P&C Carriers' Web Strategies Lack Focus

A majority of recently polled property & casualty carriers do not have a guiding Internet strategy when developing their Web sites, a new report concludes. Competitive pressures are resulting in a series of strategic "disconnects" that have impaired-and will likely continue to impair-insurers' Internet efforts, according to a Conning & Co. study titled, "The Internet and Property-Casualty Insurance: Lost in Cyberspace." The study by the Hartford, Conn.-based research and consulting firm, based on an assessment of 44 large P&C carriers' Web sites and several aggregator sites, notes that efforts to provide online claims submission for personal lines polices are, for the most part, impractical. The Conning study reports that the true value of the Internet will not be derived from specific technical applications, but from a carrier's ability to "effectively integrate, via the Web, its marketing, operations and communications."