reduce premiums. Create an authentic experience Millennials are increasingly more discriminating about the firms they choose to do business with, showing a preference for companies that are authentic, ethical and committed to social good. This partiality stems in part from the 2008 financial crisis when a shortage of jobs affected the employment opportunities for older millennials. Younger millennials witnessed the pain of parents losing their jobs or their homes, or both. The scary economic news sowed a pessimism about the future and increased their desire for transparency. See also: Why Financial Wellness Is Elusive   Big companies have had to scramble to adjust to shifting attitudes. Mass marketing through TV advertising is proving less effective. Companies that target millennials with creative experiential campaigns are finding greater success. The engagement can be online, too, through gamification, loyalty programs and reporting on daily activities and life events. Some of the more innovative insurance carriers have seem immense success partnering with financial technology startup such as Life.io and Vitality to create customer engagement programs that has led to reduction in lapse rates and opened up new cross-sell and up-sell opportunities. Despite their financial concerns, we found that millennials value insurance and the peace of mind it provides. It falls upon the insurance industry to meet this generation where they are by creating tailored products, tools and processes that connect with how they live and consume today.

Over the past decade, insurers have focused heavily on improving the customer’s journey. This task can be particularly challenging because a customer’s engagement with them could be as little as one annual wellness visit with no other claims for that year. In an effort to create engagement and build loyalty while working toward better health status, insurers have gamified biometric device interactions, launched semi-automated communications platforms and established group wellness challenges for employer groups and individual coverage plans. But here’s the challenge: If the data gathered from these engagements that is fed back to insurers is not clean, readable and available in the format and time in which it is needed, then a carrier is unable to optimize its application. If this challenge can be solved, high-quality data that does meet those parameters can be used for CRM modeling tools, experience and loyalty measuring systems, enhanced communications applications, cross-sell offers and lifetime customer value formulas. So how does one begin to solve this challenge? The key lies in using information obtained from reputable sources to fill in some of the gaps in the data you are already gathering. See also: How Agencies Can Use Data Far Better   Here are some of the benefits of using third-party data to inform your analytics:

1. You can enhance the bland data you already have. You could fill volumes with the amount of information you have about your customers’ basic demographics such as age, geography and household income. But what about their risk for certain health conditions and their history of disease? Including these details can support better communications, closer engagement and efficient transaction processing with care providers and administrative systems managers.
2. You can improve both the quantity and quality of your data. Quality of data can make or break processing and downstream analytics. When you use a third party to obtain your data, you may experience a more reliable return on investment in your marketing and communications spend. You can also make more informed decisions when you are pricing the risk of catastrophic losses. High-quality data can mean the difference between automated workflow decision making or manual and costly processes. It does not have to be a lot of data — but it does have to be clean, understandable, reliable and available when needed.
3. You can diversify ways of turning data into actionable insights. Information might be engineered or derived from big datasets that are curated in a way that a payer can ingest, making it useful for activities including workflow automation, risk management assessments, price modeling exercises, population health management or sales and marketing activities.

Of course, it’s important to be able to efficiently manage data from multiple sources. To do that, you need to create a master data management plan. Often, a centralized location for several datasets makes sense, although a connected, decentralized arrangement can work, as well. Establish a standard data dictionary within your company to ensure that your staff understands external data in the right way and can more precisely define even internal data. In other words, break down data silos and functional barriers that may be preventing a standard dictionary that all can leverage. How can you determine whether you are getting the most out of your use of data? A three-step approach may be helpful:

1. Evaluate the data you have and verify whether it is clean, reliable and accessible in the manner you need it.
2. Identify the areas in which external data could complement your own and structure a data management approach for all of your data — both internal and external.
3. Establish a cross-functional executive team that can prioritize where you need the data most, and start on one initiative now. If you are not doing something, your competitors most probably are.

See also: Role of Unstructured Data in AI   Well-organized data can help you engage your current customers, attract new customers and ultimately improve your company’s bottom line. But too much data, that is not optimized for your business needs, may not help the organization meet its goals. When you focus on high-quality and reliable data, you can see some tangible results when you adapt its use into platforms all along the lifecycle of your business.

As Daenerys Targaryen unleashed her dragon on the defenseless King's Landing in the penultimate episode of "Game of Thrones" on Sunday, millions of viewers wondered: Why didn't the writers prepare us more for her turn to the dark side? How did the city's artillery go from hitting everything a week earlier to hitting nothing this week? And, if there was budget for such extensive special effects showing the destruction of the city, then why couldn't Jon Snow have hugged his CGI-generated direwolf goodbye the week before? (Maybe that was just my question.)

Those of us in the insurance industry had even tougher questions: Why didn't the risk managers prepare the city better for an attack? Couldn't dragon-resistant building codes have been imposed? Are there enough adjusters in all of Westeros to handle all the claims?

Right?

Let's imagine two scenarios, one traditional and one cutting-edge, that consider how King's Landing might recover. (If either gets picked up as one of the inevitable prequels or sequels to GoT, I hereby lay claim to a share of the royalties. I can see it now: "A Song of Fire and Fire Insurance.")

We all know the traditional scenario, which we see after hurricanes and wildfires. An army of adjusters descends on the city. They start handing out partial checks and plowing through debris and the details of the policies. An insurer or two is undercapitalized—Lannister Re surely didn't survive this attack, despite its slogan: "Lannister always pays its debts." Loads of people are underinsured, and that's even before the massive competition begins for the materials and skilled workers needed to rebuild. The lawyers get involved, and people learn that being covered for fire doesn't mean they're covered for ALL fire—dragon fire is a special case, after all—or for the damage caused when fire makes someone else's building collapse on them or their homes. Pretty soon, billboards go up advertising for personal injury lawyers: "If You Suffered Emotional Distress in the Dragon Attack, Call Qyburn & Qyburn at 123-456-7890."

The city eventually recovers, but it takes forever; there is a ton of wasted effort and money; and many customers feel ill-used.

Now let's imagine a more, well, magical scenario. George R.R. Martin hasn't finished the books yet, so I'll claim literary license. 

In this scenario, King's Landing insurers saw themselves as in the services business, not in the payment-for-damages business. They helped businesses and citizens prepare for the dragon attack, whose possibility had been building for years. So, many buildings had been hardened and survived reasonably intact. (The episode just didn't show those.) Insurers drew on the new possibilities from insurtechs, especially Bran Stark Analytics (the predecessor of Stark Industries and Tony Stark, aka Iron Man). Based on its Three-Eyed Raven platform, Stark Analytics used AI (aerial intelligence) to warn clients right before the attack and get them to safe areas. (Again, the episode somehow missed these people.) After the attack, the insurtech dispatched flocks of crows (controlled via warging) to survey the damage, quickly started paying claims and helped clients soon get back on their feet. 

There was still plenty of dislocation—dragon attacks will do that—but the focus on prevention and the use of cutting-edge technology meant that the city quickly recovered and thrived under the long reign of....

Cheers,

Paul Carroll

Editor-in-Chief

P.S. Spare a thought for the 3,500-plus girls who over the course of the show have been named some version of Daenerys or Khaleesi. Named after a symbol of female strength, the girls and their parents are now finding that Daenerys has become an unhinged mass murderer.

The timing was excellent – or unfortunate – depending on your perspective. Just a week before South Korean President, Moon Jae-in, jets to Washington to talk DPRK denuclearization, it was reported that a South Korean oil tanker had been detained. The P PIONEER – the first local vessel seized by South Korean authorities — is among four detained by Seoul. All are suspected of violating United Nations sanctions on fuel shipments to North Korea. Just last month, the UN Security Council (which uses Windward technology) published its latest report on North Korea. It laid out in graphic detail Pyongyang’s evolving tactics in evading sanctions, and the maritime compliance risk faced by anyone connected – however unwittingly – to vessels engaged in this kind of activity. THE P PIONEER According to reports, the P PIONEER was detained last October on suspicion of shipping oil to North Korea via clandestine ship-to-ship transfers and is “an indicator of the increasing pressure the U.S. is exerting on foreign governments and businesses to crack down on North Korean sanctions evasion,” according to Tahlia Townsend and Joseph Grasso, who head the International Trade Compliance and Insurance Practice Group at U.S. law firm Wiggin and Dana. A Windward analysis of the vessel’s behavior in the 12 months leading up to its detention reveals a pattern of dark activities in several parts of the East China Sea. In total, we detected 13 separate occasions when this happened – the kind of deceptive shipping practices routinely employed by North Korea, as highlighted by an updated advisory published last month by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. During our analysis, another notable pattern of behavior emerged: In the 12 months before it was detained, the P PIONEER only visited ports in South Korea. In other words, every voyage the vessel undertook began and ended in South Korea. Map showing polygons (areas) linked to possible clandestine oil transhipments to North Korea. Source: OFAC, UN. See also: Can Insurers Stop Financial Crimes? Yes   Searching in the dark Detecting such behavior just by searching for “dark activity” won’t get you very far. Indeed, if you use this behavior as a proxy for illicit activity in the East China Sea, you’ll end up with a short list of 20,000 vessels during the past 12 months (the East China Sea is notorious for poor AIS coverage, meaning many vessels that “go dark” don’t do so deliberately). Of these, 1,200 were tankers – a number way too big to differentiate between innocent vessels just passing through and those potentially engaged in illicit oil trading with North Korea. If identifying dark activity was all we could do, compliance officers, charged with ensuring vessels they deal with are complying with sanctions, would probably jump overboard. Map showing clusters of Dark Activities by vessels in the East China Sea over the past year Where we can narrow things down for maritime compliance risk is by looking at how frequently vessels went dark – where it was an integral part of a vessel’s modus operandus. As the chart below shows, most tankers had no more than one dark activity in the area; only 3.5% of them did it more than five times. We can look more closely at repeat offenders, to find those that might be evading sanctions (our algorithms can detect which turn-off-transmissions are due to lack of reception and which due to skulduggery). Distribution of vessel dark activity, highlighting two additional vessels that were mentioned in the recent OFAC advisory regarding DPRK as possibly being involved in illegal transports of petroleum products. Behavioral Analysis Another way to whittle down the list of potential miscreants is to look at trade patterns. As discussed above, most vessels passing through this area were heading to ports in the region. The P PIONEER’s voyages always started and finished in South Korea (with a dark activity in between), a pattern we see in just 81 other vessels over the past 12 months. If we narrow our time window to the past 60 days, we find only 17 vessels were engaged in this pattern of behavior – a much more manageable data set. Within those 17, we find one, very interesting, vessel, called the P CHANCE. Like the P PIONEER, it’s a tanker; it’s flagged in South Korea; it had 21 dark activities in the region in the past year – including one last month. Oh, and it belongs to the same registered owner (see below). Looking at the P CHANCE’s economic utilization profile, one can spot the same risk indicators but from a different perspective. With more than 15 dark activities in the East China Sea in 2018, the vessel spent only 31 days in port (compared with 80 days for similar tankers). See also: Europe’s New Data Breach Requirements   To be sure, this analysis isn’t a smoking gun – it just means that out of the thousands of vessels transiting the East China Sea every month, this vessel stands out, indicating that further investigation may be warranted. Maritime Compliance Risk The deceptive shipping practices discussed in this article were once only relevant to intelligence agencies and NGOs that monitored and enforced sanctions. But as we’ve seen in the recent OFAC advisory, and the UN Panel of Experts report, sanctions enforcement is no longer something only bad actors need worry about; counterparty due diligence (CDD) teams in every industry that interacts with shipping now need to up its game considerably. Indeed, when list managers or compliance officers consume data feeds and black lists, the recent OFAC advisory might now require them to prepare and consume a global daily review of dynamic sanctions evasions tactics, to mitigate compliance risk. With the right technology, they can do so – while keeping their businesses running as usual.

What’s a great, differentiated customer experience (CX) really worth to a company? It’s a question that seems to vex lots of business executives, many of whom publicly tout their commitment to the customer but are actually unsure about the ROI of customer experience — leaving them reluctant to invest in customer experience improvements. As a result, companies continue to subject their customers to complicated sales processes, cluttered websites, dizzying 800-line menus, long wait times, incompetent service, unintelligible correspondence and products that are just plain difficult to use. To help business leaders understand the overarching influence of a great customer experience (as well as a poor one), my firm sought to elevate the dialogue. That meant getting executives to focus, at least for a moment, not on the cost/benefit of specific customer experience initiatives but, rather, on the macro impact of an effective customer experience strategy. We accomplished this by studying the cumulative total stock returns for two model portfolios – composed of the Top 10 (“Leaders”) and Bottom 10 (“Laggards”) publicly traded companies in customer experience. As the graphic in the next section vividly illustrates, the results of our study were quite compelling. The Results Eleven years of customer experience rankings were available for our analysis. The graph below shows the cumulative total return across that period for the Leaders and Laggards.

• Customer Experience Leaders outperformed the broader market, generating a total return that was 45 points higher than the S&P 500 Index.
• Customer Experience Laggards trailed far behind, posting a total return that was 76 points lower than that of the broader market.
• Customer Experience Leaders generated a total cumulative return that was nearly three times greater than that of the Customer Experience Laggards.

Commentary This analysis reflects over a decade of performance results, spanning an entire economic cycle, from the pre-recession market peak in 2007 to the post-recession recovery that continues today. While there are obviously many factors that influence a company’s stock price, the results of this study indicate that, over the long term, a great customer experience helps build business value, while a poor customer experience erodes it.  That’s an important takeaway, for public and private entities alike. What creates that enhanced value? Revenue growth. When most people think about the economic benefit from a great customer experience, this is where their heads go.  That’s entirely appropriate, because revenue growth is indeed one clear advantage of customer experience excellence. Why? Happy, loyal customers have better retention, they’re less price-sensitive and they’re more willing to entertain offers for other products and services – all helping to raise revenue. Plus, because they love you so much, they spread positive word-of-mouth and refer new customers to you – lifting revenue even higher. Expense control. This is the part of customer experience economic equation that most businesses fail to appreciate. (It’s also why using revenue growth, alone, to demonstrate customer experience ROI is misguided.) When you have happy, loyal customers, it helps to better control – if not reduce – your expenses. For example, due to all the customer referrals you’re getting, you can spend less on business acquisition – which reduces expenses. In addition, happy customers tend to complain less, putting reduced stress on your operating infrastructure (e.g., lower call volumes), thereby also helping to keep expenses in check. Of course, these economic dynamics cut both ways. Customer Experience Laggards struggle to raise revenue (e.g., poor retention, high price-sensitivity, limited cross-purchasing, negative word-of-mouth), and they’re burdened with higher expenses (e.g., to acquire new customers, and to deal with the existing unhappy ones). This weighs on their long-term profitability and makes them less valuable in the eyes of the market. To learn more about the study’s methodology, and what Customer Experience Leading firms do to achieve their outperformance, view Watermark’s complete Cross-Industry Customer Experience ROI Study. The Insurance Industry Perspective The insurance industry often views itself as being different than other sectors, given, for example, its highly regulated nature and the fact that its products are something of a “grudge purchase” for consumers. Well, we’ve crunched the Customer Experience ROI numbers for the Auto and Home insurance industries – and it turns out the customer experience story is even more compelling in those sectors: Insurance Customer Experience Leaders outperformed the Laggards by over a three-to-one ratio. It’s a striking result that suggests, at least in this regard, the insurance industry isn’t different from most other sectors, and the compelling economics of a customer experience excellence still apply. To learn more about Watermark’s insurance industry analysis, including the implications for insurance providers seeking to improve their own customer experience, view the complete Insurance Customer Experience ROI Study.