Digital insurer Fidea builds future on DXC digital solutions

Digital transformation has permanently altered the relationship between customers and companies. Customers expect fast answers and personalized service from the businesses they patronize. And when they don’t get it, the cost of change is nearly zero. That has put the burden on companies to develop channels that can deliver new, innovative products and exceptional levels of personalized service.

In the insurance industry, where the insurer-broker channel remains important, that’s a critical differentiator. Insurers who sell through brokers to consumers must not only be price competitive, they must also make it easy for brokers to generate quotes, issue policies and deliver service to their customers after the sale.

As the insurance market has changed, so has Fidea. To remain competitive, retain and grow its broker channels as a mid-tier player, the Belgian-based company with €500 million in gross premiums and nearly 1 million policies in effect, needed to be one of the most accessible insurance companies in the market, and offer an “any device, any channel” end-user experience that is both consistent and personalized.

Clean sheet opportunity

To achieve these objectives, Fidea chose DXC Insurance OmniChannel. Fidea selected DXC over prominent competitors because of the multiline functionality of DXC’s GraphTalk policy administration system. Based on the already successful relationship between the two companies, DXC and Fidea worked in a co-development model to fill the company’s immediate need for general insurance, followed soon after by systems to support the company’s life insurance business. DXC performed a range of tasks to build out the carrier’s entire IT landscape, including workflow and systems integration. DXC also established general ledger, business analytics and printer/document management solutions, and provided hosting services.

DXC Insurance OmniChannel was chosen to help Fidea offer a persona-designed user experience (UX) across all channels — including web, tablet and mobile form factors.

The DXC Insurance OmniChannel platform is available in the cloud as software as a service (SaaS) and exposes the API to be used by a third-party application fully integrated with Fidea back-end systems of record, such as policy administration and claims processing. This platform could also be integrated with customer relationship management (CRM), analytics and a broad range of services from DXC’s partner ecosystem.

In addition, DXC’s reference APIs, based on its deep industry experience and heritage in the core systems software business, provide true extensibility. Fidea can extend the platform, making changes and tailoring the platform as it builds out its broker engagement functionality without disrupting the underlying core capability. The APIs are focused on interaction and give the company the ability to engage with brokers and deliver an efficient, user-friendly experience across all channels and via all devices.

An ongoing successful partnership

DXC Insurance OmniChannel enables consumers, insurers, agent/brokers, vendors, adjusters and other personae-derived participants to interact, share services and data, and participate in their part of the insurance process anywhere and at any time. All the while, Fidea can accelerate purchasing and claims resolution cycles, thanks to end-to-end digital workflows and straight-through processing. Fidea reports that since the implementation of DXC Insurance OmniChannel, it has seen substantial growth in the volume of broker requests. Issued business from brokers has increased by 50 percent.

Comprehensive services such as those provided to Fidea are successful only when built on a strong, trust-based relationship. Consistent transparency has helped both companies work through implementation of the policy administration system. Every 3 months the teams meet for a strategy session review, where DXC outlines its overall strategy and new solutions. At the session, Fidea offers new insight into its direction.

“Fidea is a standalone insurance company in a constantly changing environment, faster [than] ever before. We want to take a prominent place in this landscape with a flexible, open IT system and an engaged partner. DXC is that partner, a large international IT services company having all the necessary competencies to support us and to invest in a real partnership — a partner we can count on in every circumstance,” says Marc Wouters, Fidea’s chief operations officer.