FWD Insurance: Cloud Transformation with a Customer Focus
FWD Insurance is driving significant change in the insurance industry across Asia, blending entrepreneurial spirit with customer-centricity.
The company, operating in 10 markets across the region, has undergone a remarkable technological transformation in recent years under the stewardship of Sandeep Pandey, Group Chief Technology and Operations Officer.
Since joining FWD four years ago, Sandeep has been instrumental in shifting the organisation’s technological foundation and operational philosophy.
His journey to FWD followed experience gained at global FMCG and insurance companies, where he developed a unique perspective combining management acumen with technical expertise.
“I’m a computer science engineer by education, but I started my career in FMCG,” explains Sandeep. “I realised very early in my career that technology and enabling functions exist to provide solutions for customers.”
This philosophy has become central to Sandeep’s approach at FWD. His experience at the FMCG company taught him the importance of focusing on consumer experience, establishing a mindset that has guided his work throughout his career.
“The talk was about consumer experience, not just customer experience,” he notes. “Understanding how consumers interact with products comes naturally to me, which helps when addressing customer experience in insurance.”
Sandeep’s time at an insurance company during the global financial crisis proved particularly formative, teaching him valuable lessons about leadership during challenging times. The experience reinforced his belief in what he calls the three essentials of leadership.
“You’ve got to be clear as a leader, you’ve got to be courageous as a leader, but you cannot forget the humanity side of it,” Sandeep explains. “That’s what drives me every day.”
When Sandeep joined FWD in September 2020, he identified significant opportunities to enhance the company’s technological capabilities. He quickly developed a strategic framework that would guide the transformation efforts.
“I created a three-six-twelve strategy – three strategic pillars, six objectives and twelve goals,” he says. “The three strategic pillars were protecting FWD for our customers and colleagues, delivering change faster and putting technology at the heart of decision-making.”
Cloud transformation provides foundation for innovation
Central to this strategy was an ambitious cloud transformation. As of 31 December 2024, 98% of our applications were migrated to the cloud.
“It has been a tremendous journey. Cloud technology has positively impacted our software development and deployment, expediting time-to-market and enhancing customer experiences.”
This wasn’t a simple 'lift and shift' operation, but a comprehensive rationalisation of the company’s application architecture. The approach has earned FWD numerous awards and established a foundation for further innovation.
“We’re winning awards not just because we moved to the cloud, but because of how we did it,” Sandeep explains.
The cloud transformation has enabled FWD to move quickly in other areas, particularly in implementing AI. Sandeep notes that this has given the company a significant competitive advantage.
“We can implement generative AI much faster because we're not struggling with infrastructure issues,” he says. “We’re not having conversations about on-premise limitations or how to create proofs of concept – we’re focused on delivering value.”
Instead, FWD focuses on driving value and operational efficiency. While Sandeep acknowledges that cloud is more expensive than on-premise infrastructure in some ways, he emphasises the long-term benefits.
“By eliminating data centres and obsolete licenses, we’ve removed concerns about hardware and software upgrades,” he explains. “We no longer worry about outdated systems requiring updates – everything is automatically maintained, which saves a tremendous amount of money over time.”
Platform strategy drives customer-led ambition
Building on this foundation, FWD has developed a four-platform strategy that focuses on creating integrated ecosystems rather than isolated applications.
Through FWD Omne, insurance can be managed quickly and easily as illustrated below:
Overview page with easy access to customer engagement functionality
Insurance dashboard provides a quick view of policies and latest updates
FWD Omne empowers customers to digitally manage their policies seamlessly
Submitting a claim through FWD Omne is as easy as 3 steps
Shortcuts to most used functions such as quote creation and KYC
Leads conversion funnel enables agents to proactively manage leads and customers
Easy access to sale activities such as the base plan, riders, and fund allocation
These platforms – FWD Omne for customer engagement, FWD Cube for distribution, FWD Opus for management woperations and OneMod as an overarching platform – are designed to provide consistency across markets while allowing for necessary customisation.
“We’ve moved from an application-led approach to an ecosystem-led, platform-driven model,” Sandeep says. For example, we have streamlined the end-to-end sales journey through FWD Cube, which is primarily utilised by agents. FWD Cube seeks to maximise the agent lifecycle from recruitment and onboarding to sales by offering a unified experience through tablet, web and mobile apps.
The customer platform, FWD Omne, provides a consistent experience across digital channels. “Whether customers interact with us through the web or our app, they receive the same experience,” explains Sandeep. “We’ve launched FWD Omne in five of our ten markets and are expanding to the rest.”
This platform approach is particularly important for FWD Opus, the operations management platform, which Sandeep describes as having a modular, “Lego block” architecture. The name itself has meaning – “Opus stands for Operations Platform for Us,” Sandeep clarifies.
The modular design allows for 70% reusability while maintaining flexibility. “For Japan, which is primarily focused on the IFA channel for distribution but not agency or bancassurance channels, we can configure a lighter version rather than implementing everything,” he explains.
The fourth platform, OneMod, acts as a “platform of platforms,” encapsulating all the other three platforms and dividing the entire tech stack into distinct layers.
“We’re truly modularising our tech stack group-wide, across all applications without exception,” says Sandeep. “We’re dividing everything into experience layers, process layers, system integration layers, data layers and infrastructure layers – creating an enterprise architecture that no one else is doing.”
Customer-centricity drives innovation
Throughout all these technological efforts, FWD maintains a relentless focus on the customer experience. This focus is encapsulated in the company's vision of “changing the way people feel about insurance.”
The company is constantly listening to customer feedback and enhancing its offerings accordingly.
“It’s all about creating a differentiated experience,” Sandeep says. “How do we simplify processes for our customers while providing the support they need when they need it?”
This customer-centricity extends to FWD’s agents as well. At a recent leadership conference in Seoul, agency leaders emphasised the importance of empathy in their work, rather than focusing solely on sales metrics.
“I expected them to talk about sales targets and upselling,” Sandeep admits. “But they focused entirely on empathy and being there for customers. When your team naturally echoes your values without prompting, you know your culture is working.”
AI enhances security and fraud detection
While focusing on customer experience, FWD also recognises the importance of security and fraud detection. The company has implemented AI-based systems that analyse customer data to identify potentially fraudulent transactions.
“We’re a very data-driven organisation,” Sandeep explains. “When data enters our backend systems, our fraud detection module immediately analyses customer history and other key indicators.”
This system examines various data points, including previous claims history and beneficiary details, to assess the likelihood of fraud. The company is also developing predictive analytics capabilities to identify patterns associated with fraudulent behaviour.
“Our AI systems are constantly learning,” Sandeep says. “We use predictive analytics to identify when an agent or customer shows a higher propensity for problematic behaviour. This allows us to intervene early with targeted monitoring rather than reacting after an issue occurs.”
FWD also implements comprehensive security measures to protect customer data and prevent system infiltration. “When agents use personal devices, we verify they aren't introducing malware into our ecosystem,” he continues. “We have multiple security layers from Zscaler to backend protection that continuously monitor and filter traffic.”
Sustainability through technology
Sustainability is another key area where technology plays an important role at FWD. Sandeep sees the move to cloud services as contributing significantly to reducing the company's environmental footprint.
“Our technology partners such as Microsoft and AWS operate more sustainable data centres than any individual company could,” he points out. “They’re incentivised to reduce carbon emissions and are implementing innovative solutions like underwater data centres. Why try to replicate that ourselves when we can leverage their expertise?”
Beyond cloud services, FWD has implemented measures to reduce electronic waste through responsible disposal of old equipment and to minimise paper waste through digital adoption.
“The printers we do maintain require password authentication, and we monitor usage patterns. If someone prints 100 pages, they’ll receive questions about why that volume was necessary.”
Strategic partnership with AWS drives innovation
A key element of FWD’s technological transformation has been its partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS). When Sandeep joined FWD, different markets were using different technology partners, including AWS. Rather than standardising on a single platform, he decided to maintain relationships with various providers.
“Rather than forcing standardisation on one platform, I decided we would leverage various partners,” he recalls. “For example, we initially signed a three-year agreement with AWS, and last year we renewed for another five years, reflecting the strategic importance of this partnership.”
Today, approximately 50% of FWD’s workload runs on AWS, including the FWD Omne customer platform. The partnership has evolved beyond cloud computing alone to include more advanced capabilities.
“We’re now exploring AWS services beyond basic infrastructure,” Sandeep explains. “We’re evaluating Amazon Bedrock for generative AI capabilities, using AWS services for code development and leveraging their analytics capabilities.”
The partnership with AWS has been instrumental in FWD’s transformation journey. “AWS has worked directly with our principals on cloud architecture and transformation strategies,” Sandeep says. “They provide tremendous value beyond just services – they contribute meaningful expertise and mindshare to our initiatives.”
Future priorities and talent development
Looking to the future, Sandeep emphasises several key priorities for FWD. Growth remains a central focus, with clear targets set for each market. “We want sustainable growth across all our markets,” he says.
“My role is ensuring our technology and operations capabilities enable this growth while maintaining our customer focus.”
Sustainable business practices are also crucial. “We need to build a sustainable business with long-term value,” Sandeep says.
“Our products represent long-term commitments to customers – we need to ensure we’ll be here to honour those commitments not just next year, but for the next hundred years.”
The customer-led ambition continues to be at the heart of FWD’s strategy. “Our customer-led approach is now central to every executive’s priorities,” Sandeep emphasises. “It’s no longer just a technology initiative – it’s the organisation's driving force.”
Talent development remains a key focus, with FWD investing heavily in training programmes through its Technology Academy, which has since evolved into the Tech and Ops Academy.
“When we started our cloud transformation, I realised we needed to build internal skills,” Sandeep recalls.
The academy has made a significant impact across the organisation. “Our employees have completed more than 22,000 courses and obtained more than 1,000 professional certifications as of end of 2024,” Sandeep says. “People are the foundation of everything we do – you can have the best strategy and vision, but without the right talent, it won’t succeed.”
Efficiency is another ongoing priority. “We’re focused on doing more with the same or fewer resources,” explains Sandeep. “We have specific operational efficiency targets that we’re driving toward over the next few years.”
As FWD continues its transformation journey, the combination of technology excellence and customer focus remains at its core.
“When you place the customer at the centre of everything you do, asking whether each decision benefits them, the business and your team – in that order – you rarely go wrong,” says Sandeep.
“We’re creating customer-led solutions and products that also build a sustainable business. Both aspects must work in harmony for true success.”