By Claudia Sass, Business Development Manager, Sapiens South Africa
As the insurance industry navigates rapid technological shifts, the connection between cloud computing, data analytics, and operational innovation is becoming impossible to ignore. I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Tony van Niekerk on the COVER MindShift podcast, where we explored how insurers can harness these powerful tools to reinvent themselves for a digital era.
Coming into my new role as Business Development Manager for Sapiens in Cape Town, I bring with me years of experience in enterprise technology, from my early days in programming at IBM to later strategic roles at Microsoft and SAP. Throughout this journey, one thing has remained constant: technology is only as powerful as the insight and agility it enables. Nowhere is that more critical than in insurance.
From legacy systems to intelligent ecosystems – I often joke that I was part of the generation that caused legacy systems. At IBM, I worked on software where business logic was hardcoded deep into the system, a far cry from today’s agile, modular environments. In those days, data was structured and predictable. Fast-forward to today, and insurers are contending with massive volumes of unstructured data streaming in from telematics, IoT, social media, and more.
This explosion of data has changed the game. But making sense of it requires more than just storage, it requires smart architecture and processing power. That’s where cloud comes in. While cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure were still gaining ground during my time at Microsoft, we were already shifting from on-premise solutions to full-stack, service-based models. The agility and scalability of the cloud have since become foundational to real-time analytics and AI-driven decision-making.
The real driver of innovation – AI might be the buzzword of the moment, but the unsung hero is data. Without high-quality, accessible, and timely data, AI cannot function. Unfortunately, many insurers are only scratching the surface when it comes to extracting meaningful insights from their data. A short course I completed at UCT last year deepened my appreciation of this, especially how critical analytics is to risk profiling, fraud detection, customer personalisation, and claims optimisation.
Today’s data is messy, vast, and scattered across silos. Legacy insurers often struggle to consolidate it meaningfully. That’s why cloud-based platforms, which offer unified environments for storage, processing, and analysis, are now essential, not just a cost consideration but a strategic necessity.
From hesitation to acceleration – It’s no secret that South Africa’s financial services sector has been a few years behind in cloud adoption compared to markets like the UK or Europe. But that’s changing fast. At Sapiens, we’re seeing increased urgency from both long-term and short-term insurers to modernise core systems and shift toward software-as-a-service (SaaS) models. These moves are less about cost-saving and more about unlocking business value, enabling faster product development, cross-system integration, and real-time customer servicing.
Importantly, cloud is not just for the giants. Smaller, born-in-the-cloud insurers like Naked Insurance and the new PPS-backed venture, Glu, are proof that it’s possible to enter the market with agility and scale fast. The same goes for Time Bank in the financial sector, which rapidly grew from a startup to a multi-country player, all on the back of cloud infrastructure.
Mindset and skills for the next chapter – Of course, transitioning to this new world isn’t just a tech shift, it’s a people shift. Insurers need to rethink their operating models. Do they need to hire an army of data scientists? Ideally, yes, but realistically, the talent pipeline is too thin to support that at scale.
That’s why many are turning to strategic partnerships. At Sapiens, our strategic partnership with Microsoft allows us to accelerate our development and usage of AI and cloud tools as part of our core propositions. Insurers can then focus on what they do best: managing risk, pricing effectively, understanding policyholder needs, and designing relevant products.
It’s about moving from running IT systems to leveraging them as utilities, leaving the heavy lifting to tech partners while insurers focus on innovation, compliance, and customer-centricity.
Looking ahead – Cape Town’s insurance community is vibrant and full of opportunity, and I’m thrilled to be stepping into this space at such a transformative time. The convergence of cloud computing, data science, and insurance innovation holds immense promise, not just for operational efficiency, but for reimagining the entire value chain of risk management.
As the industry continues to evolve, those who embrace these tools with the right mindset and strategic intent will be the ones who thrive.
About the author: Claudia Sass is the Business Development Manager for Sapiens in Cape Town. With a background in enterprise technology at IBM, Microsoft, and SAP, she brings a deep understanding of cloud platforms, data analytics, and digital transformation strategies to the insurance space.