Virtualising Innovation Labs: Moving a leading innovation platform online to accelerate UK insurers' digital transformation through the use of Tech ventures.

英国保险公司承保了2520亿英镑（3150亿欧元）的总承保保费（GWP），占全球GWP总额近4万亿英镑的6.5%。然而，随着Covid-19大流行的出现，只有少数市场参与者能够向客户提供相应的折扣、回扣或保费延期支付。事实上，由于遗留操作的复杂性，许多公司无法支持客户、员工或值得信赖的合作伙伴，并且由于从未考虑过此类灾难恢复计划，因此无法简化此类基本更改的部署。然而，这并不表明缺乏意愿，而是由于数字采用不足而缺乏操作弹性。Covid-19使这些保险公司及其问题成为人们关注的焦点。在后疫情时代，不能在数字平台上快速反应或持续创新的保险公司将面临困境。这些保险公司现在面临着一个更短的时间表，要对过时的业务、流程和结构进行改造，并为未来的挑战做好准备。他们必须在虚拟工作将成为常态的环境中做到这一点。该项目建立了一个可复制的框架，以始终如一地交付下一代虚拟创新实验室（也称为风险验证工作室）来支持他们。基于已经为保险业和一系列其他行业开发的既定方法和实践，它现在将使这些原本“高接触”和依赖于位置的方法在虚拟或在线上可用。该解决方案将提供一个平台、方法和技术工具，用于透明地评估新兴技术，并在数周内（而不是数月）部署创新的解决方案，缩短冗长的审批渠道，有利于原型设计，甚至可以长期改造旧的商业模式。该计划旨在吸引英国领先的保险公司和广泛的创新创业公司参与在线，高影响力的参与周期，以建立，测试和完善这种虚拟的创新方法。这项工作将把这种关系落实到商定的计划和下一步措施中，以便在整个保险行业开始推广该模式，无论是涉及特定工具的整合，还是更广泛的合作伙伴关系，以实现更深刻的变革。我们从与一家英国领先保险公司的合作中了解到，这个问题是真实而深刻的。我们的机会是部署我们的虚拟框架，并跨业务单位、部门和地理单位进行扩展。

UK insurers underwrite £252 billion (Euro 315 Billion) of gross written premiums (GWP) or 6.5% of a global GWP total of nearly £4 trillion. Yet, as the Covid-19 pandemic emerged, only a few market players were able to provide responsive discounts, rebates or premium payment deferrals to customers. Indeed, many were unable to support customers, employees or trusted partners due to the complexity of legacy operations and ease the deployment of such fundamental changes as such disaster recovery plans were never considered.This did not demonstrate a lack of will though, but rather, a lack of operational resilience underpinned by insufficient digital adoption.Covid-19 puts a spotlight on these insurers and their issues. In the post-Covid world, insurers that cannot respond quickly or innovate continuously on digital platforms will struggle. Such insurers now face a narrower timetable for revamping outdated operations, processes and structures and future-proofing their businesses for future challenges. And they must do this in an environment where virtual working will have become the norm.This project establishes a replicable framework to consistently deliver next-generation Virtual Innovation Labs (also called Venture Validation Studios) to support them. Based on established methods and practices already developed for Insurance and a range of other industries, it will now make these otherwise 'high-touch' and location-dependent approaches available virtually or online. The solution will provide a platform, method, and technological tools for evaluating emerging technologies transparently and deploying innovative solutions in weeks rather than months, short-cutting lengthy approval channels in favour of prototyping and even for transforming old business models longer term.This initiative intends to engage UK's leading insurers and a wide range of innovative startups in online, high-impact engagement cycles to build, test and refine this virtual approach to innovation. The work will see this relationship through to agreed plans and next steps to scale the model across the insurance sector to start with, whether they involve the integration of specific tools or broader partnership for more profound transformation.We learnt from working with one leading UK insurer that the issue is real and deep. Our opportunity is to deploy our virtual framework and scale it across business units, department and geographical units.