Internal Mobile Apps Still Sputtering

While many industry experts continue to debate the future of agents’ existence and consumers are increasingly willing to purchase life insurance online, agents and brokers have an opportunity to enhance their roles in the sales process through mobile applications.

Celent spent nine months researching carriers’ output of mobile platforms for producers to halting results. Twelve percent of the top 100 life insurers in North America have developed mobile tools for their sales force, according to the research and analyst firm’s report, “Mobile Technology for the Life Insurance Producer: Is It a Fad or the Future?” Nevertheless, nearly 50 percent of life insurers are investigating the use of mobile apps within their business. The investigating process has proven lengthy for insurers for a number of reasons, primarily the proliferation of platforms and services.

When it comes to narrowing these options, life insurers say security is the top concern. As mobile threats vary—PC-like attacks, lost mobile devices, the fact that data sometimes needs to be accessed outside of a corporate firewall, abiding by customer communication regulation—security remains a rapid-fire facet of technology, offering updates and protective services to counter these threats faster than insurers are making decisions.

Further muddling the process is the rise of tablets. Since iPads came along, they are the preferred mobile technology for life and annuity providers with apps, according to Celent. Tablets were rated better or comparable to smart phones in terms of functionality in all 17 categories assessed—including sales reporting, quotes, portfolio management, sales updates and claims submission/tracking.

Using cutting-edge technologies also offers more abstract benefits, such as attracting younger salespeople, improved CRM through increased accessibility, interactivity and direct access to marketing and data submission materials.

For the aforementioned 12 percent who have already bought in, the functionality of the applications broke down into three categories: transactional, where the producer can transfer data from an app to the company; marketing, exploiting mobile convenience with brochures and videos; or informational, which includes training materials, email access and calendars.