Australia’s infamous weather is only getting more extreme as we brace ourselves for oncoming heatwaves, bushfires, floods, and hail. It’s one event after the other. Often, damage to your business is unavoidable. And if the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that effective business continuity and resource distribution plans are business-critical and essential to combatting crises.
While you can’t single-handedly reverse climate change or control its timing, you can make sure you are safeguarded against the imminent impact. The real secret to combatting the oncoming extreme weather is working with modern, digitally transformed insurers.
Businesses working with insurers operating with outdated business models will experience slow, inefficient, or inadequate protection. They take far too long to fulfil claims in an emergency. Or, they have a highly centralised workforce that won’t continue working effectively in the case of an extreme weather event or another lockdown.
Let’s go over what you should be looking for in an insurer and why it matters.
What is a smart insurer?
The insurance sector’s red tape, regulations, and security requirements mean that many insurance providers are using outdated tech. They use a range of disconnected, on-premises software that can only be accessed through a company desktop computer. It’s a clunky, Frankenstein combination of legacy tools.
When you want to make a claim, you jump through hoop after hoop, and you deal with five different people from different departments at the same company. And none of them talks to each other.
Enter the digitally transformed insurer: an insurer that provides a digital-first, Uber-esque experience for their customers. That means faster, cheaper, better insurance outcomes, and optimal support during extreme weather events. They’ve connected everything in one place for a seamless insurance claim process.
Smart insurers often have:
- A modern, end-to-end platform that ensures insurance claims are fast and cost-effective.
- Scalable resources to respond quickly during extreme weather events.
- A mobile-first way to assess claims remotely, improve claim resolution accuracy, speed, and ensure business continuity.
- Automation of manual tasks to ensure speed and compliance.
In my experience, a digital-first insurance claims process can reduce the insurance claim lifecycle by up to two weeks. That means you can get back to business faster – saving time and money.
Protect your business
A modernised insurer will work with you to identify and forecast the risks of extreme weather and how to handle those situations. With a digitally enabled, end-to-end project management platform, the process of doing business will be streamlined and automated. It’s on guardrails. That means it’s cost optimised, and ultimately, the experience is much more efficient and effective. Automation and workflows can also ensure regulatory compliance. It’s guaranteed that the right people undertake the right actions at the right time, so your business is protected, and you are on the front foot.
A digital-first business also means that your insurer can support you no matter the weather event. More recently, we witnessed how one of the biggest roadblocks to a successful pandemic response was that most businesses weren’t prepared to function with a distributed workforce. If an insurer has the tools for teams and supply-chains to work remotely (such as virtual triage processes, mobile cloud-based software, etc.), then you can have peace of mind that you’ll get fast and reliable support in any situation.
This also ensures scalability during severe weather events, where insurance team members or resources from different parts of the country (or even overseas) can be allocated to the crises at hand. Wherever and whenever that may be.
Next Steps
Digital transformation doesn’t begin and end with insurers. Australian businesses can also look at their own operations and ask themselves if they truly have business continuity:
- Do you have a business continuity plan for all possible weather events?
- Do you have cloud-based and mobile options to empower your workforce to work remotely in the case of extreme weather?
- Are legacy systems, disconnected stakeholders, and repetitive manual tasks slowing your response time?
- Are you working with a broker you trust to make sure you have the right cover?
- Is your insurer digitally enabled to support you during extreme weather events?
The old way of working simply provides inadequate support for your business. As the storm clouds gather, Australian businesses must push for modernised insurance to ensure they’re protected.
Read more: Australia’s amusement and leisure industry insurance dilemma
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