APPS to play increasingly important role in short-term insurance industry

This is according to Christelle Fourie, managing director of MUA Insurance Acceptances, who says business owners are realising that the best way to interact with both customers and employees is by making communication simple by literally placing it in their hands. "Eventually, providing a mobile application will no longer be an added benefit but a necessity to remain relevant in an increasingly competitive world.”

Another important benefit of mobile applications is that they provide stakeholders with the capability to communicate with the company anytime and anywhere, says Fourie. "This increases loyalty and allows for improved customer service, not to mention the benefit of more streamlined business operations, while making stakeholders feel valued and more connected to the brand.”

One of the most important features of using an app as a communication channel in the short-term insurance space is that it allows the company to respond to its stakeholders’ needs immediately, says Fourie. "In a country with a high crime and motor vehicle accident rate, emergency response time can mean the difference between life and death in some cases. The mobile app provides the perfect solution as it enables a direct communication link to emergency service providers allowing the user to seek out immediate assistance at the touch of a button,” says Fourie.

The incorporation of the mobile app into the insurance business model can simplify and speed up internal operations dramatically as users – both clients and brokers – can use the mobile app to perform daily administrative tasks such as submitting a claim, requesting policy information or updating or changing policy details, says Fourie. "By using the mobile app in this way, stakeholders’ time is freed up to focus on other business tasks, such as client service or new business.”

Craig Neill, chief technology officer at local leading software developer DVT (MUA’s outsourced software partner), says that business-focused application development, both in web and mobile, is evolving rapidly as technology changes globally. "South Africa is definitely following suit, however our bandwidth is a constant problem. Countries like the USA and the UK have huge Internet bandwidth capabilities, whereas South Africa is only scratching at the surface of high-speed connectivity,” says Neill.

One of the other challenges facing businesses wanting to develop mobile apps is the fact that South Africa suffers from a shortage of mobile app developer skills for certain operating systems. But there are enough good, well-established companies in the market to develop mobile applications.

"The biggest hurdle relating to mobile app development and the use thereof is the fact that the majority of South Africans do not have smartphones. In addition to this, the creation of applications for feature phones is a challenge as there are over 3 000 variants to manage in the market. Of the smartphone users, there are a variety of different operating systems such as Android, Apple iOS, BlackBerry and Microsoft, which means managing four different mobile applications or working with cross-platform technologies.”

Neill says data costs also provide a barrier to entry as they are prohibitively high and connectivity is poor at times, with top-end speeds being limited to technologies like EDGE and GPRS in some remote locations.

"Despite the challenges and initial financial outlays, eventually all mainstream insurance companies will have mobile applications, if not for the sake of being creative then to provide the same services as their competitors. For those who have not yet considered mobile application development, they had better get on the bandwagon before they are left in the dust,” concludes Fourie.