As 2011 winds down, few would dispute the centrality of mobile communications to the insurance industry.
Indeed, a new white paper from consultancy
“The very nature of the insurance business demands that the insurer often travels to the customer. Field agents are constant mobile representatives of the company, and their key value-add—especially in times of crisis—comes in the form of quick, efficient presence and assistance,” the report, authored by Frost & Sullivan Senior Industry Analyst Jeanine Sterling, states.
Sterling notes the ever increasing variety of mobile devices insurers must evaluate for internal use, from tablet and handsets to the telematic technologies that enable usage-based insurance, behooves them to set criteria to consider when selecting the optimal mobility partner or partners. “Insurance providers have an interesting array of potential mobility partners at the ready, including wireless carriers systems integrators, VARs (value-added resellers), software solution developers, and even the mobile device manufacturers,” the report states.
The report lists a variety of factors insurers should consider including: breadth and depth of solution portfolio, whether the device is agnostic, industry partnership ecosystems, geographic reach, vertical expertise and price.
