Over the past few years Bulgaria has certainly made it’s name in the world of contact centre outsourcing. Not only are business in Europe choosing Bulgaria as their nearshore destination of choice, but businesses in the US are now casting their eye over towards the east.

If you did ever find yourself in Bulgaria’s bustling capital city Sofia, you might be greeted by one of its 1.3 million residents with “Zdraveĭte, radvam se da se zapoznaem!” (Hello! I am glad to meet you). However, if you’re like me and rely on a translator, there’s absolutely no need to fear as over 1.7 million people in Bulgaria can speak English. Other European languages spoken in Bulgaria include (but not limited to):

• Bulgarian (obviously)
• Turkish
• Russian
• German

We recently caught up with waterdrop®’s very own Martin Vatchkov to get an on the ground view of Bulgaria. Not only is Martin a Bulgarian national living in Austria, Martin has also previously outsourced his customer service operations within Bulgaria:

“Здравей (Bulgarian “Hello”)! Diving straight in on why Bulgaria, which is mainly driven by the fact that Bulgaria has a highly effective language school system, where most European languages are extensively and effectively thought, the baseline is rather high and difficult to beat.

The university of “St. Kliment Ohridski” in Sofia has added another building block to the already high level of schooling within Bulgaria. This has brought some rather rare languages to Bulgaria such as Japanese, Korean, Arabic or the Nordic languages to name a few.

Once you get past the languages, another strong positive for Bulgaria would be the Geographic location. +2 hours from GMT and +7 hours from EST in the US, with US shifts (16:00 to 01:00) being something normal. Distance in my opinion is another asset at around a 3-hour flight, from most places in the European peninsula which is a rather short flight. Companies have started to explore the whole country with the opening of offices at the seaside (Varna and Burgas) and not only the capital, Sofia.

On another note, the fact that Bulgaria is part of the EU and NATO, brings GDPR with ease (contractual wise, as no data is leaving the EU) as well as economic stability. Internet downtime is almost nonexistent with high speeds.

Last but not least, the BPO and ITO industries are rather filled with the younger part of the generation which bring a lot of ideas and high engagement rates. AI is no foreign word and working efficiently is certainly a big asset as both industries have been embodied quite well in the countries’ economy.”

Thanks Martin! Contact Centre Panel too has had some terrific experiences with contact centre’s in Bulgaria, and we think you will too.

Like what you hear about Bulgaria and want to find out more? Get in touch, we’re here to help.

Are there really no bad ideas? This age-old question plagues organisations that are trying to innovate while managing realistic resources and budgets. None of us want to stifle creativity—we’re all encouraged to think creatively and bring new ideas. As we alluded to above, maybe it’s the execution of ideas that results in undesirable outcomes. 

Distributed and Contact Centre Panel (CCP) recently teamed up to help more organisations turn their ambitious ideas into reality. Any idea is worth exploring, but without proper execution, outcomes are often lacklustre at best and failures at worst. In a tech landscape where 70% of transformation projects end up failing according to McKinsey, it’s critical to get the strategy and process right at the onset.  

We want to set business leaders on the best path possible toward successful digital transformations. With our combined expertise and years of experience in helping companies implement change across industries and geographies, we’ve compiled the guiding principles that will be foundational to any large-scale technical project. 

Be clear on strategy and your “why” at the start 

Nobody sets out to do a bad job. The execution of a project—especially in an outsourced environment—is complex, so it may not be a specific decision that halts progress, but a situation where people fail to make a decision, or don’t work through the priorities and therefore are trying to work with limited resources.  

Distributed Founder, Callum Adamson shares, “Make sure you’re in love with the problem you’re trying to solve, not the solution you think is needed. I see people thinking, ‘I’ve got this great idea for an app,’ rather than ‘This problem needs to be solved.’” Clearly defining the priorities of a project will ensure that everyone is working towards implementing the agreed upon change. When resources are limited, there’s no more important factor to a project than knowing exactly how it will affect the organisation once the project is finished. In order to better track the impact of your change implementation, make sure to identify: 

• Key KPIs that will be measured before and after the project 
• Goals for those KPIs in order to track against expectations 
• Teams that will be affected directly by the transformation 
• Stakeholders who deeply understand the problem you’re trying to solve 

Make sure you have the right resources dedicated to the project 

Change is inevitable in any organisation and if we fail to acknowledge this then those organisations are destined to fail. Opportunities to deliver additional customers, revenue, or margin are dependent on successfully implementing change. The step that makes something a “bad idea” is potentially the decision to not apply the appropriate level of thinking and resources to the project.  

Once you understand the parameters of your project and exactly how the change will affect your organisation, it’s time to set out for the right resources. Good ideas become bad ideas when the levels of critical thinking and creativity don’t match the complexity of the project. Make sure there’s enough time, budget, and talent dedicated to the transformation project in order to move forward completely. If there isn’t, be realistic about what you can accomplish with what you have, and flex your creativity to stretch those resources in ways that will help your team make more progress. 

 At CCP, nearly a decade of work has been dedicated to honing in on connecting organisations to the best resources for their projects. CCP Founder Phil Kitchen shares, “We always see that the best fit organisations to support our clients or network have three key components to their offer. These are:  

1. Solution, that the needs are clearly understood and the partner is aligned to the same objectives  
2. Commercials, ensuring sustainability for all engaged to deliver a win/win outcome  
3. Cultural alignment, to ensure open and transparent communications and delivery

Leverage the right talent at the right time

What truly needs to be considered when making any critical change is that there needs to be the necessary capacity to deliver change whilst managing the day-to-day goals. Impactful change can only be achieved with impactful teams, and sometimes those teams need additional expert perspectives and skill sets in order to more holistically drive a project forward. 

 This is where leveraging external talent becomes the key to driving innovation at growing organisations that are moving quickly while simultaneously implementing ambitious transformations. We have a deep understanding that success can’t be achieved in a silo. In order for internal teams to excel in their “zones of genius,” they need the right support to enable an open, empowering environment for better productivity and workflows. 

Freelancers make up 40% of the digital workforce today. That’s a tremendous amount of talent that can potentially help organisations shift their businesses through successful transformation projects. This talent remains largely untapped today, even as business leaders become more open to the idea of leveraging talent ecosystems outside their own companies. With this leap comes global perspectives, remote working practices, and increased productivity that can be unlocked with the right talent strategy. 

We’re building the future of tech transformation—join us 

CCP and Distributed are partnering to help organisations achieve greater change at faster speeds—without compromising on quality. Keeping this balance is important to us because we know it’s important to business leaders worldwide. As we continue our work, see how good ideas can become great ideas when the right talent teams can contribute their unique skills sets and expertise to your projects. 

Words cannot even begin to describe what the people of Ukraine have had to endure over the past 18 months, since the war began. However, through this adversity, the outsourcing industry in Ukraine has remained resilient and is still very much open for business – providing a lifeline to those who need it most.

Before the conflict, Ukraine was well on its way to becoming the European hotspot for incredible tech talent and cost-effective solutions for both BPO and ITO services. Has the war changed this? Well, the simple answer is no. Ukraine has had to adapt, there’s no question about that, including looking at how employees in the sector operate and remain safe (which is of the upmost priority). However, the country is still able to rival its Eastern European neighbours in terms of quality of service and cost effectiveness.

When it comes to outsourcing in Ukraine, it’s employees speak English to a very high level – which includes adapting to cultural nuances of other countries with ease. We would say Ukrainian’s have a firm grasp of how Western businesses work. This means Ukrainians are excellent at collaborating with teams from other countries, especially for those business who already have an inhouse team and are looking for an outsourced partner to supplement the numbers they already have internally.

I recently pulled up a chair and had a chat with another of Ukraine’s own, Konstantin Ryzhov, the CEO of Simply Contact. Operating since 2012, Simply Contact has several offices operating in Ukraine, including their Poland office as part of recent expansion. I asked Konstantin a number of questions about outsourcing in Ukraine, with the most pertinent one being, “why outsource to Ukraine?”.

“In Ukraine, we place a strong emphasis on education, especially language skills. This means our contact centers have people who are adept in various languages and also deliver services with high quality. Plus, Ukraine is amazing at adjusting and coming up with new ideas when times get tough. The way Ukrainian companies remain stable and grow during hard circumstances is truly impressive.”

As Konstantin mentioned, the advantages of outsourcing contact center services to Ukraine are quite noteworthy. Let’s take a moment to review these key points:

1. Multilingual agents

Ukraine can offer a broad range of languages, with high proficiency in English and other main European languages. It is an ideal choice for serving a global customer base.

2. Cost-effectiveness without compromising quality

In the realm of outsourcing, balancing cost and quality is crucial. Ukraine excels here, offering competitive pricing without compromising service standards. This balance is particularly attractive to businesses looking to optimise their customer service operations.

3. Time zone advantage

Ukraine’s geographical location and time zone are beneficial for serving European and Asian markets. Also, it offers reasonable alignment with North American business hours. This enables more effective and timely customer service across different regions, 24/7.

4. Diverse talent pool

Ukraine has a large and diverse talent pool. This variety enables you to find the right match for your specific customer service needs, whether it’s technical support, multilingual services, or industry-specific expertise.

Are you considering outsourcing to Ukraine, but want to find out more? Reach out to CCP, we’d be more than happy to help.

Just last week, an associate ruefully observed “There’s no future for UK contact centres. They can’t compete on cost; clients won’t pay”. They were specifically referring to outsourced service providers, but the root cause of their – regretful – sense of despair could apply to all sorts of contact centres:

• The cost impacts of an increasingly competitive job market and mandatory increases in living and minimum wages (incidentally, I’m assuming that no-none could object to notoriously under-valued frontline contact centre staff getting better paid, but increased costs do inevitably create commercial pressures);
• The post-Covid shifts in the employment market, the ongoing impacts of the ‘Great Resignation’ and a general raising in employees’ expectations of their roles;  AND
• An often-toxic combination of increased emotional and cognitive loads for frontline staff:
  • Emotional – as they deal with rising levels of customer frustration and rage, compounded by increased financial vulnerability   
  • Cognitive – more channels, more applications, more complex queries, more rules, more oversight

All of which serves to make a contact centre advisor job even less attractive!

As more and more contact centres roles are transitioned to relatively new offshore locations like South Africa, does this quiet ‘second wave of offshoring’ really signal the end of the mainstream, volume UK outsourced contact centre market?  

What’s happening out there? 

Even without a degree of informed insight, nearly all contact centre industry insiders would agree that South Africa – which for many years has been a ‘left field’ location, more talked about than utilised – has in recent years grown massively in importance and profile.   

It’s over 20 years since the first wave of call centre offshoring to India, when brands first embraced the attractions of delivering customer contact activities from overseas. The long-term results were varied; some preserved successfully, some progressively switched India into a predominantly non-voice delivery location, others recanted and repatriated their contact centres (some quietly, some with a great PR fanfare). Lessons were learned – or forgotten – and the world’s a very different place from the early ‘noughties, but it does seem like we are in the midst of a ‘second wave’ of offshoring.    

From CCP’s perspective many clients are choosing to outsource to South Africa, either offshoring their contact centre services for the first time or selecting the location over another other offshore sites used previously.  

Of course, South Africa is far from the only newly emerging contact centre location. Certainly for the big, global BPOs, South Africa already feels a bit ‘last year’ and Egypt is the favourite location. The spread of outsourcing ambitions and capabilities – whether that’s driven by home grown entrepreneurs or global BPOs looking for the next source of untapped, inexpensive talent – across Africa is a fascinating subject. One we may return to in the near future.  

Countries which feature in the growing list of CCP partners’ operational locations range from Bulgaria to Kosovo in Eastern Europe, and destinations even futher afield like Fiji and Suriname. 

It’s not all about cost. But it often is …

There are many reasons and business drivers which can influence an organisation’s decision to outsource its contact centre and customer engagement efforts. These may range from a lack of technical or operational capacity; challenges with staff recruitment and retention; or an acceptance that the organisation’s points of differentiation and value lie elsewhere and that a third party is best placed to deliver contact and support services. But, of course, the decision might be primarily motivated by price. And for a client making the move from an in-house or outsourced UK contact centre to one located in, say, South Africa then they would expect savings in the region of 50%.

Life’s rarely that simple, though. Outsourcing decisions are often propelled by a variety of factors; there are obvious as well as hidden costs in outsourcing, especially at a great physical distance; and simply ‘lifting and shifting’ a contact centre operation will miss opportunities to enhance their customer experience and the tools and processes that deliver them. However, when most businesses are still adjusting to two years of inflation, raised interest rates and fragile levels of confidence, the prospect of delivering unavoidable services for as little as half the cost is compelling. 

Game over for the UK?    

It might look like it, but there are some good reasons to think otherwise. In fact, in some circumstances – or for some outsourced service providers – we could be on the cusp of a UK contract centre renaissance.  

Here are some reasons why:  

• Cost vs Value: business drivers are often cyclical. The same companies that are massively focused on cost and/or headcount reductions today, may be far more focused on customer value next year. Going offshore isn’t synonymous with lower quality interactions, but they can more difficult to sustain from afar, distant from the domestic culture;
• The ‘stability premium’: Business continuity planning isn’t just about unusual weather events, or pandemic flu preparations (remember them!?) nowadays. War, cyber threats, climate change, civil unrest and both formal and informal economic sanctions are of growing importance. Having a contact centre in the UK rather than thousands of miles away isn’t a guaranteed insulation from these factors, but it helps;  
• Complexity: Analysis, gut feeling and research all demonstrate that simple or ‘transactional’ contacts are increasingly rare. Even consumer queries that are ostensibly ‘easy’ are now frequently evidence of profound underlying challenges – either fixable flaws and barriers in how brands interact with customers, or consumers’ own vulnerabilities. Addressing either requires highly skilled, brand-aligned people; AND  
• Collaboration, collaboration, collaboration: As machine learning and Generative AI become integral parts of how brands’ contact centres manage and interact with customers, the need to collaborate :
  • Tech with ops  
  • Proposition with experience  
  • Clients with service providers  
  • Advisors with AI interaction guidance and knowledge solutions will become more important. Doing so with colleagues and partners located nearby, with genuinely shared experiences, may be at a premium

Conclusion

None of these factors are guarantees that the UK outsourced contact centre industry will survive and prosper. However, one thing outsourced service providers are above anything else is resourceful and flexible, so the best of them will a find a way to differentiate and succeed. 

What do you think? Is the UK outsourced contact centre industry doomed – or, not for the first time, has its demise been predicted way too soon?

Let us know. We’d love to hear your thoughts, whether you’re a client or a service provider, whether you’re based in the UK or abroad.

Article 3 of 3

Our third and final area to highlight is the talent shortage in operations and more focused in areas such as data analytics, AI, and digital innovation. Attracting and retaining skilled professionals is essential for insurers to adapt to changing market dynamics and leverage emerging technologies effectively. But how are they going about doing this, particularly when their operational hubs are positioned outside the talent hub of London?

1. Talent Development and Training

Insurance companies are investing in talent development programmes to upskill their existing workforce. They offer training in emerging areas such as data analytics, AI, and digital technologies to ‘bridge’ colleagues in volume areas with deep experience of the customer, products and processes, into specialist roles where they can build upon that foundation. Additionally, insurers are partnering with educational institutions to create specialised insurance programmes that provide graduates with the necessary skills and knowledge to succeed in the industry.

By investing in talent development, insurers are closing the ‘skills gap’ to cultivate a pipeline of skilled professionals. This takes time to bear fruit and so with that comes an interim need to maintain the shortfall, or at least provide the foundation to build upon. The outsourcing industry is well placed to help here, both short and long term.

2. Outsourcing

In recent years, changing dynamics within the industry has seen employees talking with their feet and finding pastures new. There’s simply more choice for people and if the reward is better elsewhere and the work less complicated (and stressful) then the lure of jumping ship for better pay and conditions is strong, particularly when the commute is no longer a factor for many organisations. Whilst there are advancements in the technology space to soften the blow of the resourcing turbulence, the pace at which these are delivering tangible benefits is nowhere near sufficient to keeping up with the shortfall in resourcing.

We’ve seen the use of UK outsourcers as the stop gap, at least tactically for the initial shortfall, but the winners we are seeing are the overseas territories, South Africa especially for the customer facing roles. We believe those insurers that brave the outsourcing decision for their operations, hand in hand with technology outsourcing, will create strategic advantage versus their peers. We are currently seeing this with US based Insurers increasing offshoring to South Africa but not so much in UK Insurance, just yet…..

Want to hear more on this topic? Feel free to contact us hello@contactcentrepanel.com for further insight and guidance.

Want to read our previous articles? Part 1 and 2 have been linked below:

• Part 1 – Collaboration through partnerships
• Part 2 – AI, Data Analytics and Insights

For lots of contact centres the recruitment and retention of frontline advisors continues to be their biggest challenge. The labour market has shifted, maybe permanently, and potential colleagues’ expectations have changed. At the same time technology developments promise to revolutionise contract centres and how they operate.

Good people are hard to find and good people expect to be recruited honestly and treated properly in work. So, are your current recruitment approaches fit for purpose?

Attitude, Aptitude and Experience

Recently I came across the ‘3As’ hiring model that Ralph Kasuba developed in the late ‘noughties when recruiting technology hires. The three As are the three sets of characteristics that candidates have and Mr Kasuba suggested the priority order in which they should be assessed:

1. Attitude – your innate approach to work
2. Aptitude – your ability and willingness to adapt, learn and develop
3. Ability (or Experience) – what you bring to the table in terms of qualifications, technical skills and experience

The model was developed when Kasuba’s team were struggling to appoint candidates for technical roles; they would pass a pre-assessment but then never get through a team interview with their prospective peers. The 3As sought to make sure that the candidates’ ‘fit’ with the organisation and team were right before going on to assess the level and extent of their – vital – technical skills.

So, do the ‘3As’ help us in today’s contact centre world? Potentially, but perhaps not yet!

The present

Everywhere you turn nowadays you can read predictions and descriptions of the onward march of technology in the customer interaction and contact centre space. Innumerable articles – most written by Chat GPT and some with the aid of human intervention – explain that the old contact centre world of complex manual processes and work-arounds is about to disappear under the shiny onslaught of machine learning and AI.

If these articles are even partly correct then the sort of people we need to attract to work in the frontline of contact centres needs to change. However, as long as contact centre advisors are expected to the below, then Experience and Aptitude will continue to trump Attitude in attracting and selecting candidates:

• Cope with multiple tools and systems (with more added all the time)
• Retain a good understanding of internal and customer-facing processes ‘in their heads’
• Prioritise multiple demands and requirements (mandatory statements, data protection compliance, data capture goals, up or cross-sell targets, quality management criteria, etc)

The future?

As systems are integrated, real time guidance is available to advisors to help them identify and resolve issues and – crucially – the contract centre is seen as a means of identifying and fixing broken processes, then things will change. Maybe then recruiting people mostly for their empathy, enthusiasm and communication skills will become possible.

In the meantime, if we want to retain the right people to help and support our customers it will continue to be necessary to accept that “what they do” is more important than “the way that they do it”.

If you’d like to discuss how well your recruitment model aligns with your present realities (and future ambitions) just drop us a line, we’d love to chat with you.

P.S. if you want to read more about the ‘3As’ approach you can do so by clicking here.

Article 2 of 3

Insurers have long since leveraged data and analytics to gain actionable insights and drive operational improvements. After all, data is at the heart of underwriting, pricing and claims management. Advanced analytical techniques are being increasingly used to analyse large volumes of data, identify patterns, and optimise processes. Insurers are employing predictive analytics and AI for claims forecasting, fraud detection, and risk assessment, allowing them to make data-driven decisions and streamline operations. These run hand in hand with the operation itself and it’s critical the teams work closely together, especially when outsourcing is involved. Insurers are gaining strategic advantage in several ways. Here are some examples:

1. Enhanced Risk Assessment

By leveraging vast amounts of structured and unstructured data, insurers can refine their risk assessment processes. Advanced analytics and AI models analyse historical data, market trends, customer behaviours and external factors to improve risk prediction and pricing accuracy. This enables them to identify profitable segments, develop targeted products, and optimise underwriting decisions.

Insurers rarely let go of this core competence and fully outsource, so if the demand surfaces, it’s likely to be augmenting rather than replacing the mother ship’s in-house capability.

2. Fraud Detection and Prevention

Insurers are employing data analytics and AI algorithms to detect and prevent fraudulent activities. By analysing data patterns and anomalies, insurers can identify suspicious claims, behaviours or patterns that indicate potential fraud. Advanced fraud detection models help insurers mitigate financial losses, improve operational efficiency, and protect honest policyholders from inflated premiums.

Typically, outsourcers work across industry verticals and so bring a distinct advantage in terms of sharing learnings from one business sector to another.

3. Personalised Customer Experiences

By analysing customer data, insurers are gaining insights into individual preferences, behaviours and risk profiles, allowing them to tailor products, pricing, and services to specific customer segments. This level of personalisation enhances customer satisfaction, improves retention rates (increasingly important after the pricing reforms) and drives customer loyalty.

In an industry challenged with differentiation beyond brand recognition and price, personalisation is ever more important to the policy holder.

4. Process Optimisation

Of course, the need to identify and eliminate inefficiencies, reduce waste, and enhance operational performance doesn’t go away just because you enhance your technical capabilities elsewhere. Techniques such as Lean Six Sigma continue to be used to analyse processes, identify bottlenecks, and implement improvements. Reengineering processes to simplify and automate workflows, reducing cycle times and enhancing overall operational effectiveness will continue.

Through the use of process mining (we rate this software highly) and analysis, insurers can identify bottlenecks, eliminate inefficiencies, and create a pipeline of opportunities, driven by date, primed for automation.

If you would like to discuss further the challenges in the Insurance sector, the benefits of data analytics, AI and insights or generally about any of the points raised, feel free to contact us hello@contactcentrepanel.com

Watch out for the next article in the series considering the impact of Talent Management and Skills Gaps.

If you ever find yourself waking on the streets of beautiful Tirana (Albania’s capital), you may be greeted with the words Përshëndetje! Gëzohem që ju takoj (Hello! Nice to meet you) by one of it’s 520,000 local residents. However, if your Albanian is rusty like mine, then the country offers the ability to tap into other European languages which includes (but not limited to):

• English (especially spoken by the youth of Albania)
• Italian (widely spoken throughout the country)
• German
• French

If you speak to any businesses within the UK/Europe, most will already know about Albania’s proficiency as a nearshore outsourcing destination. But, why is this? To find out we spoke to Albania’s own Gerti Haxhiu, CEO of Simetrix Solutions (a prominent BPO in Albania/Kosovo), on why Albania remains a popular nearshore destination of choice for UK/European businesses:

“Albania continues to be a popular nearshore destination of choice for UK/European businesses due to several key factors. First and foremost, the country offers a strategic geographic location with easy accessibility to major European markets. Moreover, Albania’s competitive cost of labour and favourable business regulations make it an attractive option for companies seeking cost-effective solutions without compromising on quality. The country’s skilled and multilingual workforce further enhances its appeal as a destination for outsourcing services and establishing regional headquarters.”

Like Gerti mentions, there’s some very tangible benefits in outsourcing your customer service operations to Albania.
Speaking with some of our clients who currently outsource to BPO’s within Albania, their top reasons for choosing Albania where:

1. Location
If you board a flight from London Heathrow today, you would be touching down in Tirana within 3 hours (max) – even less if you are based in the likes of France/Germany. This means you can be with your chosen outsourcer the same day if needs be, rather than a 12 hour trip if you chosen partner was based in the likes of South Africa.

2. Competitive Rates
Competitive agent rates makes Albania stand out versus its nearby competitors. Albania has a young and productive workforce (48% of the population are under 30 years old), which means costs can be kept competitive.

3. Access to European Languages
As mentioned earlier, Albania has plentiful access to workers who can speak multiple languages at a very high proficiency level. Couple this with the competitive commercials on offer, you can see why business are opting for Albania.

4. Infrastructure
In the past two decades, Albania has made significant strides in improving its telecommunications infrastructure, expanding internet coverage, and increasing the number of internet users – including a recent project by the Albanian government with the aim to expand its internet coverage in rural areas.

Looking to outsource in Albania? Get in touch, we can help source your next partner.

Working in collaboration with Insight and Design Group (IDG), we put to you a series of articles to help support your understanding of the potential challenges currently being faced in the Insurance sector. IDG have used their experiences from the strategies they have helped develop and execute in the Insurance Industry, supporting executive teams as they faced into wave after wave of challenges over the last 25 years.

Article 1 of 3

From the ancient maritime trade routes to bustling modern cities, the concept of insurance has been ingrained in society for centuries. While the formal insurance industry as we know it today emerged in the late 17th century, the fundamental principles of risk mitigation and financial protection can be traced back to ancient civilisations. Throughout its storied history, the insurance industry has weathered storms, adapted to changing landscapes, and stood as a pillar of resilience in the face of uncertainty.

But where is the industry today, what challenges are being navigated and where is the C-Suite focussing their attention in the unchartered economic environment we’re all facing into?

Collaboration through partnerships

The industry hasn’t historically been particularly revered for its cutting-edge innovation. However, to give it credit, it has evolved and continues to launch new products and services as customer expectations change, driven by advancements in technology and the rise of a digital native population. Policyholders expect personalised experiences, seamless interactions, and simplified processes. Insurers are embracing customer-centric approaches, enhancing digital capabilities, and delivering tailored products and services to meet these expectations.

At IDG, we have led the charge in collaborating through outsourcing key components of customer and technology fulfilment, both overseas and in the UK. We have identified and deployed the lowest cost territories with incredible success, at scale and, we have invested in emerging territories to service the ever highly demanding UK customer. We did this through partnership with the outsourcing industry, to great effect. Entering a new territory is not easy, it requires a clear vision, strategy and investment in a leadership team that will stay the course. Finding the right partner for a time horizon that will surpass the 5-year mark is not easy, particularly on the back of a desk top exercise and a handful of face-to-face engagements to find the right partner.

An insurer’s search for an outsourcer should focus on a partner with ‘Digital Operations’ at the core of their service – a partner that can build and operate an efficient and effective human operation with a technological core to its DNA. The relationship management optics should shift from a ‘supplier’ orientation to one that forms strategic partnerships and ecosystems to enhance operational capabilities.

Collaborating with insurtech start-ups, technology vendors, and data providers allows insurers to access specialised expertise, innovative solutions, and advanced technologies. These partnerships facilitate the implementation of new operational strategies, enhance digital capabilities, and drive efficiencies. The more you can source from a single provider, the less friction and commercial tension there is – albeit there can be a sacrifice in terms of not sourcing ‘the best of everything’ in one go.

Selecting the right partner to outsource to

We’ve picked our top criteria we would encourage buyers to consider when selecting the right partner to outsource to:

1. Finding the technological edge: many insurers have moved from outdated legacy systems that hinder operational efficiency, agility, and innovation. Other Insurers are currently adopting strategies to modernise their IT infrastructure by migrating to cloud-based platforms, implementing scalable and flexible core systems, and leveraging emerging capabilities. This allows them to streamline processes, enhance data integration, and accelerate product development.

In our experience, these advancements need to run hand in hand with Claims and Customer Operations, and so the insurer must select an outsourcing partner that can seamlessly run the human operation alongside the technology enablers as one ‘digital operation’. It’s not easy to do, and so picking a partner that can reach into their estate vs sourcing ‘too many’ 3rd parties will both increase the prospects of a successful deployment as well as enable a better commercial proposition to be achieved. Here’s a few examples of the capabilities to look out for, having developed and integrated these alongside the core operations ourselves.

2. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Intelligent Automation: insurers have been embracing basic RPA automation to streamline repetitive and manual tasks – like claims processing, policy administration and underwriting – for a number of years now, but with mixed success. Automating the routine tasks reduces errors, enhances operational efficiency, and frees up resources to focus on more value-added activities. But, capability is progressing rapidly and the real gains, through the use of AI and complementary technology, is enabling automation where data is unstructured, decisions are less rule based and the actions needs a level of interpretation. AI-powered claims automation systems can assess claims, validate information, and make accurate settlement decisions.

It comes down to the ‘make vs buy’ quandry and at the pace this capability is evolving, it’s increasingly difficult to stay at the forefront of the capability without buying it in from a partner.

3. Customer Self-Service and Digital Channels:

Insurers continue to provide customer self-service options through digital channels whereby policyholders can access policy information, register claims, make payments and so on. By empowering customers in this way, insurers are reducing the reliance on traditional channels, and as by products, both improve customer satisfaction and achieve cost savings.

It’s not easy though, insurance ‘cases’ aren’t always ‘once and done’ and the capability takes time to develop and pass the stringent standards necessary to satisfy the regulators. Digital transformation for insurers is more evolutionary than revolutionary, given the complexity, so the course can be long and you need to be confident in your chosen partner’s ability to innovate their own capability….they must have a proven track record of innovation themselves.

4. Digital Claims Processing: Insurers are digitising and streamlining claims processing workflows to expedite settlements, reduce administrative costs, and improve customer satisfaction. By implementing digital claims management systems, insurers can automate claims intake, enhance data validation, enable electronic document management, and facilitate seamless collaboration between claims adjusters and stakeholders.

Be mindful of a provider’s offering though: ‘Straight through processing’ of claims is achievable but, in our experience, it is harder to replicate this holy grail across many claims processes.

If you would like to discuss further the challenges in the Insurance sector, the benefits of collaborating in strong partnerships or generally about any of the points raised, feel free to contact us hello@contactcentrepanel.com

Watch out for the next article in the series considering the role of Data Analytics, AI and Insights.