Snap Poll on STP in Life Insurance

Snap polls reflect questions posed by members of the Celent Executive Panel, a group of C level executives in the insurance industry. This question came about from a member who wants to understand how other life insurers are handling straight through processing and what technologies are being used. This deck provides a summary of the responses to a Snap Poll conducted May 23 - 30, 2022.

The question that was posed was:

Background:

This insurer is in the process of looking at where they should be focusing on for future investments. One of the focus areas they’re examining is Straight Through Processing (STP) i.e. eliminating manual steps. They are interested in understanding where others in the industry are at and the STP features that are being used or planned. STP can be defined in two ways; A) no touch for the buyer/advisor - but work may need to be done on the back end by insurer employees; B) no touch by the buyer/advisor OR by insurer employees. This insurer is particularly interested in Version B.

Questions:

Are you also looking into STP or currently deploying any aspects of STP? Which version - A or B from above?
Which lines of business (e.g. term life, annuities, employee benefits, etc.)
If you are deploying STP, how much business is going through no touch?
Which of these technologies are being used as part of your efforts? And which vendor solutions are you using?
	Optical/Intelligent Character Recognition (OCR/ICR)
	Workflow automation
	Robotic process automation (RPA)
	Automated contract package assembly
	Artificial Intelligence and/or Machine Learning
	Data prefill
	Other, please describe
Did you use (or are you using) an SI, internal resources, or both to implement any of these?
How long has it taken to implement the components you’re using?
How much effort has it taken on your end (number of people)?
Did you roll it out enterprise wide or by business unit?
Did you receive the anticipated business value from your choice?
Any lessons learned?

Author

Karlyn Carnahan

Head of Insurance, North America