Utilising gamification and virtual environments to present Digitally Enhanced Advanced Services (DEAS) for the financial sector

Servitization offers a fresh opportunity for manufacturing and finance companies to incorporate additional services to the main product, as part of an extended maintenance scheme or for insurance purposes. Parametric insurance products based on new technological innovations in the financial sector related to weather risk management can potentially offer preferable and greater solutions for the construction industry in contrast to traditional insurance models. Such smart contract solutions/ policies can potentially aid the customers’ management of risks related to weather in a more effective manner, settle insurance claims faster and overcome some of the limitations associated with traditional insurance. However, these can be complex for customers and stakeholders to understand, limiting them to express their needs and see the true value of such DEAS offers. This paper presents a prototype Serious game application designed for the financial sector which enables the customers to experience a variety of construction scenarios and weather conditions that affect the progress and cost of the in-game building. Their choices, risks and results are presented in a two-fold gaming system that offers both a 3D Virtual Environment and the relevant information reflecting the appropriate offers. Preliminary results from a specialists’ focus group of ten users are presented and their results and feedback are discussed in the paper forming a future plan of development of similar applications for additional sectors that require Digitally Enhanced Advanced Services (DEAS).