Swiss health and InsurTech firm dacadoo, which provides digital health engagement and health risk quantification systems to insurers, has coined the term “integrated insurance operators” to describe insurers that will truly grow and define the next 10-20 years in the industry.

Such insurers offer a fully integrated digital ecosystem, including a tangible health and wellbeing proposition, to elevate the customer experience and engage their members through mobile-first digital health engagement platforms.

“They will drive the disruption from within,” said Mr Peter Ohnemus, president & CEO of dacadoo.

He said that few insurers are operating based on today’s consumer behaviour, and they do not reflect the expectations of the mobile-first, digital and dynamic generation.

Consumers’ shifting demands are now combining with digital innovation to transform analogue business models, with record funding being allocated towards InsurTech developments, even against a backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Many insurers have failed to fully grasp the magnitude of the changes that are happening,” said Mr Ohnemus.

“For the insurers, building and leading integrated health and wellbeing digital ecosystems means they will have a unique understanding of a consumer’s life, while the consumer gains relevant health advice and personalised lifestyle navigations,” said Mr Ohnemus. “Such micro-services and lifestyle-based insurance products will become extremely popular, as long as customer privacy and trust are retained and a good mobile experience is delivered.”

dacadoo has conducted an insurance industry research project, the Global Integrated Insurance Operator Survey, which ran throughout October 2020 and collected responses from over 300 Life & Health insurance executives globally.

One of the main objectives behind this research initiative was to discover how insurance executives see their organisations changing within the near future and whether digitisation and customer-centricity have become an important part of that transformation.

The survey report, titled “Global Market Report on the Integrated Insurance Operator—Becoming a digital leader within the life and health insurance industry in the new normal”, shows that:

60% of insurers either already have a digital health engagement platform or are planning and/or implementing it 86% believe that implementing an integrated insurance operation sits either high or middle in their rank of strategic initiatives

68% agree that their digital transformation has become a business survival imperative

69% reveal that they are implementing new products and services as part of an integrated insurance operation, whereas 17% say that they will consider implementing new products and services in the next three years or more.