Does logistics automation software offer enough business benefits over using Excel to justify the cost of installing and maintaining the system?

Spreadsheets are prone to errors As the data held in Excel grows overtime, the propensity for mistakes in formulae increases; an error in a single cell can become very difficult to trace and fix before it causes a costly mistake. Spreadsheets slow down digitalization and digital maturity Spreadsheets are an outdated way to store data as they are not very scalable and can be unreliable (the larger the file, the greater the chance of the file becoming corrupted). By using multiple spreadsheets, data within an organisation is siloed and difficult to share across multiple teams and therefore Excel-based processes cannot be integrated into company-wide workflows. Risk to organizational compliance Information security can be at risk by using spreadsheets to store data as there is a lack of robust and secure entity management options. It is also difficult to enforce policies and track compliance.

Can a logistics system do more than basic ERP functions such as managing transportation and generating documents for print? Is It possible to assign the appropriate vehicle to an order through real-time scheduling and optimization?

The load planning process typically involves several modes of transportation, last-minute cargo changes and many other factors that need to be considered to ensure a timely and cost-effective delivery. Current trends indicate that growing complexity cannot be managed without proper digital tools. Multimodal transportation is the best example of where the outcome relies heavily on the system that is used to solve the problem. It is the most complex task which combines FTL and LTL transportation models. The most efficient way to manage this kind of logistics is by using an open-source platform in which each stakeholder can input information such as how to deliver the cargo, time and price. Algorithms can then process the suitable options and build an end-to-end route and quotation provided by various carriers for the customer

Can businesses provide their end-users with system access to show cargo information?

Jmix allow businesses to develop solutions that meet all their specific requirements including pre-requisites for external parties such as the ability to show cargo tracing data. This means that companies can create flexible solutions without compromising on flexibility or security.

Can a system be created with geographical zones that trigger changes to order delivery statuses e.g. GPS triggers arrival at unload zone, driver to exit vehicle?

More sophisticated workflows like this are possible with Jmix and add-ons. These add-ons enrich applications with additional functionality such as intuitive manipulation of spatial data and visual representations in the form of dashboards. An out of the box system cannot anticipate and be ready for every single requirement and therefore configurable, flexible platforms are more able to meet complex operational needs.

Does the system provide, or can it be integrated with a trade module in which external carriers can bid for orders?

When companies opt for rapid application development platforms like Jmix to automate processes, there are many integration options. Large external carriers provide API tools for integrations which facilitate real-time information exchange, allowing businesses to compare prices and choose the best deals for cargo.

What is the pricing model for a single license? Does it provide SaaS?

An enterprise license allows companies to add advanced enterprise features and costs $150 per month for one developer. It includes geo-information system features, visual BPMN&DMN modeler, BPM for internal automation and many other features that will support quick application development. As Jmix is open-source it accelerates speed of innovation without vendor lock-in. Find out how Jmix can address your need in logistic automation

Author

Andrey Glaschenko

Reading time

9 minutes

Published

08.07.2022

Advanced Software for Insurance
Automation

Automation solutions in the insurance industry can streamline business operations and improve customer-facing digital capabilities. Insurers looking for competitive advantage should consider the role of automation and industry technology trends to improve the customer experience, business efficiency and profitability.

Enabling digital transformation in the insurance industry

The evolution of the insurance industry is driven by adopting and leveraging automation. Technology can be used to automate laborious, manual business processes which are outdated, inefficient and prone to human error. Businesses that don’t adopt automation will be left behind the competition in terms of efficiency, operational agility, the customer experience and ultimately, profitability.

The more routine business processes that a company can automate, the bigger the customer service advantage the company has over a competitor which has not leveraged technology and automation. Insurance automation or as it is known, ‘Insurtech’ is driven by the desire to streamline, reduce costs for both businesses and customers through greater efficiency and improve the customer experience. Automation is being routinely adopted across marketing, sales and renewals business units by forward-thinking, technology-led insurance companies.

Benefits of using automation
in the insurance industry

It is clear that as innovative insurance companies begin adopting technology-led processes, the insurance industry faces disruption. Customers demand a new seamless customer experience which is driven by “anytime and anywhere” digital-first business that is seen in other industries.

By embracing technology and automation, insurance companies can improve operations and build stronger relationships with customers. Expected outcomes of automation include:

Improvements to risk management

Automation can help insurers to improve risk management. By using advanced technologies, businesses can pivot towards using data and analytics to manage risk through predictions and prevention.

Automation is already common in risk profiling for Insurtech companies but there is scope for the industry to expand this data profiling to support the automation of processes such as underwriting.

Impact on employment and reducing human error

The human factor that is present in all manual processes is a source of huge risk for the insurance industry; a relatively simple mistake could cost financial and reputational loss. With this in mind, the potential for automation to digitize business processes and eliminate the risk of human error can’t be overstated.

Industry pioneers are already using automation in customizable insurance CRM softwares to manage customers in both a more time-efficient and accurate manner. This kind of technology adoption reduces risk and reduces manual processes so staff have more time to spend on valuable tasks which can enhance and grow the business.

Reducing negative outcomes of legacy systems and IT Debt

Many insurance companies use legacy systems to support core business operations. The use of older and outdated tech is often due to cost and the difficulty of implementing wide-scale change and securing ‘buy-in’ from stakeholders.

The problem with this approach is that as the industry evolves and customer expectations change, legacy systems often no longer meet functional requirements. As a result, companies add additional operational systems that perform in silos and management don’t have a 360 view of the business. According to Deloitte, insurers can have up to 26 applications in their policy administration environments with an average of four policy administration systems in their ecosystem. The majority of these systems are either custom developed or outdated applications from insurance software vendors.

Innovative, digital-first business leaders should consider a modern modular application which can be configured and customized to their business needs. This is an approach known as ‘Composable Enterprise’. The concept of composability is based on: business architecture, mindset and technology. Businesses use modular technologies to break components or different business areas into smaller microservices which allows for greater agility and faster response times.

Ability to respond to changing regulation and compliance requirements

Companies that continue using outdated, legacy systems can face issues with compliance which is particularly important in regulated industries such as insurance. One example is GDPR legislation which was implemented a few years ago. This legislation has required the industry to update certain business processes and it is an issue that some businesses continue to struggle to comply with.

In additional to legislative changes, the industry must also ensure that it can meet compliance requirements remotely. As more people work from home and more consumers expect to be able to access products online, insurers must adapt and embrace digital transformation. For example, eSignatures and digital forms are becoming normalized and now applicable for many official documents in many countries.

Insurers that maintain the competitive edge will be those that offer services remotely so it is essential that these can be integrated seamlessly and compliantly into existing systems. Businesses need to react quickly and integrate new technology as soon as a new opportunity arises, bridging the gap between complex infrastructure and new technology that enables a good customer experience in line with good governance.

Improving and personalizing the customer experience

Inefficient methods of claims handling, duplicated systems, complicated workflows and outdated core legacy systems are leading to slow response times and outdated data within the insurance industry. Using automation and data insights, the insurance industry can vastly improve the customer experience through faster response times.

There is a huge amount of data stored in legacy systems coupled with pressure from regulation/compliance that means a full replacement of legacy systems is not always feasible or even recommended. However, there is a solution. Judging by our customers’ requests and feedback, the industry is searching for an agile and iterative approach to modernization.

Companies need both the right strategy and technology to improve operations and the customer experience overall. Automation in the insurance industry is vital to this progress. Tech leaders, Gartner, recommend the aforementioned ‘Composable Enterprise’ on low-code (or so-called less code) platforms.

Composable business is made of Packaged business capabilities (PBCs). Lightweight application building blocks provide functionality for specific business needs without unnecessary dependencies. PBCs are decentralized, isolated and ready to be deployed immediately. They are portable and interoperable meaning they can be enterprise system add-ons or standalone solutions for insurance. If combined, they form a new ecosystem that is reusable, agile and resilient.

Technology platforms to enable automation in the industry

The idea of composability is a fundamental part of the low-code application development model and addresses a core challenge: developing packaged business capabilities that have minimal costs, are quick to deploy and easy to maintain.

Looking at the broader insurance industry landscape, the role of technology is becoming more important. Typically, insurers work with a number of external partners to deliver a product and therefore need to be able to provide a fully digital experience to customers built on connections between organizations.

Low-code technologies are mature enough to handle large scale projects such as system re-platforms but CTOs and IT leaders need to carefully consider the right platform to adopt to drive automation in the insurance industry. It is important to consider existing in-house developer skillsets and business scope limitations as a result of existing CRM and BPM solutions.

Low-code platforms allow developers to efficiently automate routine process and therefore free up time for writing valuable code for business-specific operations. Tech teams can benefit from a solution that dramatically speeds up testing and deployment times as well as tech that allows inexperienced developers to become productive in the short-term. Any companies that want to improve developer productivity within their own tech teams, train entry-level programmers and deliver new applications in a quick timeframe will benefit from low-code solutions.

Jmix as a technology platform for insurance automation

Jmix is a general-purpose less-code high productivity development platform for professional developers which can support businesses in the insurance industry to deliver solutions quickly.

Jmix has the advantages of low-code platforms without the typical low-code limitations such as vendor dependency and usage-based fees. By using Jmix, organisations can benefit from a low-code model that offers solutions to major challenges faced by in-house tech teams.

Jmix enables the development of light-weight web applications which can be managed as self-contained single module apps with their own data model, UI and API interfaces. Following the Composable Enterprise concept, the developed modules can be repeatedly reused as a business-ready component or a separate business functionality. The platform has no limitations on cloud providers to host your applications and also offers cloud-native compatibility for services. Developers have full access to the code generated by the platform and the company gains digital assets which it owns and controls.

Benefits of Jmix for insurance companies

Jmix is designed for enterprise application development which means it has been created to meet the requirements of regulations, compliance and code quality standards. As a solution it offers guided software development lifecycles which help developers to be more productive on the road to digital transformation.

Jmix can solve many of the challenges of insurance automation:

Improve customer experience

Improve the customer experience by enabling modular light-weight applications with fast data processing and seamless workflow automation. Your development team can put all their coding efforts into business-specific logic that adds the most value to the company (rather than coding routine processes)

Ensure regulatory compliance

Enterprise-ready security and compliance with comprehensive audits that meet the needs of highly regulated industries such as insurance. Sophisticated platform role-based security prevents potential data-leaks

Deliver solutions
faster

Full software development lifecycle and tools to support popular non-functional requirements out of the box with guidance from early-stage MVP to digital product and entire insurance ecosystem

Reduce legacy IT debt

Dedicated reverse engineering technology provides heavy lifting of the data model directly from your legacy data stores. Powerful screen generation feature simplifies a standardized UI on top of your data model in a few clicks. With Jmix, you can rebuild your legacy system quickly, efficiently and at low cost

Simplify staffing

There is no shortage of development specialists as Jmix is built on the most popular technological stack on market. The short learning curve allows developers to quickly get up to speed and means specialists from different domains and software engineering skillsets can be utilised

Low costs

Unlike most application development platforms, there are no fees for using the applications you’ve built, you only pay for developer licenses

Customer Stories

“Big Bang”

Rollout a complete replacement system in one go.

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Gradual Replacement

Replace complex or mission-critical systems gradually to minimize disruption risks.

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Extending capabilities.

A comprehensive task management environment for a global leader in secure electronic transactions systems.

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Estimate business outcomes with the ROI Calculator

Summary

It is clear that automation is vital to the insurance industry and innovative businesses that want to adopt customer-friendly, digital-first initiatives. Insurers that want to gain competitive advantage are considering the role of automation in both routine operational / customer service processes and how data analytics can minimize risks. These aims are easier to achieve at the right price-point if low-code platforms are used to automate the routine and business-specific processes.

Jmix is a tech platform that meets the needs of the insurance industry.

Use our business value assessment tool to get a ROI estimation comparing the platform against traditional development and popular low-code offerings.

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Andrey Glaschenko

The Jmix Business Unit Director, Haulmont co-founder. Andrey began his career in IT in 2003. Worked as a Java developer, project manager, business analyst, business unit manager. Together with partners, Andrey founded Haulmont in 2008, and since then he has been fully engaged in the company management. He tries to follow the modern trends and do some coding in his spare time.

Advanced Software for Insurance
Automation

Enabling digital transformation in the insurance industry