Customer service

Following FAA approval, the insurers soon could deploy drones in catastrophe zones and for other, more routine inspections.

The company is collaborating with several colleges in its home region to bring data science talent into the organization in a new way.

Nationwide, MassMutual, and State Farm are among the growing number of large insurance companies working closely with universities to build a pipeline of technology talent.

The insurer is among the first to receive FAA approval, allowing the company to begin testing sUAVs to improve post-catastrophe claims response.

GEICO and Progressive suffered the largest individual carrier dips in satisfaction, according to the ACSI report.

The offer, which would be UnitedHealth’s largest purchase ever, is 27 percent more than Catamaran’s closing share price of $48.32 on Friday.

Canadian P&C insurer intends to consolidate and update billing operations and launch new products and services over the web.

The rankings are based on national averages for 1,522 models, for a 40-year-old man with a clean driving record and good credit.

Only half of the devices in the IoT ecosystem will use keyboard-like input -- and insurers’ back-end systems have to be ready to capture and process all this new data.

Consumers would rather have service fast and easy, even if it is not the best result.

Insurance coverage will transition from Personal Lines (where people do the driving) to Commercial Lines (where the manufacturer is responsible for the safety and accuracy of the vehicle).

Insurers across business lines have money earmarked to improve rating systems, billing capabilities and customer portals – but there are key differences in some insurers’ priorities, according to Insurance technology analyst firm SMA’s 2015 Insurance Technology Priorities and Spending report, which polled 105 carriers in P&C and life/health.

Mobile, wearables and other tech enable the insurer to communicate better and more frequently with clients, build long-term relationships, and change the way policies are sold and serviced, and capital is pooled to manage risk.

Omni-channel capabilities are intended to unify online, mobile and contact-center channels and connect those channels with core insurance systems in real time, EIS Group said.

A process is also in the works to provide funds to homeowners who disputed insurance payments without suing.

With fewer recent CAT events, insurers have been applying lessons learned to managing non-catastrophic claims, according to a survey from J.D. Power, resulting in the third-consecutive year of higher customer claims satisfaction.

Deployment rates have grown in the year since Novarica’s last study on these topics.

Making policy information available to customers is table stakes for insurers. But there are other creative ways that carriers are leveraging the channel for increased engagement.

Seven Iowa insurers, including The Principal, Delta Dental, and Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance, are investors in the project, which provides capital and mentoring to six technology startups focusing on providing insurance-specific services.

The Des Moines-based Global Insurance Accelerator has selected the first six startups to receive funding and mentoring from seven local insurance companies. Each has received $40,000 in seed money from the pool and has to create a minimum viable product for demonstration at the Global Insurance Symposium at the end of May.