3 Strategies for cloud enabling your business

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As per IDG Cloud computing survey, 92% of organization’s IT environment is at least somewhat in the cloud today. If you are in those 8% who have not adopted cloud yet, you are clearly missing out on the benefits that other organizations are getting. By now, I am sure you know the most benefits that Cloud infrastructure offers, but let’s refresh it once more –

  1. More Resiliency – The cloud providers scale up and down as per your seasonal needs. It is the most ideal way to support your growth, as you don’t need to purchase and hold assets for a peak requirement, but you can adjust as you go along.
  2. Less Headache – You don’t need to keep an army of people to upkeep your servers, manage security and hardware failures. You can sleep well knowing that the cloud providers are well-equipped in security and disaster recovery capabilities to ensure safekeeping of your assets and data. You, of course, need help to plan, configure and monitor it, but once you get the setup right, it is a smooth journey.
  3. Access to new capabilities – The cloud providers offer advanced capabilities and services that make your life easier. With a competitive market, the more and more services are being made available and the cost is going down. In 2021 AWS: reinvent, Amazon announced more than 50 new services on the top a very mature array of services. You can access these capabilities with a click of button, right from document storage to artificial intelligence, and create growth opportunities for your business.
  4. Potentially less cost – I am being careful here as many organizations have seen increased monthly spend when they compare with their current ‘infrastructure’ costs. However, if you look at it holistically by adding people/process/tools costs of running your current (and future business), the cloud costs will be potentially much lesser.

If you are convinced and are thinking of adopting cloud for your business, what should be your strategy for adoption?

There are following three popular strategies that our customers have adopted –

  1. Lift and Shift

    If you have a portfolio of applications on your premise, the fastest way to address your ‘cloud adoption’ business case is by lifting and shifting your applications cloud. It makes sense if you are going to get rid of your data center (or hosting provider) and save money on operations by migrating to cloud.
    Although you can do it manually by evaluating every application, for a portfolio of applications, tool-based migration process is preferred. There is a very strong tooling ecosystem for AWS, including its own Cloud endure ( now AWS MGN), to support the migration. The tools can help you right from ‘Discovery and Planning’, ‘Creating a business case’, Migration and also post-migration ‘Monitoring and Support’.

  2. Fit and Shift

    It is my favorite option as it lets you leverage the new capabilities that Cloud offers while preserving the value of your legacy investments. It includes selectively replacing components of your current application by ‘cloud managed’ components. For example, you can swap an Oracle database for AWS RDS, and reduce your license costs and maintenance efforts. As you are developing a strategy by assessing every application, it takes a longer time (~8-12 weeks for 30 applications) to define your migration strategy, but your potential benefits are likely to be much higher than just ‘lifting and shifting’ to cloud.

  3. Don’t Shift, Go Native

    If you are convinced that your legacy is not going to support your future growth, it is better to re-architect your applications and re-develop using cloud native capabilities. The cloud provides many platform services to rapidly build and deploy a ‘cloud-native’ application, so it may not be overly expensive option. For a global association of risk professionals, we recently re-developed their mission-critical financial risk estimation application within just 2 months, by reusing their existing python based code and leveraging AWS serverless and RDS services. This approach not only saved the development and maintenance costs, but also provided a scalable solution to onboard new associates very easily.

In conclusion, the cloud provides significant benefits to your business and there are proven strategies to adopt the cloud. Futran, in partnership with AWS, helps organizations to define the migration strategies and adopt it in cost-effective, risk-free way. Please contact a Futran Cloud Specialist if you want to know more about how we can help.

The Big Data Game: How Data is Causing Major Metamorphosis in The Insurance Industry

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Today, data is an asset that can be used both internally and externally. Companies can collect more information than ever before in a variety of ways. Digital interactions with customers on mobile devices and stationery allow us to track interactions and requests.

The Internet of Things (IoT) has provided billions of connected devices and objects equipped with tools to measure, record and communicate information about purchases, customer responses to advertising campaigns and marketing messages that can be captured and analyzed.

Accurate information requires data analysis programs that can easily collect, store, analyze, display, and report on information from a variety of sources. These insights provide business leaders with the information they need in real-time to make better decisions.

The Data-Backed Change

With converting client expectancies and the sheer expanse of data being collected, insurance businesses are already converting their models and processes.

Among the high-quality modifications are the following:

  • Investment in tools to better understand their customers, their expectancies and their needs
  • Development of recent insurance alternatives to provide guidelines which are shielding extra items
  • Responding to an ageing populace whose insurance needs are converting in massive numbers and quickly
  • Realtime processing and mobile apps that respond to the expectancies of younger customers, who anticipate a digital-first approach (this pace and responsiveness are often contrary to the traditional approaches insurers had in the past)
  • Using new technology inclusive of blockchain, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the IoT to create better operational efficiencies and create more connections with objects and customers

Challenges faced by insurers in leveraging data to drive digital transformation

Digital transformation provides a fantastic possibility for insurance companies. However, the same companies may also face limitations that delay the utilization and leveraging of data.

Among those problems are:

Lack of Policies and Procedures: 

Many insurance companies have grown because of acquisitions, which means that the integration of systems and policies is challenging.

The data-driven insurance company needs:

  • Data governance structures and policies
  • Consistent data definitions
  • Clarity of data ownership
  • Standards for the collection, storage and use of data
  • Data security guidelines

Cultural and Organizational Roadblocks: 

An insurance company that desires to achieve success in the use of data in new approaches needs to address these concerns promptly:

  • Internal cultural variations in how data is seen, valued and used
  • Data stored in silos without standardization and a single source of information
  • Complex data structures
  • Inconsistent data formatting
  • Reluctance to share data internally
  • Data quality and more than one kind and sources for data (structured, unstructured, collected, purchased)

Technological Barriers:

Technology is a common barrier or leveraging data. Challenges include:

  • Data stored both in the cloud and on-premises
  • Legacy systems, often highly customized
  • Lack of certified internal IT resources

Leverage data with Futran  

Here are some recommendations for optimizing the opportunity for digital transformation for Insurance companies.

  • Invest in Data Analytics – Big data analysis tools enable insurers to collect and use data from multiple sources at the same time, identify patterns, better detect fraud, and resolve cases faster.
  • Using advanced OCR software – The insurance process still relies on paper, either that it generates or that comes from other sources. Sound OCR software reduces manual entry and re-entry, promotes better storage, retrieval and analysis of unstructured data while accelerating processes.
  • Improves two-way communication – Insurers need to better engage with their customers — apps, content, and messaging tools. Tools should be primarily mobile and include features to capture interactions and outcomes.
  • Use AI to improve engagement – Artificial intelligence tools like virtual assistants can provide customers with the information or live assistance they need, saving resources and fixing routing issues.
  • Partners for Transformation – Insurers need strategic partners to help them collect, analyze and use data for digital transformation.

Conclusion

Emerging Leaders in the insurance industry are using insurance data analytics to manage risk selection and pricing strategy decisions. New-gen technology is working progressively to implement regulatory approaches to understand big data in a variety of insurance transactions such as underwriting, claims management, customer satisfaction and policy management to provide better predictive analytics. This allows insurance companies to describe the analytical decision-making process in all of their internal processes and business operations.

Futran helps insurance companies with their digital transformations by providing the best Data Analytics solutions such as Cloud-Based Data Warehouse & Data-Lake, Data Management, Managed Services & Analytics Model Development.

How Big is Low-Code in the Insurance Industry Today?

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We live in a world of constant development and advancements that simplify and enhance our quality of lives in different fields and sectors. Software applications designed for different devices have helped bring the world to our hands, empowering us to reach out for anything and everything with our devices. Companies and organizations grow increasingly dependent on these software applications to handle their huge workloads and assist their teams to gain an edge in the highly competitive market. They have proved to be extremely helpful in various departments like sales, finance and accounting, supply chain management etc. 

 

The need for customized applications serving the specific needs of companies has grown significantly in recent times and that need has been met with the advent of low code platforms that allow companies to design their applications for their necessities without requiring professional coding experience. Low-code platforms allow designers of varying experience levels to design efficient, high-performance applications to design applications for web and mobile platforms with simple interfaces that assist in smoothening the learning curve. Organizations in different sectors like banking, insurance, finance, healthcare etc. have taken up low-code platforms to train their employees and design unique applications for their growth and digital reach.

 

Low-Code Platforms for the Insurance Industry

 

Insurance organizations have a wide range of services that they cater to companies and enterprises of different fields and sectors. Their all-inclusive range of services results in a consequent increase in their workload and the amount of documentation processing they have to go through. Automation significantly improves the quality of work in insurance companies and helps them simplify and speed up their work processes improving customer service and growth. 

 

Software applications developed for insurance companies assist the core work processes like licensing, financial reporting etc. helping them stay compliant with various regulations that are essential for their functioning. It helps improve transparency for employees and auditing teams allowing them to collaborate efficiently.

 

Challenges Faced by Insurance Companies and How Low-Code Platforms Can Assist

 

Insurance companies often face a lot of difficulties in assimilating huge mounds of data from their clients regarding the various services provided by the companies. Here are a few significant issues insurance companies observe with their work processes due to the lack of support software applications assisting them:

 

  • Data Scattering and Attrition

Insurance companies are required to store and organize vast amounts of data and documentation as they deal with various clients simultaneously. Integration of all these data and establishing meaningful connections to derive insights from their content is quite repetitive and mundane to-do continuously often leading to attrition in analytical teams. Automation in software applications can help companies to track back on these repetitive activities and allow human resources to be applied to other areas of growth. 

 

  • Manual Processes

Insurance companies face issues with the repetitive nature of work not only in storage and organization of data but also with other tasks like underwriting, conducting compliance checks and keeping tabs over renewal of policy premiums. Software applications can reduce the costs incurred for underwriting and claims management cases and simultaneously reduce the processing time for customer queries and claims. 

 

  • Complicated Legacy Software

Legacy IT applications often leave insurance companies stuck in a web of interdependence between various applications making data migration and transparency quite difficult. Customized applications make it easier for companies to facilitate data migration easily and improve transparency and collaboration among employees.

 

Tips to Maximize Output with Low-Code Platforms

Low code platforms can be used to great efficiency when approached with the right attitude and mindset. It is essential to understand the limitations of the platforms and keep the applications simple to use easily. These platforms yield the best results when applied for simple and repetitive tasks that consume time rather than expecting them to perform complicated tasks that require focus and attention. Traditional developmental tools are better suited to build tools for complicated tasks and they can be achieved by following an agile methodology in the process of development.

 

IT companies offering low-code platforms can play a great role in assisting insurance organizations embarking on their journey to customized applications. Futran Solutions is one of the leading IT companies, providing innovative IT solutions for various sectors like Banking, Healthcare, Finance, Insurance etc. 

 

Guidance from experienced IT companies like Futran Solutions would go a long way in successfully setting up functional low-code platforms for your enterprises to maximum output and performance.

 

Conclusion

Science and IT are propelling industries and organizations of different sectors to boost their potential to the maximum, empowering small and large businesses alike, levelling the playground for everyone. We need to adapt ourselves to these changes and this applies to insurance companies as well. Low code platforms are rapidly emerging to become the game-changers in the field of insurance, creating a huge impact in the sector and it is high time for us to catch on and start exploring the digital future with low code platforms.

 

 

 

 

7 Ways Cloud Services Are Shaping Up the Future of the Finance Industry

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IT and Communications have advanced greatly in the past few decades leading to massive revamps across companies and organizations in different fields and sectors and Finance is no exception. Growing past their initial reluctance to accept cloud networking and services in their work setups, financial institutions and banks have started incorporating various cloud-based tools and services into the arsenal of products to boost their efficiency and performance. Cloud services integrate banking services from different branches into a single integrated online platform simplifying banking for your clients and customers. Here are a few insights on how cloud services are shaping up the future of the finance industry.

Introduction

The banking sector is transforming rapidly over the past few years with huge advancements in the field of IT and communications. Digital banking has become a reality with most banking institutions and it is found to be as efficient or sometimes even more efficient than on-premise banking. The initial stigma associated with online banking has been overcome with the advent of highly secure platforms reducing the aggregated risks associated with them. Cloud services have opened up various new avenues of services for banking institutions to improve customer usage and interactions. Studies report that the finance cloud market size is estimated to grow up to 29.47 billion USD in 2021, with an estimated Compound annual growth rate of 24.4%. 

Ways Cloud Services are Improving Finance Industry

Cloud services have helped the finance industry progress significantly and improve customer relations. Digital banking has simplified work processes and helped banking institutions focus on other areas of improvements, helping them advance at a faster rate. Here are a few ways by which cloud services have improved the finance industry.

Integration of Services

Unite data and information from all branches providing clients with great access and mobility from smartphones and devices with access to the internet. The integration of the data on a dedicated platform allows easy management and organization of data with high-level security protecting sensitive information. This also proves to be of great assistance in the research and analytics sector with vast amounts of data for analysts to work with and obtain insights from. Integration of data also improves the collaboration of teams across different branches and enhances the overall efficiency of your teams in carrying out tasks without obstacles and a redundant waste of time.

Robust and Resilient Operations

The incorporation of cloud services in banking services contributes to enhancing the resiliency of operations and helps institutions bounce back from any setbacks or disruptions in their functioning. The storage of data in secure platforms allows institutions to replicate data and services and shift from one main data centre to multiple storage centres. The COVID pandemic has demonstrated the resiliency that can be offered by cloud computing services, allowing banking employees to work in isolation from their homes to access data integrated into the platforms.

Secure Data Storage

Cloud servers have evolved to become highly efficient storage platforms with enhanced security measure for their clients. Financial institutions have relied upon these platforms for ensuring control and compliance with various regulations. Installation of the platforms by experienced professionals and conducting stringent security checks frequently assure institutions and clients safety and security.

Innovative Schemes and Services

Cloud computing provides a wide plethora of opportunities for banking institutions to improve their services and cater for their clients better. Interesting offers and schemes can be facilitated to attract new customers and optimize operations. It allows for easy incorporation of new tools and services such as Machine Learning, Intelligent Process Automation, Internet of Things platforms, Augmented reality etc. enhancing their capabilities to increase revenue and operational efficiency. 

Freedom to Scale

Financial institutions empowered by cloud computing services have the freedom to scale higher and lower as suited for their requirements. They can assist companies and organizations to cope up quickly with market shifts and unforeseen issues offering stability. Flexible payment platforms for cloud computing allow institutions to optimize their computing capacity as suited and provide more control on expenditure.

Revenue and Growth Prediction

The advanced analytics facilitated by modern tools accompanying cloud computing help predict revenue growth and customer experience. Data from all institutions are gathered and assessed using powerful analytical tools to evaluate customer experience and expectations. It helps make necessary modifications in the different schemes and offers, offering them a seamless experience based on their requirements. 

Financial Institutions with Cloud Computing

Various financial institutions have grown immensely with the incorporation of cloud computing into their practices. Continuous growth and advancements in cloud computing have propelled institutions rapidly to boost their efficiency and performance substantially. 

  • A leading financial institution has been using cloud computing services to improve their analytical capabilities and process financial data better. They were looking for a scalable environment to better analyse data and found the solution to their requirements with advanced cloud computing software. The incorporation of cloud computing has enhanced their post-trade analysis capabilities and allowed them to better foresee the market changes and their performance.
  •  A reputed insurance agency started using cloud computing services to empower itself and develop a hybrid working environment. It has greatly benefited from the scalability offered by cloud computing and the low costs at which they are possible.

Conclusion

Financial institutions are in a constant state of change and transformation to keep up with the varying needs of customers. Companies like Futran Solutions offer interesting cloud computing solutions for financial institutions to better enhance their efficiency and optimize their work processes. The incorporation of cloud computing services will significantly improve the abilities of institutions and are a part of the digital banking future that customers will experience and enjoy with satisfaction.