Digital transformation has unlocked new avenues for unprecedented growth in the insurance sector, creating opportunities to serve the customer base. As digital platforms become central to operations, superior customer experiences have shifted from being a differentiator to a fundamental expectation. To address this challenge, insurance companies must adopt digital experience engineering strategies to prioritize peak performance, security, and operational resilience – key pillars for achieving sustained success in the digital age.

Elevate customer experiences with digital engineering

Digital experience engineering in the insurance industry embodies the strategic integration of advanced technology and user-centric methodologies, designed to craft, develop, and optimize digital interactions across all insurance processes. This approach aims to leverage innovative digital solutions to enhance customer satisfaction, streamline operational workflows, and significantly improve overall organizational performance.

Here are the crucial aspects of digital experience engineering in the insurance industry:

Application development

Strategically develops intuitive applications that optimize policy management, claims processing, and customer service, ensuring a seamless and engaging customer experience.

Data Analytics and personalization

Leverages advanced data analytics to gain profound insights into customer behaviors and preferences, facilitating the delivery of personalized digital experiences and targeted recommendations that significantly drive engagement.

Automation process

Streamlines essential insurance processes, including underwriting and claims management, through automation, thereby enhancing operational efficiency and expediting turnaround times to elevate customer satisfaction.

Omni-channel experience

Ensures a unified customer journey across diverse platforms—websites, mobile applications, and social media – by delivering a consistent experience that maximizes convenience and accessibility for customers.

Security and compliance

Prioritizes the safeguarding of sensitive customer data and strict adherence to regulatory standards through robust security measures, thereby reinforcing trust and confidence in digital interactions.

Key focus areas for achieving excellence in digital experience engineering

As digital platforms become the primary touchpoints for customers, it’s not just enough for insurance products to function adequately. They must also deliver exceptional performance across diverse conditions, ensure robust data security, and maintain resilience in challenging environments. Today’s insurance customers demand fast, secure, and reliable digital platforms, making a seamless digital experience a key differentiator in a highly competitive market.

To achieve excellence in digital experience engineering, insurance executive leaders should focus on the following areas:

  • Website and Application Optimization
  • Speed and Performance
  • Accessibility
  • Security
  • Operational Resiliency
  • Continuous Monitoring and Improvement

Building an effective digital experience engineering strategy

To establish a successful digital experience engineering strategy, insurance leaders should focus on the following key pillars:

  • Derive and validate critical non-functional requirements focusing on digital experience in performance, operational resiliency, and security.
  • Produce detailed non-functional requirements specifications across all test types, categorized using the MoSCoW rule, which prioritizes requirements into four levels: Must have, Should have, Could have, and Won’t have. This method helps identify critical requirements while managing deferrals and exclusions.
  • Recommend detailed testing approaches, including selecting the right environment and workload for performance testing, regression, and security testing each week.
  • Certify cloud scalability to handle peak usage across different business transactions.
  • Set up non-functional regression test suites to assure quality through frequent release cycles.
  • Utilize synthetic monitoring to observe metrics, logs, and traces, and analyze performance metrics.
  • Share knowledge and outcomes from each release with the live service team to optimize infrastructure resources and address any technical debt for prioritization and remediation.

Case study: Enhanced digital experience for a leading insurance company

An exemplary demonstration of digital experience engineering —encompassing performance, security, and operational acceptance—was delivered in collaboration with a leading insurance client.

The primary objectives were to:

  • Upgrade the core application, Guidewire, from version 8 to version 10.
  • Transition the Oracle database used by Guidewire from version 12c to 19.
  • Migrate critical infrastructure from on-premises systems to a hybrid environment incorporating Google Cloud and Bare Metal Solutions (BMS).

Challenge:

  • The Guidewire application was approaching its end-of-life, necessitating an upgrade. The client also sought to transition key infrastructure from on-premises to Google Cloud and, for Oracle workloads, BMS.
  • The news of significant fines imposed on TSB Bank due to IT-related issues (TSB fined £48.65m for operational resilience failings) intensified the urgency and focus on Non-Functional Testing to ensure operational resilience.
  • Timely access to environments, preliminary testing in lower environments, and securing alignment from subject matter experts (SMEs) on test plans.

Solutions:

Our Digital Experience engineers were seamlessly integrated into the client’s multi-vendor Non-Functional Testing teams, focusing on performance, security, and operational acceptance.

Shift-left testing: Non-functional testing commenced early in lower environments to identify and address potential bottlenecks promptly.

Collaborative workshops: Conducted multiple workshops with SMEs from the business and other vendors to align on Non-Functional Requirements (NFRs) and ensure comprehensive coverage.

Test planning and execution: Managed the planning, orchestration, and documentation of tests, collaborating with business SMEs for test execution and outcome certification.

Customized testing approach: Recommended a unique approach to performance, operational, and security testing, selecting optimal environments and workloads for regression testing.

CI/CD pipeline implementation: Established a robust CI/CD pipeline for automated testing and reporting to streamline processes and enhance efficiency.

Results:

Early defect detection: Identified and resolved performance defects in lower environments, reducing retesting efforts by 40% in performance environments.

Incident-free testing: Achieved no Priority 1 or 2 production incidents across performance, security, and operational acceptance testing phases.

Security vulnerability mitigation: Over 100 security vulnerabilities were detected, 25% classified as P1 bugs, all of which were addressed, mitigating significant potential impacts on live operations.

Operational resilience: Identified and resolved over 15+ operational resiliency issues, including a critical failure in the integration of legacy on-prem systems with Google Cloud, averting potential chaos in the live environment.

This case study highlights how a well-executed digital experience engineering strategy can significantly enhance performance, security, and operational resilience. By integrating these elements into every digital initiative, insurance enterprise leaders can build trust, drive efficiency, and outperform competitors.

Final thoughts

The path forward is clear: Elevate your non-functional testing into digital experience engineering for your insurance products to deliver exceptional digital experiences and future-proof your operations.

Contact us today to elevate your digital experience engineering strategy and ensure long-term operational resilience.

Meet the Author – Karthikeyan Lakshminarayanan

Karthikeyan Lakshminarayanan is a Performance Engineering Lead at Qualitest. He is a seasoned professional with extensive expertise in Digital Experience and Non-Functional Testing (NFT), including Performance, Accessibility, Resiliency (Operational Readiness), and Security Testing. He has successfully led testing efforts for major strategic projects, such as new application implementations across diverse industries, cloud migrations, and system upgrades.

Karthikeyan is highly skilled in adapting to various operating models—Waterfall, Agile, Test Factory, and Outcome-Based Models—ensuring successful delivery in dynamic environments. His technical proficiency spans hybrid cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP, SAP Cloud, and private cloud), ERP systems (SAP, Oracle, Microsoft products), and specialized domains such as Smart Metering, Covid-Pass implementation, Guidewire upgrades, Chatbots with NLP, and digital systems. A strategic leader with a results-driven mindset, he excels at meeting rigorous non-functional requirements while driving innovation and operational excellence.

Connect with Karthikeyan Lakshminarayanan on LinkedIn.

Meet the Author – Jonathan Lewis

Jonathan Lewis is a Performance Engineering Lead at Qualitest. He specializes in Non-Functional Testing disciplines, including Performance Testing and Operational Acceptance Testing, with experience spanning industries such as government, banking, insurance, utilities, and education.