INTERVIEW
Qoala cuts policy issuance waiting period to 1 hour
Usually, it takes up to 14 days to process the initial insurance onboarding.
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n the insurance industry scene in Indonesia, a complicated and manual process must be done to complete a customer or partner onboarding. This leads to at least seven to 14 days of waiting period. An insurtech firm, called Qoala, recently introduced a technology that can cut this period to just one hour. Qoala started to employ artificial intelligence (AI) in its platform in 2020, two years after it started operations. “AI has helped Qoala to implement an optical character recognition (OCR) solution to automate identity checks before moving on to the next registration process,” said Qoala Founder and CEO, Harshet Lunani in an exclusive interview with Insurance Asia. It also speeds up the validation of data, which, according to Harshet, reduces the back-and-forth procedure between the insurer and the client. “The Qoala OCR helps extract data from uploaded documents such as ID cards and licenses. This greatly increases our efficiency in extracting the data required for the policy,” said Harshet. In terms of processing claims, the Qoala platform helps in assessing the object to be insured. For example, when a customer wants to make a claim for a broken smartphone, Qoala’s technology will first assess whether there really is damage, like a cracked screen. This information is then submitted to the guarantor or insurer. Once it is confirmed that the identification number of the insured smartphone or the IMEI matches, the claim will be approved. Qoala also allows insurers to send the e-policies to their customers either via email or WhatsApp and other channels. “The role of technology is focused on providing more convenience, transparency, and the opportunity to understand insurance better without making customers feel like they are being defrauded,” said Harshet. Focus on the individual Over the past two years, Harshet revealed that Qoala had grown about 30 times in business and revenue. Qoala is also the first insurtech company to be present in four countries, namely Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam. The total sales force and business partners registered with Qoala also increased sharply, with more than 50 thousand marketers. Its platform, used by around 50 companies, is where they can sell insurance whilst managing pre-sales and post-sales services. Qoala also provides several innovative micro-insurance products through partnerships with Traveloka, Redbus, DANA, JD.ID, Shopee, Kredivo, Investree, and others. Harshet believed that Qoala’s growth roots in its strategy to target retail insurance spaces. Individuals, when compared to corporations, demand more ease and convenience of access.
16 INSURANCE ASIA
Qoala’s growth roots in its strategy to target retail insurance spaces (Photo: Harshet Lunani, Founder and CEO, Qoala)
Protect the confidentiality of user data Not only in terms of developing insurance products but Qoala also strives to maintain the security of customer data. The Qoala database is encrypted and regularly backed up. “Then access to personal data is strictly controlled while sensitive data is kept strictly confidential. In fact, if customers want to change sensitive data, they must go through a onetime password or OTP authentication code,” said Harshet. The internal Qoala team does not have the authorisation to access and know the passwords – all are stored using hashing techniques. This was followed by service improvements and the implementation of more sophisticated security features to protect systems, accounts, and customer data. In the end, to ensure their efforts, Qoala certifies its information security risk management with ISO 27001, which is a set of policies and systems that manage information security risks, such as cyber attacks, hacks, data leaks, or theft. The role of technology is focused on providing more convenience, transparency, and the opportunity to understand insurance better
