You leave the executive meeting with a laundry list of to-do’s that look like they belong to two people with different jobs.One set of items is highly technical and maintenance-focused: ensure that IT keeps functioning, bolster security, respond to user needs, and fix bugs.
The other set requires you to inspire others and be innovative: rethink everything, lead the company in digital transformation, drive revenue, and boost business productivity and efficiency. The timetable for each set of responsibilities is, of course, as soon as possible.
Understand the challenges.
Although you’re invigorated by the challenge of having many responsibilities, that’s how you made it to c-level status, you’re navigating difficult terrain. You’re facing the intimidating overhaul of legacy systems from the 1970s or ’80s, the consolidation of disparate data sources, and the slow and expensive software development process.
Some days, it may seem like a struggle just to keep system outages at bay and standard projects on schedule. It’s tempting to settle for making a few incremental changes or purchasing add-ons and calling it digital transformation, even when the way the company does business hasn’t actually changed.
Invest in user experience.
The problem is that digital upstarts aren’t waiting around for historic insurance companies to change their ways. Without years of IT backlog and data quality issues to tackle, they’re forging ahead to redefine the insurance user experience, from the beginning of a claim to the end.
If CIOs don’t also make an effort to improve the user experience, the playing field will look too different by the time they catch up. Just like with any project that’s been put off, the longer you wait, the more obstacles arise in the meantime.
However, it’s not all about keeping competition at bay, investing in user experience can actually help you accomplish your digital transformation goals.
By listening to users and creating an application that works the way they do, you can reduce the time both users and IT employees spend battling software. The key to accomplishing it? Using the right tools.
Find the right tools.
Today’s insurance CIOs need tools that speed up software development and connect to all the data sources they already have, while also providing a user experience that can be easily scaled to meet evolving needs. They also need those tools to be cost-effective.
That’s why many CIOs are turning to low-code and no-code user experience platforms to clear many of these hurdles at once, bringing fragmented technology together, creating a customized user experience, and reducing code debt. With these tools, end-users can customize apps, leaving IT teams to tackle other important projects.
At Skuid, we researched digital transformation and user experience in insurance and wrote a white paper to dive deeper into how companies can tackle these challenges. Download it today!
