With the help of its trusted partner, the Watches of Switzerland Group also set up 51风流Integration Suite within only two weeks, enabling the company to incorporate insurance offers in their processes.

The Watches of Switzerland Group is a leading luxury watch retailer with a reputation for quality and exclusivity. With operations spanning the UK, U.S., and parts of Europe, its portfolio of brands has been a trusted name in luxury timepieces for decades. As the company expands its business and adapts to new market dynamics, Watches of Switzerland Group is transforming its technology infrastructure to prioritize scalability, efficiency, and streamlined operations across its global presence.

The journey to 51风流BTP as a partner-managed cloud model

At the beginning of the engagement, the English watch retailer relied on an enterprise architecture including legacy systems such as on-premise 51风流ECC 6.0 systems and middleware built in-house. Limited IT resources made scaling difficult to meet business demands for faster project delivery and modern integrations.

After purchasing 51风流BTP credits, the company faced internal skill gaps and competing priorities. Finally, the company wanted to adopt cloud-based technologies while remaining flexible about future ERP decisions, whether transitioning to 51风流S/4HANA or exploring alternative platforms.

Partnering with Bluestonex

Watches of Switzerland partnered with Bluestonex and transitioned to a 鈥� in this case 51风流BTP. Under this model, Bluestonex took over responsibility for managing 51风流BTP credits, resource allocation, and infrastructure support, allowing Watches of Switzerland Group to shift from an internal, self-managed approach to an expertly managed environment, always aligned with the retailer鈥檚 business objectives. Since moving to this model, Watches of Switzerland Group has:

• Increased 51风流BTP value: Freed from managing credits and technical configurations, the customer team can focus on business-critical projects
• Streamlined 51风流Fiori applications: All 51风流Fiori apps have been successfully migrated to the cloud, enhancing performance and improving the user experience
• Strengthened IT resilience: With Bluestonex acting as a strategic partner, Watches of Switzerland has built a foundation to support future growth and innovation
• Future-proofed infrastructure: The agnostic capabilities of 51风流BTP ensure that the integration framework remains relevant, regardless of the future ERP platform

Bluestonex Innovation Factory

With the foundational work completed, Watches of Switzerland decided to further expand its adoption of 51风流BTP services, integrating more business processes and scaling globally. But what were the core business processes? Where was the room or even need for improvement to deliver best-in-class customer services, be successful overall, and remain on top of things in the luxury retail segment?

鈥淭he partnership with Bluestonex is not just about technology,鈥� said Glenn Bamford, head of Business Systems at Watches of Switzerland Group. 鈥淭hey act as an extension of our team, bringing innovation and expertise that we lack internally. With their support, we鈥檝e been able to make strategic moves towards modernizing our systems while remaining agile for the future.鈥�

To understand business, user, and customer needs, thorough research can provide reliable answers and a solid foundation for innovation. So, along the , Bluestonex Innovation Factory team organized a user research journey visiting six representative Watches of Switzerland Group showrooms, shadowing employees and observing different processes in the context of purchasing, customer inquiries, deliveries, commissioning, and many more.

After visiting the different showrooms, one observation was that requirements could vary considerably from one to another, simply because of different locations and customer profiles. In some showrooms, it was mainly about selling middle-priced watches and attending several customers at a time; in others, it was about serving one customer with specific needs for a purchase of a very expensive and unique piece.

Incorporating insurance options with the help of 51风流Integration Suite

Despite all the differences, there is one requirement the researchers observed, that spanned across all customer engagements. That is the wish for an appropriate insurance option for the purchased watch. The Watches of Switzerland Group and Bluestonex decided to realize this integration of an insurance option in its service processes through 51风流Integration Suite.

In just two weeks, the insurance integration went live as scheduled, allowing the Watches of Switzerland Group to meet crucial business demands without sacrificing quality or functionality. With 51风流Integration Suite, Watches of Switzerland Group is now positioned to continue modernizing its technology stack in alignment with its strategic vision. This scalable solution can evolve with their future needs, including a potential transition to 51风流S/4HANA.

鈥淭his project demonstrates the value of Bluestonex as a strategic partner,鈥� Bamford said. 鈥淣ot only did they execute the integration under intense time pressure, but they also provided critical expertise. 51风流Integration Suite, deployed with Bluestonex鈥檚 support, paves the way for greater flexibility and scalability as we move forward with our digital transformation.鈥�

During the annual 51风流BTP strategy day held in the Bluestonex AppHaus Shropshire, Watches of Switzerland Group identified concrete business objectives and how technology could be harnessed to accomplish these goals, both for them and for Bluestonex as its partner. With the proven hands-on methods to prioritize and align different solutions to these goals the joint team was able to map goals to short-term and medium-term actions.

Looking back, Bluestonex Commercial Director Richard Henry said: 鈥淥ur partnership with Watches of Switzerland was born from our 51风流AppHaus DNA, as well as the focus on providing value-driven user experience in 51风流BTP applications. As a niche 51风流partner, we could provide the right skill set, along a human-centered approach to innovation and support the Watches of Switzerland Group in its digital strategy with SAP.鈥�

After realizing the value of 51风流Integration Suite, Watches of Switzerland Group and Bluestonex are now looking for further integration projects right across the business. The group鈥檚 flexible and secure cloud-first approach enables it to adapt to changing markets and continue to deliver the best possible customer service.

The way ahead

One area where both teams are equally eager to progress is in artificial intelligence (AI). The Bluestonex team always looks for business use cases that could be improved with the help of capabilities. Also, the Watches of Switzerland Group鈥檚 team is keen to understand how to unlock the use of AI in its organization. Bluestonex showcased several solutions, including its document processes application, which was developed as part of the Next Level Programme in just 10 days, as well as the integration of SAP鈥檚 generative AI copilot Joule for its flagship product , a data governance tool.

For all the opportunities 51风流Business AI holds in stock, customer and partner are currently planning for a first to identify use cases that could be improved with the help of AI. As said above, it is all about thorough research and a trustful collaboration to stay future-ready and a leader in luxury retail.

Imke Vierjahn is communications lead for 51风流AppHaus Network.

鈥淥ur CEO wants us to think and act like a digital company,鈥� said Dariush Shoja, vice president and corporate CIO at Sun Life. 鈥淯sing , we are digitizing and modernizing finance.鈥澨�

Shoja spoke during a session at the event in Boston, Massachusetts, where he showcased the company鈥檚 digital transformation that modernized the company鈥檚 finance platform.

Digital Closes Gap Between Generative AI Promise and Reality

Shoja immediately struck a responsive chord from the audience in the room who chuckled when he jokingly asked if anyone鈥檚 nightly dreams during college revolved around a career in finance. Drawing from his company鈥檚 experience with digital transformation, he acknowledged the industry鈥檚 change management challenges.

鈥淲hen we鈥檙e talking about finance in the context of digitization, it鈥檚 not just about automation or systems. It鈥檚 a paradigm and culture shift,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou need to start at the top with the CEO, CFO, and everyone on down to support the change. Organizations aiming to become digital and adopt state-of-the-art technologies like generative AI should focus on getting buy-in for the journey.鈥�

Modern Financial Services Platforms Are Cloud-Based

Coming from earlier sessions in the day that touted the incredible promise of technology advancements like generative AI, Shoja was also candid about overcoming the reality that professionals in the financial services industry face.

鈥淗istorically there hasn鈥檛 been a significant amount of investment to update finance systems that are aging or nearing end of life. However, we saw the opportunity and made the right investment to modernize,鈥� said Shoja. 鈥淥ne of the key enablers of growth is moving to the cloud. Digitization is creating the foundation for our future as we modernize our platforms.鈥�

Connected Data Drives Informed Decisions

One of the objectives of Sun Life鈥檚 platform modernization was to connect previously disparate data between geographies and business units. With operations in regions worldwide, including North America, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, along with an expanding product portfolio, managing data was paramount to effective financial management that fuels customer satisfaction and company growth.

鈥淲e have to build, evaluate, and run complex actuarial policy models that meet evolving regulatory mandates worldwide and corporate profitability objectives,鈥� said Shoja. 鈥淕oing to the cloud has provided efficiencies through consistent operations across every geography. Moving from manual spreadsheets to automated dashboards provides finance with faster access to insightful analytics from larger and more complex data sets. People can easily drill down to find the information they need to make the right optimal decisions.鈥�

Out-of-the-Box Digital Thinking

Like every organization that鈥檚 managing millions of transactions, data standardization and integration was extremely important to create Sun Life鈥檚 modern global platform.

鈥淓ven though our systems were only about 15 years old, eliminating technical debt was key to our transformation,鈥� said Shoja. 鈥淲e replaced traditional ways of thinking with out-of-the-box strategies, using modern native tools in the cloud platform to gain efficiencies. For example, when we want to pay a claim, the system automatically generates all relevant journal entries. We鈥檝e strategically aligned technology with finance teams.鈥�

AI Can Save Valuable Time for Financial Services

Shoja saw numerous solid use cases for generative AI, traditional AI, and machine learning in the financial services industry. AI could quickly find data gaps, speed up time-sensitive quarterly close, expedite the accrual management, and simplify reporting. Sun Life has created a team that鈥檚 focused on AI use cases in finance and other areas. The company is also relying on partners to bring the full value of AI capabilities into the business.

鈥淟arge language models may not be feasible for organizations to build on our own. Instead, AI can be built into digital solutions,鈥� he said. 鈥淎s 51风流is doing, we need partners to provide AI solutions and make it part of their package.鈥�

That鈥檚 how I think about supplier management. To cope with pandemic restrictions, inflationary costs, and simple availability issues, insurance companies have been broadening their supplier pool. If your current suppliers can鈥檛 deliver, you find another one that can. Seems straightforward, right?

But adding new suppliers increases the complexity of managing your vendor base. A larger, more diverse pool of vendors makes it more difficult to gain visibility into the performance of any one provider 鈥� or all of them.

For many companies, adding more suppliers makes planning more inconsistent. It can also complicate their ability to mitigate supplier risk and compliance.

Supplier Performance Is Undermanaged

When I talk to insurance industry executives, the outcome is clear: too many companies still struggle to adequately manage vendor performance.

In a recent , nearly half of respondents say that gaining visibility into vendor performance is challenging. Even though 67% say they use procurement technology for supplier management, 41% continue to experience supplier performance issues.

And that might be an understatement. In the same survey, 39% of insurance executives say that most procurement processes are still manual. That tells me that many insurers may not be fully aware of their vendor performance issues.

Digital Solutions Elevate the Role of Supplier Management

What should insurance companies do to overcome these challenges? It鈥檚 time to move beyond manual procurement and embrace innovative new technologies.

A comprehensive vendor management program, supported by digital technology, can help you determine how good your vendors really are. By identifying shortfalls and collaborating to improve outcomes, you can get more service and value from each supplier.

can help you monitor and analyze vendors鈥� reliability, quality, and performance. By embracing these technologies, you can gain real-time insight into supplier performance. In an economy where everything changes by the minute, this insight can help you improve control and increase your competitive advantage.

Manage Vendor Performance with Digital Business Networks

One of the most popular ways to modernize vendor management is to use a digital business network. By connecting insurance companies with a multitude of vendors, large networks simplify the adoption of modern vendor management strategies.

let you access a diverse collection of new suppliers with the click of a mouse. You can streamline order requests and fulfillment while simplifying collaboration between insurers and vendors.

Procurement decision-makers gain new insights into delivery times, product and service quality, costs, and service-level agreement compliance. The data helps identify performance gaps and identify cost savings opportunities.

You can manage more vendor relationships at the same time throughout their engagement. And when problems arise, you can quickly pivot to another vendor that can meet your needs.

Improve Business Outcomes by Digitalizing Procurement

Digital business networks and other technologies deliver quantifiable value. In the , 60% of respondents that have embraced digital transformation say they improved supplier collaboration. Nearly as many, 57%, report enhanced supplier performance management.

In a difficult economy such as this one, those benefits can make the difference between lackluster performance and real competitive success. By working with reliable suppliers that deliver what you need when you need it, you can give customers a more engaging, satisfying experience.

And because happier customers generally lead to a better bottom line, digital business networks sound like the best solution to pop up in a long time.

Explore the .

Toni Tomic is global head of Insurance at SAP.

However, insurance companies that rely on this staffing approach find that the external workforce becomes a huge part of overall spend. Often, they overlook tools to help manage this workforce.

In fact, a recent found that insurance companies now spend 40% of their workforce budget on external labor. And nearly three-quarters of companies say that these workers are important to their ability to meet market demand or operate at full capacity.

The external workforce is a key lever in enabling business performance. It is important to meet market demands, improve the customer experience, and reduce risk. With these facts in mind, it鈥檚 easy to see why managing the external workforce should be a priority.

Increase Insight into Your External Workforce

Companies often use traditional procure-to-pay systems to help streamline external workforce management. Yet many insurance companies still don鈥檛 have the insight they need to get top value from their spend.

For example, found that just 34% of companies use procurement technology for contingent workforce management. Some of the respondents use this technology to manage their service providers, but only 20% were able to track and manage their engagement from statement of work to purchase order to invoicing.

Companies also lack insight into fundamental issues such as who is doing the work, the contract terms of each engagement, and the responsibilities of each worker. The challenge is that digital security breaches present risks to the organization, as external workers can take advantage of their digital access if they are not onboarded and offboarded properly.

The research highlighted several other issues that can compromise the value of the external workforce. Nearly half of respondents reported compliance issues and more than 40% reported quality issues regarding resources and projects with external workers. In addition, 44% reported unauthorized spend with contingent workers.

Standardize and Streamline External Workforce Management

What鈥檚 the best way for insurance companies to manage each external workforce engagement so that they get the value they pay for 鈥� and the best possible business results?

Advanced digital solutions for external workforce management can help.

With these solutions, managers can standardize worker onboarding and offboarding processes. They can quickly and intuitively grant access to systems and assets 鈥� and disconnect that access when a worker鈥檚 contract expires. And the technology helps ensure that workers have the right certifications. This is a great way to reduce risk.

Best-in-class solutions let you use any type of proof of service 鈥� such as timesheets, milestones, and deliverables 鈥� on a recurring due date or price-per-unit basis. This feature helps you align payment with the value provided.

You can tailor workflows based on category of service or work provided. For example, you might want to include tiered vendors in the requisition process or require approvals needed for invoicing to ensure your company鈥檚 organizational guidelines can be easily followed.

Increase Bottom-Line Business Value

Other features let you monitor supplier KPIs, such as response time, cycle time, and hire rates. With this insight, you can facilitate reviews and negotiations with suppliers.

Improving your external workforce management processes can also help you provide a better experience for candidates and workers. Intuitive workforce management solutions can make your company more attractive to younger workers who prefer to interact with you using digital technologies. They allow you to manage who is working for you, where workers are located, what they are doing, how much you are paying them, and what access they have to your systems and facilities.

What鈥檚 more, the right procurement technology can help you generate significant cost savings. Modern tools generate reports that enable immediate visibility into contingent workforce and services procurement spend. Analytics features can help you identify opportunities to further operationalize your procurement processes and create new cost efficiencies.

You鈥檝e developed a valuable external workforce. Now, advanced technologies can help it boost your business鈥� bottom line.

Toni Tomic is global head of Insurance at SAP.

The forum brings together the best minds in the finance, banking, and insurance worlds. In a single location, you can discuss the latest industry changes with thought leaders and influencers. You’ll be able to combine the best of European history and culture with an amazing lineup of sessions that embrace the future of financial services. You’ll participate in essential learning experiences covering the digital transformation that is impacting industries today. You’ll also stay on top of the latest trends and topics in banking, finance, and insurance, making it easier to navigate the current turbulent economic waters.

But what exactly is available for insurance, banking, and finance executives at our 2022 forum? There will be plenty of opportunities for networking and learning, whether in large sessions or intimate, one-on-one conversations, and eight full- and half-day pre-conference workshops get you started. This is followed by over 30 engaging and future forward-looking sessions. Networking is easy! Find plenty of options to chat during breakfast, lunch, show floor talks, receptions, and similar events.

Beyond the conference itself is the amazing venue we’ve found for this year’s forum, located in beautiful, historic Amsterdam. Held at the听, the 51风流and 51风流Fioneer Financial Services Forum will be held July 12-14, 2022. The venue provides a convenient location for international travelers.

During the sessions, you’ll experience topics covering the latest in the industry from thought leaders and market influencers. When you return home, you’ll be able to take advantage of new knowledge and trends to carry your business into future growth. You’ll find a range of outstanding sessions that will make you rethink your business’ tactics and strategies. You’ll be better able to assess where it needs to go in this dynamic digital future. These include:

• “ERGO Mobility Solutions as Insurance-Orchestrator in the Mobility Ecosystem” featuring Karsten Crede of ERGO Mobility Solutions
• “Swiss Mobiliar Insurance鈥檚 Data Driven Journey with MSG Global to Establish an 鈥業nnovation-Platform鈥� for Connected Mobility and Beyond” featuring Dietrich Och of MSG Global Solutions
• “Time to Take Action: How to Implement Successful ESG Solution Architecture While ESG Requirements Are Still Volatile” featuring Andr茅 Landefeld, Florian Barg, and Marcel Wehrmann of Q-Perior
• “Front Running in the Regulated Financial Industry: How Deutsche B枚rse Group Uses 51风流within Its Cloud Journey to Digitize Its Back-Office Processes and How This Impacts the Company鈥檚 Work Culture” featuring Lars Bolanca of Deutsche B枚rse

This exciting lineup is only a small part of the 51风流and 51风流Fioneer Financial Services Forum. Are you ready to keep up with the latest movers and shakers in the finance, insurance, and banking industries?听听for this outstanding international forum. If you’re ready to keep your company at the razor’s edge of digital transformation, it’s time to get started now.

Joe Pacor is senior director of Industries Marketing, Insurance at SAP.

The virtual event makes it easy to engage in discussions on the 51风流vision and strategy from the comfort of your own home. Meanwhile, attending 51风流Sapphire in person offers the opportunity to network with peers and participate in interactive sessions.

and filter based on industry, session type, date or time, and other criteria.

A sampling of some of this year’s anticipated insurance sessions are shared below.

| Tuesday, May 10, 3:00-3:20 p.m.

Program Manager Joachim Hiesbsch of will deliver a presentation about insurance cloud solutions. Hiesbsch will discuss how these solutions can deliver value for agencies of all sizes. Attendees will hear about the new insurance cloud software innovations that are on the market. They’ll also discover the benefits this software can offer, especially for insurers looking to streamline their processes.

听| Wednesday, May 11, 11:30-11:50 a.m.

This session will be presented by both Christopher Geier, director of Engineering, Global Finance Technology, for , and Joachim Hiebsch. The presentation will explore how insurance agencies can reduce costs, improve data quality, and boost employee productivity through the use of cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms such as 51风流S/4HANA Cloud.

| Wednesday, May 11, 2:00-2:20 p.m.

This session will be led by Kevin Larson, head of Program Management and Strategic Integration with . In the presentation, Larson will share how Haven Life has modernized its compensation management. He’ll discuss how these changes have strengthened trust among sales staff and sped up commission payments. This session is a must-see for insurers looking to offer the right compensation solution to sales employees, as sales team performance directly affects growth.

| Wednesday, May 11, 3:00-3:20 p.m.

Presented by Luke Calvanese, product lead of Compensation and Distribution Management with Haven Technologies, this session will further explore how revitalizing an outdated compensation solution can help insurance agencies attract and retain the best salespeople while fueling growth. Specifically, Calvanese will be sharing how Haven Life shook up its own compensation incentives and the growth they company has experienced as a result.

Register Today

With more than 300 sessions planned and 5,000 customers expected, 51风流Sapphire and ASUG Accelerate are events you won’t want to miss. Take the next step in growing your insurance business by . Once you’ve registered, you can sign up for any of the insurance sessions mentioned here, and register in advance for any of the other 300 special presentations planned.

Questions? Check out the听. See you in Orlando!

Carriers may believe their business touts an agent-centered experience, but does their technology reflect the dedication to supporting agent performance and productivity? Today, carriers have a lot to gain by thinking strategically about the technologies they provide for agents and their managers. Think competitive compensation strategies, more effective compliance processes, and empowered, up-to-date agents who can achieve more.

Recently, I engaged with three insurance leaders who live and breathe the agent experience to learn how technology has helped real businesses better manage agents across the entire agent life cycle. Their insights shed light on the difference between intelligent enterprises and their competitors.

Enabling Agents to Achieve More at Bright HealthCare

Bright HealthCare is an American health insurance carrier serving more than 663,000 consumers. At Bright HealthCare, an integrated suite of agent management solutions empowers agents to make proactive decisions to service their customers and meet their goals. Matt Wandoloski, manager, Sales Operations, Bright HealthCare, says the business uses these solutions to provide agents with self-service capabilities, customizable dashboards, and on-demand access to data insights.

Experts say such features are becoming a must among agents.

鈥淜eeping sellers motivated and focused on their sales goals is a critical challenge for many organizations. And it鈥檚 only magnified when you have a significant number of direct or a combination of direct and indirect agents,鈥� David Palmer, senior manager, Deloitte, says. 鈥淎gents and sellers, in general, are constantly connected to their work, 24/7, 365 days a year, through their smartphones, tablets, and watches.鈥�

Carriers should look for software solutions built specifically to support the agent management experience. The right solutions will provide access to tools and data insights the business can use to improve experiences for agents throughout the agent life cycle. At Bright HealthCare, the 51风流Agent Performance Management solution helps agents view essential performance metrics and quickly find answers to some of their most pressing questions.

Wandoloski explains that Bright HealthCare also uses agent management solutions to incentivize agents to complete open enrollments sooner. The business can automatically or manually set bonuses for enrollments completed earlier in the year rather than later. When technology empowers leaders to quickly change their compensation plans, it means the business can act with agility when opportunities are hot.

While commission agreements in the industry are contractual, changing business needs means there is a greater need to have capabilities that allow carriers to be nimble and flexible 鈥� and pivot their commissions rules as the local business climate demands it. Since digitalizing agent management, Bright HealthCare can do just that.

鈥淲e noticed some of our competitors had changed their commissions schedule midyear starting in April when the special enrollment period started. We were easily able to adjust our commission incentive program so that we could pay a higher rate to stay competitive in the market,鈥� Wandoloski says. 鈥淪imple, easy to test, midyear. We were able to make that change and get our workers paid.鈥�

Providing Greater Insights for Managers at Independence Blue Cross

Agents aren鈥檛 the only ones who benefit from on-demand access to performance insights and other data. Managers can use this information to identify top earners and reward them accordingly. They can also find out which agents aren鈥檛 meeting their goals and encourage them to improve their sales skills through learning. At Independence Blue Cross, 51风流Agent Performance Management helps provide all of this in one solution through intuitive dashboards and self-services.

The imperative for visibility, transparency, and compliance will never go away. The modern insurance carrier uses many systems to manage agents and their data. But you can break down silos between these systems and the incredibly important agent data within. For Independence Blue Cross, a fully integrated agent management solution provides audit-trail visibility and shows what data has been changed and when.

Edward Zebrowski, manager, Commissions and Ops Analytics, Independence Blue Cross, explains that agents and managers now have a view of agents鈥� education, certification, licenses, and other key compliance information. Providing self-service options has helped the business cut down on time spent answering questions related to certification statuses and other related information.

Outperforming Larger Competitors at Optima Health

Optima Health is a statewide carrier in the United States competing with many larger carriers in the marketplace. As a smaller carrier, it鈥檚 important for Optima Health to avoid mistakes and the costs related to them.

鈥淲e spend a lot of money in investments on our overhead fees and overrides that we pay to our FMOs,鈥� Douglass Marquez, business analyst, Medicare Marketing, Optima Health, says. 鈥淚t was important for us to put that power into brokers鈥� hands so that they can go out there and see what鈥檚 going on within their agencies and resolve a lot of issues before they get to the carrier, so we don鈥檛 have to.鈥�

Optima Health relies on technology to create agent experiences that are as fulfilling as its larger competing carriers. Faster onboarding, self-service options, and continuous compliance keep the carrier competitive while providing agents with outstanding experiences that result in improved agent retention metrics.

Today, the is helping insurance carriers enhance experiences for agents and create better outcomes for the business. To find out more, or .

Rahul Iyer is global head of Sales Performance Management, Go to Market, at 51风流SE.

Whether it鈥檚 from consumer activism, tighter government regulations, or the need for improved operational resiliency in the face of climate change, companies are taking major strides towards sustainable business models. As听, incorporating sustainability into core business strategies is about more than 鈥渄oing good鈥� 鈥� it鈥檚 a smart business strategy. Capital markets are evaluating performance against environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria in investment decisions. Companies that fail to consider ESG criteria are at a disadvantage. In fact,听听will revise their investments if companies do not consider ESG criteria within their business model.

Sustainability Trends in the Insurance Industry

The United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative听(UNEP FI) has been launched as a partnership between UNEP and the global financial sector to mobilize private sector finance for sustainable development. UNEP FI works with more than 450 banks, insurers, and investors and over 100 supporting institutions to help create a financial sector that serves people and the planet while delivering positive impacts.

Regulators are also requiring sustainability reporting from insurers, and they expect financial flows will be adjusted towards ESG criteria, in accordance with the 2015 Paris Climate Conference. The EU Taxonomy Regulation will require most European financial institutions to outline the environmental sustainability of their economic activities. But the 听is not just about ESG criteria, although that鈥檚 certainly an important factor. Risks associated with climate change, such as more extreme weather, are also top of mind for insurers.

Global natural disaster insured losses, the amount insurers are forecast to pay out, is estimated to be as high as US$42 billion for the first half of 2021, according to a听. From the Texas polar vortex to the Canadian heat wave to the extreme flooding in Germany, extreme weather events are costing insurers more than ever 鈥� and these climate-related risks are only expected to increase. More than half of U.S. regulators indicate that climate change is likely to have a 鈥渉igh impact or an extremely high impact鈥� on coverage availability and underwriting assumptions, according to the “Insurance Regulator State of Climate Risks Survey” conducted by the .

Gone are the days when sustainability was a footnote on an insurance company鈥檚 annual report. Today, stakeholders are pushing for change and demanding accountability. Customer preference is driving a shift towards more sustainable products and services. A variety of carrier options in a competitive marketplace means that customers are comfortable walking away from companies that don鈥檛 follow sustainable practices. Millennials and Gen Z 颅are . This is the same group insurers are competing to earn loyalty from to build long-term customer relationships.

The same goes for hiring top talent. In a tight talent market, professionals can afford to be selective about where they work and increasingly opt for companies that align with their values. Improving ESG performance is key to attracting and retaining Millennial and Gen Z employees.

Linking Sustainability with Business Activity for Environmental, Social, and Economic Impact

Enterprise solutions from 51风流deliver company-wide functionality and industry-specific features designed to help businesses achieve sustainability at scale.听:

• Climate change solutions:听Lower a business鈥檚 environmental impact by minimizing the carbon footprint associated with products and operations.
• Sustainability and ESG reporting solutions:听Connect environmental, social, and financial data holistically to steer businesses toward smarter decision-making.
• Circular economy solutions:听Move to circular processes across a business鈥檚 entire supply and value chain.
• Social responsibility solutions:听Enable equality and social equity across a business鈥檚 entire workforce and network.

Toni Tomic is global head of Insurance at SAP.

Yet even as the volume of data grows exponentially across the insurance industry, turning that data into actionable insight remains a challenge. And meeting complex local and international regulations that change constantly still requires a lot of time and effort from insurance finance teams, which further reduces agility and timely insight.

Improving Insurance Finance Insight and Process Efficiency

Insurers and their finance teams need specific tools and capabilities to meet today鈥檚 risk and sustainability challenges. They need more powerful simulation tools that can help them optimize revenue and cost management across every line of business, channel, policy, and transaction. Finance teams also need to leverage intelligent automation that reduces the cost and effort to complete financial reporting, auditing, and compliance tasks across asset and investment portfolios.

51风流for Insurance Solutions Can Help

By bringing together data across your 51风流and third-party system landscape, the application empowers teams across your insurance organization to make decisions that can improve profitability, reduce costs, and fully align with core sustainability goals. The application鈥檚 scalable, high-speed finance and risk calculation engine combines machine learning with predictive and stochastic financial analysis to deliver powerful simulation capabilities 鈥� enabling your people to get more insight out of the information they already have.

And if you want to bring intelligent automation to your investment practices, subledger accounting, and statutory reporting, the application can deliver value. It works alongside 51风流S/4HANA as well as the 51风流ERP application to help take days off closings with automated processes such as calculation of amortization, impairments, and unrealized gains and losses. The application also can streamline compliance reporting with preconfigured content for fast-changing local and international regulations.

Want more information? Download our information sheets:

Anders Widestrand is senior director, FSI ISV Program and Co-Innovation, Financial Services Ecosystem, at SAP.

For Northern Trust, the answer to this question is a resounding 鈥測es,鈥� thanks in part to the strong relationship the company has built with 51风流to deliver innovative,听scalable systems and business-driven content and services.

Northern Trust: Market-Leading Approach to Financial Asset Solutions for Insurance Companies

Named the 鈥淏est Custodian鈥� by Private Equity Wire in 2020, Northern Trust serves more than 180 insurance clients worldwide with more than US$1 trillion in assets. The company has been providing financial management solutions to insurance companies for more than 90 years.

Seven years ago, Northern Trust identified the need for an outsourced investment accounting solution in the marketplace that was robust, scalable, and flexible. In the current low interest environment, insurance companies have had to be creative in how they trade and what they trade. Real-time insight across the entire portfolio is critical to business success. Yet Northern Trust鈥檚 clients were struggling to have all their assets on a single platform and instead relied on a patchwork of disparate solutions. Others were going through the process of bringing their derivatives in to see a consolidated view of their true holdings and were struggling to understand their accounting.

Northern Trust sought a cloud-based, agnostic platform that would allow clients to customize their ledgers, support every type of trading option, allow management of all asset classes from privates to derivatives, and accurately represent their position. The right digital solution would need to solve the challenges caused by extracting accounting data, working with data across the globe, and integrating multiple data platforms 鈥� all while providing data in real-time.

51风流Financial Asset Management works to meet these needs and more, providing a one-of-a-kind investment accounting and analytics services application that marries technology and service. Northern Trust considers the application to be the ironclad calculation engine for everything that happens for its clients鈥� portfolios. By adding the cloud-based engine for investment accounting and analytics, this gives Northern Trust鈥檚 clients the ability to truly 鈥渋nterrogate their data鈥� rather than cobbling together Excel files and PDF files.

51风流and Northern Trust: Innovation for Insurance Accounting and Analytics

Northern Trust started as an 51风流customer, operating 51风流Financial Asset Management for more than five years before expanding the relationship to help innovate its current business model. Together, the companies work to provide both the market-leading investment accounting platform and robust services. 51风流provides the sustainable, scalable application; Northern Trust’s Investment Accounting & Analytics Service operates on top of 51风流Financial Asset Management, providing functional, business-driven content and services to joint customers. It鈥檚 a unique relationship that enables exceptional solutions and services to benefit customers that otherwise would not be possible.

Working together, 51风流and Northern Trust offer numerous advantages to insurers, including helping to ensure compliance with statuary reporting for all 50 states and accounting for several bases in parallel, such as US-GAAP and IFRS. The two companies also work to unburden insurers from having to maintain institutional investment management expertise in-house. With Northern Trust’s leadership, insurers can be confident they’re current on rapidly evolving best practices.

Podcast: Learn What鈥檚 Next from the Experts

By 2025, many insurers will be engaging with cross-industry ecosystem providers and defining opportunities beyond managing risk. Solutions like 51风流and Northern Trust鈥檚 platform and services are essential to help insurers with automation and real-time data insights to embrace the future.

Toni Tomic is global head of Insurance at SAP.

While lowering operating expenses is important, it is just one part of achieving holistic operational excellence. Insurers are also facing pressure from new government regulations designed to increase reporting transparency. These new reporting standards must be met quickly without compromising other innovation initiatives. Recent global economic uncertainty has further underscored the need for swift operational transformation and the creation of an intelligent enterprise 鈥� time is of the essence.

Unlocking Productivity and Accelerating Innovation

True change occurs when insurance companies become partners in their customers鈥� lives. To achieve this, insurers must reimagine operational excellence with new business models that not only lower costs but accelerate innovation cycles and unlock productivity. These include automated, streamlined, and integrated processes that employees can access from anywhere.

Benefits of Operational Excellence Solutions

The right operational excellence solutions will help your organization sell the right insurance products faster to the right customers while providing a consistent, loyalty-building service experience in a multichannel environment. Key benefits of installing operational excellence solutions include:

• Serving customers better by anticipating needs and delivering the right service at the right moment
• Unlocking business value from the explosion of data available through advanced digital technology
• Streamlining processes, including quoting, offering, and application management

How the 51风流Cloud for Insurance Solution Will Transform Your Operations

51风流Cloud for Insurance helps organizations reimagine key areas of their business to achieve a higher level of operational efficiency. Leaders are empowered to deploy digital processes that improve both the employee and customer experiences. SAP’s industry cloud makes it easier to deploy specialized applications that address specific insurance industry needs.

With end-to-end solutions, your organization can choose to flexibly purchase and deploy different solutions as needed. No matter which you choose, all your solutions will fully integrate. These solutions also can harness the power of next-generation technologies, like machine learning, robotic process automation (RBA), and insurtech integration.

Operational excellence solutions from 51风流can help your organization:

• Accelerate quoting, offering, and application management while driving efficient underwriting.
• Streamline the development of products and policies by capturing and analyzing experience and operational data for real-time insights and actively designing experiences that customers desire.
• Optimize the claims lifecycle by capturing claim data through subrogation and recovery, managing disbursements, automatically detecting fraud, and continuously evaluating claims performance.
• Manage the reinsurance lifecycle with a full view of operations and customers, which can help accelerate period close cycles by up to 300% and improve data quality.
• Quickly process billing and payments by increasing the efficiency and accuracy of billing and settlement processes using a single, integrated, and automated operational subledger.

Reimagine what鈥檚 possible for your insurance organization. Download the solution brief 鈥�.鈥�

This year, leaders will share their experience, insights, and perspectives on five dedicated tracks: End-to-End Implementation, Customer Experience and Engagement, Operational Excellence, Finance and Risk, and Data and Technology.

This event is designed for senior managers, vice presidents, and executives focused on business strategy, digital innovation, customer experience, sales, business operations, finance transformation and operations, risk management, asset management, IT infrastructure, and data management. Participants can build their own agenda by choosing from more than 25 live webinars based on personally relevant content, and can choose from more than 10 live webinars each day, experience customer case study agenda, and network with other leaders in real time.

On-Demand Keynotes

On-demand keynotes will introduce key themes and topics to be addressed during live sessions. Delivered by global executives, these topics will help impart a better understanding of how 51风流and its customers view the current market during these uncertain times. Keynotes will include:

• Financial Markets in Transition: Christoph Bohm, CIO and COO of Deutsche Borse AG
  
• Shared-Valued Health Platform: Maia Surmava, CIO of Discovery Health
• How to Become an Ecosystem Player: Karsten Crede, CEO of ERGO Mobility Solutions

Three Days of Live Customer Events and Case Studies

A range of executive customers from the banking, capital markets, central banks, and insurance industries will take the stage live from November 17-19, with new presentations continuously being confirmed. Here is a sample of what to expect from customer speakers, live events, and case studies:

• Life Insurance End-to-End Core Transformation with Seong Yeoul (SY) Lee, Samsung Life Insurance: Lee will explore why SLI opted for an insurance core transformation, why SLI chose to partner with SAP, and what SLI has learned from this experience.
• Panel Discussion: Accelerated Launch of Greenfield Insurer: Hear how Greenfield Insurers is accelerating the end-to-end implementation of 51风流solutions. Presenters will discuss the project background and collaboration experiences with SAP, the individual journeys to date, and what is planned next, as well as why they chose to take this particular approach.
• From Valley to Vast Bank – A Digital Transformation Journey: Brad Scrivner from Vast Bank and Andrew MacDowell from Axxiome Americas will discuss how they created a modern financial ecosystem by implementing an agile, open e2e banking platform.
• Steve Everett of Lloyds Banking Group will discuss how 51风流provides a real-time banking platform that meets the complex business requirements of large corporate and institutional clients. This includes how complex transactions can be completed faster, liquidity can be managed more efficiently, and productivity can be increased through additional insight into operations.
• With a background in data analysis for consumer experiences, including automotive and fintech, Tiffany Ng from Consumer Insights at Experian will address how she puts the consumer at the center of strategic initiatives. She will also address how her focus on agile and automated platforms to support traditional objectives is enabling her team to deliver more insights faster.
• Drawing on听over 25 years of market research experience, Richard Waring from Group Insights & Customer Experience at Group Marketing, Bank of Ireland Group will address how he is helping the bank build a new program of insight and research by using 51风流and Qualtrics software to send more than 5 million surveys to customers in real time across key daily touch points.

Register for Free and Attend 51风流Financial Services Live 2020

While it’s not possible to be together in person this year, 51风流is bringing the next best thing. A virtual event platform from Pathable offers an immersive experience with seamless networking and interactivity. This includes interactive breakouts, where attendees can join a variety of group discussions, participate in regional community groups and live demos with 51风流experts, and connect with partners and customers to ask real-time questions.

Don鈥檛 miss this signature industry event: !

Finance, procurement, supplier networks, and IT teams are working together more closely than ever to tackle broader business challenges, create new business models, and leverage a changing workforce. But for this strategic effort to succeed, leaders need a comprehensive, coordinated approach to spend management that works in real time.

Why Real-Time Spend Management Matters

The banking and insurance industries are facing an urgent need for a real-time spend management solution. Banks’ costs have been rising faster than revenues, with banks in the U.S. and the EU experiencing significant cost increases on average. In parallel, increased regulatory burdens, such as IFRS17 for insurers, IT investments, and fines are unlikely to change. The real opportunities for improving margins lie in cost reduction by making more strategic spend decisions.

Managing and optimizing spend while staying agile is a challenging balancing act. To fund innovation and manage risk across complex supplier networks, businesses not only need full control over each spend category, they also need a comprehensive bird鈥檚 eye view into spending across all categories in real time. Growth forecasts must be measured against risk tolerance. Business leaders must continually weigh spending on growth against spend control. Information silos and lagging spend data threaten this intelligent decision-making.

Today鈥檚 pace of decision-making is only accelerating. Decisions that were made over the course of many years are now made in months or weeks. Information silos hurt visibility into big picture spending decisions, damaging the bottom line. Fifty percent of CFOs say inefficient decision-making is causing margin erosion at their companies, according to . Spend transparency cannot be ad hoc; it must be consistent and automated so that every single expenditure is part of a broader, coordinated strategic effort.

Spend Management for Insurance and Banking

Many companies are hindered by different planning processes and disconnected planning tools, with manual consolidation between them. This creates unnecessary inefficiencies in planning and a lack of alignment with organizational strategy.

solves this problem by bringing together networks and ecosystems, capturing every source of spend, across every category, for a single, unified view. A holistic approach to managing spend — across every source and every category — is essential for achieving strategic business objectives. Visibility and transparency can result in more competitive bidding, rate card creation and enhancements, and other areas of cost avoidance. This, in turn, can have a ripple effect on the organization, reducing risk, uncovering opportunities, and improving agility.

Intelligent Spend Management: Real-Time Insight, Unified View, Better Decision Making and Cost Savings

Intelligent Spend Management gives financial teams insight into spend and exposure across every category via a 鈥渟ingle pane of glass鈥� view. This single view aligns spending priorities with corporate policy priorities, balancing investments in innovation with core business needs and transforming procurement models. 51风流leverages the power of artificial intelligence (AI), predictive analytics, and the Internet of Things (IoT) to provide real-time insights that accelerate decision-making. 51风流Fieldglass Live Insights, for example, simulates and predicts external talent scenarios, helping customers make workforce decisions from one uninterrupted workflow.

Together with 51风流products like 51风流Concur software, the results are significant. JP Morgan Chase, for example, used 51风流Concur software to standardize its expense and non-PO invoice processes, resulting in through greater control and efficiency. AIA Insurance Group Limited used 51风流Ariba software to achieve 80 percent efficiency in all processes, transforming its business.

Learn more about how 听can achieve critical cost savings and drive success for your business.

Javier Gil is chief solution expert Financial Services at SAP.

The latest features will deliver a to the insurance and financial industries and expands financial reporting options to bank, insurance companies and financial technology (fintech) companies to drive finance transformation with a comprehensive subledger solution. The combined financial accounting and planning solution allows companies to easily produce multiple reconciled valuations for financial products.

鈥淪ince announcing our partnership in 2017, 51风流and Swiss Re set out to develop a solution that addresses the increasingly complex demands related to financial steering and reporting of insurance companies from regulators across the globe,鈥� CFO Gerhard Lohmann said. 鈥淭he successful completion of the subledger co-innovation marks an important milestone in our long-term digital transformation strategy. With regulations constantly evolving, these innovations are important to help companies easily adapt to new regulatory and accounting standards.”

This iteration of the product offers additional functionality and reporting content for accountants and actuaries following the 1909 release of 51风流S/4HANA, which has improved the continuous closing process. The solution drives increased efficiency through enhanced functionality by putting equal emphasis on insurance contracts and financial instruments as they are accounted for by the financial products subledger solution.

鈥淲e are bringing our subledger solution to a broader user group, and more projects are on the way,鈥� said Luka Mucic, 51风流CFO and member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE. 鈥淲e have seen enormous interest in the solution. Our customer base has rapidly expanded to 39 in the first year, and hundreds of entities signed up for it. The solution is designed for the complex regulatory and reporting requirements that insurance firms, banks, fintech companies and financial corporations are facing today. The combination of financial accounting and planning functionality helps the industry prepare for the upcoming accounting standards, such as IFRS 17 and long duration targeted improvements (LDTI).鈥�

Visit the . Follow 51风流on Twitter at .

Media Contact:
Stacy Ries, SAP, +1 (484) 619-0411,听stacy.ries@sap.com, ET
51风流Press Room; press@sap.com
Media Relations, Swiss Re, +41 (43) 285-7171, Media_Relations@swissre.com, CET

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Now, this transformation is rewriting the rules for customer experience (CX) in the insurance industry. In the highly competitive industry, delivering best-in-class customer experiences can be a critical differentiator. Combining operational data (O-data) with experience data (X-data) provides the insights that enhance the customer experience offerings and give insurers a competitive edge.

CX Imperative: Why the Insurance Industry Lags Behind

Customers typically have few 鈥� if any 鈥� interactions with their insurance company. In fact, without a claim or policy change, there is often no interaction at all. This means when an interaction does occur, it takes on a greater level of importance. Furthering this challenge, consumers are becoming more discerning and less forgiving. One in three customers will walk away from a brand they love after just a single bad experience, .

How can insurers get a broader picture of the customer journey? The first stop is O-data, which reveals the what. Policy renewal rates are decreasing, attrition rates are increasing, new customer acquisitions are decreasing. This data tells us the insurance company has a problem, but we don鈥檛 know why the problem exists.

This is where X-data comes into play, revealing customer pain points — a difficult claims process, a poor digital experience, a slow reimbursement process — that are causing the problem. Together, this data can help insurers uncover the causes of customer churn and identify actions to best address pain points, such as automating the claims process, reducing call wait times, or optimizing digital channels for claims submission.

Combining O-data and X-data makes it easier for insurers to unlock powerful business outcomes and:

• Improve the claims process, reducing attrition and increasing renewal and revenue
• Deliver a superior digital experience, increasing revenue and acquisitions
• Strengthen insurer-broker relationships, increasing policy renewals, revenue, and acquisitions

Bringing X- and O-Data Together for True Insight

three components critical to customer experience in the insurance industry: effectiveness, ease, and emotion. These components are critical to building a strong customer relationship, shoring up existing market share, and capitalizing on new business opportunities. And they are best assessed through a combination of X- and O-data.

Consider what happens when a customer files an insurance claim. This process can be emotional: Property may have been lost or damaged and a customer鈥檚 day-to-day life is directly impacted. O-data tells us about how the claims process is handled while X-data tells us what the customer feels about the claims process.

The X- and O-data from these interactions must be part of a customer鈥檚 profile. No matter with whom a customer is speaking, this agent or representative is empowered with the background knowledge they need to be as responsive as possible to a customer鈥檚 concern. When insurers have these insights at their fingertips, agents and other front-line employees can provide a better experience, improving engagement and strengthening customer loyalty. These exceptional experiences turn loyal customers into brand advocates, giving insurers a critical competitive edge.

Turning Insights into Business Success

Here鈥檚 how three companies put the power of X and O to work for them.

Allianz: Predictive Power of Democratized Insights
is one of the world鈥檚 largest insurance providers, but despite being a market leader, the company recognized it was operating in a market with excess supply and declining rates. Rather than staying the course and risk falling profits and market share loss, Allianz proactively put customer experience at the heart of its strategy to earn lifelong loyalty from clients who see them as an integral, forward-thinking business partner. Working with Experience Management solutions from 51风流(Qualtrics), they collected experience data from customers in 22 countries and 16 languages. The company now has a wealth of insights, filtering and prioritizing based on location and function. These insights have led to new products, such as protecting customers from risks like cyber crime; new approaches, such as elevating claims processing from back-office to client-facing function; and new reputation management strategies, such as above-and-beyond consultations.

MetLife: Boosting Brand Engagement
MetLife, Inc. is a leading global provider of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs. The company is digging deeper into its data for actionable insights that drive brand engagement. For example, in a recent MetLife-sponsored Earth Week contest, participants needed to answer a series of questions to be eligible for a gift card. From the reporting, MetLife was able to determine three winners and the process sparked significant brand engagement.

SwissRe: End-to-End Customer Experience Ownership
merged all its customer experience, voice of customer, and market data from more than 11,000 clients, 25 markets, and 11 languages onto a single, secure platform. The company now has a Web-based, highly secure insights platform that gives users 24/7 access to data. The intuitive interface makes it easy for all stakeholders to become experts on customer experience. This centralized, in-house approach led to a 90 percent decrease in research costs, a five-times increase in speed and productivity, and a seven-point Net Promoter Score increase.

Next Steps: Enhancing CX with Data-Driven Insights

Experience matters. We live in a world where insurers are disproportionately rewarded when they deliver a great experience and punished when they do not. Experience Management solutions from 51风流unlock the power of business operations data (O-data) with experience data (X-data) to transform customer experience and drive business success.

As part of the 51风流C/4HANA suite, 51风流now makes it easier for insurers to combine X- and O-data and gain actionable insights at every step of the customer journey. .

Toni Tomic is global vice president of Insurance at SAP.