Jonathan Kalman, president of Return on Intelligence, a provider of consulting, systems integration and commercial software engineering solutions, offered the following predictions, takeaways and advice at the IASA 2014 Educational Conference and Business Show in Indianapolis last week.
1) Customer centricity will be the dominant strategy among insurers, and new business processes will need to be designed, implemented and adapted.
2) Customer expectations will grow exponentially higher, so design from the customer’s perspective and for flexibility.
3) Risk management methods will shift from operational to financial and transactional, so you’ll need data at your fingertips.
4) Market volatility will continue unabated, creating pressure on earnings and as well as investment opportunities, so insurers will be under a larger microscope.
5) Fraudulent behavior will evolve and become more sophisticated, affecting all insurance products.
6) The pace of industry consolidation and M&A will accelerate, so the ability to consolidate systems and processes quickly will need to become a core competency.
7) Insurers will use analytics at the center of their business strategies, and those that do will outperform their competitors.
8) Digital channels will dominate all customer acquisition and servicing.
9) The window of enjoying enhanced margins on a given insurance product will shorten as new technology emerges.
10) The pace of disintermediation will increase and accelerate (for example, Google is buying a consolidator) so technology and processes must improve.
11) New entrants will be emboldened as barriers to entry drop, so watch non-traditional companies trying to come into your space.
12) Niche markets will continue to offer specialized products—you must be able to compete with products not yet invented.
13) The “Internet of Things” will open doors to new product offerings, so watch Silicon Valley’s investments carefully to stay ahead of risk management.
14) Insurers will need top talent, so acquire what you can in an acquisition, and other familiar sources.
