Easing SMEs' insurance needs through tech with Business@Pulse

Singapore

THE global pandemic has taught many of us that we can do almost anything from home – including managing our personal health and wealth needs through our phones.

Prudential’s artificial intelligence-powered Pulse app, launched at the height of Covid-19 last April, had registered some 300,000 downloads in Singapore and 31 million in total across 17 markets in Asia and Africa as at end-September 2021.

As demand for digital solutions continues to grow, the life insurer is taking a step further next year to roll out new features on the app, targeted at small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore.

Known as Business@Pulse, the one-stop platform will help SMEs broaden and simplify access to insurance and employee benefits. It will form the third pillar of the Pulse app; the group had earlier launched health and wealth services for individuals.

“The next phase of Pulse is for SMEs... this is our transition from (serving) individuals to companies. If we scale up we can touch a lot more people because when one company signs up, many many (employees) can benefit,” said Prudential chief executive officer Dennis Tan.

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Opportunities abound in the large but underserved SME space, given that SMEs account for more than 99 per cent of businesses in Singapore and employ 70 per cent of the workforce, he noted.

Most of these companies do not have group life insurance or group medical insurance. Some believe that it is not a priority, while others lament about the cost of protection. 

Unlike the big corporates, Tan observed that many SMEs do not have a large, full-time human resource (HR) team to manage their employees’ insurance needs, nor the resources to build or buy their own digital platforms, often resulting in manual and laborious processes. 

As Singapore grapples with an ageing workforce and rising healthcare costs, there is a growing need to help SMEs in providing their employees with the necessary protection.

Through Prudential’s Business@Pulse platform, SMEs will have access to digital tools that will allow them to manage their employee benefits more easily and improve access to essential wellness resources. 

For example, as part of the digital claims process, employees will be able to view their group insurance policy details as well as self-submit and receive their claims on the app. 

On the other end, SME owners and HR teams can manage the claims process on a single platform.

Employee benefits can also be easily managed online, which eases the transition when companies switch between working in the office and from home amid the ever-changing social restrictions. 

For example, employees will be able to select their core insurance coverage, and subsequently redeem remaining flexible benefits allocation on non-insurance lifestyle-related offerings via an e-marketplace within the app.

They can also use the clinic locator feature to find the nearest general practitioner or schedule a tele-consultation, among other services.

“What this means is companies do not have to spend money to develop digital tools. Beyond selling them insurance, we are here to help them digitise their processes. It’s not just about the protection,” said Tan. 

The pandemic has brought about new ways of working, which further underscores the importance of digital solutions in engaging employees.

“The whole world is on their mobile phones now. If we’re able to put some of these solutions onto a mobile platform, they will definitely help the SMEs,” said Tan.

Prudential intends to reach out to customers with existing group policies as well as onboard new ones through Business@Pulse. It will not be a one-market platform for long; there are broader plans to take this to other countries, said Tan. 

Business@Pulse will, in time, become the insurer’s main axis to deliver digital services for companies.

Still, the progress of digitalisation could look very different for each SME, which may lead to some friction or inertia in the transition to new, mobile solutions.

Tan noted that the “low-hanging fruit” would be the bigger SMEs or those in sectors that are more digitally savvy. “When we launch, adoption will be fast. I have no doubt that those kinds of SMEs will take on to this really quickly.” 

Asked about how Prudential can reach smaller or less digital-forward SMEs, Tan said the group can tap its existing SME Skills Accelerator programme launched in collaboration with SkillsFuture Singapore last year.

The programme supports participating SMEs in identifying their skills development needs and to plan out a digitalisation roadmap.

Armed with over 5,000 financial consultants, the insurer can also mobilise its own agency force and corporate sales team to reach out to SMEs and support them through new digital solutions. 

That being said, Tan pointed out that most apps today are user-friendly, designed with the customer experience in mind.

“In this day and age, whenever we download a new app on our phone we generally do not need to go through a webinar or tutorial. Likewise, when we designed Pulse, it’s very intuitive and seamless. But we don’t take it for granted, if companies need us to help educate their employees, we will do that,” he said. 

In addition to the Business@Pulse features, SME employees will also be able to benefit from the full Pulse proposition which includes features such as the Healthcheck tool, a symptom checker, as well as financial planning tools.

Ultimately, the bigger goal is to help the SME workforce stay healthier, more productive and financially prepared for the future, said Prudential.

For all our coverage of the Singapore FinTech Festival 2021, go to bt.sg/sff2021.