Insure Think

Building a data warehouse with a single data model that supports the whole business is notoriously difficult, with a success rate that drops as the amount of data and number of lines of business get larger.

CEO Tom Wilson and other execs provide a window into how big insurers take digitalization front-and-center.

We are now entrenched in a digital revolution that is powered by these maturing and emerging technologies.

The user experience can make or break an application. Here are five ways to measure whether it’s positive or negative.

The value an insurer can achieve from the powerful combination of a modern policy system and a complete suite of advanced underwriting solutions will far outweigh any effort involved.

Insurance is about risk sharing, so what better model to bring in technology and make that risk sharing as efficient and effective as possible?

So many systems we view look like they screens were designed by a programmer and, worse, could only be used by a programmer.

Student teams, in the space of a few weeks, developed a variety of fresh ideas leveraging unique technologies that could help build products and services for insurance customers.

The Internet of Things has it’s teething problems.

While many aging, generally mainframe-based systems, remain capable of supporting basic policy processing and accounting functions, the costs associated with enhancing them are becoming increasingly problematic.

There are those who believe that favoring one channel or mode over another will lead to even more silos and dysfunction than we already have in many organizations.

Google’s search engine will now will favor mobile friendly content over traditional website content; within the insurance industry, the greatest initial impact is likely to be felt by insurance distributors.

New research from Novarica highlights areas of concern and offers insights on insurers spending and budgeting decisions.

More than half of companies are spending more on developing mobile applications -- but are they more efficient?

For some insurers, not being able to handle the volume of quotes that are being submitted to them means leaving significant money on the table.

Most of the time, when the business needs IT, it is for custom software development, just like creating a concept car.

As the use of wearables increases, particularly for use beyond an individual’s fitness, it will be critical for standards and services to emerge to bring this data to multiple users.

The Vitality program integrates this information directly into the rewards, giving you credit for the exercise, just by virtue of reporting it.

With so many U.S. households still uninsured, insurers are going have to try new things to re-position their product, focusing on consumer needs.

At a time when confidence in the insurance industry has been compromised, innovative companies can break the mold.

The user experience can make or break an application. Here are five ways to measure whether it’s positive or negative.

The Insurance Team recognized fifteen model banks across five categories: Digital; Data Mastery; Legacy and Ecosystem Transformation; Innovation and Emerging Technologies; and Operational Excellence.

Many insurers find that their distribution and compensation management (DCM) systems are not up to the job of keeping pace with these changes.

In the first of our two-part series on policy rating, we will discuss key considerations carriers must address when planning a rating transformation.

The idea that auto accidents will be almost obsolete is a nice thought, but robots still make their share of mistakes -- all that is needed is a faulty or incompatible software patch or update.

Underwriting has come a long way in a short time thanks to data and analytics.

Claims transformation is bigger than modernization, encompassing changes to the entire claims business model and philosophy rather than simply the day-to-day processes of claims operations.

GEICO and Progressive suffered the largest individual carrier dips in satisfaction, according to the ACSI report.

A State Street survey finds insurance companies are more likely to be further along in becoming “data innovators” than their financial services counterparts.

When bad or unexpected or unusual things happen, the computer gives up control and hands it back to the now woefully unprepared occupant.

Progressive's decision to charge Snapshot drivers more if their driving data indicates higher risk has started the industry down a road of data-driven adverse selection.

The whole point of core transformation is that changes at the micro level can be used as a stimulus for changes at the macro level.

Relationship management 101 for keeping IT and business on the same page.

A unified digital strategy recognizes that all business strategies and technologies touch the customer in some way and that a one-size-fits-all channel model is obsolete.

Just because a development team is doing continuous delivery or packaging releases into two-week sprints doesn’t mean that code is being moved to production.

Documentation on aging systems often is akin to tribal knowledge, and the potential for things to go bump in the night increases as these environments face generational transition.

Insurers are caught in a complexity predicament because of frequent mergers and acquisitions, expanded product and service offerings and more stringent regulations.

Only half of the devices in the IoT ecosystem will use keyboard-like input -- and insurers’ back-end systems have to be ready to capture and process all this new data.

New technology such as adaptive cruise control, automatic braking, parking assist, lane departure warning and blind-spot alerts will reduce fender benders and other incidents.

In our recent study, 94 percent of P&C insurers reported that product configuration capabilities are a required feature in a new policy administration system.

Consumers would rather have service fast and easy, even if it is not the best result.

Insurance coverage will transition from Personal Lines (where people do the driving) to Commercial Lines (where the manufacturer is responsible for the safety and accuracy of the vehicle).

For on-premises needs, the latest technologies, including flash, solid state drives, and in-memory computing offer new ways to provide rapid access to new data.

Boosted by the impending release of the Apple Watch, wearable devices have received a fair amount of attention recently – and with good reason. This emergent technology has the potential to alter the way the health insurance industry operates on a fundamental level.

The core transformation journey requires companies to shift from reactive to proactive business models, incorporating maturing and emerging technologies, customizing and personalizing products, and accelerating speed to market while providing improved customer service.

Insurers also are confronting waves of disruptive changes, which threaten to challenge and undermine businesses.

If you think of enterprises like collections of neighborhoods that need to be nurtured, you quickly see that architecture, not obliteration, is the key.

I just don’t believe it; only 720,000 Androidwear watches were sold in 2014. Apple has been amazingly successful in so many markets. Were they always first? No, a lot of products before. Were they always best? Again, no, superior devices have fallen.

Deployment rates have grown in the year since Novarica’s last study on these topics.

Novarica research shows that nearly 40 percent of P&C and life/health/annuity carriers are currently replacing or planning to replace a policy administration system.

Insurers may like a vendor’s full service model for updating policy content rules, but they don’t want to be held captive if the vendor doesn’t offer fast speed-to-market.

Quote data often is disregarded due to its volume, but properly managed can offer insights into product and pricing strategy, expense control, cross selling and upselling.