IUMI Annual Conference – Preview Blog

In a few weeks we’ll be heading to Edinburgh to immerse ourselves in IUMI’s prestigious annual conference – an event that has become a firm favourite in the diary for ourselves and other marine insurance leaders, experts, and influencers around the world.

The theme of this year’s conference is ‘Strength and stability in turbulent seas’ – somewhat apt given the persisting situation we’re seeing in Russia and the Ukraine which is continuing to challenge the market.

What we’re most looking forward to

For us as a technology partner, the international forum is a powerful platform to further engage and spend valuable time with people, discussing and exchanging ideas that promote the interests of the wider market. Throughout the week, there are numerous opportunities for more informal and open conversations which can often be to our advantage. Progressing the technology narrative in a more relaxed and open environment away from overloaded slide decks and complex demos can often help to transform perceptions from technology being a threat to it becoming a core part of the market’s future growth and profitability.

What’s incredibly pleasing to see within the conference agenda is that the trend towards better pricing and digitalisation is continuing. To date, there has been a lot of push on what can be done with technology – the art of the possible. Now, we anticipate the discussions focusing on how far we’ve come and how we implement the latest technology to leverage real value now and in the long term.

We’re looking forward to hearing from DCSA’s Omer Guy talking about digitalisation and data driven decision making, as well as the panel discussion around how data solutions can help prevent marine losses.

The 2nd wave of digitalisation

A recent phrase from Omer ‘Document to data’ struck a chord. Previously, the drive for digitalisation was all around creating electronic versions of data but what that’s meant is that we’ve replaced large lever arched folders containing reams of paper with ‘electronic’ paper, i.e., PDFs. You could argue that this can be described as the first wave of digitalisation.

So, what’s the 2nd wave? My belief is that the 2nd wave will need to focus on 'documents to data' and thereby equipping the industry with the ability to turn those electronic documents into information that can be used for an enriched business model, rather than simply the start of a strategic initiative.

In a World where all of us are overloaded with emails, news, documents to read and adherence to internal processes and industry best practice, a fundamental challenge we wanted to address was how to ‘unlock’ hours per day automating work. Through our technology solutions such as submissions ingestion and news monitoring, this allows underwriters the ‘head space’ to remain informed and be free to work on what makes the difference – using their experience to write good business that has an undeniable impact on the bottom line.

For anyone attending IUMI, drop me a line if you’re keen to share a beer, a glass of wine or given the location, a wee dram! andy@concirrus.com