Willis Re, the reinsurance business of Willis Towers Watson, announced a strategic partnership with technology company Measure to advance the use of drones within the insurance industry and bring the latest drone technology to Willis Re clients.
The integration of drone technology into the insurance process has huge potential to improve risk assessment and claims response times, said Willis Re, citing a point that was highlighted in a April 2015 American Red Cross study titled “Drones for Disaster Response and Relief Operations.”
The study was sponsored by Willis Towers Watson, Guy Carpenter, Zurich, USAA and other private sector partners.
As the report outlined, Willis Re said, drones can more easily identify properties and infrastructure that have been flooded or are in the path of rising water.
Aerial data also can be used to better understand the factors leading to property damage and make recommendations for loss mitigation, said Willis Re.
Drones provide “access to real time data, allowing insurers to collect more timely and accurate data to support the claims process,” the company said.
“Drone technology has the potential to completely transform the insurance industry. There is a huge opportunity for the use of drones to improve public safety and enhance damage estimates, and incorporating drone usage into the insurance process is the next big step,” Alice Underwood, executive vice president and director of Analytics at Willis Re North America.
“With market demand for access to drone technology increasing, this new partnership with Measure opens the door for Willis Re clients to efficiently integrate the latest drone technology into their operations,” she added.
“The future of the drone industry is not in the hardware, it is in a service model,” said Kat Swain, vice president of Measure’s insurance practice. (Washington, D.C.-based Measure said it has the ability to fly more than 200 different types of drones for a broad range of commercial applications.)
“Rather than companies worrying about the mechanics involved in flying drones and making a steep, upfront capital investment in drone technology that may be obsolete in a few months, Measure’s Drone as a Service® model allows companies to save costs while having access to all the data analytics they need to advance their bottom line,” Swain explained.
“This model allows insurance companies to focus on what matters most, delivering the best quality service to their customers.”
Source: Willis Re
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