Nowadays, mobile insurance applications are an important tool for users, which simplifies their access to services and makes interaction with the insurer more convenient and faster. Such applications allow customers to issue policies, file claims, track the status of requests and contact customer support, which makes insurance services more efficient. If you are interested in creating such an application through software development outsourcing and want to learn more about the stages of product creation, this article is for you.
Why Does an Insurance Company Need its Own Mobile App?
The smartphone has probably already become the most widespread gadget in history. Currently, there are over 7.2 billion smartphone users in the world – literally everyone uses them. For most economically active people, the smartphone has become the main way to go online. Moreover, the smartphone has become the main tool for entertainment, shopping, receiving services, and accessing services.
The insurance industry is no exception. Users not only search for insurance offers through their smartphones but also compare offers and make purchases through them.
Therefore, creating insurance mobile applications is the easiest way to reach the user. Mobile applications can provide the industry with undeniable advantages:
- Building a better customer experience.
The application allows users to quickly access their policies, submit claims for insurance payments, and receive advice. This increases customer satisfaction and reduces the load on call centers.
- Automation of processes.
The application can automate many routine tasks, such as processing applications, calculating payments, and managing documents. This reduces costs, speeds up operations, and increases efficiency.
- Data collection and analysis.
The application can concentrate data on user behavior, which allows insurance companies to better understand the needs of their customers and adapt their products/services according to these needs.
- Mobility and accessibility.
The application provides access to the company’s services at any time and from any place. This is especially important in today’s reality when insurance customers are often not tied to a single place of residence.
- Marketing.
A mobile application provides a business with the shortest path to the user. With the help of a loyalty program and push notifications, the insurer can effectively maintain customer engagement, offering individual offers and discounts.
As a result, the prospects for the development of InsurTech look bright. More and more insurers are creating their own mobile solutions and services to be competitive and appeal to a new, younger audience.
The Main Stages of Creating Insurance Mobile Applications
How to plan and implement the development of an IT product for the insurance industry? The creation of mobile applications for insurance companies is actually not much different from similar development in other areas. Let’s name the main stages of such a project.
Requirements Gathering
This is one of the most important stages in creating a mobile insurance application. It includes defining user needs, describing the company’s problems or business goals, and finding a product concept that can effectively meet them.
At the beginning, it is necessary to clearly formulate what goals and objectives the application should fulfill. It is important to make the goals measurable and realistic, to form transparent success criteria for the project. For example: sales growth, increased customer engagement, faster application processing, etc.
To do this, the team can conduct various studies: studying the potential audience of the product, analyzing the current state of the market, analyzing existing solutions from competitors, global industry experience, etc.
Project Planning And Design
At this stage, the structure, usability, and implementation of the new application are determined. Based on the data obtained during requirements gathering, the team creates user scenarios for it. The user’s path in the application can be visualized in various ways and thoroughly discussed/tested to achieve the best result.
Next, designers take on high-level design, where they create UI prototypes. Depending on the needs of the project, they can be implemented in various ways: either as schematic layouts with interface elements (wireframes), or as well-detailed or even “clickable” prototypes that are as similar as possible to the real screens of the application.
Technical Development
While designers work on usability and visuals, technical specialists think over the architecture and technology stack of the product. The technical development stage involves the implementation of all business and design decisions determined in the previous stages. Frontend and backend developers work together to ensure the functionality and usability of the application.
Mobile developers create the client part of the application using native (Kotlin – for Android, Swift – for iOS) or cross-platform development technologies (Flutter, React Native, etc.). They must turn design layouts into interactive application screens that the end user will see on their smartphone.
If necessary, a backend (server part of the application) is created. Backend developers use various frameworks in programming languages such as Python, PHP, or JS for this. At this level, the functionality of the insurance application is implemented: processing insurance claims, managing user accounts, etc. Data processing, database management, integration with external services, and security also depend on a high-quality backend.
Testing
An insurance application has many critical non-functional requirements, such as personal data security and operational stability. Therefore, the quality control stage in such projects is of utmost importance. This process includes several types of testing, each with its own purpose (functional testing, performance testing, security testing, usability testing, regression testing).
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Application Release
A technically complete and tested application is often placed in stores such as Google Play and the App Store. Different platforms have their own requirements for placement. In particular, creating a development account on Google Play requires a one-time payment of $25, while a similar profile on the App Store will cost about $100 per year.
It is highly advisable to prepare for the placement of the application in stores in advance. This process requires providing the platform with all the necessary information and documentation about the new product. You will also need to fill out the application page and upload screenshots and videos.
Before publication, the application is checked for compliance with the platform requirements, which can take from several hours to several days. Only after successful moderation does it become available for download by users.
Conclusion
Creating a mobile application for an insurance company is a multi-stage process that requires a deep understanding of customer needs, the choice of reliable technologies, and compliance with data security standards. A high-quality application can significantly increase customer satisfaction and facilitate the company’s internal processes. Outsourcing software development allows you not only to optimize project costs but also to attract experienced specialists who are ready to offer innovative solutions. If you are looking for a reliable partner to outsource development, we recommend paying attention to N-iX
