Insure Think

Why one expert thinks blockchain technology is a good fit for the insurance industry.

The updated agenda for INN's upcoming Dig | In conference features thought leaders from across the industry.

Partnerships, smart devices, and telematics are just a few ways that insurers can leverage technology innovation to insure new risks.

That depends on the agent's depth of dealing with customers, say experts.

Carriers need to find the optimal level of outsourcing for themselves. Balancing cost and capacity benefits against their own abilities to manage external providers is crucial.

Enterprise architecture tends to be misunderstood and marginalized, but some insurance companies get it, and are leading examples for others.

Insurance administration systems have not fundamentally changed since their inception. This is about to change with the advent of Blockchain 2.0.

We’re not talking about C-3PO working in a call center. Robo-Advisors means improved analytics, better customer self-service.

Whether it be the Internet of Things, usage-based insurance, microinsurance, behavioral underwriting or more, the staid insurance industry is breaking out.

In the future, consumers will buy insurance from insurers not just for the indemnification or risk but for additional risk mitigation services.

Advancements in consumer technology have major implications for insurers, and the industry should keep its finger on the pulse.

Insurance Networking News is taking insurance innovation to the masses with our latest event.

Within the span of an insurance transaction, there are multiple phases involving many different moving parts, from the time a customer requests a quote to the application process to claims.

As digital processes continue to evolve, security remains one of the top priorities for IT executives.

New business and analytical models are changing the way existing players do business, not disrupting with Silicon Valley-style startups.

The holidays are a great to reflect and review how things have gone. Let's look at Celent’s predictions from 2012.

Transformation can be a wonderful experience. It need not be dreaded or feared – it is something to be embraced with enthusiasm.

Is it time for insurance companies to start gravitating away from the business of managing large data centers to depend on the cloud?

As carriers employ drones, IoT devices, and wearables, they must understand and address the potential exposures from theft of the related information.

These alternative approaches are good news for the industry as they challenge the traditional, sometimes adversarial, relationship between insurer and insured.

Divisional CIOS must provide leadership and leverage their intimate knowledge of their business units needs with their knowledge of technologies and vendor capabilities.

The insurer is also pursuing drone technology stateside.

Not only is the API economy delivering business advantages, but also elevating the careers of IT professionals from systems maintenance roles to digital “provocateurs.”

Five initiatives related to the IoT were submitted. Three were focused on wellbeing, one on the connected home and one on drones.

Although the potential opportunities and threats are vast and varied, a number of important themes emerge.

Insurance is changing: it will be lean and 'just in time,' driven by the Internet of Things, digitally delivered and serviced.

For insurers, the key is to step up with new types of ways to think about offerings.

Insurers did most of the legwork on telematics, but must identify more value than just premium discounts.

We've seen “consumerization” continue to sweep through organizations, brushing aside the older ways of managing IT shops.

Life insurance is so far behind that it is not even in the e-delivery race.

While few efforts at an insurer are more complex or time consuming as a core system replacement, a major BI initiative will eventually touch all aspects of an organization.

With IBM's acquisition of The Weather Company and its large insurance customer base, Watson analytics may be able to help assess weather risks days before things happen.

What most boards don’t have is a committee that focuses on what many now believe to be the most impactful company function of all – technology.

Two of the key tools of innovation can bridge the gap that exists in the download between insurers and agents: actual ideation and crowdsourcing.

The message to insurers is strict and clear: one day the insurance industry will have its own Uber that comes in and disrupts the traditional insurance business model.

Lately, CIOs have been overwhelmed by the big data tsunami, as stated in a recent report out of Experian.

While noting that his company is hiring from Google and Amazon in order to spend it's $153 million tech budget effectively, the industry overall, Wilson says, is far behind other sectors when it comes to technology innovation.

As new technologies continue to emerge, how do we, as an industry, incorporate them into new or existing products and services?

Some carriers have recognized the challenge associated with attracting key talent to smaller markets and have taken the offensive to open satellite facilities that are in locations closer to where “the action” is.

Whether dealing with the end consumer or agents, insurers must be prepared to meet diverse standards for digital interaction.

Eighty percent of IT executives feel that IT departments have too narrow of a scope to be able to effectively ramp up the speed at which they delivery digital capabilities.

To find new opportunities, insurers should think about the questions that keep their prospective customers up at night and determine which are ripe for a new insurance offering.

With Volvo’s announcement that they would accept all liability for the car in autonomous mode we see the first of three steps towards the end of auto insurance.

No matter how many tools get introduced to workflows, there will always be a need for human judgement, oversight, and, most importantly, imagination.

Any given application may be the only point of contact a customer has with an insurer -- so it's important to take their experience seriously from the start.

The insurer went from FAA approval to claims inspection in about six months.

Telematics, data, insurance

Everyone is talking about the digital experience, but what does it really mean to go digital?

Insurers must recognize that for some consumers, offering value in exchange for their data is a key attraction.

With the industry moving headlong toward digitalization, those insurance hubs will increasingly become technology hubs as well.

Insurance CIOs need to be communicators and story tellers as well as effective managers.

IoT in insurance will allow the industry to move toward “casual analysis”: what are the true causes of loss and in what interventions can be undertaken to avoid them?”