APIs & MARKETPLACE
Anopeninvitation Stephen Walsh, EMEA Director of Sales at API specialist Sensedia, believes ‘open insurance’, like ‘open banking’, has the potential to increase revenue-generating opportunities and improve customer journeys
A car crashes through a wall and the vehicle’s airbags are deployed. While the driver sits dazed, the airbags have triggered a call to the emergency services via the car’s embedded SIM, and a GPS location is sent. Such ‘SOS assistance’ features already exist on higher-end vehicles. But technology could go further – much further. The car’s vehicle management system could send damage assessment data and a GPS location to the manufacturer so that its recovery service could be sent with the parts to make a repair – or have them ready and waiting at a garage. And a snapshot of weather conditions and dashcam footage could be automatically sent to the driver’s insurer to assist a subsequent claim. Once the car is repaired, the insurer’s repair garage could send a report to the manufacturer of work done so it can assess both crash performance and repair costs. This scenario is just one example of how a connected future could shape the insurance industry – speeding up
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processes, improving claim accuracy and, ultimately, helping to limit cost for everyone involved. Automation also means the shaken driver has one less thing to worry about, says Stephen Walsh, EMEA director of sales at API specialist Sensedia – an element of customer service that reflects well on the insurer. “If my car has been given permission to link with my insurance company to provide the initial details of the accident, that reduces my emotional engagement and speeds up the process,” he says. In fact, he sees the potential for insurance companies to sit at the centre of a web of information, collecting and coordinating data, enabling them to
make faster decisions – and thereby generating more revenue. Sensedia sees the development of insurer ecosystems linked by APIs as central to this new ‘open insurance’ world that offers major benefits to both customers and businesses. But, unlike the banking sector, there is no legislative driver for that – no PSD2 (revised Payment Services Directive) to lay the framework and propel change. So, some insurers have been slow to identify the potential structural shift, and continue to follow decades-old business models. Sensedia works with businesses to help them align strategy with new technology and develop a network linked by APIs. Then, once those APIs are launched, the São Paulo-based integration
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