Resonate 2024 aims to accelerate innovation in New Zealand’s insurance industry

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Live demos, presentations and the latest insurtech

An upcoming conference in Auckland will bring together industry leaders, experts and innovators to share insights on regulatory changes, the value of customer experiences, key industry trends and the distribution of insurance.

The event will also showcase industry leading technology with quick-fire live demos.

Resonate 2024: Navigating Innovation – a free event – aims to enable the local insurance industry to seize what organisers regard as a “great moment.”

Insurance Business is partnering with the organiser, the insurtech Simfuni. So far over 130 delegates have signed up to attend.

“When you look at everything from the manufacturing of products, to distribution and the role of AI [artificial intelligence] in those areas,” said Shaun Quincey (pictured above), “we’ve got this great moment where there is innovation occurring across the value chain.”

Live demos of the latest insurtech offerings

Quincey is Simfuni’s CEO and co-founder, an insurance software company specialising in customer self-service and payment systems. His company is among the New Zealand insurance tech firms that will give live demonstrations of their industry offerings.

Others include Sentro, whose platform offers group insurance and an employee benefit scheme, and Folio, a technology-led broking alliance.

“Across New Zealand we have an emerging group of startups and investors who are finding insurance across the value chain really exciting to be involved with,” said Quincey.

He said Sharesies, the investment portfolio firm that offers motor insurance, is a good example of a local company leveraging insurance across its distribution channels.

“Sharesies has over 500,000 New Zealand customers and just recently started distributing insurance,” said Quincey.

The firm’s CEO Brooke Roberts will speak about the evolution of insurance distribution and how leveraging technology, like embedded insurance, has streamlined customer experiences.

Dealing with pressing issues

Quincey suggested this industry landscape is an opportunity for insurance companies to explore solutions for increasingly pressing issues. These challenges range from providing customers with faster, more efficient and transparent payment and discount journeys to compliance demands from new regulations.

“Insurance is an industry primed for innovation,” he said. “Unlike other markets the startup ecosystem takes a largely collaborative approach rather than disruptive and this provides a mutually beneficial path forward to resolve enterprise challenges faster.”

Quincy said this is “very exciting to watch unfold.”

“Research shows that one of the key reasons local insurers and insurtechs want to collaborate is to access industry knowledge,” said Paul O’Leary, executive director of InsurTechNZ. “Resonate offers an exciting new format for people to meet, partner and gain fresh perspectives.”

O’Leary said the Resonate event is evidence of growing momentum in the insurtech ecosystem.

A Blockbuster Video moment?

Quincey would like the industry to “navigate” the best ways to collaborate and solve problems.

“With the high concentration of legacy technology platforms some insurance companies are looking at their potential Blockbuster Video moment,” he said. “When people are looking for Netflix and we keep sending them to the video shop, customer movement occurs.”

Quincy said customers need to have the option to resolve certain issues themselves through digital processes quickly.

“That’s occurred across almost every industry in the world and so enabling that to occur in insurance as much as we can is pretty vital,” he said.

He said that’s a major focus of the Resonate conference.

Rocket fuel anyone?

“It’s how do we foster those collaborations to put the rocket fuel into the sector that’s required,” said Quincey.

He suggested this “rocket fuel” will help bring the transparency, automation and auditing capability required by an industry that is always looking at ways to reduce risks.

“Technology has a beautiful way of automating repetitive, laborious processes,” said Quincey. “When you can automate certain processes and deliver consistent, transparent experiences to a customer you remove a lot of risk because you’re able to audit those experiences and continuously improve. It also enables staff to focus on more strategic, higher-value tasks.”

Technology and continuous improvement

He said good technology allows an insurance firm to commit to a process of continuous improvement based on learning from the digital experiences of customers.

“You can measure it, you can manage it, you can take NPS scores and track buyer journeys and truly have a scorecard with your customers so you know what’s going on,” said Quincey.

On the flipside, he said, customers are also able to better understand and engage with their insurance offerings.

“That really is at the core,” said Quincey. “Technology can play a massive role in ensuring that occurs, so insurers can focus on providing advice, processing claims and all the other functions which create real value for policyholders.”

He said the raft of new regulations and compliance obligations facing New Zealand’s industry are also focused on improving the customer’s understanding of the industry and their coverages.

“It’s part of what the changes in regulation are all about: making sure there is full transparency and disclosure to policyholders on their buying journey,” said Quincey.

A discussion with Kris Faafoi, CEO of the Insurance Council of New Zealand (ICNZ) will cover the Customer and Product Data Bill, the Contracts of Insurance Bill and Open Banking. Faafoi will look at industry learnings and the implications for customers.

Quincey said representatives from the open banking sector will also talk about how this sector can impact insurance. Among them, Ben Lynch, CEO of Akahu.

“There’s also the issue of what open insurance could mean for the sector moving forward,” said Quincey.