SYDNEY--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Spurred by competition and rising customer expectations, insurance carriers in Australia are rushing to design and deploy innovative digital products, and they are turning to specialized business process outsourcing providers for help, according to a new report published today by Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm.

The 2021 ISG Provider Lens™ Insurance BPO Services Report for Australia finds carriers in the country looking to improve customer experience, reduce costs and better leverage data for competitive advantage. The COVID-19 pandemic, specifically, has prompted carriers to empower agents with tools and technologies to support the best possible customer experience.

“Australian insurance carriers are being challenged to grow their businesses, respond to higher customer expectations, fend off intense competition from Insurtechs and other startups, and adapt to challenges created by the pandemic,” said Scott Bertsch, partner and regional leader, ISG Asia Pacific. “Many are turning to business process outsourcing service providers to help them meet these urgent priorities.”

BPO service providers are helping carriers offer modern digital experiences to customers and agents at all touchpoints, including applications, onboarding and claims, the report says. In many cases, insurance carriers are strapped to legacy technology systems, including mainframes, large database servers and expensive data centers that limit their ability to offer innovative new tools to customers and agents.

In contrast, BPO providers free carriers’ internal resources so they can focus on more strategic initiatives instead of trying to extract new functionality from aging, unwieldy and costly systems, the report says. BPO providers offer deep expertise in essential modern technologies like the cloud, artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, the IoT and chatbots.

The report suggests optimizing customer experience is essential for insurance carriers to grow their business. Today’s tech-savvy customers expect all interactions with carriers to be frictionless, efficient and mobile, and BPO providers offer a variety of technologies that can help insurers streamline customer-facing processes.

In addition, BPO providers are enabling insurers to grow by helping them launch products faster, the report says. Providers with analytics and data management expertise can use technologies like AI and machine learning to help insurers derive new insights from the vast data assets. Advanced analytics capabilities can give insurers a competitive edge.

Finally, BPO providers can help insurers improve their operational efficiency through services such as policy administration outsourcing, the report says. Many BPO providers also offer enhanced cybersecurity tools that can help insurance carriers protect their customers’ sensitive personal data.

The 2021 ISG Provider Lens™ Insurance BPO Services Report for Australia evaluates the capabilities of 14 providers across two quadrants: Life and Retirement Services and Property and Casualty Services.

The report names EXL as a Leader in both quadrants. Accenture, DXC Technology, Genpact and WNS are named Leaders in one quadrant.

In addition, Genpact, Wipro and Xceedence were named Rising Stars—companies with “promising portfolios” and “high future potential” by ISG’s definition—in one quadrant.

A customized version of the report is available from WNS.

The 2021 ISG Provider Lens™ Insurance BPO Services Report for Australia is available to subscribers or for one-time purchase on this webpage.

About ISG Provider Lens™ Research

The ISG Provider Lens™ Quadrant research series is the only service provider evaluation of its kind to combine empirical, data-driven research and market analysis with the real-world experience and observations of ISG's global advisory team. Enterprises will find a wealth of detailed data and market analysis to help guide their selection of appropriate sourcing partners, while ISG advisors use the reports to validate their own market knowledge and make recommendations to ISG's enterprise clients. The research currently covers providers offering their services globally, across Europe, as well as in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, the U.K., France, Benelux, Germany, Switzerland, the Nordics, Australia and Singapore/Malaysia, with additional markets to be added in the future. For more information about ISG Provider Lens research, please visit this webpage.

A companion research series, the ISG Provider Lens Archetype reports, offer a first-of-its-kind evaluation of providers from the perspective of specific buyer types.

About ISG

ISG (Information Services Group) (Nasdaq: III) is a leading global technology research and advisory firm. A trusted business partner to more than 800 clients, including more than 75 of the world’s top 100 enterprises, ISG is committed to helping corporations, public sector organizations, and service and technology providers achieve operational excellence and faster growth. The firm specializes in digital transformation services, including automation, cloud and data analytics; sourcing advisory; managed governance and risk services; network carrier services; strategy and operations design; change management; market intelligence and technology research and analysis. Founded in 2006, and based in Stamford, Conn., ISG employs more than 1,300 digital-ready professionals operating in more than 20 countries—a global team known for its innovative thinking, market influence, deep industry and technology expertise, and world-class research and analytical capabilities based on the industry’s most comprehensive marketplace data. For more information, visit www.isg-one.com.