Autor: David Esteva

With the advancement of technology, and the emergence of the Digital Age, fields that previously seemed impossible for insurers to cover are now just one more area that they can cover thanks to so-called smart devices, which are currently found anywhere. , from the office, home and even with ourselves being carried as an accessory.

These devices that have internet and a configuration that allows them to collect, process and optimize data, have been great allies for insurers and their clients, helping to prevent claims, as well as receiving the most accurate recommendations to make a free place of accidents.

Uses of IoT in the insurance industry

Preventing a fire

Imagine the case of Julieta, a single woman who does not spend most of her time in her apartment, but at work. In order to keep your home safe, you hired the services of an insurer that offers smart device services to monitor your apartment.

In her apartment, Ana has several smart devices, such as smoke detectors with the latest technology, which allow her not only to detect when there is smoke inside said environment, but to send this information to the insurer in order to act in time.

Ana is in her office, her cell phone just rang and when she checked it, she just noticed that her insurer received information that there is smoke in her home, the company quickly sends the firefighters to Ana’s place of residence, while she rushes to go to find out what might be going on.

In this example, we can see how the insurer was able to realize thanks to the monitoring of the smoke detectors that there was an unusual situation, so they sent the specialized agencies to evaluate the situation, notifying their client in turn. This quick action allows the company to act with time and prevent the loss from causing more damage, thus avoiding less material losses for the client, as well as the management that should be carried out later for the necessary repairs due to the damage caused.

The IoT helped provide a real-time response and prevented further damage, all thanks to the monitoring, control, optimization and automation activity of this device.

Real time feedback

Previously, insurers had to wait a while to receive the evaluation of their clients in relation to the services, or sometimes, they do not receive them, however, currently and through technology, they use mobile applications where not only They can alert their users of possible claims and prevent them in time, but also present them with an evaluation form that is much easier to fill out and that will not take more than a few minutes, without having to do a lot of paperwork.

Through a simple app and with a simple evaluation using a scoring and suggestions system, the client can evaluate the performance of an insurer much easier, providing them with a greater flow of information that will allow them to improve those areas where the client has seen that the performance was not the best.

This exchange of information is also essential for companies to know if their insured has the service that best suits them, if not, they can use all the information collected through the IoT to offer a package that includes the services that best suit your needs.

Currently there are many insurance companies that have these types of services, and although it may seem at first that they are not entirely necessary, you will see that it is better to have the technologies that will allow you to prevent claims, than to be with a company that only focus on acting after the accident has occurred.

Insurance companies have already left behind just acting when the accident has occurred and now work hard to prevent claims and at LISA we create the opportunity to support technology so that the insurance industry can satisfy its customers and leave the processes purely manual.

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Over the years and the emergence of technology, it has been almost impossible to ignore the hyperconnectivity that exists today. This is known as the Internet of Things (ioT for its acronym in English), which is based on the interconnection of devices and objects through a network.

The IoT seeks to improve the daily life of people and companies through devices that dump the information they obtain and then share it with other devices.

Risks and threats

Just having such a large number of interconnected devices makes us think about data exposure and security in general, doesn’t it? This fear stems from the fact that by increasing connections, exposure to cyberattacks could grow.

Of course, organizations are aware of the risks and threats they are facing, in fact, 97% of companies surveyed by Microsoft, expressed their concern about security when using ioT technology. Currently there are many vulnerabilities that are unknown or not yet detected and unfortunately there are users who do not know how to maintain their security.

For example, an attack on a toaster does not seem like a problem at first glance, but many cyber attackers have the know-how to use these devices as entry points to gain access to the entire network of users’ homes.

Are there real cases similar to the previous example? Yes, it took place in 2018, where the attacker entered the Nest devices of a family (a company subsidized by Google), and managed to communicate with the victims through their baby’s monitor, just before raising the temperature of the thermostat to around 33 ° C.

After the above, we can reaffirm that the main objective of the ioT is to improve and simplify the day-to-day of companies and users, however, this technology collects our usage habits and attackers could use this information to carry out an attack.

To you who read us, we want to remind you that it is essential to be careful when entering your personal data, since with them they could carry out an attack by knowing a large part of your habits and tastes, protect yourself!

At LISA we care about the welfare and safety of insurers and their clients, which is why this article was written in order to create awareness that technology has great benefits but also has its fine print.

Therefore, we take care of using technology protected by security methods in order to avoid fraud or cyberattacks. Learn more about our work by clicking here.

Has the insurance industry ever thought about what it could do in case of a contingency like Covid-19, having to rely more on mobile and online tools during? What would they do with their tradition?

The truth is that due to the pandemic and the closer use of the internet and technology, if or if leaving your comfort zone was going to mark a milestone in the insurance industry, but could they offer a good digital experience?

The slow pace of innovation in the insurance industry has become a heavy burden since Covid-19 accelerated the migration of consumers to digital channels.

What can the Insurance Companies do?

Insurance companies have no choice but to update their digital experience in order to reach and satisfy their customers:

1. Offer customers better self-service tools.
2. Reduce unit costs.
3. Digitize your sales.
4. Accelerate your processes.

To establish objectives

Collecting and analyzing customer data to understand behavioral changes will prepare insurers to accelerate experience-enhancing digital investments and can focus digital initiatives on four goals:

1.Eliminate bad and avoidable volume: episodes that annoy consumers should be avoided at all costs. For example, automatic status updates will reduce inquiry calls.

2.Put the customer in control: Educating customers about self-service options will have many benefits, increasing the use of mobile applications. It also offers digital support and avoids phone calls; Increase the digital adoption of your employees and brokers through training.

3.Simplify through automation processes, products, policies to reduce unit costs and increase productivity, without the need for manual work.

4.Bring Sales Into the Digital Age: There is a clear need to develop digital sales channels, as online car insurance or insurance policies have exploded in recent months. In addition, companies should equip agents with digital sales tools, lead management systems (based on CRM systems) and analytics that can inform smart campaigns with the best offers.

The Covid-19 pandemic represents the turning point for the insurance industry to step outside of its comfort zone, representing a turning point for its digital initiatives.

Unfortunately, and although consumers have adopted digital channels and tools in recent years, the truth is that most insurers have been slow to respond with innovations that clearly influence the satisfaction of their policyholders, such as:

• The service and the purchase.
• Simple and convenient claims.
• Product research.

Most of the digital leaders (companies with high digital adoption of customers and high loyalty), are made up of young companies that go directly to the consumer. In contrast, established companies that have been able to achieve relatively high digital adoption have had high failure rates in their digital interactions, so their customers feel compelled to switch to phone channels or in person to complete transactions.

There is no doubt that the pandemic caught many insurers unaware that they were still in their comfort zones, they had to crawl out to be able to meet the new needs of their clients, a more digital environment and without so much manual work.

At LISA we believe that the use of technology is a great boost for any company, which is why our mission is and has been to provide insurers with innovative methods in order for them to explore outside their comfort zones.

Welcome to the future with LISA!

Information Technology (IT) is a mix between computers and telecommunications equipment, used to store, retrieve, transmit and manipulate data in regards to SMEs and other businesses. These revolutionary technologies in the world are submerging us in the digital world and towards a society more intertwined with information and knowledge.

We must learn to learn, in an environment of constant change it is necessary to be able to do so in order to build foundations for our industry, to position it and have the ability to develop it and achieve its success.

IT in Latin America

It is common to think that thanks to the digital age, we are all immersed in technology or that we all know it, but in a society there are usually inequalities. In Latin America there are extremes, wealth and poverty, inventions that only occur in a certain place and technological «illiteracy».

The problem of inequalities in access to information goes beyond technology, the simple fact that society knows how to read or write is not enough if there is no understanding of the use of information and technologies.

Latin America has been one of the regions where information and communication technologies (ICT) began their life in a very slow way. The first PCs may have reached large companies, but the process of application and use in the population was slow and the accentuated importance occurred after the 2000s. However, there are other factors that affect such as areas of scarce resources, illiteracy, censorship by present dictatorships, among others.

«Electronic commerce in SMEs» was one of the first works on the subject in Chile. Prepared by Plana, Cerpa, the authors propose the adoption of electronic commerce focused on small and medium-sized companies. The strategic plan in each one of them influences the intensive use of ICT, which are adapted according to needs.

There is clear evidence of the low use of ICT in Latin America, compared to developed countries, affecting production processes, the generation of new knowledge and innovation.

It is necessary to promote the use of information technologies in industry since these have been the main role in societies and little has been studied about their adoption. Our objective is to raise awareness and explain how ICTs positively influence the development of a company in various areas, because they represent an opportunity for development and expansion, in response to the market that is constantly changing.

Insurers, having adopted their traditional position in a very marked way, have put aside this technological movement, remaining outside the market and evolving at minimal speeds.

Technological change can affect a company in two particular senses, giving it an opportunity to produce new products or adopt new processes and instead alter the environment in which the company has been operating (leading new product competitors, creating new markets or affecting costs).

Information technologies are always going to represent important opportunities and threats for companies, so it will always be convenient to take them into account when developing growth strategies.

In order to understand this subject more easily, we believe it is important to start with its definition and what it is all about:

What are neural networks?

Artificial neural networks are a model that was born inspired by the functioning of the human brain, which aims to emulate certain cognitive functions of living beings.

It is formed by a set of nodes, called artificial neurons, which are connected and transmit signals to each other, from the input to the generation of an output.

What is searched through neural networks?

The objective pursued through this model is learning, which automatically modifies itself so that complex tasks can be performed that could not be carried out through classical programming. That is why it is said that functions can be automated that at first could only be performed by people.

How do they work?

Networks receive a series of input values ​​and each of them reaches a node, called a neuron. The neurons of the network are grouped in layers that thus form the neural network, these have a numerical value with which it modifies the input that is received and the new values ​​obtained leave the neurons and continue on their way through the network.

Once they reach the end of the network, an output is obtained which will be the prediction calculated by the network. The more layers the network has and the more complex it is, the functions that can perform will also be.

How are neural networks trained?

To make it possible for a neural network to perform desired functions, it is necessary to undergo training, this is done by modifying the weights of its neurons so that it can extract the results that are sought.

Backpropagation

Mainly training data must be entered into the network, depending on the result obtained, the weights of the neurons will be modified according to the error achieved and depending on how much each neuron has contributed to said result.

With backpropagation, it is possible for the network to learn through a model capable of obtaining quite successful results even with data very different from what has been used during its training.

Did you know that neural networks have been around since 1950? However, the low power of the equipment of that decade and the lack of algorithms that allowed networks to learn, led to their discontinuation. It was thanks to the creation of the Backpropagation algorithm that neural networks were able to resurface and to them, the appearance of Deep learning, the use of deep neural networks for complex tasks.

At LISA we love to innovate with technology, that is why we use it in all our processes to reduce time, save on costs, satisfy customers and disuse the insurance industry’s crafts.

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