Three students from the 2020 cohort of the Actuarial Science study program, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Indonesia (FMIPA UI) — Dylan Arlen Tunggatama, Carissa Angelina Susanto, and Intan Juwitahari — who formed the Bulbah team, successfully won first place in the 2021 Cigna Innovation Challenge.
This was officially announced by PT Asuransi Cigna, a global health service company based in New York and the organizer of the event, during the Winner Announcement Ceremony held online on December 20, 2021.
The Bulbah team successfully defended the championship title, which had been won the previous year by the A3 Team, consisting of Gracella Jovita and Justine Kael Tanady.
The purpose of this competition is to encourage the young generation of Indonesia to contribute new ideas and innovations to the insurance industry, in line with the evolving times and ongoing technological advancements.
There were three themes offered to the participants: Programs to Improve the Financial Situation of Communities in Indonesia, Life Insurance Product Innovation of Your Choice, and Building Engagement with Customers and Potential Customers. Among these themes, the Bulbah team, led by Dylan, chose “Life Insurance Product Innovation of Your Choice.”
Dylan and his team proposed a digital feature that can be utilized by e-commerce application users when making payments paylaterThe feature was named SafeLater.
With Safelater, users of the application are assured that their installment paylater from paylater or loan will be fully paid off if the user becomes unable to make payments before completing the installments, whether due to death or permanent disability.
Team leader Dylan stated that there were three factors behind the idea of developing the SafeLater feature: the increasing digitalization in various aspects of life, the system paylater that grew rapidly during the pandemic, and the increasing public awareness of the importance of having life insurance during the pandemic.
Meanwhile, the concept of this feature, according to Dylan and his teammates, was adopted from loan insurance offered by banks — an insurance product that provides assurance to creditors in the event of a default by the debtor due to death or total permanent disability caused by illness or accident.
“The idea is this — in banks, there’s something called loan insurance. So, when someone borrows a certain amount of money and then passes away, the loan is guaranteed to be paid off. We took inspiration from that concept by integrating this life insurance into the (payment method) paylater" said team member Intan..
“When someone uses paylaterand then the installment from paylater has not yet been fully paid off and that person passes away, the remaining installments will be considered settled. “That’s the main concept of our idea,” he added.
Furthermore, Dylan and his team stated that the paylater system has now become a favored payment method across various application services — not only for users but also for the service providers themselves.
According to Dylan, the advantage of the Safelater feature in the *paylater* system for users is that it serves as a guarantee of repayment in the event of a default.
Meanwhile, from the service provider’s perspective, this feature will increase user interest in purchasing products and making transactions using the paylater system.
Although they successfully won first place, the team had to overcome several challenges to reach that achievement. The toughest challenge, according to Dylan, was determining the formula and conducting simulations to calculate the premium that would be applied to users.
“The toughest challenge was when we tried to simulate and calculate the premium,” said Dylan. “At that point, we were really challenged to apply what we had learned in our coursework so that it could be implemented in the real industry.”
“So, we had to conduct more literature studies and look for the right formulas to calculate what the premium should be like,” he continued.
Concluding their interview with the FMIPA UI Public Relations Team, the Bulbah team expressed their hope that this experience would increase their exposure and readiness to participate in various competitions in the future. They viewed this competition as an opportunity to further explore the world of the insurance industry.
The Dean of FMIPA UI, Dede Djuhana, Ph.D., expressed his appreciation for the achievement of the three students who successfully maintained FMIPA UI’s first-place title. He noted that the innovation presented by the Bulbah team was highly relevant to the needs of the insurance industry.
“Of course, we are proud and grateful for the achievement of the FMIPA UI team. Their success in maintaining the first-place title in the Cigna competition truly deserves appreciation. For us, this accomplishment proves that the innovation they developed is highly relevant to the needs of insurance companies today,” said Dede.
He also emphasized that students of the Actuarial Science program at FMIPA UI must be able to solve both theoretical and applied problems in actuarial science and adapt to the evolving concepts in the field — including life insurance, general insurance, and risk management. In doing so, they are expected to enhance their competitiveness at the regional level, supported by the knowledge and guidance provided by their lecturers and mentors on campus.
For your information, the Cigna Innovation Challenge took place from September 1, 2021, to December 20, 2021, concluding with the winner announcement event. The competition involved 50 student teams from across Indonesia as participants.
Article compiled by FMIPA UI Public Relations Contributor: Theo Andita Nugraha (Statistics 2017)
