Insurtech is a broad-ranging category that defines companies that are innovating in the insurance space. This extends to new, tech-focused insurance companies, in addition to agencies and tools that help the insurance ecosystem become smarter, identify and mitigate risk more easily, as well as provide more products and options.

David Wald, co-founder and CEO of Aclaimant, is well-equipped to further define and discuss this critical blend of technology and risk management. 

Construction Executive: How does technology assist in the COVID-19 era?
David Wald: At the core of what we do, Aclaimant is designed to help people be safe, as well as react quickly and strategically if and when something goes wrong in the workplace. Those two things—preventing incidents and systemically mitigating risk at work—are now two of the most important items that every organization must make an integral part of their business going forward.

CE: Is COVID-19 accelerating the insurance industry's digital transformation? 
DW: From both the aggressive acceleration of new kinds of risk, such as COVID-19, and the forced remote work that accompanies the necessity for more automated processes, we have seen an incredible acceleration in digital adoption in and around insurance. For us, the insurance and risk processes start inside of organizations.

Construction firms are a perfect example: Risk and safety managers who used to be able to travel and visit every site are now being forced to work through their processes remotely, relying on others to connect in a robust, highly-fragmented and highly complex process. This “new normal” has forced processes related to risk and safety to move into an environment that has allowed for real-time collaboration from multiple locations in a dynamic environment.

CE: How does risk play a role in the insurtech industry?
DW: By giving anyone, anywhere in each organization access to the right information at the right time, whether through risk identification, incident response, or claims management, insurtech helps organizations to make better decisions at every step of the risk management process. 

CE: What are the most common mistakes contractors make regarding safety and risk?
DW:

1. Low digitization and productivity rates when managing all safety and incident reporting activities at the jobsite(s).
2. Disjointed processes for intake across jobsites or locations for alerts, trigger and follow-up processes.
3. Process inefficiencies when reporting incidents from field to the corporate safety/risk team with all necessary information, follow-ups and tasks.
4. Lack of insight into key cost drivers; oversight of risk-related safety issues; or incident and claims data in one location.

 CE: What are a couple of immediate fixes contractors can make that would immediately reduce the potential for risk?
DW: 

1. Introduce a digital system for real-time visibility into risks at the jobsite. 
2. Perform daily safety checks in a mobile system to ensure risk mitigation (inspections, audits, JHAs and JSAs), and introduce a near-hit/near-miss tracking process.
3. Implement a corrective-action process to ensure all identified risks are mitigated where possible to prevent future issues and concerns.

CE: How does insurtech make a difference in the lives of contractors?
DW: The core of insurance technology is around helping companies to identify and protect what's important more simply and easily. Contractors have enough complexity in their day-to-day work and—if we can use technology to help keep their employees and businesses safer, help them reduce costs and risks to create better, more profitable jobs and focus more on completing great work—then we have achieved our goals.