Business transformation programmes must be aligned squarely with developing the capacity to innovate, said Dr Robert Davies, the keynote speaker at Software Solutions Partners' Insurance Transformation seminar in London last week.
Dr Davies, senior visiting research fellow at City University Business School, explained: “Successive waves of cost cutting have placed most companies on a level playing field – there's simply no scope to increase marketplace advantage by cost reduction alone. To succeed in today's environment companies must develop competitive strategies based on an ability to develop new products rapidly via entirely new business processes and mechanisms.”
However this view was challenged by Andy Miller, joint managing director of Impact Plus, who felt that a focus on operational strategy and architecture – and in particular leveraging information on profitable customers – could still be justified by the delivery of major cost savings for many insurance enterprises.