AgriSeker’s new Mobile Application Strategy for Crop Insurance with UCS TS

Interview with AgriSeker, their new Mobile Application Strategy for Crop Insurance with UCS TS

How did AgriSeker start?

We were a business unit within the ABSA Group, consisting of crop insurance specialists, who entered into agreement with Land Bank Insurance Company (LBIC) to underwrite crop insurance. In the insurance industry, specifically short-term insurance, there’s a line of business which is defined as commercial business, and it is within this confine that you will find crop insurance, and this applies to the insurance companies, globally, but also specifically in South Africa. 

Why is crop insurance such a niche within the insurance environment?

This requires a specialised knowledge of firstly, how to apply insurance concepts into a financial service specifically dealing with crop farming. Crop farming is defined in the broader sense as growing crops, food crops, vegetables – everything that has leaves can actually be covered by our product that we have to underwrite. The detail regarding the technical requirements of a program as such – and intellectual property is of the absolute essence – means you need to have a very good understanding of what the nuances are that you have to deal with in your agricultural environment, and specifically your crops.  For example, to which risks are the crops exposed in terms of the open roof, and how to convert that into an insurance policy or an insurance contract. This is the first fundamental we have to deal with. And just to emphasise, it’s highly specialised within the insurance industry: you will only find a couple of underwriters that will be willing to participate in this line of business, it’s that highly specialised.

How is AgriSekers’ approach to insurance different?

We had been involved in ABSA for about 8 years and during our tenure with ABSA, we had the opportunity within a corporate environment to grow and develop our own needs. Another fundamental aspect, and this relates again to the specialised nature of our business, was that we need a unique underwriting system because the product that we are delivering is not a standard personalised or standard motor insurance policy. It requires far more detail focussed on agricultural questions, rather than what the nature of your vehicle is or where is your property located.

What is you differentiator?

What differentiates us from another crop insurer in South Africa is the way we conduct our business, and we give the support administratively through a unique underwriting system. That is the differentiating edge that we have in the market.

Tell us about your unique underwriting system?

The administration of this program is unique. It evolved from a stand-alone administrative system. With the corporate support, we got it to such an extent that it was developed outside of the firewall of ABSA, which was absolutely unique – no one had actually achieved something like that.  

AgriSeker is now an independent insurer – how did this come about?

When we decided to buy ourselves out of ABSA, it was a friendly decision taken between all parties involved. Our business partners were also there to support us, so it was a very sound business transaction which was to the benefit of all the parties involved. ABSA gave the sign-off, and all the legislative requirements were adhered to: bodies like the Competition Board were quite happy for us to proceed with the transaction. 

What was your process of enabling mobility for your workforce?

About 4 years ago we started on a mobile strategy using a handheld device. It started very humbly with a Trimble unit – just a GPS that we tried to convert into something that can understand our tables. Later on, we realised it would be more beneficial if we convert to a tablet, which was the Android environment, and  rather  have something that’s more versatile in terms of app development and with the functionality of a GPS as well (rather than have a GPS trying to think as you would like to have it

Tell us about the UCS Technology Services partnership?

We got involved with UCS TS last year. We needed specific applications developed to support our guys in the field, who do the field assessments, and who support us also in evaluating the crop risks. We saw the UCS TS application used for their technical field services, what they had enabled with their field tracking devices was similar to what we wanted to do, and we felt  we’re going to have huge advances if we just move a bit closer to the UCS thinking.

Since then this relationship has grown

During that time last year when we decided to proceed with the business transaction, the first question that we asked was how we could host our underwriting system called “APS”. We approached our Service Delivery Manager, Warren Boyes.  In typical Warren-fashion, we were told it is no problem, we can do that for you. So we went to the next step to evaluate & clearly define the parameters, and we realised that UCS could not only support us with the development of the app, but they could also support us with the development of our core which is our competitive advantage, which is our system.

One thing led to the next, and as the transaction progressed through its development stages, we realised that we also needed an IT infrastructure support; once again Warren said no problem, we can support you.  The next question to Warren was do you have IT support services? It was at that point we handed over the full IT complement to UCS, they now support all the bases from A-Z.

We realised that this was an absolutely unique strategic partnership developing, and for the first time, we will be able to have a single co-ordinated infrastructure where all the relevant systems can tie in to a central look and feel. Our next question was that we had to run some sort of HR Payroll process - Warren once again said no problem.  With UCS, we have a one-stop service of a high quality, an absolute high quality. Which led us to the decision that we would like to have UCS as our strategic partner, supporting us also with the associated processes like the payroll and the ESS.

Take us through the change-over from ABSA to AgriSeker?

The development was planned very well. We had to migrate from ABSA into our new environment, and that is where the UCS team got involved in planning all the logistics and pragmatic aspects of this migration. It was executed in a perfect environment. The change-over from ABSA to AgriSeker was seamless - there was no hiccup, even our clients at the coal-face utilising our system didn’t even realise that the service provider had actually changed from IS to the UCS environment. It is only now a couple of months later that we have been in a process of reprogramming the look and feel: the user interface will be enhanced dramatically to be a friendlier environment, and will be more inviting for our intermediaries to work on. 

It sounds like a massive amount of work!

A huge compliment is that the code was developed from out the back-end environment.  A week-long workshop with the programmers from UCS, and these guys have converted the codes that were embedded in the new environment. UAT ran smoothly, a week later we had the implementation: and there was not a single hour that was lost in production time. And when you consider that if you move environments, the business goes through quite a shock, we consider that moving the core of our business action was the most stable of all the events that we have conducted.

This is testament to our decision to have UCS as our business partner.  Also, with all their IT-, infrastructure- and payroll support, you’re dealing with one company and one co-ordination. This has facilitated our transaction to the extent that we consider this a super transition. So we are very proud to have UCS as our business partner.

In our discussion with the market in terms of how we got it right to become established so smoothly, and so stable, we have said that is due to our decision of partnering up with UCS. That was the absolute brilliance of this whole transaction: in the background keeping the environment stable was the support we had from UCS. 

What are the plans for the future?

Going forward, we have a lot of work to do – there are a lot of things we need to develop further. We are inclined to be more in line with the development of technology, as this is also a differentiating factor for our competitive advantage. Our affinity in accepting new technology - you can’t do that on your own, you need support like you’ll get from UCS who keep us updated with what the newest developments on the IT level are. This gets embedded in terms of the development of our applications, and also in terms of the development of our underwriting system. Not only the underwriting system, but also the claims administration system (in the next phase of programming) will be further enhanced now that we are involved with UCS. Lastly we have to develop a website that is also being hosted by UCS. 

In conclusion, what has partnering with UCS TS meant for AgriSeker?

All these little supportive things that weren’t in our grasp in a large corporate environment are actually now in our control - this helps a lot. The way UCS is structured, the way the communications are set up, the way the business profiles and the business conduct has been developed - it’s an absolute pleasure to have UCS on board in terms of the support they give us to establish our business, and to establish as the strong market players we are.

For more info on UCS Technology Services vist : www.ucsts.com