Going digital: case study of an Italian insurance company

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to present the case of an Italian SME in the domain of insurance and how it approached its own digital transformation. Together with the founders of the SME, the author investigated the digital trends the company should adopt and identified where to intervene in the value chain of the company with new technologies available in the market. The research was focused on the following three sub-domains: a strategy for adoption of innovative digital solutions to improve the everyday operations of the company, platform connecting the company with the customers and analysis of cyber insurance policies to include in the portfolio of the company. Design/methodology/approach For the part on strategy for adoption of innovative digital solutions, the author performed literature review; for the part in which the study ideates new solution to better connect the company with the customers, the author relied on design thinking, creative facilitation and prototyping; and for the part on cyber insurance policies to include the portfolio, the author relied on data available from other insurance companies the SME collaborates with. Findings This paper presented the analysis on how an insurance SME can embrace digital innovation (via internal innovation, buying from startups, partnering with startups or investing in startups), how an SME can do internal innovation and come up with a simple tool to bring closer the insurers and their customers and types of new cyber risk policies to include in the portfolio to respond to the growing demand for cyber risk insurance. This paper provides useful insights and lessons learned from companies of similar size in the domain of insurance and discusses future extensions of inquiry. Originality/value Big insurance companies and incumbent for their digitization efforts rely on the freshly created InsurTechs wave of companies. In this paper, the author analyzes what small- and medium-sized insurance enterprises can do in this respect and showcases the approach an Italian SME took in this direction.

Digital transformation: why companies resist what they need for sustained performance

“…In late October of 2020, the chief executive officer of a large corporation gave a keynote speech at an industry conference about the hype surrounding technological innovators within the industry. In the speech, he downplayed the disruptive nature of these innovators, stating that they are, although interesting as a phenomenon, not a relevant threat to the established actors in the industry [See Pisoni (2020) for a tangent on this specific industry]. This speech, and the message that it conveyed, resonated with several earlier experiences from the same industry, including an executive responding to our analysis of a similar actor's loss of revenue because of innovator firms squeezing them in terms of profit shares.…”

“…In late October of 2020, the chief executive officer of a large corporation gave a keynote speech at an industry conference about the hype surrounding technological innovators within the industry. In the speech, he downplayed the disruptive nature of these innovators, stating that they are, although interesting as a phenomenon, not a relevant threat to the established actors in the industry [See Pisoni (2020) for a tangent on this specific industry].…”

Health insurers: evolving into ecosystem-based service companies

“…Insurers have been fairly slow when it comes to adopting innovative digital technologies. Cappiello (2020) and Pisoni (2021) highlight major approaches of the strategies insurers use. Apart from driving innovation inhouse, incumbent insurers partner with start-ups to provide bundled offerings or directly invest or fully acquire start-ups via inhouse venture capital funds.…”

Effect of Digital Distribution Channels on Performance of Insurance Sector

“…There is still a concern about the security of online transactions. In the current state of affairs, Internet sales of insurance are not yet effective (Pisoni, 2020).…”