The creation of a channel, called Dox, that digitalises thereby structures the incoming document flow for AXA Belgium

Abstract

In a world where digital has become ubiquitous, the insurance industry poses a “paradox”. Despite being characterised as one of the highest potentials, encompassing use cases across the entire digital spectrum, it has only recently been confronted with the disruptive power of the ongoing revolution that has fundamentally changed the way people interact. The journey towards embracing digital at the heart is complex and long yet has become a race against time for the industry due to the new competitive pressure, showcasing this potential. Only those who take a holistic approach and tackle the underlying prerequisite for a majority of the opportunities emerging from the new era - the closer relationship with the customer – will conquer to construct their competitive advantage thereupon.

This dissertation aims to participate in the development of a digital customer facing platform embedded in a comprehensive digital strategy journey. It represents one of the first initiatives of the global insurance leader to create a digital communication channel in Belgium. This channel aspires to act as a transversal digital asset and an enabler for innovative technology. More precisely, it intends to structure the incoming document flow, whilst enhancing both the operational excellence and the customer experience. The initial analysis revealed two significant aspects; the immense business value and the capability to act as a showcase for cross-functional projects. The applied agile methodology was prescribed by the particularity of facing untapped environment that urged on a progressive go-to-market strategy. The evolution from the initial idea through the first use case up to enlarging the scope is subject of the work.

Besides, this paper advocates a design-led approach. The first use case was chosen based on the notion of minimum lovable product encompassing user experience thinking from the initiation of the self-service technology development. Rather than focusing on the full scope of functionalities, the approach allows to emphasize on more advanced customer needs, such as reliability, usability and emotional design.

Finally, it highlights the fact that excessive financial resources alone are not the ultimate key success factor in the digitalization process. Instead, other factors impose much greater obstacles for incumbents to transform, such as the corporate culture, the need to innovate upon the existing and the legacy systems.