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How SDK integration transforms health insurers’ digital offerings

Contributor
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How SDK integration transforms health insurers’ digital offerings
  • SDKs offer granular customisation layers tailored for the insurance industry, ensuring a seamless integration experience
  • Insurers can provide a unified and captivating digital journey for their members, fostering improved outcomes and satisfaction.

In the rapidly evolving healthcare sector, insurers are embracing innovative solutions to provide enhanced digital experiences for their members.

 A notable trend gaining momentum is the adoption of SDK wrappers within health insurance member apps. This integration brings several advantages for insurers, primarily tapping into the cutting-edge technologies developed by partners over time.

By seamlessly integrating these technologies into the member web or mobile app, insurers can streamline development processes while ensuring a connected and identical journey for their customers.

The power of SDK integration

Gary Coffey, CTO at Spectrum.Life.

Integrating an SDK wrapper into the health insurance member app unlocks a wealth of services and functionalities for both insurers and members. This integration allows insurers to seamlessly leverage various partner technologies, ensuring unified experiences within their app. Examples of these services include:

  • Video capability and digital health AI assistants: Offering interactive and personalized assistance to members through video calls, AI-driven assistants, and instant messaging.
  • Self-pay, symptom checkers, digital health booking journeys: Empowering members to manage their health journey efficiently by facilitating self-pay options, symptom checking, and booking appointments for various health services.
  • Patient portals and health & wellbeing content services: Providing members with access to their health records, educational content, and resources for maintaining overall well-being.
  • Customisation and integration capabilities
    SDKs offer granular customisation layers tailored for the insurance industry, ensuring a seamless integration experience. These capabilities include:
  • Single sign-on (SSO) and eligibility verification: Streamlining access for members and ensuring data security.
  • Custom user interface: Aligning the user interface with partnership branding and providing a consistent experience.
  • Personalised communications: Enhancing member engagement through tailored email communications.
  • Sophisticated payment processing: Facilitating seamless payment and co-payment processing within the app.

Streamlining digitisation for insurers

The integration of SDK wrappers enables insurers to achieve full digital transformation in a fraction of the time compared to internal development efforts.

By addressing common challenges faced by insurers globally, such as disjointed web and app journeys, data silos, and difficulty in integrating digital health services, SDK technology offers a comprehensive solution.

The Spectrum.Life SDK Approach

At Spectrum.Life, our SDK approach for insurers offers versatility and fast integration, making us an ideal technical partner for navigating the fast-evolving healthcare landscape. With our “Engage, Empower, Transform” approach, we assist members throughout their health and wellbeing journey, integrating seamlessly with legacy and third-party systems.

Integrating SDK wrappers into health insurance member apps offers insurers a transformative chance to enrich member experiences and streamline digital offerings. Through seamless integration of partner technologies, insurers can provide a unified and captivating digital journey for their members, fostering improved outcomes and satisfaction. Embracing SDK technology marks a significant step towards agile adaptability in the continually evolving healthcare landscape, positioning insurers as trailblazing innovators in the industry.

  • Gary Coffey is the chief technology officer at Spectrum.Life  and has over 15 years’ experience in technology and has worked in many sectors ranging from Healthtech, Fintech, gaming, AdTech, media, digital advertising, manufacturing and banking.

Apple helps Huawei to report record first-quarter profit

Naushad K. Cherrayil
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Apple helps Huawei to report record first-quarter profit
  • Rebound in its consumer segment and income from new businesses like smart car components accelerating its recovery.

Huawei Technologies reported a 564 per cent jump in first quarter profit to 19.65 billion yuan ($2.71 billion) in the first quarter as it took a massive bite from Apple’s market share in China.

According to a filing from Huawei’s holding company posted to the website of the National Interbank Funding Centre in China, revenue for the quarter to March rose 37 per cent to 178.5 billion yuan ($24.65 billion).

The Shenzhen-based company has since responded by diversifying into other fields including 5G, artificial intelligence and smart-driving technology in a bid to rescue flagging sales.

A Huawei spokesperson said “digitalisation, intelligence, and decarbonisation” helped to drive revenue growth.

“The industry and global markets will remain rife with uncertainty for the rest of 2024. Nevertheless, we are continuously building out mechanisms for global business continuity and agile operations,” the company said.

“We are confident that we can meet our annual business targets and achieve sustainable growth.”

Rebound in consumer segment

Huawei recorded its fastest revenue growth in four years in 2023, with a rebound in its consumer segment and income from new businesses like smart car components accelerating its recovery from US sanctions in 2019.

Despite the ban, Huawei’s smartphone business has undergone a renaissance and rolled out a new high-end smartphone – Mate 60 – powered by a domestically-made chipset last year and the company has started selling its new high-end device – Pura 70 smartphones in China.

The company has become a force to reckon with in the smart car category also with its driver assistance system, running on HarmonyOS, touted by at least seven Chinese automakers at the Beijing auto show.

According to Canalys research, Huawei returned to the top spot in China after 13 quarters, shipping 11.7 million smartphones and capturing a 17 per cent market share, due to an enthusiastic market response to its Mate and nova series while Apple declined the most among the top five, with 10 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 25 per cent.

A key strategy for Huawei in 2024, Canalys Senior Analyst Toby Zhu said, is to focus on building AI capabilities for smart devices from hardware to software at a system level, leveraging its deep R&D capabilities in AI infrastructure and solutions for industry and enterprise customers.

“With the continued expansion of the HarmonyOS ecosystem, Huawei emerges as the third OS for smartphones and other edge computing devices, breaking the two-horse race of Android and iOS in Mainland China,” he said.

Salesforce leads CRM discussions on Reddit in first quarter

Mohammed Fahad
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Salesforce leads CRM discussions on Reddit in first quarter
  • Contact management features have emerged as the most popular topic of discussion among Reddit conversations on CRM platforms during the quarter.

Salesforce has occupied the first position among the top five most mentioned Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms on Reddit in the first quarter of 2024.

Salesforce captured a significant 59 per cent share of discussions on CRM.

Redditors praised Salesforce’s array of customisation tools, specifically highlighting features like Visualforce and Apex for their ability to adapt solutions to various organizational needs.

The remaining top-mentioned CRM platforms were HubSpot, Zoho, Microsoft Dynamics, and SAP.

Furthermore, the users’ sentiments on Reddit for the most discussed CRM platforms are positive overall, with Zoho CRM receiving notably high praise, followed by positive sentiments for HubSpot and Microsoft Dynamics.

Shreyasee Majumder, Social Media Analyst at GlobalData, said that contact management features have emerged as the most popular topic of discussion among Reddit conversations on CRM platforms during the quarter.

“Redditors’ opinions were varied, with some valuing the robust features and ease of use of certain platforms when configured effectively.”

However, she said that there was also significant criticism regarding their complexity and the intensive administrative effort that is required.

“Salesforce, which leads the list of popular CRM platforms, has garnered mixed reviews for its contact management feature on Reddit. While some praised its efficacy when configured correctly but others criticised its complexity and lack of intuitive design.”

Despite widespread acclaim for Salesforce’s innovation and flexibility, Majumder said that Redditors also engaged in critical discussions, expressing concerns about its pricing structure, particularly regarding smaller businesses, which sparked debates about the trade-off between affordability and value.

HubSpot gained significant attention on Reddit, ranking as the second most discussed CRM platform with a 27 per cent share of voice.

Redditors shared mixed opinions, discussing both the strengths and weaknesses of HubSpot. While its robust feature set garnered praise, criticism focused on its pricing structure and complexity, urging for a more user-friendly approach.

 “Although HubSpot was commended for its suitability for startups, concerns arose regarding scalability and integration challenges, particularly in comparison to competitors like Salesforce,” she said.

Redditors anticipate conversations centred on enhancing HubSpot’s pricing transparency, streamlining its licensing model, and bolstering integration capabilities to align more closely with user expectations.”

Apple hires several AI experts from Google to stay above rivals

Ana Mary Joseph
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Apple hires several AI experts from Google to stay above rivals
  • Apple has poached 36 specialists from Google since 2018 for its secret AI research lab.
  • Apple is expected to roll out AI-powered features in its upcoming iOS 18 update on June 10.
  • The generative AI features are expected to release for Siri, Spotlight, Shortcuts, Apple Music, Messages, Health, Keynote, Numbers, Pages, and other apps.

Apple has hired several artificial intelligence experts from Google and has even created a secretive European laboratory – Vision Lab – in Zurich to house a new team of staff tasked with building new AI models and products.

According to Financial Times, Apple has attracted at least 36 specialists from its rival Google since it poached John Giannandrea to be its top AI executive in 2018.

The Big tech giants are investing millions in developing new AI products to stay ahead but Apple has been late into the AI party.

Apple’s main AI team operates out of California and Seattle, but the company has recently expanded offices dedicated to AI work in Zurich, Switzerland. Apple’s acquisition of local AI startups FaceShift (VR) and Fashwell (image recognitionis believed to have influenced its decision to build a secretive research lab.

Looking across wider AI technologies

Apple has also bought about two dozen AI start-ups in the past 10 years, focused on the application of AI reasoning to image and video recognition, data processing, search capabilities and music content curation.

The company has been advertising jobs in generative AI across two locations in Zurich, one of which has a particularly low profile.

Chief executive Tim Cook has told analysts Apple “has been doing research across a wide range of AI technologies” and investing and innovating “responsibly” around the new technology.

Looking at all possibilities

In 2016, Apple acquired Perceptual Machines, a company that worked on generative AI-powered image, detection, founded by Ruslan Salakhutdinov from Carnegie Mellon University.

Salakhutdinov is said to be a key figure in the history of neural networks, and studied at the University of Toronto under the “godfather” of the technology, Geoffrey Hinton, who left Google last year citing concerns about the dangers of generative AI.

The report further hints that the employees in the secret lab are involved in research regarding the underlying technology that powers OpenAI’s AI chatbot ChatGPT and similar projects based on LLMs. The company aims to build a more advanced AI models that includes text and visual inputs to produce results.

According to Salakhutdinov, the reason behind the delay on Apple’s part is because the company is being quite cautious. He said, “They can’t release something they can’t fully control.”

Apple is expected to roll out AI-powered features in its upcoming iOS 18 update, set to debut at the Worldwide Developers Conference that kicks off on June 10, for the first time. The generative AI features are expected to release for Siri, Spotlight, Shortcuts, Apple Music, Messages, Health, Keynote, Numbers, Pages, and other apps. It is also rumoured that these features will be powered by on-device LLMs.

Worldline ePayments gets RBI’s nod for digital payments

TCN Bureau
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Worldline ePayments gets RBI’s nod for digital payments

India’s Worldline ePayments has received the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) approval to operate as an online payment aggregator.

The company received in-principle authorisation from the RBI to act as a payment aggregator in 2022.

“We’ve been in the Indian market for more than two decades and have built a leadership position. We work with merchants from various segments such as e-commerce, BFSI, retail, utilities, education, travel, and hospitality for digital payments,” Ramesh Narasimhan, CEO, India, Worldline, said in a statement.

The RBI recently took steps to tighten scrutiny of the online payments sector, asking online payment firms to monitor transactions-related activities of merchants on their platforms and ensure they meet fresh guidelines.

Since late last year, the RBI has approved multiple online payment gateway companies to be PAs including DigiO, PayU, CRED, CC Avenue, Mswipe, Razorpay, Cashfree, Decentro, Zoho, Tata Pay, Google Pay, and EnKash, among others.

“The authorisation from RBI is a testimony of our commitment to the Indian market and affirming our focus on compliance and highlighting the significance of a well-regulated payments landscape,” Narasimhan, said.

Greater adoption of Wear OS and HarmonyOS this year

Ana Mary Joseph
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Greater adoption of Wear OS and HarmonyOS this year
  • First-time smartwatch users or upgraders in the Android camp are now looking for a much better user experience and are willing to spend more when going for their next purchase.
  • HarmonyOS’ shipment share in China is further estimated to reach 61% in China in 2024, up from 48% in 2023.
  • Share of Google Wear OS outside of China will climb to 27% in 2024.

Google’s Wear OS and Huawei’s HarmonyOS to register strong growth in global smartwatch market operating system in 2024.

The major part of this growth will come from non-Apple smartphone users adopting either a Google Wear OS-based smartwatch if outside China or HarmonyOS-based smartwatch if in China.

According to Counterpoint Research, the Google Wear OS share outside China will climb to 27 per cent in 2024. The growth will be primarily driven by the availability of more advanced smartwatches powered by Wear OS, like the latest adoption by GooglePixel and OnePlus Watch 2, along with the refreshed Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 series.

Limited mainstream options

 “Just as in the case of smartphones, where there is a shift toward premium devices in consumer buying patterns, we are witnessing that first-time smartwatch users or upgraders in the Android camp are now looking for a much better user experience and are willing to spend more when going for their next purchase,” Anshika Jain, Senior Research Analyst at Counterpoint Research, said.

She expects to see greater adoption of Wear OS since these devices provide a robust third-party app experience, Google AI assistant, and precise health tracking, customisation and battery optimisation.

Until now, she said that most of the Wear OS adoption was driven by Samsung smartwatches, and there were limited mainstream options for Android smartphone users.

However, starting this year, “we are seeing Google and Qualcomm managing to attract their leading smartphone customers such as OnePlus, OPPO and Xiaomi to launch Wear OS-based smartwatches outside China at attractive high-tier price points. Further, Google’s own Pixel watches will also continue to contribute to the Wear OS adoption globally.”

In addition to Wear OS, she said that they are witnessing the growth of Harmony powered by the increasing popularity of Huawei smartwatches in China.

Key catalyst

“In 2023, the overall HarmonyOS shipments grew almost twofold, surpassing Apple’s WatchOS. HarmonyOS’ shipment share is further estimated to reach 61 per cent in China in 2024, up from 48 per cent in 2023. The launch of 5G phones by Huawei last year and the resulting growth have acted as a key catalyst in driving the attach rate for Huawei smartwatches and expanding China’s advanced smartwatch market,” Ethan Qi, Associate Director at Counterpoint Research, said.

In terms of smartwatch chipsets, Apple and Samsung currently hold two-thirds of the advanced smartwatch market. Hengxuan and Qualcomm are expected to witness double-digit growth in 2024.

Qualcomm’s market will be driven by more launches on its W5+ Gen 1 and W5100 processors, while Hengxuan’s growth will be mainly driven by the adoption of Huawei and Xiaomi smartwatches in China.

 “According to our smartwatch display panel shipments tracker, the advanced smartwatch, which mostly sports cutting-edge OLED and MicroLED displays, is bound to see an increase in orders for suppliers in the 16 per cent-18 per cent range in 2024 due to strong momentum after the second half of 2023 and the blended OLED panel pricing declining by 3 per cent in addition to larger display sizes,” Counterpoint company DSCC’s Senior Director David Naranjo said.

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