By Jeff McCauley, President, Paperless Solutions Group, an MIB Business
July 22, 2024Life insurance operates in a fiercely competitive and tightly regulated industry, facing significant challenges in the digital era. Customers now demand faster, more personalized services, while carriers and their partners must optimize costs, drive efficiency, and innovate to maintain a competitive edge. Although digital technologies offer solutions, many organizations remain uncertain about where to begin. By following some practical tips, any company despite size or budget can reap the benefits of digitalization. Below are some recommendations and tools to help you overcome typical obstacles and get started on your journey.
Benefits of Digitalization
Incorporating digital technology into workflows can bring many benefits to life insurers. In fact, use of digital technology is quickly becoming a critical step to stay competitive and meet the demand’s of today’s consumer. The key benefits of digitalization include:
Challenges of Digitalization
Although the benefits can be significant, in a long-standing industry such as ours, carriers can face many obstacles when beginning or expanding their use of digital technology. This is especially true of smaller companies with limited budgets and resources who are struggling to compete with larger companies with deeper resources. Typical challenges include:
How to Start
Given the benefits and challenges of digitalization, how can you start your digital journey? Here are some practical tips and tools to follow:a
1. Assess your current state and gaps in terms of your digital maturity, capabilities, and readiness. Consider:
2. Define your goals for digitalization, which should align with your business objectives, customer needs and competitive position related to market trends. Ask yourself:
3. Identify a partner that aligns with your goals and can help address your challenges. Especially if this is your first major foray into digitalization, it is important to look for a partner that has proven technology and is flexible to meet your needs and requirements. Make sure any potential partner will support and collaborate with you throughout the development and implementation process to avoid the mistake of adopting a turn-key solution that may not fully address your goals.
4. Implement quick wins that can demonstrate the value and feasibility of digitalization, and the fit of your chosen partner to meet your needs. An additional benefit, a quick win will help generate buy-in and support from your stakeholders and customers. Consider starting with low-risk digital solutions that can be delivered quickly or in phases. One example is to begin with a field underwriting tool before considering fully automated underwriting more deeply.
5. Scale up and optimize the digital solutions that have proven to be successful and effective. Continue to look for cost-effective ways to expand your use of digital technologies to stay competitive in our ever-evolving insurance landscape.
Digital technology is not a luxury anymore, but a necessity for life insurance carriers who want to survive and thrive in the digital age. By reviewing and implementing the steps outlined above, you can start your digital journey and reap the benefits of digital technology for your business and your customers.
As you explore opportunities to introduce or advance digitalization into your workflows, Paperless Solutions Group, an MIB Business is here to help. Our consultative approach is to work with you to understand your needs - and then leverage off-the-shelf concepts to quickly and efficiently deliver customized solutions that meet your unique circumstances.
Learn more by watching our video https://mib.wistia.com/medias/qnqxx0ny44.
Jeff McCauley is the President of Paperless Solutions Group (PSG), an MIB business. He joined MIB as part of the acquisition of PSG in December of 2020. Prior to that, he served as PSG’s President / COO for 11 years. Jeff has extensive management, sales, marketing, and operational experience, having worked for vendors, service providers and carriers all focused on the life insurance market. These experiences allow Jeff to see the industry from many different perspectives. Jeff is very involved in several industry trade groups, all of which are focused on progressing automation. Jeff graduated from Virginia Computer College and has taken advanced courses from LOMA and others that focus on Management and Leadership.
Copyright © 2025 MIB Group Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.