Insure Think

The insurance industry is focused on products. But for consumers, when it comes to complex products, it's all about the customer experience.

Ever since personal data was first discussed as having the potential for emerging as a new asset class at the World Economic Forum in 2011, capturing and incorporating personal data into the proposition design has been seen as a potential gold mine.

Combining the operations of two insurance giants likely would require months of research, as well as an increase in headcount and IT expenditures, at least in the short term.

Beyond encouraging a strong personal relationship with an underwriter, what can carriers do to build stronger connections with agents and grow their book? Celent surveyed a group of agents to understand those areas most likely to make a carrier the agents’ top choice.

Pair Programming and other Agile development methods are helping Allstate and others find the best route on their digital journeys.

Most of these advanced capabilities are being driven by a combination of five elements: analytics, data, digital channels, modern applications and innovative business practices.

There's still time to submit nominations for exemplary female executives at your insurance company,

Faster and more accurate claims processes, improved customer experience, and safer conditions for insurance staff will continue driving investment in drones.

In part one, we looked at the challenges and opportunities involved in rewriting a ten-year old application; here we’ll focus on talent, customer expectations, and enhancements and maintenance.

The NAIC Executive (EX) Committee recently established the Cybersecurity (EX) Task Force to act as a focus point for cybersecurity insurance regulatory activities. The message is clear: there will be regulatory pressure to do something around cybersecurity.

With the gold medal-winning U.S. Women's Soccer Team parading not far from the INN offices, taking a moment to reflect on Women in Insurance Leadership.

Having a set of vendor-specific questions and expectations can assist in selecting the best vendor for your company.

Insurers clearly appreciate the greater insights into policyholder risk factors from connected cars and homes.

Claims is the perfect place to test emerging technologies, then build upon that foundation to truly reinvent the claims process.

It’s not often one gets a chance to revisit a past development effort, but it’s just that kind of unique opportunity that makes one’s development life just a little bit sweeter.

There’s no denying that there are a few exciting use cases of insurers truly leveraging big data, but it’s still extremely limited.

The combined company will have around $40 billion in annual revenues, which elevates it to a key global player and should allow for some economies of scale.

Between now and the effective date of the merger, there will be a lot of planning focused on efficiencies and platform rationalization, cloud, SaaS, data management/stores, analytics and more.

To boost efficiencies and innovation, global insurers are expected to increase IT spend to more than $100 billion in 2015, but how does this forecast translate for the insurance world?

Half of surveyed software developers don't feel they can work with the Internet of Things. Can insurers take the lead?

Experiment, but be careful of expensive, enterprise installations that are hard to extract later, and understand these types of projects can be more transient than other enterprise software.

Each hurricane season puts CAT models to the test, with potentially billions of dollars riding on the accuracy of these models. The key to developing effective CAT modeled loss estimates is accurate, high-quality data.

INN is accepting nominations for our 10th annual Women in Insurance Leadership honors, and we want to hear from you.

In insurance, it is easy to be swayed by the shiny new tool and jump to invest in the latest system.

As analytics and mobility become higher priorities, a new challenge will emerge: how to find and retain the best talent.

IT leaders are spending too much time down in the engine room, when they should be up on the bridge helping to steer the ship.

Cyber crime is a broader problem that's not confined to tech companies and large corporations. The risks are very real for all companies.

Having a single view of the customer means that the insurer and any front line individual dealing with the customer understands the full context of the relationship.

Once a digitally savvy company from an “adjacent industry” such as web services has a wrap around your customers, what’s to prevent them from embedding their own insurance products?

The history of innovation in insurance has largely been shaped by advances made in technology external to the industry.

My advice is not the same for every vendor, but there are some points that are true for just about everyone.

Millennials now represent the largest percentage of the U.S. workforce and have new set of expectations regaring giving and receiving services.

Insurance executives say improving customer experience and engagement is their number one strategic initiative for 2015, and more than 80 percent are making significant investments in this area.

What is a maturing technology? As recently as two years ago, many considered mobile, social, cloud, and analytics to be “next-gen” technologies; today they are considered to be maturing.

The claims process is where we deliver on the promise of being there for customers when they need us most. Here's how use technology to make it easy for customers to get their benefits as quickly as possible.

We need your help in identifying the leading vendors who are helping your insurance organization take advantage of big data and analytics.

Once it becomes socially normal to have a personal relationship with an artifical intelligence, insurers’ (and many other service industries’) sales and service processes will change dramatically

Understanding the benefits of outside-in thinking, insurers are finding ways to leverage tech firms and other innovators.

We see unmanned aircraft systems — commonly referred to as drones — as a way to mitigate the current safety challenges for our adjusters who at times can be at risk for accidents or injuries.

We now are seeing a resurgence of AI, a blending of machine learning, predictive modelling and cognitive computing along with self driving cars, which raises some rare and interesting opportunities.

I’m proud to announce the new insurancenetworking.com is live and ready to provide a better experience for all our readers, on any platform you choose to interact with us.

The need to find alternative avenues for growth and for investment returns, combined with a fear of technology companies disrupting insurers’ business models, has led to renewed interest.

Managing the distribution channel requires discipline in a number of areas, and insurers face significant challenges in performing these tasks efficiently; here's a look at how carriers are looking to technology as a strategic differentiator.

CCC Acquires a Telematics Platform: The Story Behind the Story

We strongly recommend tying all digital and mobile initiatives together under a “digital insurer” strategy.

With everyone interpreting what they feel as the be-all end-all description, perceptions of digital are filtered by the observer.

I had a watch capable of interfacing with a computer in 1995. But that was before insurers could offer discounts for using one.

Insurance technology is a hot commodity and vendors are consolidating. It's as good a time as any for the industry to reflect on the best work.

The boundless optimism for wearables should be tempered with a clear understanding of the potential pitfalls.

Typical actuarial modeling environments incorporate many technical components beyond the calculation engines that perform projections.The effectiveness of the actuarial function depends, to a large extent, on how those components are linked.

Machine learning and artificial intelligence libraries are now getting robust enough to contribute meaningfully smart or learning bots into the mix that can do a bit more than rote button pressing and reading screens.

Technologies such as predictive analytics are not a slam-dunk. The business needs to decide exactly what kind of data matters, and how this may change day to day.