Award Applications

AXA Insurance Pte Ltd

Insurance-as-a-Service Digital Platform

In November 2017, AXA Insurance Pte Ltd became the first insurer in Asia to launch end-to-end insurance transactional APIs and underlying digital platform that made Insurance-as-a-Service (IaaS) a reality, providing customised risk management to customers when they need it, how they want it.

In today’s world, we must make it easy for our partners to embed protection products into their user journey. New business models and modes of distribution also require a high level of integration and data exchange, in order to drive product innovation and assure relevancy with customer needs.

AXA’s transactional APIs can be easily integrated with any partner application, website, digital channel or insurance back-end, to deliver real-time insurance cover and seamless insurance protection when it is most relevant to customers. The unique IaaS digital platform enables end-to-end insurance value chain from commercialisation and distribution of product and services, to customer servicing and engagement.

The platform provides a series of standardised modules (i.e. quote, pricing, policy issuance, claims submission, payments). Product and distribution channel agnostic, IaaS was developed as an API first platform that can be used to launch online insurance products (P&C, Life or Health) or services within days or weeks, supporting traditional and innovative business models (e.g. pay-per-use) through various distribution models (B2C, B2B, B2B2C) across multiple geographies.

The IaaS platform provides speed and agility to scale and tap into new business opportunities anywhere in the globe, increasing return-on-investment and reducing lead time to market.

The open IaaS platform allows the configuration of existing modules (Commerce, Servicing & Marketing) to execute end-to-end transactions (e.g. purchase of new product, lead generation, customer service enquiry, First Notice of Loss {FNOL}) and synchronisation of end results with a back end of choice. It enables frictionless user experience and customer experience directly in the context of customer interaction via standardised API including text-input or voice-input Bots.

The IaaS platform has advanced analytics capabilities and the ability to execute optimisation via A/B testing at the product and pricing level. This allows for continuous improvement towards identifying the optimum market and segment fit, across both owned and partner channels in a transparent and automated way.

Business Impact:
• The platform has processed 100K policies over the past 15 months
• It launched $30m B2B & B2C partnerships in less than 10 weeks each without additional operations support or headcount, as the process is fully automated
• It is a unique asset on the market which enabled us to sign 10 new partnerships and enable business in more than 10 countries over the past 12 months, with much more to come
• In 2018, 60% of AXA Singapore’s P&C retail new businesses will be enabled through the platform
• The platform enables more than 1,000 AXA Singapore agents to digitalise their businesses, giving them access to personalised Ecommerce capabilities
• It is used for AXA eCommerce business and by multiple partners: institutional (HSBC, CityBank, Singpost), automotive (Performance Motor Ltd - BMW) and pure digital players (PropertyGuru, SATS’ Ready To Travel)

Rather than reinvent our own value chain, AXA is moving towards integrating with strategic partners’ value chains. We look to utilise digital technology to enable an open platform for insurance distribution, where partnerships and affiliations drive the product to tech-savvy, Gen Y customers. The aim is to create a more nimble enterprise that can experiment with new distribution vehicles and potential partnerships, by moving towards faster, more agile delivery.

Through this initiative, AXA heeded the call from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for players in the financial industry to publish open APIs to facilitate innovation and the growth of Singapore’s FinTech ecosystem.

AXA’s IaaS digital platform has been developed from the ground up, following design best practices like micro-services, API first and open architecture principles, utilising the full potential of public cloud infrastructure followed by DevOps practices, and enabling continuous improvement and technical excellence. AXA is able to deliver new platform features in short cycles based on market and partner feedback and needs, with a focus on innovation and business impact. This approach is a realisation of AXA Singapore’s ambition to become a leading tech player in the industry and to continue creating competitive advantage and value through digital expertise and technology.

Partnerships

SATS Ltd (SATS)
An example of AXA’s first approach to IaaS is our recent partnership with SATS, where the deep integration of our API platform with SATS’ Ready to Travel app enables users to get seamless insurance coverage when planning trips. The complete harmonisation of the customer journey of both companies offers a glimpse into the potential of how APIs can help redefine the way consumers interact with their insurers.

Performance Motors Limited (PML)
Another successful case study was the streamlining of the motor policy purchase lifecycle through AXA, directly from PML’s (exclusive distributor of BMW cars and motorcycles in Singapore) system. By integrating with AXA’s IaaS platform, PML achieved straight-through processing of AXA insurance policies sold. This significantly cut down the delays and manual operations required for policy issuance in the past.

PropertyGuru
In the digital space, we have an exclusive collaboration with number 1 property portal, PropertyGuru, to address the significant under-protection of homes in Singapore. As the first insurer to partner with a digital property portal, AXA is complementing the existing ecosystem between PropertyGuru and its agents by providing specific-agent referral links for customers to purchase their home insurance policies in an easy, straight-through process, which is fully integrated into the home purchase or rental journey, creating a seamless transaction for a fully digitalised and efficient experience using our IaaS platform.

Scoot (Embargoed till 30 June 2018)
Effective end June 2018, AXA will be the exclusive insurance partner for Scoot, a major regional award-winning low fare carrier. Through this partnership, passengers will have the option to include travel insurance to their ticket purchase online for true peace of mind when they travel. This partnership is global, so passengers will be offered AXA’s travel insurance solution in 20+ countries via the IaaS platform.