See the bigger picture—that was the message to attendees at
Burrus, who also addressed ISOTECH attendees in 2002, reflected on those days of yore, and addressed the technology changes the industry has faced and will face in the future.
He admitted the insurance industry is not known for heavily adopting emerging technologies “because they didn’t need to.” However, the time has come for the industry move faster with technology, he said. Burrus, who also is author of “Technotrends,” challenged the audience to think about the two types of trends—hard and soft—and focus more on the hard trends—the ones they’re confident will happen. He gave attendees homework: Go back to the office and make a list of the things you know are certain.
Some tech-driven trends he mentioned include:
• Networking
• Dematerialization
• Virtualization
• Product intelligence
• Interactivity
• Mobility
• Globalization
• Convergence
While Burrus looked to the future, ISO’s Stephenson reflected on the P&C’s performance over the past year. He said the insurance industry is “standing tall” when compared to others in the financial services industry.
While P&C insurers’ net income has fallen along with average policyholders’ surplus (or statutory net worth) since 2008, Stephenson remains optimistic that the recent signs of stabilization for the industry will soon come to fruition. He points to growing advertising spend year after year, and breakthroughs in pricing as positive indicators for the industry.
P&C insurers increasingly have data to analyze and use to their benefit, Stephenson says. He listed areas where analytics can be applied:
• Operations
• Actuarial
• Marketing
• Underwriting
