LBEF RESEARCH JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
E-ISSN: 2705-4748
P-ISSN: 2705-4683
P-ISSN: 2705-4683
Vol1, Issue1 ( 2019)
Study of The Digital Transformation Adoption in The Insurance Sector of Nepal
Author(s):Pramod Niraula, Dr. Sandeep Kautish
Abstract:Digitization has an intense impact on the behavior and culture of the society, on the business process of the service industry and financial structure and growth of the nation. The main challenge is adoption of appropriate digital transformation, in order to generate better possibilities to create innovative business models, procedures, systems and software that gears up for higher competitive advantage, better efficiency and increase in revenue. The aim of this study was to explore the digitization status of insurance industry of Nepal along with the obstacles faced by them to go digital.
This research was carried out in the form of questionnaires. Two set of questionnaires were administrated; one prepared for the customers of insurance companies to obtain the current digital adoption status of the Nepalese insurance industry and next for employees of insurance companies of Nepal to obtain the obstacles for insurance companies on going digital.
The analysis of the responses from insurance customers shows that the implementation of ICT on the insurance sphere of Nepal is below the average, the facilities like SMS notification for premium transactions, policy and claim information, online premium payment and claim intimation were found to be implemented just above the average but the implementation of facilities like online policy buying, viewing policy/claim information, claim payments directly to the bank account of the claimant which are basic insurance activities were found below the average. While, about 82% of the respondents from group of insurance customer had shown willingness on using digital platform to buy policies. This shows that insurance companies of Nepal still had to do lot on digitization to stand at the level of customer’s expectation. Further, the responses of insurance employee shows the obstacles for insurance companies of Nepal to go digital is high. Marking for all the examined obstacles were found above the average marking. The employees had marked inappropriate regulation as the highest obstacle followed by rigid organization chart, security reservation and product complexity to offer online whereas customer intention to use online platform as lowest degree, though above the average. This suggest that the role of regulatory body has a greatest impact on Nepalese insurance companies to go digital.
From the analysis of the result we could suggest that the insurance regulatory body of Nepal should facilitates the digital transformation in insurance companies and also Nepalese insurance companies should adopt appropriate digital medium to interact with its customers, to streamline the large customer base willing to get insurance services online. This could result on extended penetration of insurance industry and could have progressive impact on national economy in long run.
This research was carried out in the form of questionnaires. Two set of questionnaires were administrated; one prepared for the customers of insurance companies to obtain the current digital adoption status of the Nepalese insurance industry and next for employees of insurance companies of Nepal to obtain the obstacles for insurance companies on going digital.
The analysis of the responses from insurance customers shows that the implementation of ICT on the insurance sphere of Nepal is below the average, the facilities like SMS notification for premium transactions, policy and claim information, online premium payment and claim intimation were found to be implemented just above the average but the implementation of facilities like online policy buying, viewing policy/claim information, claim payments directly to the bank account of the claimant which are basic insurance activities were found below the average. While, about 82% of the respondents from group of insurance customer had shown willingness on using digital platform to buy policies. This shows that insurance companies of Nepal still had to do lot on digitization to stand at the level of customer’s expectation. Further, the responses of insurance employee shows the obstacles for insurance companies of Nepal to go digital is high. Marking for all the examined obstacles were found above the average marking. The employees had marked inappropriate regulation as the highest obstacle followed by rigid organization chart, security reservation and product complexity to offer online whereas customer intention to use online platform as lowest degree, though above the average. This suggest that the role of regulatory body has a greatest impact on Nepalese insurance companies to go digital.
From the analysis of the result we could suggest that the insurance regulatory body of Nepal should facilitates the digital transformation in insurance companies and also Nepalese insurance companies should adopt appropriate digital medium to interact with its customers, to streamline the large customer base willing to get insurance services online. This could result on extended penetration of insurance industry and could have progressive impact on national economy in long run.
Keywords:insurance, digitization, ICT
Pages: 43-60