Insurers can integrate ‘diesel in the basement’ legacy systems with Appian low code software

Business transformation is powered by software and that is what will differentiate you in the market, delegates were told at Intelligent InsurTECH Europe 2019 which was held in London on October 14.

But insurers have all inherited a lot of systems, through M&A and growth, which can be hard to integrate, said Gijsbert Cox, insurance lead of the EMEA region at Appian.

Speaking at a session in the event’s strategy and technology track, he explained that this is a barrier to business agility.

“Some of the systems are very old. I call them the ‘diesel in the basement’. They run and will give a policy or claims number but how do you integrate them with insurtech?” Cox said.

His presentation, called ‘Build an insurance technology ecosystem for the future’, showcased how Appian’s low code platform allows a business to build enterprise software applications much faster.

“You can go from idea to a new app up to 20 times faster,” according to a Forrester study.

As well as building new apps, Cox said, the software “integrates well with systems of record” by connecting and enhancing existing systems.

He added: “We can develop applications as you are designing the process, like a flow diagram. We start with an idea and a flow process, then we digitise that.”

Artificial intelligence can be “plugged in” to the software, he said, to give underwriters greater insight by supporting a more informed decision based on data.

Amending the process once it has gone live is as easy as “dragging and dropping” a new process into the process flow diagram that is “under the hood” of the program, Cox said.

“You might want to change something because of a new insurtech, or new thinking, so you just drag and drop the new process element in to the process.”

He explained that this process without coding is what Appian calls “intelligent automation” and “that’s how you become agile”.

The application allows extra information, such as smoke detector monitors, and other internet of things devices, to drive action prompts for clients. It can easily integrate with different communication technologies such as a chatbot to help with queries, and has an option to integrate neurolinguistic programming (NLP) to reflect the mood of the person via a range of happy and sad faces.

He said: “The system is designed to offer information to the user to improve customer service and work as efficiently as possible.”