Greenfield projects can vary greatly, but they all usually have the same underlying theme: to meet modern customer demands most other insurers can’t handle yet, due to outdated technology.
These projects are valuable opportunities the competition isn’t leveraging yet, and it’s easy — in fact, it’s recommended in many cases — to start a greenfield project as a small initiative that’s outside the scope of current operations. Doing so gives insurers an environment to brainstorm (and prove) potential innovations without putting their primary business model at risk.
Outside-the-box thinking and concepts like Agile principles are critical to a greenfield’s success, but insurers also need the right technology to enable it.
Modern legacy core systems computerized traditional, paperwork-based insurance processes, but they weren’t designed to accommodate new processes that could truly harness digital technology. They’re unable to boost the speed, efficiency, or customizability of various phases in the insurance lifecycle.
By contrast, a greenfield project based on a born-in-the-cloud tech architecture like EIS means insurers can build automation, data fluidity, and real-time responsiveness into new products from the start. With modern legacy, they’d be forced to hard-code “modern” functionalities on top of existing offerings — a clunky, resource-intensive process and one that’s not guaranteed to operate consistently and correctly.