Singapore Life brochure - March 2019

Architecture designed for digital flexibility

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Disrupting insurance with flexible technology architecture WRIT TEN BY

DA LE BENTON PRODUCED BY

A LE X PAGE w w w.si ngl ife. com

Singapore Life disaggregates insurance products through flexible and efficient digital architecture

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n 2014, insurance company Singapore Life was built on a simple belief: that the world needed a better life insurer which used technology to

provide a superior experience for the customer.

In the years since, Singapore Life has grown significantly. Through the company’s acquisition of Zurich Life Singapore’s expansive insurance business portfolio in 04

2018, Singapore Life continues to push the boundaries of technology in financial services. As it navigates the digital revolution in financial services, through sound investment and technological innovation, the company has built an architecture that enables greater flexibility and technology implementation while keeping the customer at the heart of its operations. “We are not a fintech that creates intellectual property purely through technology,” says James Shanahan, Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Singapore Life. “Instead we put that technology to use in a way which brings a unique business model to life.”

That business model, something that truly separates Singapore Life from other leading financial institutions worldwide, is centred on “disaggregating the traditional product in order to bring greater flexibility and ultimately a better buying experience and pricing for the customer”.

As technology continues to disrupt the traditional and

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“ What we see are business models built on big systems and platforms that are very inflexible and typically reflect a cost-driven approach and this translates into a rigid, fixed sales approach and impersonal market offerings” 06

— James Shanahan Chief Operating Officer, Singapore Life

now archaic means of buying and selling financial products, Shanahan believes that this has shone a light on what is a fundamentally broken market. “What’s broken isn’t the uptake of technology, it’s actually the attitude towards technology and the flexibility in how you sell financial services,” he says. “What we see are business models built on big systems and platforms that are very inflexible and typically reflect a cost-driven approach and this translates into a rigid, fixed sales approach and impersonal market offerings.”

Singapore Life disaggregates the product

and breaks them down into multiple levels: product configuration, service orchestration and market offering. At the product configuration level, Singapore Life’s back end functionality allows the company to build products as wide-reaching as possible in terms of defining or limiting parameters. This takes into consideration as wide a number of possibilities as possible, such as different currencies or interest rates. “Why should there be market specific limits at the back end? “, asks Shanahan. The middle layer, service orchestration, is key to facilitating Singapore Life’s market offering. “This model allows for much lower costs and breaks down some of the complexities of the process,” says Shanahan. “Once a product is set up and the service configured, the offering can then serve multiple markets. It makes the front end very flexible because what can be offered is orchestrated in that middle layer.” Given various different mediums which customers use to access financial services, such as mobile applications, online portals or third-party platforms, Singapore Life’s back end functionality allows the front end delivery model to operate almost unconstrained. “None of the front end changes the back end product configuration. It’s all about the customer journey and their experience at the front end,” he says. “We’re able to produce or work with w w w.si ngl ife. com

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— Walter De Oude, Founder & CEO of SingLife, and happy customer & friend of Contemi since 2014

Contemi was founded in 2001 to design, build and robustly scale the complete IT systems for a start-up insurer in Scandinavia. From the initial mock-up and proof-of-concepts, to building the insurers own scalable core, accounting and claims systems, and managing the IT platform as the insurer grew leaps and bounds.

Ever since then, Contemi have worked successfully with many start-up insurance operations in Scandinavia and Asia. Both stand-alone entrepreneurial pursuits as well as new business setups for

larger, mature insurers. For most we have built and managed their respective IT platforms and acted as key IT partner over the years, as they have gone “from zero to hero”. It is a Contemi specialty.

We started working with Walter de Oude and his team at the SingLife design and proof-of-concept stage in 2014, and today still work with SingLife on delivering key pieces of the IT platform.

We enjoy thoroughly working with SingLife and hope to do so for many years to come as SingLife’s success continues.

If you are looking to start something new in insurance – could be a new business line, a new partnership, a new distribution channel, a new claims process, a new eco-system integration and customer engagement model, etc – and you are now thinking about the underpinning IT solution - please do give us call on +65 8695 4219 and let’s talk about it.

No promises, but let’s see if we can’t help put a bit of thunder into the IT part of your project.

www.contemi.com

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C O N T E M I — A S T R AT E G I C PA R T N E R S H I P

Contemi, a global leader in next generation IT solutions and supporting customers through digitialisation journeys, has been a key strategic partner of Singapore Life since the beginning. For Shanahan, the relationship between the two represents the way in which Singapore Life truly values its partners. “There are several aspects that we deeply value with Contemi,” he says. “First, their proactive and deeply supportive culture, which lies at the heart of all our key relationships. Secondly, they understand our business and they add value to our thinking and our solutioning and our designs constantly. Thirdly, the technical skills and knowledge and, increasingly, experience, arising from Contemi’s home in Vietnam.”

It is this third part in particular that highlights Contemi’s role in the growth of Singapore Life. Shanahan notes that the education system, culture, work ethic and competitive landscape in Vietnam is rapidly transforming, giving rise to what Singapore Life believes is a “powerful new force in technology, particularly in software development”.

Contemi is integral to the company’s architectural, design, development, testing and rollout capabilities, participating and collaborating in the

entire product lifecycle. “Sustainability in any friendship arises from mutual contribution to the relationship,” says Shanahan. “For SingLife, we work hard to contribute to all our friendships.

For Contemi we experience their contribution continuously and proactively and we benefit from their insights and experiences.”

Contemi has taken the lead role in developing Singapore Life’s direct and advised portals. Every customer of Singapore Life engages with the company through these portals, as do its advisors, and so Contemi allows the company to innovate and to improve both the portals and the customer and advisor relationships.

“Our policy serving is accessed via our portals in the first instance, meaning that an increased portion of customers’ needs are performed directly by customers and advisors in their portals,” says Shanahan.

“We are continuously expanding the capabilities of the portals so that the experience is maintained at a worldclass level and so that customers and advisors access the most efficient solutions for their needs. We very much look forward to Contemi continuing in this role as we expand into new business lines and geographically.”

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“Singapore Life’s architecture is designed in a way that removes the restrictions that are inherently built into the traditional ‘fully integrated’ sales process” 12

— James Shanahan Chief Operating Officer, Singapore Life an unlimited variety of front ends that

what it believes has been missing from

connect to the orchestration, in order

the financial services landscape, which

to service multiple markets, regardless

is the flexibility to adapt to the custom-

of medium, language, geography, buying

er’s needs rapidly, to offer services

customs or other channel characteris-

which reflect contemporary pricing and

tics. Singapore Life’s architecture is

crafting experiences that delight their

designed in a way that removes the

customers, ultimately resulting in better

restrictions that are inherently built

financial outcomes for all stakeholders.

into the traditional ‘fully integrated’

“We are not so arrogant as to expect

sales process.”

people will only buy product X through

Removing the historical rigidity of

an app, or through partner X’s site or in

developing and selling financial services

only one way,” says Shanahan. “We

allows Singapore Life to reconceive its

want to allow all our partners, our own

business operating model and to deliver

teams and others in our ecosystem to

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invent new sales experiences, channels

operating model leverages the concept

and mediums and be able to interact

of its emerging platform economy and

with us via an API layer at the orchestra-

the network effects which are becom-

tion level. We don’t profess to have the

ing evident amongst Singapore Life’s

definitive answer as to the best way to

customers and its ecosystem.

sell financial services; instead, we

“We have constructed a platform that

strive to enable as much flexibility as

it is incredibly flexible and operates

possible and to allow exploration and

at a cost which is at least an order of

discovery to lead us to better outcomes,

magnitude lower than prior solutions. In

all the while building a capability which

previous generations it was not possible

compounds the speed of that discov-

to enjoy tiny incremental cost of distribu-

ery over time.”

tion while deploying high flexibility and

The financial strategy underpinning Singapore Life’s unique business

rapid iteration,” says Shanahan. “Our operating model delivers this and further w w w.si ngl ife. com

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CLICK TO WATCH : SINGAPORE LIFE WELCOMES ZURICH LIFE SINGAPORE 15 allows us to consider multiple low cost,

importance. As Shanahan notes, the

high volume back ends which expand the

technology platform cannot operate in

scope of services our customers enjoy,

isolation and so Singapore Life invests

while new geographies and partnerships

in its operating model by bringing in

can be explored rapidly and without

partners to create further flexibility,

architectural complexity via front ends.”

managing the operating model via

Ultimately the platform economics

a governance approach which fully

bring about an increasing productivity gain over time, delivering on and

leverages its open ecosystem.

He describes Singapore Life as the

continuously strengthening Singapore

‘architects’ that oversee the design, the

Life’s unique business model promise.

funding and allocation of capital, and

Technology is key to achieving

the company’s roadmaps, the distribut-

increased productivity throughout the

ing 100% of its development and back

company and its ecosystem, but the

office operations to create an ecosys-

operating model is perhaps of greater

tem of the likeminded. “The idea is that w w w.si ngl ife. com

we don’t want ‘vendors’ or someone who’s just trying to sell us something,” he says.

“We also don’t want partners, which simply implies a level of seniority. What we really want are friends.” Shanahan continues: “When we say, ‘open ecosystem,’ it’s an ecosystem of people who are like minded when it comes to achieving our vision, who’ve got each other’s back, who are simpatico in their understanding, and whose incentives, both emotional and professional, are aligned to the same goals.”

In bringing this open ecosystem to life, Singapore Life can drive robust and rapid changes in both the organisation and the 16

industry. To this end, Singapore Life works closely with local and international partners such as Amazon, GrowthOps, Ranosys, Sapiens and LogiGear to develop, test and implement leading-edge software solutions to accelerate the company’s growth. “The most important thing for Singapore Life is working with companies that can enable an extreme level of flexibility, to bring in new and different resources as well as different types of skillsets,” says Shanahan. “We then end up with organisations that we’ve effectively grown with – people that believe in our philosophy, our vision,where we’re trying to get to.”

GrowthOps in particular has been a key driver of growth for Singapore Life, having worked with the company since April 2017.

“ With our architecture powering growth, it’s now time for Singapore Life to come of age and step into adulthood in terms of our standing as a regional champion” — James Shanahan Chief Operating Officer, Singapore Life

Singapore Life engaged GrowthOps as a technology advisory partner to improve its infrastructure, cloud security, compliance and business continuity.

In Oct 2017, Singapore Life officially went live with its client portal and high net worth online offerings. Since then, GrowthOps has been working in partnership with the company in five areas: cost optimisation, security, reliability, performance and operational excellence. “Singapore Life engaged us to develop a robust technology infrastructure that could be leveraged to provide financial solutions directly to its clients,” says Jason Morrissey, Partner, GrowthOps. “GrowthOps is excited to be involved in the expansion story of a digitallyfocused financial services company, and our teams look forward to further developing our relationship in 2019 and beyond.”

At the very heart of every decision that Singapore Life takes, be it operations, finance or technology, is the customer. In the financial services space, the customer can take on many forms and in order for Singapore Life to deliver the very best for them it needs to understand how the contemporary customer behaves. In Singapore, the modern customer is time-poor and this has seen companies look to tap into this market by creating mobile applications in order to bring them insurance and other financial products. Singapore Life w w w.si ngl ife. com

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recognises that while this can bring

Singapore Life is an incredibly

success, it’s not representative of the

ambitious company. By early 2019

customer experience that Singapore

the company was valued at over

Life seeks to provide. “The key for us is

US$200mn and had achieved profit-

observing that time-poor state and

ability in its first full year of operation,

thinking how we can build a smooth,

making it Singapore’s fastest growing

compelling and attractive experience

life insurer. With a wholly flexible and

for that customer,” says Shanahan.

incredibly unique architecture in place,

“There are so many apps in the market

the sky is well and truly the limit. As

now I couldn’t possibly tell you which one

‘the next generation’ financial services

is going to ‘win’. We want to experiment,

company, what does the future hold

use our flexibility and other capabilities

for Singapore Life? The company has

to discover what works for customers

outlined its ambitions to expand into

in real life.”

the ASEAN market, to significantly

its strong business plans and push to enter new markets and rollout additional lines of business. From the outset GrowthOps has worked with Singapore Life to ensure the technologies are in place to support the company’s goal of becoming a preferred Singaporean financial services company.”

For Singapore Life, this goal will be achieved by keeping the customer at the heart of its operations. “Our intention is to fill the more holistic financial services needs of individuals and to continue to work with our ecosystem to bring new and wonderful things to our expanding markets,” says Shanahan. “With our architecture powering growth, it’s now broaden its insurance portfolio and

time for Singapore Life to come of age

to expand to other financial services,

and step into adulthood in terms of our

using its operating model, licence and

standing as a regional champion.”

rapidly expanding capital base to renovate and reinvigorate financial services. It will achieve this with the help of those key partners.

“GrowthOps works closely with Singapore Life’s management team and is supporting the company’s digital expansion in Southeast Asia,” says Morrissey. “Moreover, GrowthOps is further enhancing Singapore Life’s technology infrastructure to support w w w.si ngl ife. com

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Singapore Life 11 North Buona Vista Drive, #13-07 The Metropolis Tower 2, Singapore 138589 T +65 6911 1111 | www.singlife.com