How the World, and Group Benefit Providers, Will Overcome COVID

In early 2020, when the pandemic forced much of society to stop short and pivot to new ways of living and working, few of us could have predicted how our lives would be transformed. Work and school were suddenly impossible without Zoom, trips to the supermarket were replaced by ubiquitous Amazon or Instacart deliveries, and the public anxiously awaited the development of a successful COVID-19 vaccine that would give us hope for a return to normalcy.

Like much of the world, the industries where Vitech operates, particularly group benefits, increased their adoption of advanced technologies to make it through the crisis and the ensuing market disruption. Industry players quickly mobilized to tackle their digital shortcomings and transitioned to all-digital communications and interactions with  brokers, employees, and employers, while trying to deliver the same value as in-person transactions. From this experience, group benefits providers realized the limitations of their legacy technology and accelerated their digital modernization and overall technological preparedness. Vitech’ recent insight paper, Group Benefits Providers Prepare for 2021, details the providers’ experience and their conclusion that enhanced data collection, collaboration tools, and more efficient operations in general could yield a more streamlined and intuitive customer experience. Namely, what users demand when performing self-service transactions, and what will convert them into long-term repeat customers.

For group benefit providers, this trend of swift implementation of stronger, more modernized systems is expected to continue well into 2021 and beyond. For global society, the use of technology as our best weapon against the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, will also persist; most assuredly long after we have prevailed over COVID, with infinite advances and solutions to benefit us all.