Justin Stephani

As insurers undertake technology transformations, more are finding the competition for IT talent to be fierce.

To compete in the health exchange marketplaces, health insurers are finding that effectively integrating and storing data, analyzing consumer data and precision pricing are essential.

As consumers grow more demanding, insurers would do well to anticipate customer concerns and offer instruction on how to avoid them; but first, they need executive buy-in.

A watershed year is shaping up for insurers and their use of technology, and IT/business relations are more important than ever.

“The longer things remain uncertain, the more pressure that puts on the industry,” said Howard Mills, director and chief advisor of Deloitte’s insurance industry group and former New York State Insurance superintendent. “It’s sort of an artificial cloud hanging over the industry’s head; what’s going to happen with SIFI designations, what’s going to be in the FIO report? There’s just so much uncertainty out there.”

In anticipation of the announcement of designations for non-bank systemically important financial institutions, Howard Mills, director and chief advisor of Deloitte’s insurance industry group and former New York State Insurance superintendent, shares thoughts about some of the last-minute speculation and what options insurers will have if designated.

Hear enough examples of companies employing technologies for reasons beyond serving the same old markets, and you begin to see some trends.

This week, the insurer found itself at the mercy of the Internet. While social analytics is set to take off in coming years and monitoring social networks for feedback is increasingly seen as essential in this era of consumer-centrism, this is an uncanny example of why these initiatives need to be fully embraced.

At Monday’s morning session on the FIO at the Insured Retirement Institute’s Government, Legal and Regulatory Conference in Washington, D.C., John Fielding—a counsel in the Washington office of Steptoe & Johnson LLP, where he is a member of the Government Affairs & Public Policy practice focusing on insurance and financial services legislative and regulatory matters—speculated that a tiff between the Office of the United States Trade Representatives (USTR) and the FIO may be stalling the document’s release.

Automakers’ recent move to incorporate smartphone hubs into production and the recent outcries against distracted driving could put insurers in precarious position.