Award Applications

Nedbank Insurance has successfully developed two firsts for the South African, and wider African insurance industry.

1. An IOT solution that fixes a common insurance customer pain point - burst home geysers (water heaters) and the resulting damage to roofs, ceilings, walls, carpets and furniture. Claims on resultant damage are average R14,000 per event, with Nedbank Insurance paying an excess of R50m rand in claims for financial year 2016. The solution , working name Senseable Smart Geyser Telemetry, consists of a telemetry device and sensors attached to a Nedbank Insurance customer's geyser and linked to an app on the customers mobile phone. The telemetry device, and app are connected 247/7 to Nedbank Insurance and the sensor technology partner, via a bespoke Microsoft Azure IOT layer. In the event of a burst or leak, the devices senses moisture, immediately shuts off water and electrical supply to the geyser (stopping water flow, and limiting resultant damage), and automatically logs a claim (First Notification of Loss) on behalf of the customer, and begins the process for a plumber to be sent out to assess and replace the geyser. A push notification is sent to the app on the customer's mobile phone alerting them of the event, and next steps to follow. Turn around time (from initial burst, to First Notification of Loss, to replacement) during the pilot was a little at 5 hours, compared to the 24 hours plus for non telemetry assisted events. A further benefit to customers is the ability to save electricity usage via controls on the app. Customers are able to remotely switch geysers on and off, and set schedules for optimum temperature and operating hours. Under pilot conditions customers were able to save an average of R600 pm in energy costs by efficiently managing their geyser temperatures, on and off times.

2. An AI enabled Chatbot, called NIC - Nedbank Insurance Chatbot, that give potential Nedbank Insurance customers to generate an insurance quote in the less than three minutes, based on responses to a series on questions, under pinned by natural language programming and machine learning. Current products supported include Motor, Home Contents and Buildings insurance. Future releases will include a Life product, specifically Funeral Insurance and Live Agent Assistance, where NIC will route a customer to an insurance consultant for a live webchat. NIC is accessible via the Nedbank Insurance homepage at nedbankinsurance.co.za/insurance.