Over the years we at Bajaj Allianz General Insurance have undertaken some intense backend and front-end automation initiatives. Combining these with cognitive and other technologies such as IoT has helped us create some of the most disruptive use cases.

 

For instance, using drones and satellite imaging for assessing crop damage, the app for farmers in vernacular language, IoT and geofencing based devices for capturing driving behavior, vehicle diagnostics and security alerts, connected school with non-intrusive chip in the child’s id card for relaying regular updates to parents.

In all these cases, being able to deliver value-added services along with the core insurance cover has helped us in taking the whole customer experience level up a notch and gain a competitive edge.

The use cases can be many – ranging from very simple to highly complex – and limited only by one’s imagination. Whatever the use case, there are some common underlying principles that are fundamental to the success of your automation agenda.

I’m often asked these questions – how do you ensure your project’s success and optimize automation’s impact? The answer to these ultimately boils down to two key principles I have distilled from my own experiences and learnings through the automation journey we have undertaken at Bajaj Allianz General Insurance. These principles are universal and relevant across all industry verticals and not insurance alone.

 

Principle #1: Start with your end customer in mind

While this looks like a very simple age-old tenet that’s quite obvious, even today I hear a lot of conversations caught up in buzz words. Sometimes it is the most obvious that misses the mark. The mindset – ‘Everyone is doing it, we need to be there, and we need to be seen’ – is not going to work. Because when the rubber hits the road, if the deployment is not based on a strong foundation it will end up becoming the white elephant.

It is important how you blend the science of technology with the art of customer centricity. At the end of the day no matter what you automate, how you automate or how much you automate, you shouldn’t forget whom you are doing it for.

Based on that do internal scrutiny of your landscape. Look at your current systems and processes, re-engineer them keeping the customer in mind and then deploy the right technology stack.

Somewhere down the line, you will be posed with the question around integrating cognitive and other digital technology flavours to your automation initiatives – when is the right time to add AI/ML capabilities? Here again, the yardstick has to be the customer. Ask yourself whether the use case for adding cognitive and other capabilities to automation is customer-led or are you just getting swayed by the technology’s glamour or peer pressure. Technology for the sake of technology begets zero value.

 

Principle #2: Do the heavy lifting upfront

When it comes to your internal customers, you do not keep the heavy lifting for the end. Working in a corporate, you will rarely find complete consensus with everybody fully on board and bought in on the project. You will come across a set of people who approve the project, some who couldn’t care less and those who may be opposed to it for various reasons. The biggest mistake you can make here is to keep the tough conversations till the last. Many times, we tend to avoid getting into these tough conversations and work in a private mode with some of their favourably placed stakeholders, develop the automation project and then just a few days before launch spring a surprise on the other stakeholders. As a result, we typically end up finding many people opposed to it and the project ultimately does not see the light of the day in the right manner.

With all the heavy lifting done right up-front, it becomes a smooth journey, and then by the time you are ready to launch it everybody is on board. When it moves from inside the firm to outside, it’s the complete consensus and teamwork that go on to make the project successful beyond the Proof of Concept (PoC).

The many paths to automation success, ultimately, need to be led by an unwavering focus on your end customers as well as your internal customers (employees and other stakeholders).