Technology for microinsurance scoping study
Lugar y fecha de publicación: Geneva: ILO, 2008
This study was part of the effort by the CGAP Working Group on Microinsurance (WGMI) and the Microinsurance Innovation Facility to compile an inventory of information technologies that are or could be applicable in the extension of insurance services to low-income households. The objective of this study was to catalogue and illustrate existing technologies applicable to microinsurance.
The report identifies a number of representative technologies and positions them relative to each other, according to the information-processing model. The model compares the possible solutions with respect to the different levels of the microinsurance business process. It classifies technologies according to their applicability to either front office functions, such as client identification, or back office functions such as risk analysis and product design. Case studies illustrate how specific technologies have been applied at the different levels of the business.
The report provides an assessment framework for a system’s cost based on the number of clients it can support. The framework classifies microinsurance platforms into low-end, mid-range and high-end systems that support different volumes of microinsurance business. The report makes ten recommendations for the microinsurance community as a whole and especially to organizations planning to introduce technology. In particular, it proposes an innovative approach to convert the information technology infrastructure from a cost centre to a profit centre, i.e., to use technology to generate income.
technology_microins.pdf