Root Platforms CEO Louw Hopley and Matthew Grant, host of Instech’s Insurance and Innovation podcast, shared a discussion on how Root is helping to make the insurance industry smarter
APIs are a hot topic in the insurance industry at present, but few truly understand how they work and what benefit they can bring. Root CEO Louw Hopley discusses this very issue in his chat with Matthew Grant, host of the Instech Insurance and Innovation podcast.
“There are a lot of companies running incumbent systems who, over the years, have tried to progress into the cloud by adding APIs, but these systems weren’t designed for the cloud or for APIs. They’re not fully extendable. So there’s lots of false promises where companies have APIs but they don’t provide true quality,” said Louw.
“If the user doesn’t know how it [APIs] works or what’s possible, then they’re impossible to use properly, which is different to lego where you can build anything and have fun. Insurance has to conform to some rules and criteria. We see that, in some cases, a quoting API endpoint takes 30 seconds to generate a quote. That’s absolutely ridiculous. Imagine going on Facebook or Twitter and it takes 30 seconds to load? Lots of people miss this point.”
Also in the podcast, Louw shines the spotlight on Root’s beginnings, and what challenges he sees the insurance industry face when developing software. There’s also a mention of “world class talent” that exists in South Africa, and why it’s a great place to do business.
To listen to the full podcast, click on the video below:
